Kevin Finn, director of Brisbane design agency, TheSumOf, has been working with de Bono Global (the primary management company representing Edward de Bono’s life’s work) as its design consultant and a member of their advisory board.

The studio is nonetheless rather thrilled, as it deserves to be, for landing the job of branding Dr. Edward de Bono’s life’s work with an identity and unified visual language. This is the first time it has ever been done in his 50+ year career.

There were two main challenges: The design had to be universally accessible. The audience for de Bono’s work ranges between age 4 and 94. It also had to work as a template so that translations into different languages could be easily accommodated.

The visual language was inspired by the arrow graphic on de Bono’s first book, The Use Of Lateral Thinking (1967), and responds to de Bono’s many arrow diagrams in his books and presentations, that he uses to communicate quickly and simplify complex concepts.

TheSumOf’s work with Amanda Mobbs, chief executive officer of de Bono Global, is ongoing. There is more to come.