Empowering brands that will transform the future
About Us
In 2006, Taylor & Grace began with a mission: to help our clients find their brand mojo – that special something that makes them truly remarkable. We worked with some incredible businesses across most sectors of the economy (literally from fashion to concrete) and for many of them, achieved transformative results that changed the business for the better. We learned a lot. Now almost two decades later, the world has changed and so have we. Business driven by a bigger purpose is no longer niche, it’s critical. We can’t just stand by and ignore what we believe is every organisation’s responsibility to make change happen.
At Taylor & Grace, we believe every brand can create an impactful and sustainable future for all through dynamic, creative collaboration. We work with for-purpose organisations and those striving for that goal, at all stages of their journey. We bring together purposeful collaborations, radical thinking and razor sharp clarity to help our clients achieve their desired impact.
We create brands that move people. Brands that forge an emotional connection. Brands that people believe in. Brands that compel them to act. A brand is about more than what it sells or how it looks. It’s a promise delivered. Make your impact matter.
How we work
We bring our hearts and minds to the table in all that we do. We believe that meaningful change makes the world better for everyone, and the diversity of human experience is critical to its creation. We collaborate with you to define, transform and engage your brand to make your impact on the world.
Whether it’s expressing your remarkability, making you visually stand out, telling arresting stories, or creating unforgettable experiences that put your ESG goals into action, we leave no stone unturned in our brand strategy and creative processes. Our work is always built on a solid foundation of brand research, workshops, co-design, and our team’s vast expertise.
How we think
The concept of reinvention is inherent in brand work, but redefining your purpose to make a positive change in the world requires some muscle. There’s an obligation for all organisations to bake responsible social and environment change into the way they do business. We are unwavering in our belief that things don’t have to be done the way they always have been. We make a habit of being boldly different.
Creative collaboration ignites the change that makes tomorrow better for everyone. We engage the passion of many and the power of divergent thinking to solve the greatest social and environmental challenges of our time. We use our creativity for good.
Our CEO’s award-winning book still packs a punch in revealing the often overlooked power of brand to drive business performance.
Rebranding Branding; Branding for the New Millennium and podcast, as well as our regular provocative blog posts.
Values
We are strong believers of a healthy mix of the head and the heart, and are a highly values-driven brand agency. We choose to work with passionate, ingenious people – on our team and within a vibrant creative ecosystem – who share our values and are as dedicated as we are to making the impact that matters.
We bring our hearts and minds to the table
Our choice to work with hearts and minds in unison is an expression of our humanity. We make your purpose our passion and believe that together we can achieve the change that’s needed in the world. The emotional connection we feel to the aspirations our clients have is real. As is the pride we take in elevating and transforming the impact every organisation can have.
We use our creativity for good
The one thing that defines us as humans is our creativity and the expression of it. From painters to poets and chefs to engineers, creativity exists everywhere. The essence of creative work is to make things better. While humans are the source of many of the world’s biggest problems, they also collectively have the ingenuity to fix them. We believe this at our core and use our creativity to make an impact and forge a better world for all.
We make a habit of being boldly different
We encourage personal and intellectual courage by challenging our client’s practices, as well as our own. We question conventional wisdom and recognise the power in being ‘unusual’. We believe in leveraging creative ecosystems to unpack big picture ideas and that purposeful collaborations are the most powerful way to amplify your impact. We strive to think around the corners of entrenched business practices and find new ways of solving the most challenging problems of our time.
We leave no stone unturned
We take the time to understand an organisation – their people, their competitors, and their market to ensure we deliver a solution that’s robust, innovative, and enduring. Fueled by our pursuit of amplifying impact, we find opportunities to add value ‘beyond our lane’ by introducing collaborators at the right moment to help produce the best outcome. We are more than the sum of our parts and will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of making the change that matters.
