Brands [we've helped to thrive] :

Today's successful brands evolve into tribal communities. Tribes. Often mistaken for "market segmentation", tribal markets in fact offer exciting opportunities for new business. We help you align your brand with tribal cultures that matter.

We Do [a lot] :

Experiences that connect to your customers—not advertising. Strategies, creative programs, stories, visuals, events, culture & phenomena that engage, intrigue, excite, motivate.

[ Tell me MORE + ] [ Less - ]

Times change. Is your brand connection still relevant? Without credible answers to important questions, you will be wasting your valuable marketing dollars.

Your company needs help to navigate business threats, and continously find new ways to thrive. More than just fleeting ads, your company needs to inspire sustainable brand loyalty.

We audit your brand with the right questions and deliver strategies that get you to the next level of meaningful connection—driving everything you do from visual identity to customer engagement.

Culture [of us] :

Brands exist, grow, and thrive in it. Find some here.

Tribe :

Experience and principles are important. But then so are personalities. After all, if you choose VÖLCKMANN, you'll be seeing us quite a bit. Meet the tribe.

Russell Volckmann : Executive Principal [ Less - ]

Clients say it best: "Russell brings to the table a vast array of creative, business and digital talents, but he is a contributor and a collaborator who is greater than the sum of his parts."

He's an award-winning designer, creative director & brand strategist. Numerous successes include such organizations as Landor, FCB San Francisco, L'OREAL Japan, AT&T Japan, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Ziff-Davis Publishing/ Smart Business Magazine, ZDNET, TechTV, Hewlett-Packard, Palm, Rainforest Action Network, the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, the Brady Bunch, Fetzer, Fujitsu Japan, Ikonic Interactive, Red Dot Interactive, N.E.T., Geffen Records, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Sun Microsystems, E*Trade, Cylink, KM Disney, Inc., Emirates Airlines, McDonalds, CNN Headline News... many more. Russell also contributes to the Taproot Foundation, professionals working pro bono to help local non-profits.

Speaks English, Japanese & German and provides global brand solutions to clients in North America, Europe & Asia. Received the NewMedia Invision Award for creative interactive production. Design entries and quotes in DesignSpeak, a book that applies sciences of advertising & branding in graphic design solutions. Interviewed on television, broadcast to 20 million homes in the U.S. and in 64 countries worldwide. Awarded Businessman of the Year by the Congressional Business Advisory Council in honor of Top Business Leaders in the US, plus National Leadership Award as part of his role as Co-Chairman.

For a little Zen, stop by here for your morning cup of haiku.

Michael Wou : Executive Creative Director [ Less - ]

Find Michael anywhere it seems—in features and interviews in Asia, Europe and North America: How Magazine, Print Magazine, Photo District News, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Examiner, CNN, FOX, and Crier Today, Applied Arts Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and Bravo, BBC, Graphis, Público, and The Korean Herald.

Michael will tell you his many awards are not the most important aspect of the work he loves. Rather, he enjoys building relationships between companies and customers. He is passionate about businesses, what makes them succeed, and studying how people perceive businesses and their products—especially why people buy. In fact, his work has inspired people to buy between 7% and 1000% more from companies and organizations such as Merck, Canadian National Railways, IMS Health, Constellation Wines, DFV Wines, Bishop's University, Concordia University, National Bank, McGill University Hospital Center, Fruits & Passion, Power Corporation, McCain Foods.

Following graduation from the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Michael worked with Zürich's prominent design firm Gottschalk & Ash. He has traveled to over 100 cities around the world, plus acquired branding experience in Europe, the U.S. and Africa, bringing a global outlook to all client projects.

Bob Wolf : Executive Creative Director [ Less - ]

Bob Wolf sports more than 25 years at several leading global design consultancies: Landor Associates, Lippincott, and 15 years with Enterprise IG (formerly Anspach Grossman Portugal, now the Brand Union), one of the most innovative and respected agencies in the world.

Bob has a legendary reputation for providing innovative and enduring design solutions for complex global business/marketing challenges. Meaningful and provocative, his logos stand the test of time. Gillette, Bank of America, The New York Port Authority, Lockheed-Martin, Unisys, Hush Puppies, Komatsu, and Qwest—just a few iconic brand identities that are immediately recognizable the world over.

A graduate of The Cooper Union, Bob's work has been honored by many organizations. Numerous national and international awards include the Art Director's Club, AIGA, Clio, Graphis, ID Magazine's Annual Design Review, Print and the Society of Typographic Arts. His work has been published in many internationally acclaimed books and publications, including a profile in Idea magazine.

Jerry Kuyper : Executive Brand Strategist [ Less - ]

For over 25 years, leading strategy and creative with leading design & identity consultants including Lippincott, Siegel & Gale, frogdesign, Landor, Saul Bass and Richard Wurman.

A key component of Jerry's work is designing brand architecture for complex businesses. He directed corporate identity and brand architecture when Exxon acquired Mobil. Brand architecture for numerous others including ChevronTexaco, Cigna, DuPont, Hilton, Invisalign, LodgeNet, MetLife, Penn Medicine, Singapore Technologies, University of Rochester Medical Center, Visiting Nurse Service of New York. In the telecommunications sector Jerry helped create the AT&T identity in 1983, and designed the first AT&T Calling Card.

