Transform Awards 2014

Once upon a time an idea was taken to a place called Pepper, a place full of magicians that could take ideas and make them into real things with a solid identity. The idea was Jacqson Diego Story Emporium and at that time it was unwieldy, vague and scribbled on lots of bits of paper. Somehow, the magicians managed to put up with my indecision and find the important bits (that mostly lived inside my head), and turn them into an identity that both felt like it had finally found its way out of the mire having been there all along, but paradoxically was new and shiny and bright.

In the grown up world of products and businesses, identity and reputation is founded on brand. However small an organisation, the signifiers that are created around a name or its symbol and all that goes with it, creates and develops you further both in terms of your own sense of value and in the minds of the communities that you become a part of. From the high street through to social media it is unavoidable that you will become identified by a signifier, a logo, a colour … there will always be something that says who you are to others. The Transform Awards celebrate brand creation, (re)development, (re)positioning and brand transformation globally. To be entered into this playground populated by the big boys was a little freaky, to be shortlisted: fabulous, and even though we have never doubted that the brand Pepper has created for us is world class, their winning of a Gold Butterfly for Best Visual Identity in the Retail Sector truly stunned us – in the most wonderful way.

We are immensely proud of Jacqson Diego Story Emporium as a place and as an ethos. We are also proud of our relationship with Pepper, and this recognition for their continuing part in our story is deserved beyond words.