We are Taylor & Grace
Darren Taylor
MD & Head of Strategy and Research
Darren is a visionary brand strategist who has helped hundreds of organisations – from traditional family-run businesses and not-for-profits, to mature multinationals and startups – to develop and grow their brand to compete in a global environment. Darren is that rare entrepreneur who listens as well as he speaks, whose facilitation workshops and brand vision models are exercises in creativity that elicit laughter as well as insight (he thinks he’s hilarious, but so do we). Educated at Swinburne University of Technology and RMIT, he worked at a number of creative agencies before starting Taylor & Grace in 2006. Darren is an accomplished pianist and pipe organist and serves on the board of Musica Viva Australia. He is a pro-bono adviser to NFPs in the health, education and arts sectors, a public speaker and a mentor to young marketing professionals.
Craig Bulman
General Manager
Craig has 20 plus years’ experience managing brand, design, marketing, advertising and production teams across key brands such as BMW, NAB, Mercedes Benz, Cadbury Schweppes, TAC, Bendigo Bank, Myer, Nestle and Australia Post. Over his career he has worked with agencies such as Clemenger BBDO, Badjar Ogilvy, J Walter Thompson and also a stint at Cadbury Schweppes. Craig is a lover of Fedora hats, red wine, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. His children think he’s mad and a little peculiar, but we find him quite calm and relaxed.
Simon Taylor
Senior Brand Creative & Digital Specialist
Simon can do pretty much everything, at least that’s what he tells the boss. After graduating from Swinburne with Honours in Digital Design, he has worked for a number of agencies both locally and internationally before landing at Taylor & Grace. With more than two decades of experience across brand, design, art direction and all things digital, Simon loves nothing more than creating powerful brand stories that engage, resonate and inspire a response. Also likes a pleasing colour palette, dabbling in the kitchen, and having a good laugh along the way. Not Darren’s brother.
Tegan Purdon
Brand and Marketing Strategist
Tegan is an avid tea drinker and wannabe indoor plant enthusiast with an annoyingly optimistic mindset. Known for her left-field ideas and a weird obsession with branding, she brings along a fresh approach to strategic thinking that can get anyone excited about the future.
Her background is focused on businesses, small and large, that have genuine benefits and a positive impact to people, communities, systems and structures, and the world at large. She has spent many years helping to change organisations from the inside out through various volunteering opportunities. She thrives on finding a business’s unique factor, connecting it with its vision and translating it into a clear, strategic plan to help them build a solid foundation for growth. When she’s not busy finding those ah-ha moments for clients, she can be found out hiking in the bush, looking for adventures or chatting someone’s ear off.
Heather Bougoure
Finance Manager
With almost 30 years accounting under her belt, Heather knows what she’s talking about. She’s done a bit of everything, from working for a few accounting at firms in the city all the way to running a mustard company. She’s been calling Melbourne home for the past 30 years, but is originally from sunny Queensland (and even had a pet kangaroo growing up called ‘Jilly’!). Heather works with a handful of freelance clients, and always keeps active (she’s even been taking Spanish lessons to prepare for a trip across South America). Outside of work, you can always find Heather on the nearest dance floor, busting a move thanks to her weekly Tango and Latin dance classes.
KerryAnn Bartle
Senior Designer
KerryAnn is a colourful creative designer that loves to make the world a more beautiful place. With more than 15 years in the creative industry working everywhere from large agencies to small studios, KerryAnn has worked on a stunning variety of local and international brands. Highly experienced in design, illustration, art, and creative direction, KerryAnn always seeks to find the best creative solution in her box of tricks. When putting down the Adobe tools at the end of a day, KerryAnn loves to get her hands’ dirty sculpting abstract clay forms. A true creative! KerryAnn is happiest surrounded by animals, art, and nature (ideally whilst sipping a cup of green tea) and even has a mini bonsai garden.
