send email to akin@tangun.ca

It starts on paper.

Every brand I have made began as a pencil line. The strategy, the name and the mark are decided here, by hand, before software touches them. AI can assemble a logo in seconds. It cannot decide what a brand should mean.

Then it becomes a mark.

Drawn, not generated. Proportion, spacing and how it holds at every size are decisions, and each one is mine to defend.

A mark is not a brand.

A brand is the system that stands up around it: colour, type, imagery, packaging, motion, and the rules for when to break them. That system is what your team uses every day, and what it drifts away from first.

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Akin Tangun

* About

“In the age of AI,
authentic brands win.”
AI now makes the websites, the apps and the banners for a company. It makes them for every other company too. When everything can be generated, only authentic brands stay relevant. Authentic branding is what I have done for 25 years, and I am one of the best at it.

Akin Tangun

Toronto-based Creative Director and brand designer with more than two decades of experience across branding, packaging, digital design, motion and product visualization, combining agency work, multinational corporate design leadership, and independent creative direction.

25+
Years in branding & advertising
15+
International design awards
$1B+
Estimated yearly worldwide sales of the brands he designed
BA
Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Bilkent University
2000
Hand coding since: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UI and UX

The most popular brand I designed

Corporate identity for market-leading consumer brands.

Sütaş Ayran jug, bottle and cup in the new packaging colours Sütaş Ayran packaging range in a splash of ayran and ice Sütaş Ayran cup, bottle and jug, close up The Sütaş Ayran logotype on its own Sütaş Ayran packaging range: bottle, cup and jug formats
  • Drawn by handA hand-drawn concept and a logotype made for this brand alone.
  • Colours that became the brandThe colours I set for the new packaging went on to shape the whole brand.
  • Over 6 Millionunits sold per day, as published by Sütaş.
  • Sold in 20+ countriesOne identity across every format and market.
  • Awarded twiceA' Design Award and Crescent & Stars of Packaging.
  • Still on the shelfThe logo, the colours and the packaging are all still in use.
  • See it in the wildSearch on Google Images

Motion Branding

Animation-driven brand systems.

  • iBlumA 3D animated film, made with Borealis.
  • 3D animationAnimated by Akin Tangun.
  • Storyboard directionWith Borealis and Jon Elliot.

Experiential Marketing

3D displays that bring a product into the room.

HUMAN ONE · Beeple, 2021
Prototype · first motion test
Prototype · playing the Dior film
  • Reveal BoxA rotating box of screens that shows a product as if it stood inside. A first in Canada.
  • Inspired by HUMAN ONEBeeple's kinetic video sculpture from 2021 was the starting point.
  • Worked out, then builtI figured out how the device works, briefed the tech team and ran the 3D tests.
  • Made for DiorI wrote the script, then modelled and animated the film in Blender.

Packaging Design

Structure, print and shelf presence.

Shabby Chic White Jasmine and Gardenia: tin, tube, drum, pump bottles and soap Shabby Chic Vanilla Blossom and Velvet family on a marble stand Shabby Chic Jasmine Jewel lineup on a shelf Shabby Chic Majesty lineup on a shelf
  • Shabby ChicConcept, illustration and packaging design for Hunter Amenities.
  • White Jasmine & GardeniaEvery fragrance carries its own illustrated pattern.
  • Vanilla Blossom & VelvetThe same structure, a different drawing.
  • Jasmine JewelA full lineup, bottle to bar.
  • MajestyOne system, held across every lineup.

Akin Tangun

Toronto, ON

akin@tangun.ca
© 2025 Akin Tangun. All rights reserved.