Note before reading: We DID NOT DESIGN THIS WORK. This is a campaign by Wolff Olins.

We've had the privilege here to watch several talks from the speakers at the Brand New Conference. In the talk by Marina Willer, she speaks about a case study on Amnesty International, which she had directed while at Wolff Olins.

What is Amnesty International?
Amnesty International is a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights.

The Problem
How can the Amnesty International brand be unified and represented consistently across all countries? How can it stand to deliver a message that is applied to different languages and cultures?

The Approach
Less design.

Marina emphasized creating a visual language "without much design". A simple typeface and the color yellow, signifying hope, were chosen as the brand elements.

Why?

The thought was to create the reverse of oppression. Instead of masking the organization with a new identity to make it look more "well-designed", they courageously chose to present the brand with a simple, yet brutally honest approach, thus freeing the brand to live and breathe on its own.

Even more thoughtfully, the decision was made to keep the existing logo. Marina says, "We thought it would be a crime to change the [Amnesty] logo because it is so well known. Whether we like it or not, it doesn't really matter. It's famous and it can save lives."

The Result

We can all have our own input, but I'd say it is a brilliant and humble way to put the needs of the brand/client first. It's not always about the next revolutionary design, but carefully considering the brand challenge at hand and offering honest solutions.

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 All of these late nineties, dot-com brands grew too fast, lasted about three years after IPO and all have essentially been replaced by Amazon.com now fifteen years later.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.

“Building Community One Bike at a Time”

The Beltline Bike Shop is a neighborhood-driven organization that provides the opportunity for kids to earn a bicycle through community service. During this process, kids learn how to repair bikes, generate self-confidence through helping others, and develop lifelong relationships with members of their community.

Challenge

Every year, Matchstic and some of our wonderful partners gift a rebrand to a deserving non-profit that is making our city a better place. Our 2011 recipient, the Beltline Bike Shop, posed some unique challenges. With an existing logo that seemed to completely change in almost every application in addition to the need for a logo that is able to accommodate the potential of opening additional locations, the Beltline Bike Shop needed a flexible mark that symbolizes the Atlanta beltline, community, and hard work.

Our Primary Inspiration

A Few of Our Sketches

Solution

The contained mark echoes the way the Atlanta Beltline contains our city. As a visual capsule, the gear’s rivets represent multiple members of a community that, when combined, create a unified presence. Two wrenches, the most commonly used tool in the shop, come together and form the bicycle's tires. The typographic choice is inspired by the industrial space that the shop lives in and is subtly rounded to match the curves of the gear. Overall, the combination of color and shape creates an ambitious mark that is supported by a subtle 3-dimensionality.

Primary Brand Mark

Supplementary Marks

Rave Card. Special thanks for our printing partner Standard Press!

T-Shirt. Special thanks for our printing partner Zoink!

Stamp

Cupcakes by Becky

Website. Special thanks to our friends at Hybrid Design, Tastemaker Communications, and Ries & Ries.

App Website

iPhone App (Free Download!). Special thanks to Highgroove.

Hand-Painted Sign

This weekend, the Beltline Bike Shop will be hosting Adair Park’s 2012 Spring Porch Crawl. Proceeds from the Porch Crawl will aid the shop and it’s a great way to get to meet members of the Bike Shop and hear stories from the community it has impacted through the years. There will be snax & libations! Visit the Beltline Bike Shop Blog to learn more.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to spend the morning listening to some great speakers at Chick-fil-A Leadercast – And for someone as un-fashion-savvy as myself, I found speaker Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, to be surprisingly interesting. She spoke about creating a work culture that acknowledges the past, while pushing forward through trust and intuition.

Know your roots.
In the beginning, Burberry made trench coats for the British military. Their brand mark (above), developed in 1901, an illustration of a soldier on a horse carrying a flag, reads "prorsum" which is latin for "forwards". Simply put, the brand has always been British and has always had a desire to be progressive. Acknowledge your past and what you stand for. Put your egos and agendas aside. Don't do it for yourself, do it for the brand. It's bigger than you are.

Trust each other.
Burberry's internal structure is exactly the opposite of the traditional corporate structure. Their young creatives make the decisions, while their experienced veterans use their know-how to execute those ideas correctly. They do this so that they're actually speaking to this generation of consumers. Finding this balance has got to be challenging, but it's only possible by doing the job you're asked to do correctly, and trusting that the person next to you is doing the same.

