Best for: Large organizations (corporations, institutions, governments, and places) facing genuine transformation rather than cosmetic refresh. Particularly strong for companies operating across multiple markets, including fintech, and cultures that need a strategy-first consultancy with a truly global team. The legacy of co-founder Wally Olins makes Saffron one of the very few agencies with authentic credentials in both corporate identity and nation/place branding.
Saffron is one of the few remaining independent brand consultancies that can trace a direct intellectual lineage to the founders of the modern discipline. Co-founded by Wally Olins (who effectively invented corporate identity as a strategic management tool) and Jacob Benbunan, a former Wolff Olins principal, Saffron has spent 25 years doing the kind of work that changes how people think about an organization, not just how it looks. The "One Team across four offices" model and 20+ language capability isn't positioning copy — it's how they actually staff projects. The honest caveat is that Saffron doesn't have a recognizable consumer-DTC aesthetic, and that's by design. This is a consultancy, not a design studio.
Reviewed by Chelsea Greene
The Full Read
In March 2001, Jacob Benbunan and Wally Olins left Wolff Olins and founded Saffron simultaneously in London and Madrid. The timing was brutal — 9/11 happened within months of launch, devastating the consulting industry. They survived by leaning into what would become Saffron's defining characteristic: a genuinely global, multicultural model that could work anywhere, for any kind of organization.
Wally Olins was not just a co-founder — he was one of the most important figures in the history of branding. He co-founded Wolff Olins in 1965, pioneered the idea of the nation as a brand, and spent his career arguing (long before it was consensus) that brand was a strategic management tool, not a marketing department function. His work on Poland, Portugal, and Lithuania as national brands. On Orange, BT, and Renault as corporate identities, and his books Corporate Identity and On Brand remain foundational texts in the field. He remained Chairman of Saffron until his death in April 2014, aged 83.
Jacob Benbunan has led the firm since then and has considerably expanded its scope. The client list now spans Meta, YouTube, Amazon Ads, Repsol, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Gulf Air, A1 Telekom Austria, Saudi National Bank, AkzoNobel, Swiss Re, Engie, Siemens, Goldman Sachs, LVMH, Lloyd's of London, and the City of Vienna — as varied a portfolio as exists in the industry. The consultancy's Saffron LAB, an in-house research and innovation arm, produces original thinking on brand and business rather than relying solely on client work to develop IP.
The "One Team" operating model is genuinely unusual. Projects are staffed from all four offices in London, Madrid, Vienna, and Tokyo, with teams assembled to meet the specific cultural and linguistic requirements of each brief. The team collectively speaks over 20 languages. It is the kind of infrastructure that makes large-scale, multi-market engagements tractable in a way they simply aren't for boutique studios with one location.
The 2018 book Disruptive Branding, co-authored by Benbunan, CCO Gabor Schreier, and then-Chief Growth Officer Benjamin Knapp, codified Saffron's thinking on brand strategy in disruptive environments and serves both as an intellectual statement and a business development tool.
What Saffron Does
Five integrated practice areas, anchored in a "promise to experience" philosophy — brand must be delivered across every touchpoint, not just expressed in a logo.
Strategy
The analytical and directional foundation of every engagement.
Brand Audit · Competitive Analysis · Brand Architecture · Brand Positioning · Naming · Messaging · Change Management
Identity
Visual and verbal translation of strategy — built for longevity and real-world complexity.
Visual Identity · Verbal Identity · Brand Guidelines · Design Systems · Motion & Animation
Experience
Making the brand tangible across the full ecosystem of customer and employee touchpoints.
Customer Experience · Employee Experience · Digital Brand · UX/UI · Spatial & Environmental Design · Packaging
Product
Brand-led digital product development, where identity and interaction are designed together.
Digital Products · Apps · Service Design · Prototyping
Place Branding
City, region, and nation brand strategy — a capability that traces directly to Wally Olins's defining work in the field.
City Brand Strategy · Nation Brand · Destination Identity · Place Experience
Selected Work
A snapshot of recent named projects. Full case studies on the agency's site.
Repsol
Brand Identity · Strategy
A total brand transformation for one of Europe's largest energy companies, capturing the confluence of its conventional and renewable energy businesses.
Meta
Brand · Experience
Brand strategy and design work for Meta's business-facing division.
YouTube
Brand
Brand consultancy for one of the world's largest media platforms.
