Image from @cubagallery

I have little patience for self-interested art trying to find its way into the branding conversation. Branding is selfless, in that it is interested first in what is authentic, second in how to represent that authenticity on behalf of an organization, and third (last) on how one's own talents can be used to accomplish this goal.

I love art, and have a deep appreciation for it. I consider the artists I work with to be immeasurably talented. But what makes them exceptionally unique is their ability to listen, understand, and represent – with clarity and distinction – the personality of an organization that exists outside themselves. This requires an ability to set aside one's own personal agenda for a better portfolio, and instead, focus on making that organization better.

I like this about branding. Finding beauty in the most unexpected of places – business.

Image by Stephen Hunton

Two weeks ago I got married (whew-who!), and like most newly weds my beautiful bride and I took off for our honeymoon destination in paradise. Logistically we had a smooth run until our return trip home. Standing back in the Atlanta airport at the number 2 international baggage carousel watching bag after bag come out reality eventually set in that mine was not coming. Just for the record Delta is 50% on losing my bags on international flights in the last two years, so I know this feeling all to well. Frustrated, I expressed myself with this tweet…

The response to my complaint was almost instantaneous. I was astonished and while still frustrated I indulged curiously with @DeltaAssist to see if they could really help. After sending my info over the angel-in-twitter-disguise found my bag and informed me it was mistakenly in the over sized bag area. Here was the full DM conversation…

This experienced helped me see more so than ever the evolving value of social media for brands. Not only can you interact, market, and talk to you customers directly but you can instantly solve their problems by tracking the ongoing conversations. Like Judo, a martial arts technique that leverages an opponents momentum against them, Social Media is one way you can turn a bad customer experience into a great one (like @DeltaAssist did for me). Social Media gives you direct access to the most precious of all brand assets, its customers and their feelings (love or hate).

Dear USPS,

I saw your new commercial, and I think it is dumb. I appreciate your sentiments around face-to-face delivery and applaud the effort to reposition yourself in the first place. But, come on. Is this the stance you are taking? To paraphrase: That email is too unreliable, and printed documents provide more security. That businesses run on the postal service. My grandparents may agree with this thinking, but they are wrong. And so are you. Why are you trying to market to them anyway?

On behalf of my wife and my friend Philip – two of your biggest fans – I am going to shoot you straight. I like the idea of our relationship, but it has lost its magic. Every time I come over, you end up making me feel like an idiot. I leave swearing, and swearing I will never come back. But you are you, and I want so badly for this to work.

May I suggest a few things before you end up out of a job and homeless? For starters, look up the term "customer experience." Hire some folks that will understand my expectations when I come in the door. Give them a rally cry to motivate their workflow. Just because you're one of the only government agencies that is explicitly authorized in the constitution doesn't mean I cannot take my dealings elsewhere, thank goodness. (Kind of the big issue here).

Which brings me to my last two pieces of advice. FedEx and UPS are not going away. You have to find a means to differentiate from them. I think you have a good start with the mail carriers and their zeal. All that "neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" stuff really gets me excited. I know my mailman's name. He is at my house at the same time everyday. That's more than I can say for the other companies.

And lastly, but all encompassing, consider design as the way to reinvigorate your brand. This includes the suggestions listed above as well as solving logistics problems, identifying outlying opportunities, and executing a visual identity. I have seen not 1, not 2, but 3 theoretical rebrands aimed at you over the past three years, and I haven't even been looking. You need to organize all your offerings and communicate them to me in a way that makes sense. While you're at it, you could redo your signage program. I promise the investment you make in designing yourself will return more than you can imagine.

all the best in the future,

jason.

Recently I was in a meeting with an executive team that was working hard to make a very important decision about possible revolutionary changes to their brand.  The outcome of the decision would have quite an impact on all of the people that are involved with the organization, both internally and externally.  As opinions flew around the room, the CEO sat quietly letting everyone speak their mind.  Finally it was time for him to speak, and he said something very profound (this is my paraphrase), “There is a lot of history and existing brand equity for us to consider. But we have a vision of where we are to go from here, and we owe it to the vision to make this decision based on that future.”

Courage is one of our three core values represented in the Matchstic flag, and the piece on our website says:

Excellence comes at a risk. Risk of humiliation. Risk of failure. In order to risk, one must have Courage. Courage to act in accordance with beliefs, in spite of criticism. We must also encourage our clients to take the risks they need to take in order to accomplish their dreams. Courage is not easy, but it is a vital component of building a brand and working at Matchstic. Red represents that courage.

When making decisions about the future of your business and your brand, understanding history and existing brand equity are very important, but ultimately the decisions should be based on vision.  A vision that has yet to be realized.  And those decisions require great courage.

Google has recently made a choice to redesign Gmail. They have considered the form (typography, color, layout, icons, grid, white space) as well as the function (dropdown menus, search tools, task management). As a brand, I believe this is on point with their mission "to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful."

I have signed into my Gmail a dozen times in the past two weeks just to eye the "new look." It is quite beautiful compared to its predecessor (shown above). The colors are appealing. The icons are gorgeous. Most of all, there is room to breathe.

I just watched a conference talk given by Frank Chimero. In an obvious overstatement (profound nonetheless) he said "design is for people." If that is true, then redesign has to be for people too. I tip my hat to Google for doing such a great job with the Gmail update. The "cleaner, more modern" style is enough to make me want to use the program.

