Daddy, do fake brands come from fake branding agencies?

Discovered this firm the other day and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw their website. Landor, meet your made-in-China doppelganger.

JundoBrand homepage

Landor homepage

Is there some formal connection between these companies that justifies such blatant copycatting? Maybe, in which case this post is meaningless, and I probably owe JundoBrand an apology. But so far I haven’t found any connection (and if there is one, shouldn’t they mention it somewhere?).

I don’t think I need to explain the problem(s) I see with a branding firm simply copying a competitors’ look and feel so completely. Not to mention the support this gives to the stereotype that China is better at manufacturing copies of things than creating anything original…I mean if a branding firm can’t even try to make itself an original, we’re in pretty dire straits. I’m surprised they’re not called “Lundor,” or better yet, “Slandor.”

I’ve already contacted Landor to see if I’ve missed something here. If so, I owe you an apology, Jundo. If not, anyone know the Chinese for “cease and desist”?

Faucets need independently varying controls

Until I read Don Norman’s “The Psychology of Everyday Things,” I thought I was the only one frustrated by the everyday challenges of dealing with poorly designed objects, controls, and signage. When I read his book, which he says was inspired by “struggles with British water taps, light switches, and doors,” I started thinking maybe my frustration wasn’t a curse, but an opportunity. In the words of Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, maybe “anger is a gift” (and yes, I’m aware that my annoyance at a doorknob is not the same as Mr. de la Rocha’s anger).

Frustration can inspire innovation. Annoyed with the Blockbuster experience? Invent Netflix. Frustrated by the way you can never tell which switch controls which light? Invent a more intuitive light switch (like the one Don Norman introduces in the book mentioned above). Tired of having a Window pop up while you’re typing mid-sentence, so that half the sentence ends up in each Window? Develop software that recognizes when you’re mid-sentence and prevents this from happening (why hasn’t someone done that yet?).

Frustration can also help identify design flaws. For example, this is a terrible faucet:

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Walmart predicts USA’s best days are past

Apparently I’m not the first to comment on this, but on a recent trip back to the US I saw t-shirts in Walmart sporting the slogan “Faded Glory.” I’m assuming they’re part of the Walmart store brand of the same name, but to be clear, these shirts actually had “Faded Glory” written on the front along with a ‘distressed’ American flag image. There were matching flip flops.

We thought it might be funny to buy some overtly Go USA gear as gag-gifts for friends in China, but didn’t end up buying (and I can’t find a picture of the shirts online). Only later did we get to thinking about the meaning of that slogan, especially when paired with a beat-up looking US flag…did no one at Walmart realize what the shirt conveys when taken literally? Kind of a depressing message to send out to the masses.

Maybe I wouldn’t have thought as much of it if I wasn’t working outside the US, seeing the country a little more from an outsider’s perspective. My first week in Shanghai, I had a cab driver ask where I was from, and upon learning that I was American he excitedly made a hand motion that resembled something going up and up, then exploding. No idea what he meant (and couldn’t communicate well enough to understand), but I like to pretend he was talking about the Dow, or our economy in general.

Probably not, but I couldn’t help think of that cab driver when I saw the Faded Glory shirts.

[Thanks to Ash for pointing this out.]

When is it appropriate for news organizations to edit photographs?

A recent article in The New York Times implies that The Economist was in the wrong when they edited a photo of President Obama for the cover of their June 19th issue. The cover shows the President, apparently alone, looking toward the ground with off-shore oil drills in the distance. The headline is “Obama v BP,” subhead: “The damage beyond the spill.” As the NYT blog article shows, the original Reuters photo included two additional people, who have either been cropped or Photoshopped out of the cover photo.

I remember seeing this cover and thinking Obama looked depressed, ashamed…maybe defeated. Turns out he’s looking downward (probably) so that he can more easily listen to someone much shorter than him. But of course, all of this is open to interpretation. Regardless, it seems to me that reputable news organizations should avoid crossing a line when it comes to edits like these. Seems like that line could be made a bit less blurry by creating a decision tree with three simple questions, like below (click for a larger version)

It’s not fool-proof, of course. In fact, flexibility within limits is one of its benefits. Here are my answers—debatable as they are—for the Economist cover photo in question:

(1) Could the edit fundamentally change the viewer’s perception of what the picture conveys?

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Idea? Check. Execution? Eh…

While visiting the US I stopped by Take a Bao, a new concept installed in the food court at Century City’s Westfield Mall. Despite feeling a bit funny about traveling all the way to LA for a Chinese-inspired lunch, I was drawn in by my fascination with fusion food, Take a Bao’s visual identity work, and the fact that I love char siu bao.

The idea for the place seems pretty straightforward. In their own words,

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“Branding” = ?

About a month ago, the following question was posted on Linkedin: “What is the difference between MARKETING and BRANDING?” Here are excerpts from four of the first five responses, admittedly taken out of context:

1. “branding [precedes] marketing…”
2. “Marketing is just one component of your brand.”
3. “…branding is one of the many important components of marketing.”
4. “marketing is about product information…but branding is about the product uniqueness…both are about positioning of the product”

My response came next. Here’s part of it:

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