Archive for the 'Brand Personality' Category
Marty at dConstruct 2010.
Going into it’s 6th year, dConstruct 2010 invites and brings together leading industry figures to explore the power of design thinking. Held this year on September 3 in Brighton, England, dConstruct is the affordable one day conference for those designing and building web applications.
Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency, has been invited to speak at this exciting one day event. His latest book, The Designful Company, explores how complex business problems we face today can’t be solved with the same thinking that created them. Instead, we need to break away from traditional management approaches and start with designful thinking. In his session, Marty will explain why designful thinking will become the new best practice, and how you can leverage your unique position as a brand-builder to transform the way business does business in the 21st century.
Follow dConstruct on Twitter for the latest updates. Find out who the speakers are here.
No commentsMarty Neumeier at Brand ManageCamp 2010.
Brand ManageCamp 2010 is an intensive two-day conference that features the most engaging and dynamic speakers in branding. This year, Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency has been selected along with twelve peers to speak at this renowned event in Las Vegas, September 21-22.
Created by experienced branders over eight years ago, the Brand ManageCamp marketing conference has become a place to generate new ideas today’s brands need in order to survive. Industry mavericks, best-selling authors, world-renowned experts – these leaders in innovative brand thinking will cover a wide variety of topics to help broaden perspectives, generate fresh, actionable ideas, and become a stronger marketer and a more dynamic leader. Some topics will include: Determine where to spend your precious marketing dollars, Drive innovation and creativity through a discipline of inspiration, Get big results by thinking and acting small, and much more.
“Industry professionals attend this conference because they want fresh inspirations on how to take their brand to the next level,” said Marty Neumeier. “I’m both honored and excited to be able to share what I’ve learned at an event like this.”
Marty will be speaking on Wednesday, September 22 about “How to build a culture of nonstop innovation” from his latest book, The Designful Company. In an era of fast-moving markets and leap-frogging innovators, companies can no longer merely “unlock” wealth. Today they have to actively “create” wealth, or end up in the fossil layers of business history. As a result, brand-builders have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a key role in the next management revolution.
Find out more about Brand ManageCamp 2010 here.
No commentsGreat design from our friends at WSDIA in NY.
WSDIA: A very talented group of people that take design seriously.
On a recent trip to New York I was introduced to a small, but very talented firm: WSDIA.According to their website: “Our name WeShouldDoItAll (WSDIA) is simply a goal. Designers and all other professionals alike should not feel constrained to some singular expertise. To survive our own creative game, it is imperative to know that there is not one absolute solution to a given problem. To immerse oneself within different avenues of creative production and mediums forces you to consider the otherwise unconsidered. It’s that method of working that’s exciting and motivating to look forward to the next transition.”
Nice people. Lots of talent. And plenty of ambition.
I was introduced to Jonathan Jackson & Sarah Nelson, two of the three principals at WSDIA, by my very good friend (and also very talented designer), Chris Vivion. In the course of my travels and my work I meet a lot of designers. Sometimes I meet people who are exceptionally talented…on occasion I meet folks who are really smart…and at times I meet designers who are very nice people - alas, they’re personality does not always match up to their work. Meeting Jonathan and Sarah was refreshing because they represented a combination of the best qualities I find in true designers: talent, curiosity, passion, intelligence and ambition. On top of all these great qualities, they struck me as unassuming, approachable, and extremely nice people. BTW: By “ambition” I don’t mean a drive to make a lot of money. No, no, no. I mean the ambition to keep pushing the limits, and the desire to do bigger, better, more interesting and more meaningful projects. That’s the kind of ambition that people that end up being really, really good must have. And the folks at WSDIA have plenty of it.
New Practices New York
Jonathan and Sarah shared with me several projects that I thought were really smart and exceptionally executed. I really enjoyed the New Practices New York exhibition design.
This project exemplifies the firms ability to create striking solutions that blend the aesthetics of architecture and graphics in a combination that is visually fresh and dimensionally interesting. I learned that WSDIA is made up of people that come from backgrounds that include architecture, graphics and fashion…which may explain why their work is so multifaceted. I love the physical nature of the signage and the attention to detail that went into the execution.
Young Guns Live
Another project I really liked is the Young Guns Live project for the Art Directors Club of New York.
