Saffron Brunel Brand Prize

Sebastian Grenzhäuser has been awarded the 2014 Saffron Brunel Brand Prize for Excellence in Strategic Design and Branding. After making it through the first round (a written and academic based submission), a shortlist of eight Brunel Masters students were then invited to spend a day at Saffron Brand Consultants’ London studio. Part Masterclass and part observed assessment, during the course of the day, Sebastian impressed everyone with his design-led approach to understanding organisations, as well as his refreshing insights into the future of brands. His Brunel know-how coupled with a real world approach clinched the award. Brunel has always enjoyed a close relationship with Saffron, and over many years Saffron has welcomed MA Design and Branding graduates into their teams, both as full time strategists and as interns. The team also regularly speak at Brunel student events and speakers have included Ian Stephens, Ben Knapp, Andra Oprisan and the late Wally Olins.

Ian Stephens, Principal at Saffron says “the London design scene is very competitive and it's not only graduates who find it hard to get the right job, but also agencies are always on the hunt for the right talent. For Saffron having a partnership with one of UK's leading programmes in design and brand strategy is first of all an opportunity to contribute to the education of the next generation of branding practitioners, but also the advantage of having a first-hand access to some of the freshest design thinking and brand strategy minds on the market.”

Sebastian, who is has just completed the MA Design Strategy programme at Brunel, when told that he had won said "I feel immensely proud to have been awarded this prize by an agency of such calibre. It has been an unbeatably good feeling to successfully conclude my postgraduate degree, and have it crowned by this award, making all the hard work pay off on so many different levels. Going through the assessment process with Saffron was a golden experience, and provided some unique and exciting insights into the operations of a global branding agency, which made it very special indeed. A big thanks to Saffron and Brunel for providing this opportunity.” John Boult, who organised the Brunel end of the competition and who has been the leader of the branding design module at Brunel since its inception, said “relationships with London’s brand community is a great strength of the course and being able to work with Saffron underpins the high quality output of the course”.