The Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade

Cingular

Designed by VSA Partners

Just as the majority of the U.S. population transitioned into owning a cell phone by default, one of the most friendly and approachable mobile service providers turned out to be a rookie, Cingular. And actually, I have been a Cingular legacy user since 2001, seeing the brand painfully transition in 2004 and 2005 as it ping-ponged ownership with AT&T. Check out this web site from 2004 that I am guessing someone forgot to take down touting the merger. Cingular eventually disappeared in 2007 dissolving into AT&T, right around the time a certain phone made its debut.

Verizon

Designed by Landor and DeSola Group

At the other end of the visual and personality spectrum was Verizon, a more aggressive and no nonsense provider and brand. Ask designers and you will find out that this is one of the most reviled logos. Poor New Yorkers too, they have to see it anytime they look south unto Verizon's headquarters.

3com

Designed by Interbrand

Even if you weren't to compare it to what they previously had — an uninspired blue square — the new logo conveys innovation and complexity and is elegantly executed. I can't seem to find an image online, but a 3com building near O'Hare airport in Chicago had a beautiful sculpture rendition of the logo outside.

BP

Designed by Landor

Petroleum is a word not just loaded with social, political and economical implications but also, let's face it, a kind of ugly word. When British Petroleum and Amoco merged, going full force with BP and the Helios icon did the perfect job in distancing the company from the word. Surely, fewer people today know what BP stands for — give it another decade and it will reach IBM acronym levels. This was probably one of the last really great identities by Landor's San Francisco office, who also had done the FedEx identity a few years earlier.

Amazon.com

Designed by Turner Duckworth

Who would have thought that the modest beginnings of Amazon would balloon into what it is today: A place where you can get everything but hookers. And unlike the rest of the dot-com logos, that were gratuitously meaningless, Amazon brought a smile (from A to Z no less) to designers' faces.

Pets.com

Created by TBWA/Chiat/Day

Yes, this is not necessarily a logo or identity, but as an icon for the excess of the dot-com era, none stood dumber than the Pets.com puppet. Sure, it made us laugh during the 2000 Superbowl, but the advertising campaign cost a dozen times more than the revenue the company made in its two-year existence.

Napster

Designed by Sam Hanks

While Napster began in 1999, it wasn't until 2000 when it became not just widely used by every college student in the U.S. but embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with Metallica, among other artists who preferred people buy their music, not share it mercilessly over some nascent tube technology they didn't quite understand. When Sam Hanks first talked to Shawn Fanning and Shawn Parker, he inquired about the name, to which they replied it involved cats napping, leading to the mischievous cat with headphones. Hanks charged $5,000, and they were hard to collect — lore according to All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster.

Enron

Designed by Paul Rand

Designed five years earlier in 1996 by Paul Rand, the Enron logo became the identity of corporate evil as news of its debt-hiding schemes became known and the logo appeared on newscasts around the clock.

Monday

Designed by Wolff Olins

As a direct cause from the Enron debacle, PricewaterhouseCoopers — one of the consulting firms associated with it — decided to spin its consulting division, PwC Consulting, into its own little company and list it on the New York Stock Exchange. The new company was to be called Monday. The press release described the word as "a real word, concise, recognizable, global, and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results." Here too is a handy PDF detailing the design thinking by Wolff Olins. However, Monday was never meant to come, as IBM purchased PwC Consulting and absorbed it. This was probably one of the first high-profile non-logos.

Star Alliance

Designed by Pentagram

I really couldn't care less about what airlines do on their free time or who they associate with as long as they get me to where I want to be on time, and since they can barely do that I really, really don't care for airlines. And most airlines come together through the Star Alliance, something I have no idea what it does or stands for. But, man, that is one pretty logo.

TiVo

Designed (and named) by Cronan

I admit that I could be off by a year or a few months on this one but, at least according to the U.S. Patent Office, this logo — the second evolution of the TiVo identity — was created in 2002. To be fairly honest, I don't quite like it, and if it were to be discussed on Brand New today it would probably get chewed up. But in introducing a whole new product category, the little TiVo thingie became an ambassador for change and the killer of the 30-second ad.