For this assignment the team created a set that they photographed as the key visual for the marketing materials. The typography was created from brown fabric and stuffed with cotton (now named, ‘Gotham Stuffed’). The end result is whimsical and sophisticated…and although it is definitely avant-garde, it evokes a certain level of craftsmanship that is not all too often part of today’s design aesthetics…which is what makes it so special and fresh.I look forward to seeing what this talented team will be designing next. In the meanwhile, if you have any thoughts, please feel free to share them.
Thanks,
Alfredo Muccino
Chief Creative Officer
Liquid Agency
What do you think about the new AOL brand?
AOL turns into Aol.
The company that used to be called AOL, and was recently spun off from Time Warner, is shrinking in size in order to survive…and now its name and logo are shrinking as well. Perhaps as a reflection of its intention to cut about 2,500 jobs, AOL has changed the UC treatment of the acronym to one that includes an upper case “A” and lower case “ol”. And, in an attempt to communicate that the company is in the internet space, it is adding a “.” after its moniker. “AOL” is now “Aol.”
Brand identities need to be refreshed every so often. This can be motivated by the fact that, over time, design aesthetics change and it may be necessary to refresh a design that starts to feel dated. However, changing a brand identity can also be symbolic of a change in the company’s focus or structure, or a change in the marketplace situation. In the case of AOL (oops, Aol.), the change seems to be motivated by the changes in the company’s structure and a desire to re-introduce itself to its audiences.
Is “uniquely dynamic” the same as trite and playful?
According to Tim Armstrong, the company’s CEO, “Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and AOL is centered on creative and talented people - employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade.”
The new look was created by Wolff Olins, the same firm that also designed the much maligned 2012 London Olympics logo, and most recently the fairly unpopular NYC logo. So far, the new Aol. identity is not being embraced with much affection. Take a look at a recent article in Fast Company or read the story on CNet .
I think the new Aol. is awkward.
In my opinion, the new identity may very well be “dynamic”, but it seems to be trying too hard to look young and energetic. The playfulness seems out of line with the announcements about layoffs, and the seriousness of Aol.’s financial situation. Changing the font to lower case is a simplistic attempt to look friendlier and more accessible…while at the same time, the lower case “l” looks like an upper case “I” (which is visually confusing). In fact, I think the whole thing looks a bot awkward…and I find that the addition of the “dot” is trite - while at the same time it poses all sorts of problems when writing out the name of the company in text form - AOL simply looks and works much better than Aol. (Wait…at the end of a sentence should I add another period after the dot?). And this commentary has not even begun to take into account the backgrounds from which the letters Aol. are reversed out. What is that pink cloud? Perhaps a bit of cotton candy? And, what is the green scribble? I find that the is dot hard to read in that version. Do you? BTW: In Italy the hand image stands for “cuckold”…I think that’s pretty funny.
I don’t like it. Do you?
OK…it’s obvious, I don’t care for the new Aol. identity. I’d love to hear what any of you think of the new logo? Is this what you would do to help AOL change the way that people think about the brand?
I’d love to hear your opinion.
Ciao!
Alfredo Muccino
Chief Creative Officer
Liquid Agency
CocaCola’s new look is truly refreshing.
In my last posting I discussed the new Pepsi brand design, and it seems appropriate to follow that dialog with some thoughts about Coca-Cola’s recent brand revamp. As it may have been apparent, I am not a big fan of Pepsi’s latest branding efforts. In my opinion, the new logo is not much of an improvement over the old one, and the packaging seems rather generic and sterile. On the other hand, I am truly impressed with what Coca-Cola just did.
Interestingly, if one looks at the new can by itself, the change is hardly apparent. Yet, when you place the previous can next to the new one, the design modifications one starts to notice are quite nice. Gone are all the little extra design elements, such as the touch of yellow, the multiple layers of swooshes, and the bubble patterns.
The designers have stripped away everything that was not essential and exercised a great deal of restraint in the new design. The typography that identifies the product as “CLASSIC” has been modernized and it is now all in lower case. This simple gesture seems to have an informality that is admirably on brand with the personality I expect of Coca-Cola. It is friendlier and more approachable. In my opinion, the fact that the design refresh is, at first glance, almost unnoticeable is also refreshing. I think this is a very respectful way to treat a classic icon. Yet the changes – once noticed – are definite improvements.
I’m also a fan of the Coca-Cola Zero packaging. The red Coca-Cola logo on the solid black background has an edge to it, yet it seems like a natural extension of the brand. And I love the aluminum bottles. They remind me of the way I felt when I first saw the redesign of the VW beetle by Jay Mays – a modern interpretation of a classic that re-invents the vehicle while making it feel like a natural evolution of the original.
