Eight years ago Facebook was in beta, operating out of a dorm room. Last Friday it became the third largest public offering in the history of the United States. At $104 billion, Facebook's market value is higher than McDonald’s, Citigroup, Amazon.com and most American companies. Mark Zuckerberg is 28 with an 8 year old company of which his stake is worth around $20 billion. That's a lot of Powerballs.

Now, the question on every stockholder's mind is whether Facebook has an expiration date. It's easy to think of Facebook as joining a group of historically overrated draft picks; webvan.com, pets.com, etoys.com, boo.com. All of these late nineties, dot-com brands grew too fast, lasted about three years after IPO and all have essentially been replaced by Amazon.com now fifteen years later. Despite mismanagement, they were either ahead of their time or couldn't keep up with the time. As young as Facebook is, the internet is nothing like it was eight years ago, much less fifteen years ago. Facebook is very much a reason for that. It's certainly not just a good idea with 800 million friends worldwide and $1 billion in net profit last year.

Will it ever become "old school" to have a Facebook account? Social apps like Foursquare, Instagram, Spotify and Twitter are all much newer than Facebook and would seem to be more relevant. They're all designed around the assumption of social media rather than the invention and focus on one small piece of our social lives. We're OK with this because they're all available as apps on our phone and connected to Facebook. Mobile OS's have provided the platform for a social media mall. I'm sure Facebook would have loved to be the source for what these new apps provide but that's not what we want anymore. In the same way that Sears has become just a long entrance to the mall, we're moving from branded social media to individual social media brands. I wonder if the future of Facebook's relevancy lies in it's willingness to be just the halls of the social media mall. Not always a destination but a connection and place to talk along the way.

I don't think you can force conversations to happen in one place. Social apps seem to only complement Facebook rather than replace it. They fill the figurative halls with friends' whereabouts, photos, music, thoughts, etc. while leaning heavily on the social network Facebook provides. If this is right, then it's in their best interest to keep acquiring popular startups like Instagram but also to keep them independent. If Instagram is reduced to filters for Facebook posts I'd imagine the conversations would just move elsewhere.

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry. Design broadens perception, magnifies experience, and enhances vision. Design is the product of feeling and awareness, of ideas that originate in the mind of the designer and culminate, one hopes, in the mind of the spectator.”
Paul Rand
Design Form and Chaos

Illustration by Craig Frazier

“Today’s design environment is one facet of man’s overall culture – hence, it is only partially responsible for the visual mess in which we find ourselves. One microcosm of this threat to our civilization is the detrimental characteristic prevailing in the philosophy of advertising and public relations that has indubitably cemented sales records to the products, regardless of the intrinsic worth of the product. – The result in part is the manufacturer who produces products of expediency; and the craftsman (the labor community) who demands more and more monies without equally important demands for products with structural aesthetic honesty.”

Lester Beall
Print Magazine (1968)
“Graphic Design in the Human Environment”

This map may be nothing more than a truism but it is interesting to see brand architectures revealed. So many of these house hold names I never consider in relationship to their parent brand or "brothers and sisters". For instance the company that makes my Oreos also makes my A1 steak sauce. They are cousins so to speak. Not a huge disconnect but then there's the company who makes my Pringles that then also makes my baby's diapers which have quite the opposite effect on my appetite. The value of a pluralistic brand architecture.

Great brands need a verbal nail and a visual hammer. Or in other words, a focused positioning statement and a memorable mark. Laura's new book shows how leading brands, over the years have leveraged this strategy to make sure that we remember who they are and what they stand for. The sharpness of the verbal and the strength of the visual ensure brand memorability.

We had the pleasure of working with Laura on the design of her new book. Below are a few photos. It's also great to see that within a short amount of time it's become one of Amazon's top 100 Best Sellers under Advertising. Congrats Laura!

↓ Yes, we painted it.

↓ We were also able to help redesign the Ries&Ries website.

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/visual-hammer/feed/ 3 http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/excellent-questions/ http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/excellent-questions/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:00:46 +0000 John Bowles http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=13234

I believe that design excellence is a perfect marriage of disparate content and infinite forms. I believe that one should drive the other, that the problems point to the solutions. Any form without consideration for the content is just decoration, eye-candy. You can't design a beautiful logo then invent a company to go with it. It would stand for nothing but wishful thinking, lacking any substance, show no real problem solving ability and only devalue our profession. It would be a beautiful bowl of plastic fruit. I don't make plastic fruit. I want truth and substance. That's the real content and that's what I want to build with. It's important to hold out for these things. Graphic design becomes decoration and exists only to cater to the latest trends and styles without them. Graphic design can no longer influence culture but only reflect it. I don't want to design things with expiration dates. I want to build things that last. Not to say that designs can't change over time or that play isn't important.

“Progress in art does not lie in extending its limits, but in knowing them better.” – Georges Braque

Regardless of how new and interesting the architecture of a building might be, you and I both would not walk in without the assumption that it was built with some measure of certainty. Something that was intentional, proven and that we could trust. I see graphic design as no less important. It matters what you say and how you say it. There's a lot of ‘pretty' out there. Design blogs should not be the arbiters of what is good or bad. Is form and content well integrated? Is truth being communicated? These are excellent questions.

