Koto’s Carolyn Rush: “Good brands only happen with a good idea”

Strategy isn’t about putting constraints on creativity; it’s about giving it direction. At Koto’s LA studio, Senior Strategy Director Carolyn Rush is proving that the best brands aren’t built on aesthetics alone – they’re built on ideas that reveal hidden truths, ideas strong enough to guide everything from typography to tone to the weird billboard campaign that actually makes you stop and think. Whether she’s working with an emerging tech start-up or reframing a legacy brand, Rush approaches each project with the same conviction: a great brand idea doesn’t just inform the work, it transforms it. In this conversation, she unpacks where those ideas really come from, how strategy and design collaborate without stepping on each other’s toes, and what happens when a brand tries to move forward without a clear idea at its core. This isn't theory – it's the hard-earned reality behind brand work that resonates. TBI: Hi Carolyn! Thanks for chatting with us. To start – when you’re working on a new brand, where do the best ideas actually come from? CR: I think great ideas come from attention. You have to be paying attention – to culture, to people, to the edges of a category, to that throwaway comment someone makes during a product demo. You can create structure and frameworks to give yourself a better shot at getting to something great, but the magic happens in your willingness to take creative risks and go places you haven’t been before.