While browsing one of my favourite sites Devour.com over the weekend I came across this beautifully simple movie.
Archive for the ‘Thinking’ Category
08.23.10
An ad waiting to happen
Last week I went and saw the awesome Expendables. It’s pretty much the male version of Sex and the City. I was at one point a little confused as to why they where starting to build a plot, by my calculations there could have been at least 10 more explosions and 40 more awesome ways to take out the bad guys and that should have been the priority.
Before the movie there was the story of Johnny Walker, an ad sure, but a really interesting and engaging one. Even if you don’t have any interest in whiskey the story is amazingly engaging. Narrated by Robert “perfect delivery” Carlyle.
Have you ever asked the question “why is there no Ferrari motorbike?” well one designer certainly has. Israeli industrial designer Amir Glinik has come up and conceptualised an incredible Ferrari superbike using a modified engine from the Ferrari Enzo supercar. Amir’s design is influenced by the vintage and modern Ferrari projects and his idea is to produce a practical machine – not in any way a “sci-fi” future ride.
07.30.10
The Branding of Politics
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.
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.
07.23.10
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.
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.
We spend much of our lives working with brands of all shapes and sizes across almost every conceivable category to define their differentiated brand proposition and design a rich and unique visual language to position their businesses for success. Occasionally we come across brands who have their differentiated proposition ‘baked-in’ to their products or services (think iPhone’s touch screen and useability / think Webflix DVDs through the mail) – what it is that is unique about them is inherent in what they do or sell. Without doubt, these brands have a distinct advantage over their competitors.
For businesses looking for a handle on how to build a brand with the differentiated proposition baked-in, an often overlooked starting point is design.
More and more brands are foregoing the big chest beating advertising campaigns that attempt to broadcast their presence to the world. This is particularly the case for those wishing to position themselves in the cool end of the market. The onus is on savvy shoppers to find them, particularly when it we are talking fashion and bars. Certainly this was our experience on a recent visit to Berlin.
Giorgio Armani is one of the world’s most recognisable and sought after fashion brands with end of year sales banded around at $1.69 billion. From haute coutre, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, eyewear, cosmetics and home interiors Armani has become synonymous with high-fashion and couture worldwide.
