OFFICES IN
SYDNEY NEW YORK MEXIC0
My life can be divided into two phases: before and after meeting Van at The NY Brand She helped me gain clarity around my business and my brand that I hadn’t dreamed possible.
Megan Kent, Founder
Megan Kent Branding Group
New York City
I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurial leaders, consultants, coaches and creatives
identify their
unbelievable point of difference
in this ever-changing business landscape.
That means tapping into your core genius.
Bringing emboldened thinking to what you do and why.
And, of course, helping you recognize who you are __ so others can. We call it branding exuberantly.
LIVING BOLDY.
Because our work comes to life at the intersection of psychology, story and identity.
Van is without question the most creative, energizing and brilliant brand visionary I know. She's able to zero in on a core message and make it sing. She gets whatever point-of-pain
you're experiencing
and knows how to speak to it. Her visual acumen
has a flair that captures eye and mind at the same time.
In addition to being highly talented, she's fun
and entirely pleasurable to work with. I love working with her – pure and simple.
Janet Wigfield, VP
Executive Director
Conferences & Events
Working Mother Media
New York City
Meet Mary van de Wiel | Pocket Version
Her exuberance as a visual storyteller has always taken center stage. As an international branding maverick, educator and visionary in the brand intelligence space, Mary van de Wiel (known as Van) brings 30+ years of multicultural experience redefining and shaping brands. Fluent in working across cultures, countries and languages with diverse Fortune 500 clients in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, China and Australia, she’s always been on a quest for humanizing business. And, of course, bringing more meaning & purpose to the business table
As Chief Creative Officer, speaker and founder of an award-winning branding and design agency with offices in New York and Sydney, Mary van de Wiel was dubbed brand psychologist by Time Inc. Magazines when her agency launched the national brand campaign for People Weekly in the Australian market.
Agency clients included organizations such as Nestle Nespresso (Lausanne), Viacom, The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., Macau International Airport (China), Comcast Cable Communications, Conde Nast Publications, News Corporation, Sydney Opera House, The Federal Airports Commission, Sony, American Airlines, Zurich Group and many more. VIEW PROJECT (Agency successfully sold.)
Today she consults, speaks and coaches and has been taking her signature NY Brand Lab workshops across the USA, Latin America and Australia.
Now working in Mexico, she's recently launched a fashion and lifestyle brand called Black Line Crazy. A Limited Edition Collection of wearable art and homewares, each piece in the collection is based on her bold abstract paintings. Her first public art installation, titled What Were They Thinking, was unveiled in September 2019 in the UBS Bank headquarters in New York City at 1285 Avenue of the Americas and West 51 Street. It's still on view.
A guest lecturer at The University of California (UCLA) and The University of Sydney Business School’s Masters Program, she's collaborated on storytelling content for The University of New South Wales' Center of Social Impact (Sydney). The American University (Washington, D.C.) and more recently. Minnesota State University MOORHEAD, MN and The Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland invited van de Wiel to speak about mixing the rigor of her vast business experience and the whimsy and joy of artistic pursuits.
A weekly contributor to Dan Schwabel's Personal Branding Blog, she's written for entrepreneur.com, been quoted and featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Reuters, The Australian Financial Review, Investor's Business Daily and American Express OPEN Forum
A good example of multilingual + multicultural fusion.
A Dutch sea captain’s daughter born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Van lived in four continents before she was 15: South America, Canada, The Netherlands and Australia.
It’s no surprise she learned at an early age how to scope out the horizon and interpret the invisible clues – no matter what the country, culture or language. It seemed the best way to sense her place and identity in the world, and give it meaning.
No wonder Van has always been drawn to the brand intelligence arena. With a knack for intuitively knowing how to scope out the landscape for her clients, she's always on the look out for the invisible clues that might be shooting them in the foot. For her, the intersection of neuroscience, creativity and innovation is always the most fascinating.
![PamLevine18051-sq[1].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c5d13f_f602cbbb98224234872aa5ce784eb6ac~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_120,h_120,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_3,enc_auto/PamLevine18051-sq%5B1%5D.jpg)
Insightful with a remarkable ability to get to the heart of the matter, you listened -- then brilliantly zeroed in to help reinvigorate my business.
You cracked something wide open for me! Thanks, Van.
Pam Levine
Brand Experience Specialist
Levine Luxury Branding
New York City
The NY Brand Lab Taking her signature workshop on the road around the USA, Latin America and Australia, they're designed for both entrepreneurs as well as for the corporate arena. Recent corporate gigs have included Viacom (New York), Comcast Cable (Philadelphia), Time Warner Cable (Los Angeles), ABC Innovation (Sydney) and AMP (Sydney)
Advisor and Branding Coach Working with entrepreneurs, innovators CEOs, she helps them tell their own brand story so it resonates deeply and hits home. It's really about bringing more meaning, purpose and energy back to the table. BTW your brand is just a feeling others have about who you are and what you do.
Speaker Invited to speak at national conferences, associations and innovation labs, her specialty is around why one brand nails it (and others fail: The Women Presidents' Organization (New York), Nestle Nespresso Global Brand Community Workshop (Lausanne, Switzerland), The Australian Institute of Management/AIM (Sydney), American University’s MBA Program (Washington, DC), The Australian Human Resources Institute Conference AHRI (Melbourne), International Business Women’s Association (Mexico City), National Association of Female Executives (NAFE), Women’s Leadership Summit (New York City) and many more.
The NY Brand Lab Radio. Every Wednesday morning at 10am EST sharp, she interviewed creative thought leaders like Simon Sinek, Dorie Clark and Brian Collins —daring them to share their best-kept branding secrets.
5 things you couldn’t possibly know about Van.
1. Iguanas lived in the bottom of her garden in the Venezuelan tropics. They’d often get to the ripe mangoes on the ground before she did.
2. She carries two passports (US & EU). Two permanent resident visas. No one can ever spell her name. Or pick her accent.
3. For four years every Saturday morning on Sydney Harbor, she wrestled with a spinnaker when racing with the NSW University’s Women’s Sailing Team.
4. When J. Walter Thompson came knocking to buy her agency, Van said no, thanks. Her father never got over it. (Fast forward to 2005. Agency sold.)
5. One day, she landed in the middle of Mexico, picked up a brush and can of black house paint and started to paint floor-to-ceiling for the first time in her life. Hello, Black Line Crazy! Two exhibitions later, in Australia and Mexico, and her first commissioned Public Art Installation in New York City, her large abstract paintings are now part of the Black Line Crazy collection of accessories, wearable-art totes, messenger bags, homeware and more. Follow her on instagram.com/maryvandewiel. Check out her first BLC Limited Edition Collection here blacklinecrazy.com/
