In my last post I wrote about the strategist’s role of finding the compelling idea within an organization and stripping away the rest, and made an admittedly highfalutin’ comparison to Michelangelo’s statement that the sculptor’s task is to find the statue hidden inside every block of marble.

No one’s saying brand strategy or corporate ID design is competing with Renaissance art, but the truth is that the link between brand strategy and art/design is more than a metaphor. As design thinking gains more momentum in the business world, …Read More…

I just read a nice post on a blog called MisEntropy. The post is a reaction to the Forbes.com article entitled “The Man Who Predicts the Medals,” about an economist named Daniel Johnson who has predicted medal counts over the past five Olympics with 94% accuracy. The accuracy is impressive, but more interesting is Johnson’s approach—he bases his predictions solely on “per-capita income (the economic output per person), the nation’s population, its political structure, its climate and the home-field advantage for hosting the Games or living nearby.”

The operative word in that sentence is solely. Johnson is quoted in the article as saying “I know nothing about the athletes. And even if I did, I didn’t include it.” The MisEntropy post focuses on this statement:

That completely derailed me. …Read More…

I just read Landor’s press release about the identity they created for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. This is one of the more somber identity assignments imaginable, and I think they’ve done a nice job.

And, for the most part, the press release does a good job of explaining the rationale behind the design (although I was surprised it didn’t mention the blue 11’s similarity to a ‘pause’ icon, which is a potentially interesting message). But one word in the press release rubbed me the wrong way. Here’s the line: …Read More…

My first reaction to the six logos laid out in an August Orange Coast article, “Logos We ♥,” was that these logos are terrible. But of course it’s just my opinion that these logos suck. I wondered whether there was some objective measure by which I could support my point.

In search of an answer, I first visited a hilarious site, YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com. Appearing on this site doesn’t prove that a logo is bad, but it seems like pretty strong evidence. Looking at the categories on the right-hand side of the page, notice how the barf-worthy logos have started to sort themselves into groups of awfulness. Maybe some of these categories could be considered “do not do’s” for logo design. The easiest to objectively identify are: …Read More…

No posts from me until week after next. Click the image above for the work of Ji Lee. Highly recommended.

As a student of cognitive science turned brand strategist, I was especially interested in an old post on Bob Hoffman’s blog, The Ad Contrarian (he refers back to it in a much more recent post, or I probably never would have noticed it), about “Salesmen & Sociologists.”

The point of the post is that “we have substantially exaggerated the power of brands. Most consumers in most categories have little or no brand loyalty.” The author goes on to say that most purchasing decisions are made based on functional differences like price and convenience.

So, as a cognitive science dork and a brand strategist, I have to say…he’s absolutely right. At least about the part I’ve mentioned here. The idea of brand loyalty as something that is complete and infallible is greatly exaggerated. (Although, just after reading that post I saw this. Funny timing.) And even if that level of loyalty was commonplace, which it’s not, it wouldn’t be easy to create without a great product. …Read More…