Jim Hughes

The Brand Establishment

Jim had the rare good fortune to receive classic advertising training at one of the finest communications schools in the country, The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.  The Art Center is a school where all instructors are working professionals.  This allowed Jim to participate in creative assignments for such major advertisers as Volkswagen, American Airlines, GTE and Alka Seltzer. 

Jim’s first professional position was as an Art Director for Orange County, California’s then-largest advertising agency, Perarra/Vineyard, where he was introduced to a broad base of advertising accounts.

The phenomenal growth of Orange County, its need for creative leadership and an entrepreneurial spirit combined to motivate the formation of Todd Hughes Advertising in September of 1971.  Over the next thirty-plus years, Jim developed and advanced the agency’s expertise in brand development for many prominent regional and national advertisers. He was also the author of the agency’s brand discovery process that became widely recognized as the new paradigm in brand development, “Turning the Telescope.”

In November of 2003, TH&M Advertising was acquired by one of Southern California’s most noted agencies, Rieches Baird.  Today, Jim is Consulting Director of RB’s newly created consumer brand development group, TH&M/RB.

Jim is also an industry activist. He has served on the board of directors of the Orange County Ad Club, The Ad Council and chairman of the Orange County Ad Awards competition.

Jim is a brand development trainer for The Second Wind Network, the largest training organization of advertising agencies in the world. He is also the founder and Managing Director of The Brand Establishment, a consortium of principals of brand development firms who are licensed to facilitate his brand discovery processes, and trained in his unique branding and brand development philosophies.

Jim is an author, frequent speaker, consultant and seminar leader and has taught two advanced studies workshops in brand development at Northwestern University’s Seabury Institute.