UPS

Designed by Futurebrand

I can't imagine how designers complained about logo changes before blogs. At least it appeared they never had, given the outpour that occurred on (Brand New's older sibling) Speak Up in March when UPS announced it was ditching its landmark Paul Rand logo in favor of a worthless piece of shield. I am unfairly mean in that last description, as I have come to accept, seven years later, that this change was the right thing to do. I still think the logo, aesthetically and structurally, is irremediable but in terms of its strength to carry such a large corporation with a hefty public presence, it has been quite effective.

Abbey

Designed by Wolff Olins

Now you see it, now you don't, now you see… That was the story, both visually and existentially, of Abbey Bank. In just over a year after it hit the market as a consumer bank, it was bought by Spain's Banco Santander, which rolled the bank under its flame identity. Perhaps, well no, surely for the better, as this was a pretty weird identity and a little too reminiscent of Wolff Olins' more successful blurry effort for Tate.

Altria

Designed by Landor

One of the greatest cases of reinvention, running away from the tainted (and smoky) name of Philip Morris into a nebulous new name with a fresh start. It didn't hurt that the logo was kind of attractive and abstract enough to mean anything anyone wanted.

NWA

Designed by TrueBrand

It used to be one of the greatest airline icons ever. Designed by Landor in 1988, it was an "N," a "W," a compass pointing Northwest, yet it was simple and, simply, amazing. The new one was meant to downplay the "Northwest" aspect as the airline went other places, but was it also supposed to downplay wit and execution?

VH1

Designed by VH1 In-house Team

The discussion on Speak Up raged on for 229 comments and to this day I don't understand what the VH1 logo is supposed to be or why it is the way it is. Most logos that I hated years ago I have learned to cope with, but not this one. It is continually saved by the work around it, but as a structure it seems as fickle as a house of cards.

The Islands of the Bahamas

Designed by Duffy & Partners

This is the kind of concept — "Just do all the islands as groovy shapes" — that could have gone horribly wrong. Yet, Duffy & Partners' execution was exuberant and warm. And it made you wish you were in the Bahamas, especially a few years ago when they bombarded New York subways with their ads, filling the visual periphery with all those groovy shapes.

Unilever

Designed by Wolff Olins

In what other logo can you find a fish, a palm tree, a bowl, particles and ice cream? That's right, nowhere but on the Unilever logo (see all the contents here). Unilever does a lot of things and its logo makes sure you don't have any doubts about it. Another concept that could have been poorly done was nicely crafted with the help of Miles Newlyn.

YWCA

Designed by Landor

While the YMCA enjoys plenty of notoriety and recognition the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) did not. So why not make it perfectly clear what it does and how it does it. Not all mission statements can be turned into a logo, but this one works.

GE

Designed by Wolff Olins

The best part about this is that it didn't change. The GE logo has remained technically the same — a spaghetti-like "GE" monogram in a circle — since the late nineteenth century, and Wolff Olins did a great job in building a whole identity around it, an identity that has given GE a vitality it probably never knew it had.

AT&T

Designed by Interbrand

When Saul Bass originally designed this logo, he implied volume by modifying the weight of the lines as they would if they were on a sphere. I don't think he intended for those same lines to then be spherized, creating a sphere with an abstraction of a sphere painted on it. Also, lowercase? Really? But all is forgiven because AT&T has the iPhone.

The Bank of New York

Designed by Lippincott

Not terribly functional but astoundingly pretty, especially for the corporate identity of a bank. Unfortunately it didn't last long as two years later it was acquired by the Mellon Financial Corporation and evolved into the weirdly named The Bank of New York Mellon — with a nice enough logo, also by Lippincott.

New School

Designed by Siegel + Gale

It was a pretty hard challenge, unifying eight different schools, each with their own personality under one parent brand. I don't think anyone imagined that stencil spray painting would inspire the solution, nor become a visual signifier for higher education. Siegel + Gale's work for the New School was met with some trepidation, but nothing looks more in place in the city of New York (or Project Runway) as this rough-edged aesthetic.

