Commercial: Architects and branding

Following a request, a quick, intuitive list linking high-profile 'celebrity' architectural practices to common perceptions of the work their practices produce. Now, there is no rigour in this top of the head study whatsover, but as a piece of thin-slicing brand assessment, it works quite well.

Architect: Brand essence

Foster: is all about triangles and glass

Calatrava: is all about inspiration from nature and especially fish and birds, with lots of swooping shapes

Gehry: is all about impossible and unexpected curves

Herzog and de Mueron: are about the unexpected (they don’t really have a signature style)

Liebskind: is all about shattered angles reformed

Grimshaw: is industrial chic (plus the domes of Eden Project)

Allsop: is all about primary coloured blobs

Hadid: is all about reconfiguring space in unexpected ways

Koolhaus: is all about theory made real.