"We give companies maintenance instructions for their brands," says Somi Kim, one of the three principals who make up the Los Angeles-based agency ReVerb. As the number of media outlets-and visual clutter-increases, the challenge of connecting brands to consumers becomes ever greater and those instruction books ever more vital. ReVerb, which is derived from the Latin res et verba, or things and words, has proven its acumen for breaking brands down to their essential elements and then communicating those essences to the marketplace in a way that is both pragmatic and smart. It's a strategy the firm calls "reality-based mythmaking," which evokes the mixture of hard science and emotion that goes into branding. For ReVerb that means everything from street-level anthropology to semiotic analysis. It's also about being as comfortable working with a record company as with a computer company.

Since founding ReVerb in 1993, Kim, along with Lisa Nugent and Susan Parr (cofounders Lorraine Wild and Whitney Lowe are now working independently) have worked with a diverse range of clients. Companies ranging from Nike to Warner Bros. to IBM have enlisted the firm in a variety of design efforts, including rebranding campaigns, logo design, CD-ROMs, and web sites. Their work has been featured in a number of exhibitions and books, including Graphic Radicals/Radical Graphics (Chronicle Books, 1999). The firm has also worked on what it calls "strategic image development," assisting such clients as the Beverly Hills Avalon Hotel, Hewlett-Packard, and entertainment company G.A.S. in forging identities-all the while strengthening its own.