Making something these days isn't the problem - knowing what's good, and what to lead with, is

  • Create
  • Conduct
  • Curate

The Garden is a small studio in Tbilisi doing the same handful of things in different orders - building brands, writing the words that carry them, making the photographs that sell them, and building the software behind them. I came here for a season and stayed for the long view, and the work is still the same job it always was: choosing well, and knowing what to leave out.

If you've got something you'd like made with care, I'd like to hear about it.

Get in touch

Who we are

Good gardening means you understand the land and environmental conditions, you nurture seedlings and then place them in the earth where you're sure they'll flourish:

Twenty-five years building brands across Europe and the Caucasus, and the studio still started the way the good things tend to - by solving our own problem: we needed a name and a brand for the natural wines we make, so we studied the market and charted a bold course, clearly differentiating our bottles and labels from every other producer, choosing minimalist labels and simple coloured designs that grab a buyer's eye and speak to the qualities of the wine itself - natural, unfussy, ready to be shared.

The same ethos runs through the creative work, whether that's finding a name, making sure it can be trademarked, designing the packaging, writing the marketing copy, or making photographs of the product that awaken something - just as we find beneath the soil: everything's connected.

What the three words mean

One studio, three ways of working

Create, Conduct and Curate aren't departments - they're the three things we keep coming back to, and most projects ask for some honest measure of all three.

Create

Naming · Brand · Identity · Apps · Origination

This is where something gets made that didn't exist before - a name, a brand-marque, a piece of software, a whole way of looking and sounding. We start from what the thing actually is rather than what the category expects, and we build an identity that can carry weight without shouting, the sort that still feels right three years in. An app is the same act in a different medium - a thing built from nothing that has to work the moment someone picks it up.

Conduct

Strategy · Communications · Build · Go-to-market

An orchestra doesn't need more instruments, it needs someone keeping time who understands the whole piece. We oversee the disciplines and tie them together - helping you decide what to say, in what order, to whom - and then we hold the whole thing through launch, so the idea that left the studio is the idea that lands.

Curate

Copy · Selection · Taste · Photography

Once the making and building are done, there's a harder step before release: deciding what's good enough to keep. Half of taste is knowing what to leave out and being brave enough to do it, and curation is the discipline of choosing well - the photograph that says it without a caption, the one detail that does the work of ten - the same instinct, really, that decides which barrel is worth bottling and which isn't.

How we work

You always connect directly with the people doing the work

Our decades of experience don't just make us old - they give us a clear read on what works. You talk directly to the people doing the work, start to finish, with nobody relaying your idea down a chain and watering it down on the way - so you always know who to call, you always reach someone who can actually answer, and the brief we agree at the start stays the thing we both steer by. Clearer, straighter, faster.

What we make

Four things, done properly

Brand & Identity

Names, marques, visual systems and the thinking underneath them - the whole identity, built to last and made to carry across everything outward-facing, always grounded in real-world use so it actually works where it has to.

  • Naming & positioning
  • Logo & visual system
  • Trademark application
  • Guidelines & rollout

Words & Comms

Copy that feels natural and memorable, and the strategy that decides what's worth saying in the first place - from a tagline to long copy to a whole launch, built on research fused with experience and a clear sense of what really lands.

  • Messaging & tone of voice
  • Website & campaign copy
  • Launch & comms planning
  • Social media content

Photography

Thirty years behind a camera, the last ten of it for a living - portraits, products, launches, the lot. People want to know who's behind a brand, and a good portrait answers that before a word is read; a good product shot does the same for the thing itself. We take it from concept to finished frame, and the discipline that matters most is the one nobody sees - knowing which photographs to leave out.

Apps & Software

Software built around how your team actually works rather than the other way round - in-house tools that take a real problem off your plate, and native iOS and Android apps for when what you're building needs to live in someone's pocket.

Selected work

A few things we've made

Real photographs are on their way - placeholders for now, the work is real.

The Garden Winery

The Garden Winery

Create Conduct Curate

Naming, branding, positioning, communications and sales - the whole studio in one bottle.

SyncraHD

SyncraHD

Create

Native app for Human Design chart calculation, plus development and training for a chatbot held inside strict guardrails.

StillGood.pro

StillGood.pro

Create Conduct

Mac longevity app taken from scratch to finished product - conception and build alongside the branding, positioning and strategy.

PureGreen

PureGreen Brands

Create

Fifteen EU-trademarked brands in natural cosmetics - research, naming, branding, design, packaging, copy and trademarks.

Odersun

Odersun

Conduct

Project management and communications leading to a major joint venture with China on a pioneering solar manufacturing project.

Georgia Adventure Club

Georgia Adventure Club

Curate

Conception and capture of a complete visual identity for the Georgia Adventure Club experience, for international tourism fairs and web.

The studio

Adrian Scoffham

I'm London-born and Tbilisi-settled - I've spent the better part of twenty-five years doing the same four things in different orders - building brands, writing the words that carry them, and making the photographs that sell them, and building the software behind them - which is really why The Garden has the shape it does rather than the typical shape of an agency.

I came to Georgia for a season and stayed for the long view, and somewhere in there I started making natural wine, which sounds like a hobby until you realise it's the same job - choosing well, waiting properly, and trusting that attention shows up in the glass whether anyone can point to it or not.

If you're here because you're curious, or because you've got an idea about something you'd like to have made with care and attention, feel free to get in touch - I answer my own emails.

Get in touch

Contact The Garden

If you've got something you'd like made with care and attention, I'd like to hear about it.