Why the future of branding isn’t visual, it’s cultural

Jackson Chang, executive creative director and partner at Jibe Global, explains the idea of ‘Brand Gravity’ and how it helps brands uncover a target audience’s sense of self.

In branding, we sometimes forget that people don’t experience brands the way we create them. They don’t see grids, colour codes or naming frameworks. What they feel first is intent, the sense that a brand understands something true about their lives, and mirrors their aspirations for who they are becoming. Without that intent, no amount of design will save it.

At Jibe, we work from a simple belief: a brand should stand for something, not just look like something. Visual expression matters, but only once you know the forces shaping the world your brand enters. So we begin underneath, not just in the category signals or competitive differentiating cliches, but in the cultural currents, the behavioural shifts and the real emotional need emerging around people. When you find that core truth, identity stops being a decorative layer and becomes a strategic act. A brand becomes a set of decisions about what matters.

This approach is essential in markets where culture evolves at extreme speed. China is one of the clearest examples. People here move fast, switch behaviours without hesitation and expect brands to evolve and keep up with that pace. What that means is that you can’t rely on the old playbook. You can’t copy what worked elsewhere. You have to deeply understand how people actually live today, and how the culture around them is shaping tomorrow’s expectations. This cultural velocity demands brands that are not only visually agile, but culturally fluent.

To keep pace, a brand needs an idea strong enough to anchor it through change. Not a theme or campaign line, but a belief system that explains why the brand exists and what role it plays in someone’s future. When that belief is clear, the identity almost finds its own shape. Choices become instinctive as second nature. The experience across touchpoints, channels and moments becomes meaningful.

In our work we see this shift constantly. Sometimes it’s cultural: people no longer see an activity the way the category defines it, but as part of a lifestyle they’re building. Sometimes it’s structural: worlds that were once separate: sport, culture, education, digital are merging into fluid ecosystems. In both cases, the opportunity lies in decoding the aspiration behind the behaviour. Not what people do, but what they’re trying to move toward.

That’s where a brand can create the biggest difference. When a brand reflects people’s own direction, their health, creativity, momentum and sense of progress, it resonates instantly. Not because it is louder or more consistent, but because it feels aligned with who they are and who they want to become. That moment of recognition is what we call ‘Brand Gravity’ at Jibe: the magnetic pull a brand creates when it reflects cultural truth so precisely that people naturally gravitate toward it.

This changes the role of identity. It’s no longer about strict control or visual uniformity. It’s about designing systems that can live across different dimensions, different modes of life, physical, digital, social, immersive without losing meaning. It’s about the identity becoming participatory. People shape it, remix it and give it new life. When identity becomes multi-dimensional, people don’t just follow the brand; they shape it.

This is where branding is at. Away from static symbols and toward living frameworks. Away from rigid guidelines and toward adaptable worlds. Away from surface aesthetics, toward cultural alignment. The goal is no longer to define every outcome, but to define the logic that guides all outcomes. What holds everything together is the clarity of the brand’s purpose not the visual consistency.

Because in the end, what makes a brand matter is not the perfection of the design system, but the relevance of its presence in people’s lives. A brand becomes meaningful when it helps people move toward a better version of themselves. When it does that, it becomes more than design. It becomes part of culture, and that is where the future of branding truly lives.