The item that caught my eye and made me look further into the re-design was the ubiquitous white paper cup from fast food restaurants, but this time it featured the red silhouette of the Coca-Cola bottle. One of our designers walked into our office sipping from the cup, and I just loved the way that the straw looked like it was coming from the bottle. This design is fun yet really smart. The simple graphics imbue the paper cup with a sense of nostalgia and playfulness that are perfectly aligned with the brand. Also, I love the design of the delivery trucks. I have not seen these on the streets yet, and can’t wait to see the reaction that people will have when they first see them. I like the fact that the visual is an allegory to the purpose of the truck - which is to deliver Coca-Cola products…and the oversize bottle seems to say “this brand is bigger than life” - and, given that Coca-Cola is considered the most valuable brand in the world, it makes sense. Once again, the design is playful and impactful…yet it is completely appropriate.
It’s nice to see a brand like Coca-Cola exercise the design discipline it did with its latest branding efforts. This work is honest, clean, fresh – and it has lots of personality - and I hope that more brands are inspired by it.
Please feel free to comment!
Alfredo Muccino
Chief Creative Officer
Liquid Agency | Brand Marketing
Pepsi’s new brand identity: Not what I call “refreshing”.
Occasionally brands need a little refreshing. Pepsi recently announced that it is canning BBDO Worldwide, which has produced campaigns for the brand since 1960, in an effort “to refresh Pepsi’s communications,” according to Dave Burwick, the new chief marketing officer for the PepsiCo North America beverages division. PepsiCo also selected the Arnell Group as its design agency for brand identity and packaging.
Well, pardon the pun, I am not so sure there is anything “refreshing” at all about the new Pepsi identity that Arnell just designed. In fact, it seems like such a missed opportunity…and an amazing waste of money.
Theoretically, the new logo is much improved and much more dynamic because it flashes a smile. That may be so…but when I look at the new packaging it seems generic and impersonal….and that does not make me smile at all. Lately a few venerable brands have undergone makeovers that I think are questionable: AT&T and Xerox, for example. Pepsi is the latest one to join the group.
In the case of AT&T, in an attempt to make the unfriendly company come across as more approachable, the classic logo became dimensionalized. Surely AT&T wanted to come across as a contemporary, friendly and dynamic company. Instead, the symbol seems executed by a design student trying too hard to make something look cool.
Then there is the new Xerox logo. Again, I’m sure that someone thought that the digitized X that we had come to associate with Xerox had become obsolete…and that the company’s sophisticated digital solutions were not properly represented by something that actually looked digitized. Apparently “the sphere-shaped symbol with lines that link to form an illustrative “X,” represents Xerox’s connections to its customers, partners, industry and innovation”. Personally, I think it looks like a red version of the Xbox360 logo.
Now we have the new Pepsi logo. After months of work…during which time much consideration was given to “preserving the heritage of the Pepsi brand, while creating a more vibrant and energetic logo that will help Pepsi connect with its customers”. As a result of all this effort, in my opinion, the designers came up with something just as impersonal as the old logo. According to some reports the re-brand will cost the company in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion.
However, as I am fond of saying “a logo does not a brand make”. So, let’s take a look at the packaging…which is probably the most important manifestation of this brand. When I take a look at the “before and after” images, I can’t help but feel a mix of confusion, disapproval and disappointment. Perhaps Pepsi is trying to be more minimalist…but I think it the brand just comes across as generic and cheap. Is this design better? Will it make any difference at all?
Lastly…I wonder about the strategy behind the logo modifications that are featured on the cans of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi Max. I guess that Pepsi Max is supposed to make my smile bigger?
Really….what is the point? I am not smiling.
Please feel free to comment!
Alfredo Muccino
Chief Creative Officer
Liquid Agency | Brand Marketing
Italian Design: It’s not all good.
As I write this post, I’m afraid I may get a call from the Italian Consulate. I am, after all, an Italian citizen…and very proud of the design heritage for which Italy is known. However, on a recent visit to Florence and Rome I realized that just because it’s designed in Italy, it does not mean it’s good design. Case in point…the marketing materials that were created to promote two separate exhibitions of Leonardo’s work - one in Florence (A) and the other in Rome (B). These caught my eye due to our recent involvement with the upcoming Leonardo exhibition at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. (Check out my previous posting). I will let you be the judge…but, in my opinion these designs miss the mark and don’t represent the design standards that I’ve come to expect from the Italian “brand”. What do you think?
