So What's With the Name

The Binding, if you didn't know already, is a graphic design and branding studio that specialises in working with early stage businesses to craft meaningful brand identities. The business came about as a natural evolution for our founder, Madeline Rawlings who was pursuing her passion for design - in particular branding - as a freelancer. As the demand from clients grew she realised she wanted to build a business around a name other than her own. What drove this idea was the ability for the brand to grow beyond just her and allow the opportunity to bring together a tribe of like-minded - but diverse – creatives, where they could bind their talents to make imaginative masterpieces.

Although a niche, in-house creative community is the ultimate goal, the naming process focused more on the craft that drives the business ethos and would bring the team together. So the initial phases involved looking deep into the act of designing and what it all means.

We felt the name should at least abstractly reflect our values and what we offer. Designing is, essentially, the action of bringing ideas to life. Whether it’s by uniting brush with canvas, human with technology, passion with purpose or shapes with typography, it’s done by bringing things together to create the bigger picture. Ultimately, these series of beliefs led us to the word 'binding' which by definition means the action of one that binds.

“Anytime one or more things are consciously put together in a way that they can accomplish better than they could individually, this is an act of design.” – Charles Eames

Beyond the meaning behind the word, we deconstructed our design process and found that for us, it all begins with finding the purpose at the core of a client’s business. Then using our creative talents we bring that message to life through a visual identity. We’re continually in pursuit of a unique and creative outlet but at each stage – concept development, iterations and final touches – we ensure every decision is backed by reasoning. So by evaluating how we approach our work we not only distinguished our name but also found our mission statement:

Driven by creativity, bound by purpose.

At The Binding, it’s all about finding artistic and alternative ways of thinking and grounding ourselves through thought provoking solutions that individually showcase a brand’s true purpose.

It sure isn't the most search engine friendly word. But it has meaning to us. And if Acne Studios can rank first when you look up 'acne' in Google, then we've got some hope.

We're The Binding a design studio driven by creativity and bound by purpose.