About

I am Niki Slawinski.

I am a strategist at Sherpa Design. With over 20 years of experience in developing brands, I bring a clear perspective: seeing brands as identity-shaping forces – internally and externally.

I research collective identity and its role in belonging and resilience – my first insights are captured in “Brands Are Memories.” My approach connects strategic brand work with insights from memory studies. At the center is a question that is becoming increasingly relevant: How do brands create belonging – and how do they contribute to the resilience of organizations and society?

I am a speaker. For more than 20 years, I bring branding to the stage and turn brands into living experiences for audiences.

I am Digital Business Native. With my first self-created and tracked HTML homepage in 1999, the co-founding of an online agency in 2003, and 25 years in the creative & digital industry, I think 100% in digital possibilities.

I am publisher. With my Master's degree in Communication Science, Economics and German Studies and my professional expertise as background, I publish my thoughts on branding as as speaker, author and lecturer at several universities.

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Photo by Anatol Kotte

11 Insights for Forward-Looking Brand Building

Brand strategist Niki Slawinski from Sherpa Design in a Frontify webinar together with Nicolas Hürner (Frontify), Hannah Leimert (University of St. Gallen) and Andrea Bayer (Fressnapf Germany). Truly long-term brand building: desired by everyone, achieved by only a few. What we experience in consulting practice is now confirmed in numbers in the research report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, supported by Frontify: Insight from the research report (Frontify

How MAD lost its brand core...

I was the first reader on the cover of MAD magazine. Today I know: That should never have happened . But let's start from the beginning. I was a die-hard MAD fan. And anyone who knows MAD knows: This satirical magazine took nothing and no one seriously. Least of all its readership. And anyone who read MAD back then knows: the letters to the editor section was one of the best parts! Not because we readers got answers, but because we were publicly ridiculed. And we loved it!

Are you focused?

We only perceive what truly matters to us. Because our memory has focus. That is why people – and brands – need clarity about what they want and what they stand for. In short: focus. Those with focus almost magnetically attract relevant information and the right people (you have probably experienced this yourself). Those who want everything lose themselves – and end up standing for everything and nothing. My focus last year: writing my book “Brands Are Memories.” My focus thi