Victoria & Albert Museum
Brand Identity
Expanding the V&A's brand into the digital era — a complex institutional identity challenge spanning one of the world's most recognized cultural organizations.
Amazon Ads
Brand Identity
Full brand development for Amazon's advertising platform.
Saudi National Bank
Brand Strategy · Identity
Brand strategy and visual identity for Saudi Arabia's largest bank, operating under the line "Your world, your bank."
Zelestra
Brand Strategy · Identity · Naming
Total transformation of Solarpack into Zelestra — new name, brand strategy, and a motion-first visual identity for the global multi-technology renewable energy company. Winner of Transform Awards Europe 2026 — Gold.
AlphaSense
Brand Strategy · Identity
Brand development for the AI-driven market intelligence platform — positioning it as "the future of decision-making."
Hire Saffron If You Need…
- A consultancy with genuine intellectual depth in brand strategy — not just executional design capability
- Multi-market or cross-cultural brand work where linguistic and cultural range is a real requirement, not a claims footnote
- A truly independent firm with a 25-year track record and no holding-group ownership
- The rare combination of corporate, institutional, and place branding expertise under one roof
- Strategy-led engagements where design follows thinking rather than the other way around
- A partner with credentials in highly regulated or complex sectors: energy, financial services, telco, aviation, government
Skip Saffron If…
- You need a consumer-facing DTC aesthetic or startup-native brand system — Saffron's sensibility is corporate and institutional by orientation
- You want a portfolio-first design studio where craft is the primary signal — Saffron leads with strategy and consulting rigor
- You're working at a startup or SMB scale — the operating model and pricing reflect large-scale, complex engagements
- You expect extensive verified B2B review coverage as part of your vetting process — this is a referral and reputation business
Independent Verification
Awards
Transform Awards Europe 2026 — Gold (Zelestra, Best Brand Development to Reflect Change of Mission/Values/Positioning) · Transform Awards India 2022 — Bronze (ABP Network) · Multiple Transform Awards across Europe and Middle East circuits
Wikipedia
DesignRush
Listed, but no verified reviews.
If Saffron Isn't the Right Fit
Clay Global
Premium brand identity and digital product design for tech and fintech. Stronger when strategy needs to connect directly to product UI, web execution, and a launch-ready deliverable.
Prophet
Similar strategy-first positioning but with a larger global consultancy footprint — better suited when brand transformation needs to align with business strategy across multiple markets and stakeholder groups.
MetaDesign
Deeper systems and governance capability for enterprise brands operating across many products, regions, and touchpoints.
Frequently Asked Questions
In March 2001, simultaneously in London and Madrid, by Jacob Benbunan and Wally Olins — both coming from Wolff Olins, the agency Olins co-founded in 1965. Benbunan had previously been a strategy consultant at KPMG before joining Wolff Olins as a Principal.
Wally Olins CBE (1930–2014) was one of the founders of modern corporate identity. He co-founded Wolff Olins in 1965 and pioneered the concept of the nation as a brand. His work spanned BT, Orange, Renault, Volkswagen, Portugal, Poland, and Lithuania, among many others. He was Saffron's Chairman until his death in April 2014. His books — particularly Corporate Identity (1989) and On Brand (2003) — remain among the most cited texts in the field.
Yes — Saffron has remained independent since its founding in 2001, never acquired by a holding group. This is increasingly unusual for a consultancy of its size and history, and is a deliberate strategic position.
Saffron's internal research and innovation unit produces original thinking on brand strategy, experience, and business. Output includes the Saffron Journal and a podcast on Spotify, covering topics from AI and brand to place identity and innovation.
Energy and industrial (Repsol, Engie, Zelestra, Galp), technology and telecoms (Meta, YouTube, Amazon Ads, A1 Telekom Austria, AlphaSense, Mobily), banking and financial services (Saudi National Bank, Goldman Sachs, Swiss Re, BBVA, Bankinter), culture and media (V&A, Art Basel, VRT), mobility and hospitality (Gulf Air, West Japan Railway, Blue Car Rental), places and real estate (City of Vienna, multiple nation brand projects), and consumer (LVMH, AkzoNobel, Flying Tiger Copenhagen).
Rarely — the operating model, pricing, and institutional culture are oriented toward large organizations facing genuine strategic transformation. AlphaSense is an exception in the portfolio, but the norm is established corporations and institutions.
Ready to see if Saffron fits your project?
Visit the agency's site to view their full portfolio, or compare them against the rest of our top picks.