Gabi Fellows
Account Executive
Studying a double degree of Marketing and Business at Monash University, Gabi is the baby of our team (and nobody puts Baby in the corner). Originally from regional NSW, Gabi settled into city life quite quickly when she moved to Melbourne for boarding school in 2018. Apart from the frequent country jargon she throws around and her unhealthy attachment to AFL team, Sydney Swans, she seems relatively normal. With a love of all things dogs, art, travel, netball, driving and role as an account executive at Taylor & Grace, Gabi always has something to keep her entertained. Despite her life being organised to the minute, she is always up for a spontaneous adventure. Any excuse to meet new people and have some fun!
Aiman Rizvi
Content Executive
In her last year of a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in marketing and project management at Deakin University, Aiman is the newest member and intern of the Taylor & Grace team. Creative, a little kooky and always up for a challenge, Aiman has found her happy place in marketing. She helps the team with content, social media and generally keeping the agency running smoothly. With a stunning makeover being one of her favourite things, it’s no wonder Aiman has found herself at Taylor & Grace, experts at rebranding branding. However, just like her role model, Barbie, Aiman wants to be many things in life – a fashion designer, art director, sushi chef, dancer, surfer, pottery artist… the list is endless! So much to do, so little time.
Rebecca Fedler
Senior Account Manager
Rebecca has made a career of connecting the dots between brands and customers. And through her epic connect the dots game, she’s led companies through rebrands, helped start-ups find their voices, and she’s spoken for a nation (granted, that included a lot of Jurassic Park jokes, but details). Dabbling across industries and countries, she’s always ready to go the extra mile for clients (or even out of a plane in one memorable instance). The accent you can’t quite place is American, though it’s admittedly littered with hints of other tongues after nearly a decade abroad. Originally from New York, where she put her Journalism degree to work as a trackside reporter, she’s roamed from the Americas across Europe to Southeast Asia and beyond (Australia being beyond, because really). Melbourne has been home since 2019. And yet, while her Spanish is passable, Aussie slang still hangs her up.
Employee of the month
Spaghetti
Chief Lap Warmer
As a purrfect latest addition to our work family, Spags is a cool cat who encourages us all to stay pawsitive despite this nasty pandemic. While she can be a little shy when you first meet her, she’s actually very purrsuasive. Thanks for keeping us all feline fine, Spags!
Very special advisers
Jack Room
Special Adviser
Jack Room is an Australian advertising statesman whose career started in Melbourne at international advertising agency JWT in 1970.
He is a multi-award winning Television Art Director who has owned design companies in London and managed the creative output of one of the world’s largest multi-national agencies. In 1987 he co-founded BADJAR, which grew to become Australia’s largest wholly owned advertising and brand agency. Jack is an Honorary Life member of the Melbourne Art Directors and Designers Club.
David Campbell
Special Adviser
David is a Senior Coach at Directioneering, helping senior executives with their career transition. He was Managing Partner at Horton International, a global Executive Search firm.
Prior to then he had a 15 year career in advertising, as a Director at DDB, General Manager at Grey and Leo Burnett. Before advertising he was Marketing Manager at Cussons and Brand Manager at Rowntree confectionery. David is a past Governor of Amcham and majored in Economics and Marketing at Monash Uni.
Ernest Stabek
Special Adviser
Ernest has over 20 years’ national and international experience in business management and projects.
He is a professional facilitator with experience across a broad range of strategic interventions, and has conducted numerous strategic reviews for clients across critical business areas. He also has general executive management and ICT management experience across a broad range of government and non-government organisations. He is the principal founding consultant of S.I.P. Management Consultants, and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, Fellow CPA and Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Partnerships
Taylor & Grace is proud to be a foundation member of Benefolk, an Australian-first community with a mission to help social changemakers achieve their social purpose without burning out. Benefolk is a growing network of values-led specialist consultants and businesses across every discipline. We like to think of them as our big extended family.
Taylor & Grace is a proud Specialist Consultant member of XpertiseNow, a data-enabled and tech-powered network of specialist consultants that come together to address clients’ complex problems in an agile and cost-effective way.