However, design is not simply making something look pretty. It has much to do with functionality – how will the user interact with what you are creating. I conceptualize my email differently from the way Gmail is set up. The new design does not change the way it handles organizing the bits of communication, and so I am not going to change my email behavior. Even still, I am sure plenty of users are excited about the changes they have made.

If you don't know what any of this is about click this button on the bottom of your mailbox…

At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I am going to be transparent with you. I have been waiting for this day for two years – ever since I saw the Sherlock Holmes reboot starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. A Game of Shadows comes out today, and I guess if I was a true nerd, I would have seen the midnight screening this morning. Although, I am jealous of anyone who did.

All of these new reboots of old stories or comic books are rebrands in themselves. New perceptions (good and bad) come along with every new Bond or Green Lantern. The question of consistency comes into play. Will the characters and plots be similar to the originals? Will the new personas be more or less immutable? Will they have the same idiosyncrasies?

Few fictional characters have risen to the prominence and longevity as the Baker Street sleuth. Like any well crafted piece of work, Sherlock Holmes has been an inspiration in its field – informing identities from Batman to Dr. House.

Guy Ritchie's version is an interesting contrast to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. To me, Doyle's Watson is as much in awe of Holmes as Law seems to be unamused of Downey. Their relationship, while captivating, is not consistent with Doyle's tales. Moreover, the measure of humility Sherlock possesses in the short stories is a far cry from the Tony Stark brashness that Downey sometimes carries over from Iron Man.

For my taste, enough of the signature cues remain intact. In keeping with the original, the study of minute details leads to the most astute conclusions by way of induction. Boredom and drug use are prevalent when there isn't an interesting case afoot. There is mystery and ambiguity surrounding Adler and her relationship with Holmes. He has unparalleled efficiency in the boxing ring, and his pipe and violin are always close at hand. And oh, the views of London!

I am looking forward to seeing round 2 of this rebrand of Sherlock Holmes.

As a side note, If you are looking for some brand consistency, I can recommend BBC's modernization of Sherlock. This 3 part TV series provides more literal renditions of Doyle's tales with masterful parallels and analogies.

We've been working on a project that's allowed us to do some research into animation and storytelling. Watching movies…tough work. We've been looking closely at Pixar Studios as they seem to knock it out of the park every time. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, UP, etc. Brilliant story lines, characters, and animation. What's been fun to discover though is the little design nuances in the movies, the things in the background. Fictious book covers, billboards, advertisements and brands. They create brands like a cub scout organization complete with brochure and badges. Or an airline brand complete with tickets and travel posters.

Pixar often sources great modern design from the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s for inspiration. An idealist time in design history and design philosophy. Often characterized by halftones and illustrations with hand-drawn type done by artists instead of applications. It's design before computers, Kinkos and comic sans. Beautiful, singular compositions with little to no fine print. Iconic soda pop labels, gas stations and travel posters. Generally speaking, the "look" most associated with the American dream. Here's a few examples.

Source: Paul Conrad, Eric Tan

By Jason Orme…

Maria Popova, of Brain Pickings fame, has taken on the task of branding the practice of regifting. She is giving away "free tools to de-stigmatize" the age old art of repurposing last year's coasters and the like. Talk about a daunting perception gap to hurdle. She asks the wonderful question: "What if we could normalize regifting, remove the guilt that bedevils it, and bake it into the gift-giving process from the get-go as an open and beautiful expression of honesty?"

With daring transparency, this endeavor garners support from a green perspective. Most of us give and receive a lot of things we don't want, much less need. Could regifting then be seen as environmentally conscious?

What are the current perceptions of regifting? What would have to be done to transform these ideas? Does this design make you think differently about regifting?

I previously wrote about Coke's seasonal redesign from their iconic red can to all white/silver for the holidays. I said,

"their familiar brand identity allows them a certain flexibility without worrying that flipping colors might confuse it's customers."

Apparently, I was wrong. You've probably heard that customers are confusing the white/silver Coke can for the all silver Diet Coke can. So much that in fact, Coke has decided to stop production and promptly flip the white back to red. Turns out that recognition of the Coke brand identity relies just as much on color as it does shape.

This is an incredibly valuable lesson. Even if your the most recognizable brand in the world, too much change can lead to confusion. It goes to show the delicate hierarchy in the sequence of perception. We say:

1. shape  →  2. color  →  3. content

Which is still proven to be true. But just because shape comes first doesn't mean color is irrelevant. Especially when all the cans are the same shape. Color in this case served an important functional purpose, product recognition. I think the iconic spencerian script and red differentiates Coke from Pepsi. But it's obviously the can color alone that differentiates Coke's product lines from each other. People see Coke, they don't read Coke.

Many people have also said the white can made the beverage taste different, accusing Coke of secretly changing the formula. Coke said that this is not the case but it raises an interesting thought, the psychological role color plays in a brand experience. That's another blog post. One quick thought though, perhaps in this case it's the close relationship the red can has to the actual drinking experience. I wonder if a BigMac would taste any different if the golden arches were green.

#5 – WE WILL BE PROFITABLE; THIS IS NOT A SOCIAL CLUB.

While we are all each others BFF's, we wouldn't have as much fun if we weren't making money. For our business to be profitable we must produce great work which can't be acheived if every one is there to just be friends. This statement means we don't just show up to work on our social stats. It means having to say no to some ideas that "would be so awesome if…" but don't seem to make any business sense.

Past Beliefs:

• #1 – We hold each other's feet to the fire

• #2 – We follow through on our word

• #3 – We rise and fall as a team

• #4 – We know the difference between career and life