Ambitious business minds partner with Grain to build outstanding brands, turning their vision into reality. We unite clear strategic thinking with exceptional creativity so our clients enjoy the success of their brand and reap the financial rewards.

A London based branding agency founded in 2002, we specialise in branding and design for luxury, property and educationBrand strategy lays the foundation for all our creative work, from naming a company, service or product, to creating your brand’s visual identity and brand guidelines. Then we help you bring your brand to life across digital – websites, ecommerce and online marketing including SEO, SEM, PPC and social media – marketing collateral and packaging design.

Together with our clients we:

Define brands

STRATEGY – The foundations of all branding and design work.
POSITIONING – We help you define your brand’s market.
BRAND PROMISE – Two clear concise paragraphs: your brand in a nutshell.
BRAND ATTRIBUTES – Images and words to support the brand promise.

Create brands

NAMING – Grain are specialists in naming, with trademarks always in mind.
MESSAGING – Outward-facing messages to various audiences like customers and the press.
VISUAL IDENTITY – Includes logo, typographic style, and colour palette.
BRAND GUIDELINES – The codification of everything in the Define and Create stages.

Live brands

BRAND COMMUNICATIONS – Anything from advertising campaigns to internal communications.
WEBSITES & APPS – Creating a digital presence for your brand online, on smartphones and tablets.
SOCIAL MEDIA & SEO – Engaging your audience on all relevant platforms.
PACKAGING – Both graphic and structural, backed by talented industrial design.
PRINT DESIGN – Using lovely paper, textures and print finishes.
SIGNAGE – Something special that makes your brand stand out.
ENVIRONMENTS – Retail, residential and aircraft interiors.

Our Team


As a client of Grain, you will always deal directly with either Christoph or Madelyn. Both are excellent listeners with the ability to get to the nub of the issue and to deliver the right solution for your business to succeed.

Christoph Geppert, co-owner & director

Christoph has worked in branding, design and marketing for more than 20 years; his clients benefit from his enormous breadth and depth of knowledge. The foundation of Christoph’s work is a strategic understanding of brands and their competitive landscape so his work is always based on a solid commercial plan. Before founding Grain in 2002, he worked at leading consultancies such as Landor, Pentagram and Siegel+Gale. Christoph gained his insights through working with large corporate brands like Tesco, Costa, Sunglass Hut, Sony Playstation and Qantas and loves to bring this knowhow to work hard for new market entrants such as Button & Wilde, Agoy, Spring Bank and Floreon.

Originally from Hanover, Germany, Christoph holds a degree in Management, Economics and Politics from the University of St Andrews, and an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins, UAL. He loves living at the end of the tube line. It means London’s inspiration is always within easy reach and the escape to the beautiful English countryside is not far either. Christoph has a lifelong passion for traveling with his family and combines his travels with skiing and surfing whenever possible.


Madelyn Postman, co-owner & director

Helping companies grow and succeed is what gets Madelyn out of bed in the morning. She loves the combination of strategic thinking and creativity involved in her work at Grain, as well as the variety of clients she works with. Articles on entrepreneurship, industry news and design are at the top of her reading list. After working at design agencies in Bologna, Italy, Madelyn boosted her career working for the in-house creative team at Gucci Group in Florence and London, and has gone on to advise some of the world’s leading brands including Burberry, Sunglass Hut and Nokia.

Originally from San Francisco, Madelyn studied at Brown University and lived in Italy for eight years before settling in London. In her spare time she loves to travel, play tennis and research and write a book on her family’s roots in Poland, China, Russia and California.


Juli Ferguson, senior designer

Juli lives and breathes branding, packaging, print and digital design for fashion, luxury goods and beyond. Whether she’s working in print or digital, her natural creative flair brings an aspirational quality to each project she undertakes.

Having received her BA (Hons) from the University for the Creative Arts she worked with The White Company, Diesel, Ted Baker, Karen Millen, Figleaves, Arcadia Group and ASOS. Before joining Grain, Juli was Head of Design at Floris London. Juli has been with Grain since 2013.


Briony Harris, copywriter & project coordinator

Briony worked for many years as an editor and producer for BBC News focusing on international affairs and politics. Her expertise from the BBC translates smoothly into her work at Grain. As a copywriter she combines clear and precise writing with creativity to produce highly engaging material.

As a project coordinator, her organisational skills enable the smooth running of all of Grain’s projects.

Briony holds an MA in foreign languages from the University of Cambridge and is totally in love with the great outdoors.


Mégane Osio, junior designer

Mégane Osio is Grain’s junior designer and is enjoying putting her creative skills to use whilst rapidly improving her English. She is a student of graphic design at ECV Creative Schools & Community in Bordeaux, France. She particularly likes all aspects of corporate design and print, including the visual identity of a brand, packaging, typography, page layout and illustration.

Mégane loves music, especially singing, and has been busy discovering new bars with live music in the evenings.


Drew Durning, marketing, SEO & PPC

Drew is Grain’s marketing strategy, SEO and PPC expert. Following a first degree in Economics and Psychology from Reading University and a CIM Diploma in Marketing at City University, Drew was awarded a Master’s Degree in International Marketing from Brunel University.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Drew spent 6 years as Marketing Director with brands including Travelodge, Little Chef and Pizza Hut and was then for many years Managing Director of an integrated advertising agency.


Kent Khuong LeKent Le, PR & social media

Kent worked in PR & Media Communications in his native Vietnam, Australia and the UK, and has developed a deep understanding of key areas of reputation and communication management.

With two bachelor’s degrees in English and in Business Administration, a diploma in PR and a master’s degree in Corporate Communications; Kent has taught at the Istituto Marangoni and London College of Fashion and is now lecturer at the University of East London Fashion & Textile Department.


Nicola Louw, developer

Nicola retrained as a web designer and developer after starting her career as a graphic designer, and has a passion for fashion and beauty branding as well as packaging and e-commerce.

She has previously worked for clients like TUI, Abercrombie & Kent, St George and Savills. Born in London, she grew up in Cape Town and has lived and worked in Australia, Argentina and Los Angeles. Hard to believe but she still cannot get enough of travelling. When she’s not working in the office, she is dreaming up new business ideas or surfing.


David Kinloch, developer and UI designer

David is a highly experienced front-end developer and UI designer who loves to create responsive websites. He is dedicated to improving user experience and conversion rates through top quality code and best practice. His expertise includes eCommerce sites, Magento, WordPress and responsive web design.

Amongst his recent projects, he is proud to have redesigned and developed this very website, while previous clients include Links of London and Kurt Geiger. When he’s not knee-deep in code, David can be found hanging out with his kids, or surfing the waves in Devon or Sri Lanka.


Tamzyn Wright, finance

Tamzyn is the yoga teacher for our books: keeping all of our numbers straight and balanced. She has worked in accounting roles for 12 years, qualifying as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 2008. She has previously worked for large companies in the senior living and drinks sectors. More recently she has been working in smaller companies whilst looking after her two young children.

Her interests outside of number alignment are of a crafting nature, with several patchwork quilt projects on the go. She also loves dancing west coast swing and jive.

A landmark new brand in the property industry

Propertymark

Developing a personalised beauty brand

Button & Wilde