(RED)

Designed by Wolff Olins

Allow me to quote ourselves from Graphic Design, Referenced on this one: For the main brand — the name was selected because red is the color of emergency, which certainly applies to AIDS — RED is rendered in a sans serif typeset within parentheses. For the license brand, (PRODUCT) RED, the logo of the partner is placed within the parentheses and RED becomes a superscript; the combination is meant to be read as, for example, "Apple to the power of RED." The simplicity of the identity barely hints at the complexity of Wolff Olins's task: finding a way to create a new, strong brand for (RED) that could be integrated with some of the best-guarded and most carefully developed brands, turning untouchable assets like Starbucks green and American Express blue to red. While consumerism and philanthropy still remain an oxymoron, (RED) demonstrates, through action and design, a possible blueprint for their convergence… well, a (RED)print for their convergence.

Quark

Designed by SicolaMartin

With Adobe InDesign firmly in place in the design industry, there is little reason to pay attention to Quark, makers of QuarkXPress. But when they designed a logo that looked like a dozen other logos, designers paid attention and it wasn't the good kind. To be continued…

Quark

Designed by Quark In-house Team

Tail between legs, a corporate rep for Quark said "Quark listened to the feedback we received from the design community in relation to our re-branding initiative in September and decided to create a new logo that is both an evolution of our visual identity and a strong representation of the new Quark… Changing the mark to avoid any perception of similarity enables us to further define our unique identity." Okay, we'll accept the apology for that first slip-up but now we will take another one for this Googly-Eye-of-Shrek logo, please.

Cisco

Designed by Jerry Kuyper and Joe Finocchiaro

Cisco has consistently had a strong corporate identity, and it could have probably kept on for a lot more years with its last incarnation. But Kuyper and Finocchiaro's work was an excellent evolution and abstraction that maintained the equity of the bridge while creating a simpler and bolder mark.

Kodak

Designed by Ogilvy & Mather's Brand Integration Group (BIG)

At the time it was released, it wasn't clear what was more baffling: the loss of the iconic K logo, or the "a" in the new logo. Interestingly, at least for me, I find this to be one of the most pleasing wordmarks of the whole decade. Simple yet quirky. Bold. Looks great in the new packaging, and I easily forget what the old one used to look like.

Payless

Designed by dg* Desgrippes Gobe

This is the only logo I have written about twice (version 1, version 2) only to get angrier with each writing. I could easily write a third with my utmost disappointment at the loss of Cooper Black and the gain of some silly swirly "P" but I won't. Not today, at least.

Chicago 2016 Olympic Applicant City

Designed by VSA Partners

Most applicant city identities tend to be, well, half-assed. Undercooked and uninspired. For the 2016 bid by the city of Chicago, VSA Partners created a lovely icon that blended the skyline of the city and its lake to form a torch. However…

Chicago 2016 Olympic Applicant City

Designed by VSA Partners

A few months later, the International Olympic Committee decided to change the rules of the bidding process for cities, with one clause stating that city logos "shall not contain the Olympic symbol, the Olympic motto, the Olympic flag, any other Olympic-related imagery [such as] flame, torch, medal, etc." Chicago 2016's skyline torch was now breaking the law. So VSA Partners one-upped the IOC and created another lovely logo, this one taking the shape of the stars found in the city's flag — the stars themselves signify major milestones for the city, and hosting the Olympics could be another star added.

London 2012 Olympic Summer Games

Designed by Wolff Olins

Boyohboy, was there a more hated identity last decade? I think not. It even carries into this decade and probably into the next. I think the logo is a funny aberration but the identity around it is brilliant and the launch video that some people claimed gave seizures was actually pretty darn cool. We have some screen shots on Speak Up still, if you missed it.

Wacom

Designed by Wolff Olins

I am an intrepid Wolff Olins advocate, but this was just absolutely incomprehensible. If I could just whack it away with a Wacom tablet.

