Game of Thrones is finally back, with a new season featuring Targaryen dragons, brooding Starks, blood-thirsty Lannisters, and . . . Ed Sheeran. As the show has progressed into its seventh season, power has changed many hands and more characters have wound up without their heads. Have you ever admired how remarkably consistent the branding is for each house, amidst all the intrigue, blood, and gore?
If the internet is to be believed, that’s all thanks to Westeros’s own premier design firm: Westeros Design. It was thanks to the firm’s design insights that the Starks didn’t choose a tree as their emblem–Westeros Design’s research showed that 0% of the Starks’s enemies were afraid of trees, and 82% of respondents actually laughed when presented with the tree mascot. (The Starks picked the suitably ferocious direwolf instead.)
Westeros Design also rethought the House Stark motto. The original? “8000 years of resolute dedication to integrity, honesty, and respect in the vast and challenging expanse of The Great North.” Westeros refined it into the now iconic “Winter is coming.” As a result, the firm claims, brand recognition went up 42%.
Westeros Design recommended a brand that would appeal to the Upwardly Mobile Lord, ages 18-35. The answer? A ferocious lion, with colors of red and gold. But the team couldn’t convince the Lannisters to go with the more likely motto, “Hear me roar,” for their tagline. Instead, the Lannisters insisted on the fact that they always repay their debts.
Westeros Design has also worked with House Targaryen, House Bolton, and House Arryn, and you can read up on its strategy for leveraging dragons as influencers, refreshing a brand based entirely on the concept of flaying, and designing an on-brand, hole-shaped architectural feature. The firm is also available for any house in need of help with heraldry, color scheme, motto, wax seals, spirit animal exploration, and even oversized hearth carvings.
It’s clear that the firm has outmaneuvered all its competitors–whoever sits on the Iron Throne at the end of the day, they’ll have the brand expertise of Westeros Design to thank.