Christian Turner

Director, Naming, Brand development, based in New York

Christian doesn't just invent new language—he’s licensed by the state of New York to teach it.

Before entering branding, Christian imparted his omnivorous curiosity and delight for the delicious turn of phrase to elementary school children in Syracuse, NY. To this day, his verbal identity work retains a classroom sense of purposeful play (as does his poetry).

Christian came to us from Landor Associates, where he led the firm’s major verbal identity engagement with Verizon Wireless. For this client alone, Christian named dozens of devices—including the HTC Thunderbolt—and numerous services, features and product suites. In addition, he was the department lead on the Diageo account, for which he developed innovation projects and helped extend established brands such as Smirnoff and Captain Morgan. Other high-profile naming solutions include the Blackberry PlayBook, APT from Yahoo! Dow Ecolibrium and TD Ameritrade’s The Invested Life. Christian also has extensive experience reviewing and developing architecture and nomenclature systems for clients as diverse as CIBA Vision and TIAA-CREF. Also of note, he was the naming lead on the 9/11 Memorial identity, which was a finalist for a 2010 Cannes Lions award.

Christian has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in teaching from Le Moyne College. In deference to the cultural multivalence of the word “football” (and as a product of having lived in London when he was 16), Christian has two favorite teams: the New York Giants in the American NFL and Arsenal in the English Premier League.