NYC

Designed by Wolff Olins

Designed for NYC & Company, the official tourism organization for the city, this sturdy logo continually takes on a secondary role to the messaging found throughout the city, but more and more, it becomes quickly recognizable — not an easy feat for a city so in love with its I [Heart] NY logo. The range of applications remain to be seen but the potential is there.

Obama ’08

Designed by Sender LLC

No logo has been praised so much in many, many years as has the Obama ’08 logo designed by Chicago-based Sender LLC — get the full story of the development here. It helped that the logo stood for something that people around the world believed in or, at least, wanted to believe in, and they rallied around it with fervor. The way it morphed visually for the different segments of the population was pretty brilliant. And the fact that the campaign engendered such a creative outpour only helped cement this as one of the most iconic identities not just of the past decade, but probably ever. (Time will tell, time will tell).

Walmart

Designed by Lippincott

I went to a Walmart recently, due to a lapse in judgment, and found the new logo to be in complete dissonance with the environment and experience. While the logo attempts to portray a light and friendly personality, the reality is oppressive and unpleasant. It takes more than a starburst to make something luminous, and Walmart has a long way to go before it can shed its monolithic image, better represented by its previous logo.

Xerox

Designed by Interbrand

The press release explained the metallic ball as "representing Xerox's connections to its customers, partners, industry and innovation," epitomizing the ability for press releases to spin the reality into a fabric of idealistic concoctions that simply fall flat when read. The typography in this one is passable but the icon is sadly too inconsequential.

Pepsi

Designed by Arnell Group

Hahahahaaaa…hahahaaa. Oh, Pepsi, yes, we are laughing at you, not with you. It could have all been forgotten had it not been for this fateful PDF.

Tropicana

Designed by Arnell Group

This is the only package design in the whole list and I debated whether to include it or not. But as a case of brand identity gone wrong, you can't beat the Tropicana story. First unveiled in October of 2008, along with a bulldozering by Arnell of the Pepsi beverage line-up, the Tropicana packaging was met with a resounding "Hell no!" from consumers who complained about being unable to find their Tropicana. Four months later, Tropicana announced it would go back to its previous packaging. Most designers cheered that good design triumphed over crappy design but others actually saw doom as corporations now have a precedent in Tropicana of not trying anything new for fear of consumer revolt. As long as new things aren't so badly designed, I think we can be at rest with the latter scenario.

Nickelodeon

Designed by Nick In-house Team and others

The debate on whether or not the "splat" logo could have lived on remains a hypothetical one. We will never know. But for the time being, a whole new generation of little rascals is being bred on the new Nick identity and,from the on-air package created by Trollbäck + Company, that's not a bad thing. And that's just the main Nickelodeon channel, the rest are clicking just as right. So long splat.

Aol.

Designed by Wolff Olins

Given the heated and even angry replies I received to ranking AOL as the No. 1 Best identity of 2009 I will reserve any further commentary on why I think it succeeds and instead I will just plainly list it as one of the most relevant identities of the decade — whether it's good or bad is clearly up to you.


Thanks for reading or scrolling all the way through.

Twitter101| case studies

Still not convinced that Twitter has some value for your brand?

Now Twitter has released their very own case studies showing how brands like Dell, Pepsi, JetBlue and others have incorporated the tool of wonder into their marketing plans.

Facebook + cute dogs + coffee = BIG Change

Here's a cute story about how Facebook (and more importantly, a retailer's fans) made a difference for a small business. Coffee Labs, a dog friendly emporium in Tarrytown, NY got into trouble with their local health department for being dog friendly.

The business created a fan page for local dog owners to declare their love for the shop. Facebook + cute dogs + coffee = local tv magic. Naturally, this gets picked up by the local news, and before you know it, a local attorney gets involved and writes a waiver for the coffee shop.

You’ve heard it before: Individuals using social media to hold people and organizations to a higher level of accountability and transparency for perceived injustices—leveraging their network and the power of an engaged community to bring about change.