Lead by intuition.
Once you know what you stand for, and your trust issues are out of the way, follow that little guy yelling inside you. It's so easy to get hung up here, trying to decide where to go, and then not really going at all. Trust your gut and move forward. You can't actually prove that something will be successful, you just have to trust that feeling.

This past weekend, Aldi opened three new stores on the northside of Atlanta. These are part of the 80 stores the chain plans to open in 2012, up from 75 last year. Aldi has more than 1,200 U.S. stores located in 32 states.

Aldi's US growth is aggressive, and  stirs an interesting conversation on brand loyalty. It invites consumers to give up their loyalties to specific household brands, perhaps on their favorite snack food or cleaning supply, and instead, become a loyalist to their store brand. That trade doesn't come without commitment on the part of the consumer: shoppers have to insert a quarter to retrieve a cart, bring or purchase their own bags, and cannot use credit cards for their purchases. In addition, with only about 1,000 regular products in its store, consumers are limited in what they can purchase. The return on this investment is lower prices and often a faster grocery shopping experience.

With all these caveats however, when you meet an Aldi loyalist, their loyalty is often genuine and deep. My husband and I are two loyal Aldi brand advocates. We have been shopping at Aldi for about four years now, and when we meet other Aldi loyalists, we feel as though we've met someone "in the know". We feel an immediate bond with this commonality. We have bought into their culture, no longer being put off by an intensely quick check-out process or if a featured product is no longer in stock. Finally, we advocate, consistently celebrating our loyalty and inviting others to ‘join the club'.

What can we learn from Aldi? While in no way an in-depth analysis, Aldi is celebrated by its loyalists because of two obvious brand essentials: clear messaging and positioning. They have positioned themselves as the grocer of quality and value. They know what sets them apart and they say it over and over again. And they stand behind their product. If you're ever unhappy with an Aldi product they'll refund you twice the amount of the product. What a powerful statement of belief in one's brand.

Photo from Flickr.com. 

Customers

• Who are your customers?
• Who carries around your product?
• Who brags about being your customer?
• What other brands do they relate to?
• What are motivates and drives them?

Partnerships

• Who are your strategic partners?
• Does their logo fit with yours?
• What are their values?
• What do their customers think of them.

Employees

• Who do you hire?
• What are their personal values?
• Are they optimistic?  Pessimistic?
• Punctual or always late?
• Can you trust them?

You can have a wonderfully fabulous brand identity, but don't forget the reflection points of your brand.  Those things that you can't control, yet your relationship to them still is a part of defining you.  Any time you hire an employee, they tell all their friends where they work.  Every time you refer another company, that recommendation will come back to you, good or bad.  Each time you choose a strategic partner, they tell everyone that they work with you.  Whenever you engage a customer, they tell their colleagues and friends that you are their choice.  Each of these is a reflection of your brand.

As much I want to at times convince myself that these "behind the scenes" elements of the brand don't matter, they do.  Make every decision about your customers, partners and employees very carefully.  It will always reflect back on your brand.

As a designer and musician, I enjoy finding parallels between music and design. Last Sunday evening I went up to Alpharetta to watch one of my all-time favorite musicians, Mr. Tom Petty, live in concert.

Petty performed admirably, rocking through a solid two hour set and token encore. The crowd, a mix of baby-boomers to 20-somethings, cheered as he played old favorites and some new jams. His current tour started in mid-April. The night before he played in New Orleans, and the following night he would be in Tampa. By June, the tour will extend into Europe. Petty is 61.

To put this in context, imagine that bands are brands, and music is the product. Since his first record in 1976, I bet Tom has faced some challenges that made him want to call it quits. He's also had enough success to do the same.

If I've learned one thing from Tom Petty, it's to keep pressing on. Sure, the music may evolve over time, but the passion remains the same. Four decades later, working as hard as he ever has, Tom Petty still makes a consistent product that makes millions of consumers smile. Isn't that the dream?

A brand is the story that people tell about your organization. Good, bad, or ugly.

