Applying branding frameworks to politicians and political parties is a very much established practice. In fact, some may even argue that politics is increasingly about symbolism as opposed to policy implementation, image rather than content. A little harsh perhaps, but certainly in Australia we are seeing our major political parties trying to position themselves on populist mandates over political ideology. They are trying something we strongly advise our clients against, and that is to try and be all things to all people. It never works in commercial settings and it is of highly dubious value in politics – it simply gives strength to the brand positioning of minor parties (eg. the Greens) and independents.
Archive for July, 2010
The Branding of Politics

Have you ever played the old parlour game of ‘Whispers’ where one person whispers a phrase to you and you pass it on, by whisper, to the next person. After 6 or 7 rounds ‘I have a square’ becomes ’a star’. It’s a demonstration of how the intent behind a message can be lost in transition if there is not someone standing between the individual whisperers correcting them.
Came across these amazing paintings by Mark Goings, a realism painter with work featured in galleries all round the world. Love the subject matter – somehow it suits the more-real than real surreal feel of these pics (really!). The evocative feel of the images provides a rich palette for a thousand brand stories. For anyone who’s picked-up a paint brush – the technique is beyond sublime (if there’s such a place).

A Stylishly Designed Creative Idea
During Paris Fashion Week, fashion mag Grazia was seeking a way to stand-out from the pack of fashion related brands who were jamming the broadcast, web, blog, and twitter airwaves with their messages. In a stylish act of brand-zag, Grazia created a brand experience by re-designing the ‘air dog’ – and filling the boulevards of the fashion capital with elegant girls out walking their Grazia inflatable pug dogs. We’ve long described those tiny canine fashion accessories as ‘air dogs’ as a result of the fact they spend more time in the air (and in handbags) than on the ground. It seems the stylish folk at French Grazia have the same idea. This stand-out brand experience packed with brand personality was sure to get the buzz brewing and tongues wagging creating the content for some rich brand storytelling. Read the rest of this entry »
Nothing to do with Nothing
Me/We, creative for creative sake
The great Muhammad Ali was the inspiration behind this project. We were asked to design an invitation to an open studio night we conducted as part of the AGideas Conference. Projects like these give the studio an opportunity to engage in creative, for creative sake. Our audience was predominately design students who spend a lot of time discovering the discourse of design.

Following the tradition of tourist towns the world over, Port Douglass in Far North Queensland, Australia has an embarrassment of restaurants and bars – it’s a wonder how they manage to keep business ticking-over during quieter times. Fair to say, competition between the restaurants and cafes for the tourist diner is fierce and unrelenting. So you can imagine our curiosity when I came across one restaurant, seemingly identical to all the others, that was bustling every afternoon. At 5pm each day when most restaurants would be fortunate to have a table of six, why was ‘On the Inlet’ bustling with more than 60 customers.
Improv Everywhere is a New York based collective that organise and execute awesome acts of street theatre. There brand tag line really describes it best, ‘We Cause Scenes’. Whether it’s a complex set up like the Starwars Subway Car above or the Ghostbusters homage, Who You Gonna Call? or something altogether simpler like High Five Escalator.
With the dust settling from the World Cup, some very clever brand gestures are coming to light – and this one from the Dutch Football federation is one of the best. Read the rest of this entry »