An airline passenger with a smart phone Tweets about the fact that he’s been stuck on a tarmac for four hours with little access to food, water and bathrooms.  We’ve heard about companies monitoring Tweets 24/7, and seen how a Tweet in some cases will get you a faster customer service response than calling or even e-mailing—a real-time response for a real-time communication channel. A well-known restaurant chain is shamed by an employee who posts an inappropriate video to You Tube from one of its franchise locations, and a cable company is held accountable when its cable-repair guy falls asleep on a couch in the middle of a customer’s living room and the video goes viral on You Tube.

So it wasn’t much of a stretch to learn that my local coffee shop turned to social media—and the power of an engaged community—when the local Board of Health enforced a customer complaint about the establishment’s policy of allowing leashed dogs inside the shop with their owners. Coffee Labs—a play on coffee-colored labrador retrievers and the kind of laboratory it is for roasting coffee—has always been a dog-friendly place. Customers like me enjoy the friendly atmosphere and wonderful full-bodied coffee. The presence of an occasional dog is a pleasant diversion, and responsible people acting responsibly with their leashed dogs has always been the norm. A sign on the front window clearly indicates that “dogs are allowed” (Snoopy would be proud), and potential patrons bothered by this policy are always welcome to  take their business elsewhere.

Here’s what happened:

1. Someone complains to the local Board of Health about bringing dogs into Coffee Labs.
2. The shop owners build a fan page on Facebook called  I want to go back to Coffee Labs Roasters, WOOF!!!!! and let their network know about it.
3. The network of loyal customers (455 people as of this writing) is understandably outraged and shows their support.
4. The local television news—as is the custom with media these days—discovers a story breaking on social media (Facebook) and picks it up for coverage on the evening news.
5. A local attorney learns of the shop’s plight and volunteers to write a possible waiver to allow dogs back in the shop.

Bravo—the power of an engaged community using social media to fight injustice at the grass-roots level. Just a local coffee shop in the suburbs of New York City who wants to run their business as they see fit, not injustice on some grand scale.

But still…think of the possibilities.

The response came in a matter of days; the network came together voluntarily and participated enthusiastically and vigorously—no one is paying them and no one is paying the local attorney. It’s the power of an engaged community using social media to lock arms.

CyberMentors |Words Can Kill

BeatBullying marked the launch of CyberMentors in March 2009 with a UK-wide print advertising campaign warning about the link between text bullying and teen suicide. Three images show young people affected by hanging, a slit wrist and drug overdose, in each case portrayed with denigrating words. The campaign aims to promote a new social networking site CyberMentors, as the next step to educate victims that there is help available and for the bullies to understand that they can change.



The concept began with a series of detailed focus groups with 11-18-year-old males and females from a representative cross-sample of backgrounds to ask what bullying really is like today both from the victim and bully’s perspective. The campaign, which features silhouetted imagery of a young person that appears to have committed suicide from the sustained barrage of bullying taunts in youth language, aims to educate victims that there is help available at www.cybermentors.org.uk, and bullies on what the impact of their actions could ultimately be.
Research done by BeatBullying in the UK showed that 56% of young people (in a sample of 2000 young people between the ages of 11 and 18) admit to having, at some point, been involved in bullying. The most common bullying methods were a hurtful message to a victim (26 per cent), spreading rumours (16 per cent), and editing a picture (15 per cent). Eight percent of this group had either filmed bullying or sent an offensive video clip about someone to their friends.”
CyberMentors, cybermentors.org.uk, is the first nationwide online peer-mentoring social networking site for young people, and is manned by over 700 fully trained CyberMentors and Beatbullying cyber councillors.

Credits

The Words Can Kill campaign was developed at M&C Saatchi, London, by creative director Graham Fink, art director Alex Taylor, copywriter Orlando Warner, planner Howard Miller, account director Sadie Clark, and designer/typographer Jonathan Muddell, with Beatbullying head of communications Sherry Adhami. Media was handled by Walker Media.

