A Summary | November 11, 2010

History of Brand New

• Part of a family of blogs

• Founded by Armin Vit & Bryony Gomez-Palacio

• Critiques New Logos and Rebrands

Where We Sat

Speaker Biographies and Talking Points

Michael Johnson

• Partner at UK based Johnson Banks– Produces identity

• Science Museum • Parc de la Villette• Developing typefaces in China and Japan• London Airline redesign

• Johnson has won – eight pencils from D&AD– has dozens of designs in V&A’s collection– lectures on design worldwide. – He’s written one book, Problem Solved and

edits the design blog Thought for the week.

Look at your competition.Google Image your competitors - what do you see about their

branding? Maybe your company’s branding shouldn’t look expected…

The emergence of the animated logo.

Avoiding the obvious. Clients always expect certain images for a “film” institute - but no one

uses film or projectors anymore, why should we limit ourselves to those items.

The problem of multi-organization logos.

Michael Lejuene

• Currently Creative Director for Metro (LACMTA).

• 30-person Creative Services group

• Has received more than 60 honors since 2002 – American Public Transit Association

(APTA), the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers, and Communication Arts, Print, STEP Inside Design & HOW Magazines

How many People even knew there was a Metro?

Design Overhaul

• Changing what you can

Design Overhaul

Benefit from doing more

Michael Bierut

• Partner at Pentagram• Studied graphic design at

the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design

• Numerous High Profile Clients• Won Hundreds of Design

Awards• Senior Critic at the Yale School

of Art

Logos are simple things - Target is a dot in a circle, Nike is a swoosh“...[it] comes down to what most designers would agree on: the obvious thing, it’s not the actual logo but how it is used.”

Utilize - If no one in the public knows about it, or if it isn’t utilized correctly or it isn’t going to work, whether or not it is the best logo,

branding, or marketing campaign possible.“Alternatively you could design what seems to be a brilliant logo for

people who are not smart or energetic or are incapable of associating with anything positive and it would become a terrible logo.”

Reputation - “When it comes to working on identities, a lot of the time I find myself working with a company that has been around for a while. No matter what they say their goal is, the history and the impression that they have already made in the minds of the public is a real thing that you have to deal with.”

Paula Scher

• Partner at Pentagram• Studied at Tyler School of Art• Began at CBS Records &

Atlantic• Numerous High Profile Clients• Contributor to NYT, GQ &

other publications• Has received an AIGA medal &

The Director’s Club Medal • Honorary Doctorates

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

The joy in being simple

Christian Helms

• Co-Founder of The Decoder Ring Concern

• Began His career under Michael Beirut at Pentagram

• Founding member of Project M• Many Music Clients • Other clients include Hasbro,

Toyota & the Obama campaign• Award Winner

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Reduce an identity to its most important meanings, and then make it iconic. If this is done successfully, the branding can hold

meaning and recognition of its own.

Appealing to the public through nostalgia. Associate your company with a client’s nostalgic/positive feelings.

Since most production company one sheets get filed away, our goal became to "defy the file folder." The result is an object that's more likely to be hung on the wall or used around the office, ensuring far more visibility for the client.

- promotional poster, business cards, capabilities sheet, custom DVD sleeve, note cards and more lighthearted items like a coaster and even a pine-tree air freshener (which users are urged to spray with their favorite scent before hanging).

Tom Dorrestijin

• Founder of Studio Dumbar• Clients Include

– KPN (communication), Randstad (employment), TNT Post Europe (postal services), Marlies Dekkers (fashion), several Dutch government ministeries, the government of the independent state of Sint Maarten, the South Korean Home Office, the European Central Bank, HuaLung (Taiwan), Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal), SAIC (China) and Buick (China)

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces, Simplicity

Paradox can work to your advantage.

Connie Birdsall

• Connie Birdsall leads the design practice at Lippincott and is a member of the firm’s executive committee.

• She has directed programs for numerous multi-national clients

• Has won numerous awards• Sat on the board of AIGA

Selected Pieces

“Brand-building is turning upside down. It’s not just about logos and awareness, it’s about creating advocates.”

It’s way more than logo design, it’s authentic stories and inspiring experiences which are related to your logo, and therefore associated easily.

“Brands need authentic personality, the fight to change a relevant conflict, and a mission bigger than money.”

Walmart was established by Sam Walton to provide the American dream, but lost touch with that over the years and became more about making money.

Solution: Save Money. Live Better.

Walmart sales increased dramatically

Inspiring Experience - Virgin Airlines picked what mattered most (the actual experience of flight) and delivered on it.

Develop a roadmap – Lippincott is currently doing with Delta - to decide what kind of experiences you want to focus on for the predicted future and beyond.

Other Points:

Too much client assumption or research can be bad, you can become fearful of using strategies which may be very helpful.

Signature Cues - Logo, Color, Typefaces, Sound, Texture - the more things you can own the more you can work with to tell your story. But of course you should NOT use all of these all of the time.

“Color helps increase brand recognition up to 80%.”

“You can’t create brand equity if you change it every year.” - but do update and continually evolve

In total:

Figure out what MATTERS about your company.

Then decide how to DIFFERENTIATE your company from others.

Then IMBUE your identity with those elements.

Karl Heismann

• CEO of Wolff Olins• Worked for Apple after college.• Has served as a design director for

Apple• Karl studied graphic and industrial

design at the Rhode Island School of Design.

• Clients:– GE, Unicef, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PepsiCo,

Citibank, Staples, New York City, Sundance, Carter’s, OshKosh and (RED). Currently, he is leading our work with PG&E and PacSun. Prior to joining Wolff Olins, Karl was a creative consultant for branding agencies Landor Associates and Anspach Grossman Portugal

Jordan Crane

• Creative Director of Wolff Olins• Clients:

– Target, New Museum, NYC, AOL

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Selected Pieces

Out of the box designs

New Ideas

New Ideas

Erik Spiekermann

• Studied in Berlin. • Information architect, author and

type designer – Meta, Officina, Info, Unit and

corporate typefaces for Deutsche Bahn, Bosch, Nokia et al.

• He started (1979) MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm.– Projects included corporate design

programs for Audi, Skoda, Volks wagen, and others.

Selected Pieces

Logos are all about detail – detail is the base not the final touch.

Logos & detail

“It's very much like any location or event design: you have to make your presence known to people. Once they are in the system, design tells them whether they are on their right path and indicates what is about to happen to them. Design has a functional role, but it also creates a mood. It has both important functional and psychological roles.”