If you missed last week’s PRINT Book Club, you can watch the full episode here.

What if we’ve been asking the logo to do way too much?

That question sits at the heart of No Bullshit Branding, the new book from British designer, author, and creative entrepreneur James Martin, better known as Made by James. Martin joined Debbie Millman and Steven Heller for the latest PRINT Book Club to talk about branding, creativity, confidence, and why the design industry might benefit from making things a whole lot simpler. His central argument: a brand isn’t a logo, visual identity, or beautifully designed set of guidelines. It’s a recognizable reputation, earned over time through behavior, trust, experience, and evidence.

Martin argues that designers can get tangled in jargon, elaborate strategy, and what he calls “panic branding”—rushing to create logos, websites, and identity systems before determining whether an idea is actually any good. No Bullshit Branding offers practical tools for avoiding those traps, including his “Five Idea Keys” for testing an idea before branding it and “10 Ways to Burn Your Brand,” which turns conventional problem-solving upside down. The lesson is refreshingly simple: great design can amplify a strong idea, but it can’t rescue a bad one.

The conversation also veered into Martin’s unconventional path to design, the role creativity played in changing his life, and his commitment to mentoring the next generation. He also offered a particularly useful reframing for designers exhausted by the demand to constantly produce “content”: think of it as “evidence” instead—proof of what you know, make, think, and can do. Which may be the most no-bullshit branding advice of all: Do something worth noticing. The logo can’t do it for you.