Open Letter to ad agency executives

Dear Mr. XXXXX,
I wanted to say thank you for your pitch. The part in focus that I wanted to discuss was where you said “Google and search is not everything”.
I understand your viewpoint, and I would like to discuss this further. When you have a chance could you call my google voice number. I have that number forwarded to my Google Android powered cell phone … while on the topic, I loved the idea of the app you discussed. Just make sure it runs on my Droid.
When you send over the document, I will make the edits in Google docs and make sure to run the media plan you sent over though Google Ad planner to double check the suggestions.
Regarding the commercial you presented to us, I need to send that to a few people here for discussion. If you could upload that to Google owned Youtube that would be great, just make sure to limit who can see it.
Regarding the billboard placements, that was a wonderful idea. Send me the locations so I can check them on Google Maps via street view to make sure it’s where we want them.
I really liked the beta webdesign you showed us, can you make sure that it renders properly in Google Chrome? When designing the site, don’t do it all in flash and make sure that it has unique titles and metas. I want to make sure we rank organically for our terms in Google. I agree with you that Google Analytics is the right way to measure the traffic and ROI from the campaign.
Also the discussion we had regarding mentions of our company in the press? We do feel that Google Alerts would do the job for us regarding that. As of course the press releases you send out will be in Google News.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I feel that perhaps I don’t want your advertising agency running the campaign. Perhaps we should hire an SEO firm for this.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXX

Coca-Cola|Happiness Machine

Humanitarian Brand Development | Cause Related Marketing Development — it’s all about love.

What if your brand is about a cause? What if your brand is humanity? What if your real messaging reach is love?

This is an overview of Girvin’s strategic thinking about the nature of humanitarian and cause-related branding strategy and tactics. There have been a series of talks and presentations offered that reach to this place of marketing, over the course of the last several years. Girvin, the firm, has been working on a layering of messaging and image development programs for cause marketing that have had both local and international applications. There are fundamentals to the premise of the cause, the humanitarian agenda and marketing and it comes down to this — the story, the embrace, the human and finally, most importantly, love.

Human brands: every brand begins with a human. The idea of love is about the furthest and most impactive level of compassion in relationship development. It is the ultimate sharing. The key to this connection gestures to resonance and relevance. To love, there is the sound of alignment — a note of familiarity is heard and sensed; and relevance is the relating, the carrying over of one to another — bringing something from one place to another. The beauty emerges in the sound, the quality of the symphony of connectedness — relationships are simply that: relation. Relating, too, connects to story — relating a story.

What of human? Human, the earth. From the latest iteration of the use, around1250, from Medieval French — humain “of or belonging to man,” from the Latin humanus, probably related to homo (gen. hominis) “man”. But there’s an added level, reaching back — humus “earth,” on notion of “earthly beings,” as opposed to the gods (cf. Hebrew adam “man,” from adamah “ground”). Cognately derived with Old Lithuanian zmuo (acc. zmuni) “man, male person.” To the first record of “humankind” documented from 1645. “Humanoid” (1918) is a hybrid of Latin humanus and Greek -oeides “like,” from eidos “form, shape” (see -oid).

That earthly connection is meaningful — it’s a foundational sentience, from which we began, from whence we come. And what of cause? From the Latin, causa — it’s about cause, reason, a judicial process. The idea of a link between the humanitarian and the sense of process aligns the earthly and intellectually reasonable. And therein lies the strategy — a bridge between foundation, the earth, beneath, the human arising and what action is followed in the dreaming that arises.

The distinct link is that sense of bridging — the search for meaning, the seeking of direction, the sharing of compassion — the acknowledgment of pain — and the quest for spreading the word, and the worldly, in embracing others. But that layering is — to metaphor — an unfolding, explication, or explanation, is a kind of unwrapping; a package, a story is made, and gradually revealed in the sentiment.

