Nike, hands down brilliant.
Done by these guys & girls
Genious :)
“The realization that the balance of the counters was responsible for the actual beauty of a typeface was, for me, a revelatory experience”
“The brand is a story. But it’s a story about you, not about the brand.”
4 hats of the CBO
As business progresses, new roles emerge, this is of course from my side of the table one of the more interesting ones. I give you the CBO, Chief Brand Officer.
The outline for the CBO role are four different fields (detailed description in the article but I have summarized it below)
The Creative director: To be a constant renewer of the brand, cause branding never stops
The Coach: The enabler of experience of the brand.
The Lookout: To monitor how the brand experiece evolves among customers and people
The Court jester: Tocreate an organisation-wide climate of brand-led leadership.
With my relation to big and small brands this is the role all of them is lacking. A traditional brand police which quite a few of the big corporations have hired does not compute into this new description. This is a new, creative and also innovative role to expand and take the brand further from the boardroom, across the office and the employees and finally to people experiencing your brand.
Who will be your new CBO?
Read the full article here.
On story-telling
"No matter about technology or distribution, those are just trucks going back and forth, It is what is inside the trucks that counts.”
Found this brilliant little video with Chuck Lorre explaining his view upon story-telling. Brilliant and I will be using this truck metaphor from now on.
Mark Mahaney
Found a new favorite photgrapher: Brooklyn based Mark Mahaney. Some truly amazing photos for Nike Hoops. Really have to get my hands on them soon. Check his inspiring site here
Unbelievable craftmanship!
madeleineo: MINI. Loosing the essence of a brand?
In the early days, the concept of the classic Mini
Sir Alec Issigonis designed the Mini in 1956 because he was absorbed by minimalism. Issigonis had no formal engineering training, and many of his sketches that explained how the Mini would retain minimum space was made on restaurant…
Lets be social shall we?
One of my “favourites” in the doubtful identity department from last year. My advice to clients is to be distinct and not obvious but this exemple is just hilarious.
About Identity
Found this this short but rather good extracts from an article on IDEO founder Tim Brown’s blog:
Identity is an interesting thing. On the one hand we are responsible for our own identity and can be intentional about it. On the other hand it is shaped by the perceptions of others. For individuals or corporations, the challenge of re-designing identity is one of evolution rather than revolution.
Could not agree more, an identity job it is a constant process and evolution is a far better and more adekvate way of putting it when it comes to the process of your creative change.
One thing we learned about what’s next for designing identity—not just for us, but for many businesses in the 21st century—is that there is a design opportunity in being global and genuinely sensitive to the cultural nuances of location and people.
Be sensitive and let your identity and brand evolve and look for adaption towards you potential market and customers!
Read the full post here
Book tip
Been a Neumeier fan since around the mid 2000’s, his book The Brand Gap was on the “manditory” reading list on one of my courses on Berghs. And I’ve read that and all of his sequals, from which I’ve gotten inspiration and loads of ideas of continue my road within the fields of brand and design. Always well-written, smart reasoning and sometimes a bit fun.
This autumn he realeased his new book, The Meta Skills. It is about how sucessfully adapt to the ways things gonna work in the future. I am not gonna elaborate to much on the content other than to say that if you gonna buy a book this year buy this one. It is as for most Neumeister books, inspirational, smart and witty. But it deals with the five META skills - feeling, seeing, dreaming, making and learning.
Sounds fictionized? I’d beg to differ. It will engage you, it could probably scare one or two of you but above all it will inspire you. At least it did that for me.
So check it out and find your META Skills!
It´s the story not the slides that will capture the imagination of your audience.
Branding is your facilities
Often neglected, often prioritized wrong. Your facilties, offices or corporate spaces is a vital part of your organisation.
Sure, everyone cannot and probably should not have a “überdesigned” office but as long as you stay true to your brand strategy your space will emerge.
However I would like to stress the point that you should adapt your brand experience into this space. Just putting the logo above your office doors will not do the trick. The benefits are clear, here are a couple of points on the benefits.
Creating a relevant modern working place it will:
- Motivate employees, they like work even more in a likeable atmosphere.
- Adds energy to your storytelling, what are we?
(Are we…modern, innovative, conservative, creative, messy, trustworthy etc.)
- Drive attention, association and value to you brand.
- It is the obvious extension of your company culture.
- Vital part of attraction for presumptive employees and customers.
- Do your identity match your office space, if not. Make end’s meet.
Just a few aspects of what you could achieve just by focusing on how the maintenance
Remember your home is your brand!
*all images borrowed from White
- Forsman Bodenfors, office Gothenburg
- Clarion Hotel, hotel Stockholm
- UR Swedish Educational Radio, office Stockholm
Typography guru Erik Spiekermann elaborates on typography in the digital era.
Grand outline, the material does not matter it is just format with different obstacles to pass.
It is never just about the logo...
I’ve deliberately been waiting with my reflection on the A.A rebranding. With some perspective and time past, it is time to go into it. Of course I am talking about the big rebrand of American Airlines made by Futurebrand.
The fundamental approach to this post is a question on why the logo still is the first in mind when referring to a major rebranding, if you ask me it has never been about that, the logo is just a tiny part, however important, of the visual structure of a brand but not the essence.
When A.A made the switch between the classic logo made by design guruMassimo Vignelli back in the 60’s he and and other industry experts around the world was outraged. Some called it atrocious. Some called it a disgrace.
From a graphic design standpoint I might join the crowd that still likes the old logo better (the ones who know me, knows that I am a big Vignelli fan), however I am amazed that the discussion primarily have been about the logo, not the extended process they undertook on in order to make a leap of faith in order to (hopefully) save their business.
For the first time in decades AA invested strategically in their brand NOT the logo. AA focused on the entire brand experience. Flying used to mean something but have not been so for quite some time now. As a possible investment to re-strengthen from a downwards spiral since the 2000’s they made the effort but everything remotely engaging seem to be about the logo at least from a industry standpoint.
Here is a excerpt from the press release:
“…Since entering the restructuring process, American has made a series of strategic investments designed to place customers at the center of all it does and give employees the tools, training and leading technologies they need to provide customers with a uniquely American experience, while also creating growth and opportunity for its people.”
And, of course, to top it off they also introduced a new logo.
With these details in hand I understand A.A:s decisions to make this transition, it is a vital part and a investment in order to take of once again or landing for good.
But people cried out about a killing of a classic, to some extent true and I will probably miss it but lets be frank the logo is not your brand. Just from an employee perspective this new brand experience was a huge leap forward in trying to reach relevance in people’s mind again.
Only time will tell if A.A, made the right decision, I would say they did the right thing regarding the other possibilities.
Cannot rest the thought on a more nearby example…SAS. Is it time for them to try to revitalize their brand experience once again in order to keep up with the opposition of low-cost efficient operators in the region?
"Every point of contact between what is designed and the customer must be positive…it must be delightful"
Henry Dreyfuss
I second that!
Brand building is an art that requires intuition and a willingness to adapt to ever-changing circumstances.
To businessleaders: Do not forget to brand from within your company
A big misconception among companies and leaders today is that they often tend to be satisfied with their approach to branding when adopting a new graphical identity or a new website with their logo. But there is more vital components to a modern brand today.
The people is a part that often tends to be left out, mainly because leaders do not know that their brand would gain even more ground and “likeability” if they used this approach also.
Here is an outline towards that.
Brand is your people and the way they represent you. Having a good team starts with good hiring and continues with strong and consistent training and development. No matter how well your employees adhere to your new brand style guide, if they couldn’t care less about the job they’re doing, that’s your brand.
To create great brands you start from the inside out!