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/excellent-questions/feed/ 0 http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/evolution-of-office-space-2/ http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/evolution-of-office-space-2/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:00:49 +0000 John Bowles http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=13177

This is from an old article in Wired Magazine I found interesting. It shows how office space design has adapted over time to social values in the interest of efficiency. I bring it up again only because we are currently attempting to redesign our own work space. I'm curious if anyone reading this has an opinion on what makes a perfect work space. Speaking strictly with regard to environment design, what do you think is the perfect design for a creative company and why? Small cubes, big open table, individual offices, common areas, etc. How do you design an office space for maximum creativity and efficiency?

1    Taylorism (ca. 1904)

American engineer Frederick Taylor was obsessed with efficiency and oversight and is credited as one of the first people to actually design an office space. Taylor crowded workers together in a completely open environment while bosses looked on from private offices, much like on a factory floor.

2    Bürolandschaft (ca. 1960)

The German "office landscape" brought the socialist values of 1950s Europe to the workplace: Management was no longer cosseted in executive suites. Local arrangements might vary by function—side-by-side workstations for clerks or pinwheel arrangements for designers, to make chatting easier—but the layout stayed undivided.

3    Action Office (1968)

Bürolandschaft inspired Herman Miller to create a product based on the new European workplace philosophy. Action was the first modular business furniture system, with low dividers and flexible work surfaces. It's still in production today and widely used. In fact, you probably know Action by its generic, more sinister name: cubicle.

4    Cube Farm (ca. 1980)

It's the cubicle concept taken to the extreme. As the ranks of middle managers swelled, a new class of employee was created: too important for a mere desk but too junior for a window seat. Facilities managers accommodated them in the cheapest way possible, with modular walls. The sea of cubicles was born.

Virtual Office (ca. 1994)

Ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day's LA headquarters was a Frank Gehry masterpiece. But the interior, dreamed up by the company's CEO, was a fiasco. The virtual office had no personal desks; you grabbed a laptop in the morning and scrambled to claim a seat. Productivity nose-dived, and the firm quickly became a laughingstock.

5    Networking (present)

During the past decade, furniture designers have tried to part the sea of cubicles and encourage sociability—without going nuts. Knoll, for example, created systems with movable, semi-enclosed pods and connected desks whose shape separates work areas in lieu of dividers. Most recently, Vitra unveiled furniture in which privacy is suggested if not realized. Its large tables have low dividers that cordon off personal space but won't guard personal calls.

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/evolution-of-office-space-2/feed/ 3 http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/repetition-repetition-repetition/ http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/repetition-repetition-repetition/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:00:16 +0000 John Bowles http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=13119

What is the return on an event like this? How many times do I need to see this logo before I buy insurance? Does the concept of repetition in advertising reach a point of diminishing returns? This approach yells "YOU ARE A TARGET MARKET."

If they want me to associate them with family programming so that down the road I'll associate them with "wholesome" values, great. But couldn't they do that without making me feel like a dog? "Here boy, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit."

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/04/repetition-repetition-repetition/feed/ 2 http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/reminder-spring-internship/ http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/reminder-spring-internship/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:00:50 +0000 John Bowles http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=13047

ONE WEEK LEFT to apply for Matchstic's spring internship!

Are you a gifted young designer looking to get a little game-time experience? This is for you. You'll be clicking, dragging, learning, growing and if nothing else, walking away a better designer with a better portfolio.

Are you an aspiring project manager? You'll work closely with the whole Matchstic team as you gain experience in traffic management, developing project milestones and timelines, and client management.

If you think you got what it takes send us your resume, work samples (PDF/website) and we'll save you a seat for the next three months.

Designer
Submission Deadline: April 1st
Internship Duration: April 30th – July 27th
Contact: john@matchstic.com

Project Manager
Submission Deadline: April 1st
Internship Duration: April 30th – July 27th
Contact: becky@matchstic.com

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/reminder-spring-internship/feed/ 1 http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/spring-internships/ http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/spring-internships/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:29 +0000 John Bowles http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=12911

That's right, Matchstic's looking for TWO count ‘em TWO talented young individuals to join our team this spring. 

Are you a gifted young designer looking to get a little game-time experience? This is for you. You'll be clicking, dragging, learning, growing and if nothing else, walking away a better designer with a better portfolio.

Are you an aspiring project manager? You'll work closely with the whole Matchstic team as you gain experience in traffic management, developing project milestones and timelines, and client management.

If you think you got what it takes send us your resume, work samples (PDF/website) and we'll save you a seat for the next three months.

Internship details:

Designer

Submission Deadline: April 1st
Internship Duration: April 30th – July 27th
Contact: john@matchstic.com

Project Manager

Submission Deadline: April 1st
Internship Duration: April 30th – July 27th
Contact: becky@matchstic.com

]]> http://matchstic.com/blog/2012/03/spring-internships/feed/ 2