Story is the best bridge in virtually any connection — human to human, human to brand, brand to human; and surely, causal intimation to connectivity a gesture in outreach from humanitarian concerns. What that really comes to is how people — how we — explore and understand time, place and the relationship to other souls and our time on earth. Importantly, it is about reflection — that is, one story is your story, another story is shared; and the energy grows and spreads, from person to person. A beautiful thing.

My story is your story. You tell me your story, it becomes mine. And so it goes. The curious positioning is that people tend to think of their lives in a string of experiences — not facts, but stories. Large stories — bigger, mythic movements — and smaller cycles of stories, and micro-movements of telling. Of relating. Of carrying — passing to another. And that carrying is something that we move forward — the valuables of our lives — moving ahead in the advancement of our sensing of experience. This is your life, and how you tell it.

There’s more to it, the science of mind — and mind fullness, the beauty of how the sentience of our experience is framed, recalled, celebrated, cherished.

While I’m certain that many people are thinking — “geesh, I’ve heard that from you, all that story stuff”. But for me, this exploration, it’s not done, and it’s never going to be done. Given the power of the experience, and the continuing explorations of storytelling — it doesn’t stop, nor does the relevance subsume in time. It’s a mythic cycle; it’s a continuing journey; it’s a quest. And either you, your brand, your cause, has a quest, or it’s merely sitting still, hoping for something to arrive. But in the character of this level of story-told — tale telling — there needs to be a strategy of rippling. Stories ripple out — but so does the person, the legends spread, and finally, the brand itself.

Think of a structuring, in exploring the idea of the hybrid marketing of your causal enterprise; what’s at the center, what drives the spirit of the organization; and finally how does each relate? They should be, hopefully, the same — yet more tuned to each level of message. For example: establish a thread message, then tune the levels of that message so they become integrated, yet prismatic of the central thematic intention. But in this sentiment — it is just that: sense — a causal relationship between the messaging, the imagery and how that might actually feel. Feeling is where memory is stirred, embraced and held in the psychic space of experience. Brand is place. And humanitarian brand development is fundamentally about feeling — emotion, the movement of humankind — are captivated, magnetized in that sensation.

There is a subconscious attribute to everything we do — how we see, how we are seen, how we present ourselves, the language of our bodies and expressions. So in building any grouping of messages, creating the foundation of your branding mission — your promise — what drives you, what drives others and what drives your organization?

Finally, if there are drivers that empower the character of your brand, the fundamental challenge is about care. Literally, who does? Who cares? Knowing your audience, whereby simple interceptions, engagement and deeper research studies will help, it’s really about starting with the one — one person, then another, then a group, then dozens in a larger sense of embrace in exploration. Moving in, moving deeper, there are approaches for how you examine the patterning of how people connect; and what’s the deeper sensation of your mission. Your mission is merely your promise — they are etymologically reflective. To depth — there’s more; in how the mind works, how people recognize traits, trends, instincts and relationships — and to that, brands. This is where the metaphor — strategically, tactically — links to human mind and emotion. Surely, some people can articulately write their impressions — while others, reaching into the subconscious sensation of experience (and brand, causal or otherwise) can find a relating to a story and a quest for experience in relevance. Zaltman, an anthropologist who’s developed a trademark offering – to research, that’s worth exploring. My involvement with Zaltman’s examinations are through our efforts with Procter & Gamble and new product development and innovations. More on that front, here.

Stance. What is the stance — the standard — of your organization? The concept of standing goes back to the beginning — the notion of the human and the earth; what’s the ground that you stand on, and more so, to questioning — what do you stand for? The real point, to comprehending accessibility is the directed level in the way in which people grasp your message. How are your messages arrayed — how simply are they understood? This mapping suggests some exploration — a quick stringing of the levels, and the way, in which communications are nailed down — and expressed to the quick transit of relationship exploration of your brand expressions — in whatever medium they might be manifested. In which, to all media. How fast?

Feelings. Impressions. Touchpoints. What’s the instinctual way in which people touch you? How do they gather a sense of your enterprise — in many ways? Are each evaluated? Are the messages comprehensible — threaded? Consider the meaning that’s suggested in each of the message — for me, it’s a spherical symbolism. The idea of the messaging structuring will be seen — in scene — and sensed in the idea of a holistic grasp. Reading, touching, scenting, tasting, hearing, intuition, instinct, balance, memory. Wholly believable.