If and when a healthy brand is established, it is essential to give people the opportunity to tell supplementary stories. Like a great movie trilogy, part one will lend its reputation to the sequel, and part two to the final. If it is successful, each installment will have its own story, but it will also have a clear and integral relationship with the other stories. If it is not successful, it will be because the sequel is inauthentic or empty.

So it goes with brands: extensions must be congruent with the focus and essence of the parent. The reputation will suffer if the continuation is bogus.

Cases in point…

CVS
I go to CVS to fill a prescription or get NyQuil. My mom and sister save money with their extra care bucks. Going to CVS is efficient and aesthetically pleasing. Overall, they are helping me toward health.
[Sequel] The CVS MinuteClinic is brilliant. I have used it 3 times in the past year. It is nicely designed and visually connects with the parent brand. I have recommended it to colleagues. It is cost and time effective. It is helping me toward health. Consistent story.

Delta
I have always had consistent, pleasing experiences flying with Delta. Skymiles and reputation add up when you fly painlessly back and forth from Hong Kong a few times. Living in Atlanta also allows me to capitalize on some nice deals from Delta.
[Sequel] Delta Vacations is deplorable. Delta is simply giving away their brand to MLT Vacations (who interestingly enough also run United Airlines Vacations program). I had a disappointing experience with them involving multiple charges and cockroaches among other things. They told me that by booking through them, I become my own travel agent, so I am responsible, not them. Right. As a consumer, I never know that these are separate entities. I see it all as Delta, and it reflects poorly on their narrative.

Snickers
I have a sweet tooth. If I am going to get a candy bar, 8 times out of ten it is a Snickers. They are great for a snack on a road trip or a dessert for lunch.
[Sequel] Summer is arriving quickly. I love Snickers Ice Cream Bars. I think I like them even more than regular Snickers. Both of these treats are delightful and serve unique but related purposes in different circumstances.

Is your sequel giving people a chance to continue telling a good story? Or is it a joke?
And if it's a joke, is it supposed to be?

I'm a bit of a history nerd, especially when it comes to military history. I've been reading the book "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand and I'm engulfed by it. One of those you can't put down. Towards the end of the War, as documented in the book, the tide turns when the American military launches the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. It was the largest aircraft released in the war and could fly farther and faster than any other bomber ever to fly. It had a combat range of 3,250 miles dwarfing it's predecessor by 1250 miles and it flew almost 100 miles per hour faster than the B-17. This new bomber put Japan mainland in bombing range almost immediately and changed the outcome of the war.

Innovation perhaps won the war for the allied forces. Perhaps today it wins the war of brand differentiation. The rate of rise and fall is staggering in today's market. What took Blockbluster decades to build they lost in a few short years, taken down by a young Netflix and an even younger Redbox. Instagram sold to Facebook for $1 Billion dollars, with a staff of 12.

In last week's Creative Mornings talk Dwain Cox, Director of Innovation, said "The world is starving for different. The world will reward different." He added "Be good and be different, but if you can't be both, be different- good will come." Good advice for all businesses & people alike.

Just like in 1945, innovation can drive victory and perhaps win the war in marketplace.

I talk with lots of people about branding.  I mean, it's pretty much all I do all day.  And as much fun as it is for us to create a new brand identity for something, I feel like my job is often to talk people out of branding all of their new ideas.

First off, we all have to remember that the #1 principle of branding is Focus.  It's about being known for one thing in your customer's mind.  And if you have the discipline to hold to that philosophy, you'll throw away all of your ideas that deviate from that focus.  I end up in conversations with people who have no company, yet they are already asking for logos for the three companies that they are going to create and need brands for.  Stop the madness!  Do one thing and do it really really well.  Apple is one of the largest companies in the world and you can fit all of their products on one conference table.

Every product and service you have may not need it's own brand identity either.  More often we are called into a company to simplify the brand system that has gotten out of control rather than create more cool, fun stuff.  Again, Apple only has one logo and all of their products are simply names that fit into a specific font.  The iPod logo isn't unique from the MacBook logo.  The equity is all tied up in the main Apple identity.

Remember, branding is all about solving your business problem.  If you need to brand something in order to solve that problem, then definitely do that.  Make the investment.  But start by asking, “Why does this need its own brand?”

thanks to Jonathan for my great blog graphic