Visual Language | Truly Deeply/Madly

Posts Tagged ‘Visual Language’

05.20.13

Don’t reinvent the brand, just shift the way it’s perceived.

Recently the ceramic manufacturer Wedgwood, has been rebranded with a new identity, campaign and packaging designed by BuroCreative. Wedgwood has had a number of reincarnations over the last 254 years, most recently it was affected by the global financial crisis and placed into administration and subsequently purchased by the private equity firm KPS in 2008. One of the challenges of staying in the business of tableware for a brand as old as Wedgwood is to remain relevant and desirable to the next generation of consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

05.16.13

Beauty brands and blatant lies

I like to think that I’m an ethical consumer, but brands don’t half make it difficult to make informed choices! There is a growing movement by shoppers to vote with their dollar, but sadly we are deliberately and routinely misled by brands, with ambiguous claims and deceptive designs. From innocuous labelling of palm oil as ‘vegetable oil’ to the proliferation of sham certification logos and the bastardisation of the word ‘organic’, we are shamefully misinformed about the products we buy. Read the rest of this entry »

05.15.13

Brand Strategy will only match consumer sentiment

A study last year by Harvard Business School concluded that consumers care, that they will pay more for clothes that represent fair-labour practices. However, most brands will only embark on a strategy of full disclosure if compelled to by consumers. And despite the Harvard research findings, I really do not believe there are enough consumers who are willing to make a stand against exploitation. The garment factory collapse that killed more than 800 workers in Bangladesh last month is testimony to magnitude of such exploitation. Read the rest of this entry »

05.14.13

Adobe kills iconic Creative Suite in favour of Creative Cloud

Adobe recently announced its decision to discontinue the Creative Suite product, in light of the positive response to their recently implemented Creative Cloud – a subscription based service to their programs. Adobe had previously acknowledged that they were uncertain of how long these two products would coexist, so the decision comes as little surprise. But that hasn’t stopped people within the creative community voicing their opinions on the matter, myself included. I’ve been a staunch user of Adobe products going as far back as the days of when I used to slap naff photoshop effects on all my early student work. So here is my two cents. Read the rest of this entry »

05.13.13

An important lesson from a short animated film: A Cautionary Tail.

Recently, I discovered an inspiring short animated film – A Cautionary Tail. It is a 14 minutes film about a girl born with a tail that expresses her emotions. As a child, her parents celebrate their daughter’s eloquent, athletic appendage, and her tail inspires magical make-believe adventures with her friends. As she grows up, however, the young woman faces pressure to fit in, and must choose between conformity and self-expression. Read the rest of this entry »

05.07.13

Brand lessons from Penfolds Grange

Wine critic Huon Hooke in The Age 3/5 suggests that Penfolds Grange may be regarded as Australia’s greatest wine by some, and that the 2008 vintage is one of the best, alongside 2006, 1996 and 1990. In wine terms he says impressive things about Grange – its ability to build great complexity of flavour over many years of cellaring. The top vintages age well for 50 years, and the ’08 will be one of those. According to Huon the full payoff is the wonderful aroma and flavour nuances that build over time, and the 2008 needs 15 to 20 years, minimum. Personally I do not have the time, but this is not about me.

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05.06.13

Personal Branding under done with Australian Cricket

Call it a team sport, but cricket needs big individual brands amongst its players if it wishes to maximise its appeal with the Australian public. Unfortunately, the Australian Cricket Board is inadvertently doing every thing in its power to diminish the impact of individual personal brands. The strategy adopted over the last summer whereby the selectors insisted on a rotation policy, which had players, particularly bowlers, being rested despite strong performances. Regardless of whether it had merit from an injury perspective, it meant that supporters of cricket never really got to establish a connection with the players. This particularly a problem when you have a crop of new players attempting to establish themselves with the team and the public. Read the rest of this entry »

05.03.13

Open Studio Club, another great collaborative consumer brand.

Ever fancied a work place exchange, or a working holiday with all the comforts and conveniences of your studio at home? Or maybe you were wondering when the next airbnb/couch surfing, peer-to-peer consumer brand would focus on studio space rentals… If you have, the “Open Studio Club” is the brand for you. It consists of a free listing website to help you find affordable studio spaces all over the world. Each studio listing specifies whether the space has such things as: internet access, power supply, parking availability, music policy and computer support. The spaces advertised are always affordable and suitable for all types of creative professionals.
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04.30.13

Engaging a Nation – Lest we forget

I attended the ANZAC Day dawn service this year. I stood there with 45,000 other people at the shrine of remembrance, as I looked around I realised what a diverse crowd was in attendance. I started to think about the challenge ANZAC Day faces in engaging with a whole nation of people of all ages and ensuring content is relevant to past, present and future. Read the rest of this entry »

04.29.13

Heineken open design explorations 2 launch

One of the few brands who never cease to impress me with their creativity and truly out of the box thinking is Heineken. The team Heineken seem to thrive on doing things differently, breaking convention and it would appear, have a wonderful time doing so. Their latest venture is certainly no exception with the team recently announcing their next Open Design Exploration with a focus on creating a new vision for lounging set to premiere at next year’s Milan Design Week. Read the rest of this entry »

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