Simon Haines
A scholar of ideas turns to a brand of his own
Simon Haines has built a distinguished career across academia, public policy, diplomacy and cultural leadership. His former roles include Reader in English, Head of English and Head of the School of Humanities at the Australian National University; Chair Professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and inaugural CEO of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. Having recently stepped down from Ramsay, Simon was ready to build an independent platform to support his work as a speaker, writer and public intellectual, and he needed a personal brand and digital presence with the depth to match.
Simon came to pepperit at an important point of transition. After years in high-profile institutional roles, he was building a more independent public presence, one that could support speaking opportunities, events, writing and ongoing professional engagement.
He also wanted to sidestep the visual language usually associated with academia. Rather than the predictable cues of royal purple, deep reds and heavy formality, the brand needed to feel contemporary, understated and approachable while still carrying real authority. The goal was a professional identity that could stand confidently on its own and give Simon the tools to promote his work and build visibility well beyond the Ramsay Centre.
The challenge was to give a distinguished academic career an independent identity that felt contemporary.
We worked across both brand and website to create a single, cohesive presence.
The brand process began with concept development, exploring logo directions, colour palettes and visual treatments that reflected Simon’s intellectual authority and public-facing work. The chosen direction was refined into a complete suite: logo variations, colour usage, typography, business cards, letterhead and a brand guide. Every element was designed to feel considered and understated, sitting comfortably across academic contexts, speaking engagements, media and professional correspondence.
Alongside the brand, we built a new WordPress website on the Astra framework, a clean, practical structure Simon could manage and grow himself. Home, About and Contact anchored the site, with a content-ready blog section so Simon can publish articles, commentary and updates over time without touching code. Behind the scenes we handled the full technical setup, including the WordPress build, hosting, DNS via Cloudflare, a dedicated admin account and initial SEO, so the site launched on a reliable, discoverable foundation that Simon controls.
The site launched on time, giving Simon a polished, independent presence to build on from day one. More telling than the launch, though, is what came next: Simon returned to pepperit to expand the site’s blog area, a sign the platform was doing its job and that the structure we’d built was easy to grow.
That’s the outcome we set out to deliver. Not a static biography, but a living platform Simon controls and keeps coming back to, a professional foundation that supports his speaking, writing and public work, and evolves alongside it.
- Brand Strategy and Guidelines
- Logo Design and Visual Identity
- Website Design and Development
- Hosting and DNS Configuration
- Initial SEO Setup