Numerous other iconic brands include Sprint, 360° Communications, Telus (based in Canada), Telmex (based in Mexico), Fusion, Aqua America, Bates Worldwide, Cartus, Cisco, Cushman & Wakefield, Genesis Eldercare, Invisalign, LodgeNet, Singapore Technologies, Sprint, Times Mirror and Touchstone Films.

Jerry has a B.S. in Graphic Design from the University of Cincinnati. He completed four years of graduate work at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Awarded a Fulbright-Hays grant to teach at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. Outstanding Alumnus by the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati.

Colin Goedecke : Executive Content Strategist [ Less - ]

Colin Goedecke is a seasoned story developer, valued by leading and emerging businesses. For 24 years, he has been shaping fresh, meaningful stories and messages—that raise consciousness and spark conversation. Real stories, that connect authentically and emphathetically with audiences; and make the brands and companies that tell them far more relevant, radiant and worth relating to.

His creative hand can be found or felt in the fabric of global campaigns, names, themes and guiding story platforms. His diverse portfolio includes high level work for NASDAQ, Microsoft, Tishman Speyer, Davis Polk, Goldman Sachs, Auda Advisors, Acorda Therapeutics, IBM, Bain & Company, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Pfizer, Eaton, GE and Morgan Stanley.

Colin is also a troubadour: a poet (his first collection is The Speed of Sight) and a singer of vintage 1930s-and-1940s love songs. He's a world traveller and rampant observer; a lover of languages, oceans, light, landscapes; the lyrical; of all things effervescent—and all things Italian. Read more about strategic story developer Colin Goedecke at Ten Owls Limited See him in a short video interview on what makes a compelling story below.

Anthony Shore : Executive Naming Director [ Less - ]

For the past 20 years, Anthony has worked with 200 companies, bringing over 100 new product and corporate names into the marketplace. As Global Director of Naming & Writing for Landor Associates, he led international branding programs for clients like Samsung, P&G, Pepsico, Starbucks, American Express, Seagate, Microsoft, Adobe, FedEx, HP, Motorola, H&R Block, Medtronic, Zero Breast Cancer, FritoLay and Qualcomm. In 2000, Anthony directed the Accenture naming program, probably the largest renaming effort in history.

Beyond developing new brand names, Anthony is a recognized expert in nomenclature systems, taglines/slogans, brand essence, positioning and product innovation. Additional professional experience includes software product management and marketing, PR, typesetting, design, graphic production and advertising copywriting.

Anthony is a linguist, receiving his degree with Honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, as well as a regular guest speaker at Haas Business School and the University of California at Santa Cruz. As a globally-recognized branding and naming expert, he's appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Details, CNET, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. Find Anthony's naming thought leadership on Operative Words.

Tara Caruso : Senior Brand Strategist [ Less - ]

During TV commercials Tara's family flipped when Tara flipped over the family's channel flipping—because Tara actually flipped over the ads. Dreams of sugarplum brands (and Versace) danced in her head. We think that's a flippin' great asset.

Tara is enamored by brands and inspiration behind brand loyalty. She continues to follow her passion for brand, dedicated to brand communications for 11 years. Her consulting experience spans brand creation, brand strategy, brand management, naming, messaging and internal and external campaigns throughout a variety of industries. While at Novom Marketing she worked on hospitality brands such as Loews and Personality Hotels. At Dish Network, with youth culture brands such as Airwalk, Vision, Genetic and Von Dutch while at Collective Licensing. With Salt Branding she worked with global and startup brands such as Microsoft, Disney, EMBARQ, Avery Dennison, Ribbit and IMVU.

Sometimes, you'll also find Tara perusing San Francisco streets, nearby beaches and parks, or traveling the globe enjoying new cultures—basically flipping the real channels of life.

Yoshiko Sawada : Art Director/ Designer [ Less - ]

On the lovely green island of Shikoku, Japan's southernmost of the four main islands, lies a small village called Midorino at the foot of a mountain castle. And from this village in Kochi prefecture, Yoshiko comes to VÖLCKMANN as a vetted and highly respected designer. During the course of her career, she has created award-winning work for Sanrio (of Hello Kitty & Badz Maru fame), Williams-Sonoma, Chronicle Books, plus a nice little list of Turner-Duckworth clients. She's incredibly brilliant at innovative product design, plus packaging, labeling, & print creations.

In addition, she is a well educated authority on design, fashion & cosmetics in the US & Japan. Let's just say we've never seen her in a t-shirt. Yoshiko obtained her BA in Industrial Design & Visual Arts from San Francisco State University. And if that weren't enough, she's also a celebrated hula performer with Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu in San Francisco. This girl can really shake the hula umi-umi island style, and she has plenty of aloha spirit to boot. But don't let the grass skirt & leis fool you. Yoshiko is one tough coconut cookie who makes sure the client work gets done. And on time. And done well. Or else. We're not saying that we're afraid of getting thrown at the mercy of Madam Pele. We're not, right?

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