Let’s explore some brand developments. What of the idea of trying for a message that really revolves around the logo itself, as a single opening point of messaging? Working with my youngest brother, Matt Girvin, his role at Unicef and the Chinese Ministry of Health we created a symbolic reference to ignite a movement to solving one of the great crises of modern day China.

By the year 2000, through a relatively simplistic campaign of action and populace messaging, we instigated a predominantly visual campaign that could be recognized by everyone, from the lowliest country farmer, to sophisticated urban dwellers. The campaign focused on a “sunny mind” — the metaphor distinctly relating to the challenge of Iodine Deficiency Disease (IDD) — caused by the lack of iodine in the diet creating complications of “cretinism“. The iconic approach to treatment — our simple device — could be read to the leading campaign of educating all Chinese consumers on the notion of appropriately “fortified”, brightened minds. IDD was eliminated in the year 2000 in China. 1.3 billion people, 6 billion one kilo bags of salt per year. One logo.

Examining the concept of simple messaging and structuring communications, working with Richard Gere, and helping to create the Gere Foundation, we focused on delicacy — not pushing too hard; building a subtle layering of messaging, from color, identity, voice, donation structuring, quiet messaging, celebrity messaging, tools to spread the word and explore the artful capture of Gere’s remarkably striking photographic treatments. Explore, here. The idea is about softly implicating the character of the brand positioning, message, call to action, without aggressively overstating the case of humanitarian spirit.

This grouping of studies relates to a scenario in which Girvin worked on the creation of a new brand strategy for Heifer International.

That work ranges from mission and vision development, a renewed sensation of personality and tactical attributes (why and how), strategic considerations and planning, new identity and imagery, as well as naming consulting to the nature of the newly completed Heifer Village.

Importantly, the idea of treating the messaging premise is one of a holistic nature — thinking of every component as leading back to the promise of the power of that relationship. Given the challenges of the current economic climate, there’s been a shift in the site structuring — and perhaps this approach to offering, literally, the individual “here’s what you get” premise is more transactional to get the work done. Money in. Is that it?

I’d venture no, to assessment. More transaction, less emotion in humanitarian brand development is not the way to go — this marketing wholly lives in the compassionate and shared space of bridging incipient and excipient communities.

Girvin uses team collaboration of a group of brand colleagues to hold the promise of approach in building out alignment, empowerment, commitment and ownership in the sharing of ideas. This process is calledBrandQuesting®. We have been evolving this practice for nearly 20 years. The theory is cumulative explorations of emotional and strategic intention, to build on teamwork, and what we call a cumularity of minds.

This notion of accumulation is founded on the metaphor of clouds, literally: cumulus. By leading, moderating, facilitating and developing this approach to brandstorming, we can create alignments in brand, story and strategy that offers a unique balance between the concept of leadership coaching, marketing and business planning and the messaging and visual outcomes that will create results.

Working with the Kirlin founder, Dan Kranzler and a tactical team on the creation of the Seeds of Compassion brand, an inspiration emerged in the session, the foundation of the “seed” metaphor that built the premise of the thinking of the event itself. Workshops are custom designed to dig deep, considering the strategic unfolding of brand, story and messaging.

This notation of spirituality — the power of the human spirit — it goes back to the center, and indeed, the ideas that we explored in the beginning of this overview.

But in some attributes of spiritual dimension, it’s critical to build communications that are “relatable” that is — people, regardless of their spiritual heritage, might be willing to explore the thinking of the organization. Working with the United Jewish Communities, Girvin created an identity program and messaging structure to support a foundation of Jewish legacy, yet at the same time, reaching to others, as you might note in the current site modeling and message.

In our work with the UJA Federation, a similar communication modeling emerged, in all layers of expression.

But importantly, this expression structure lends itself to a new form — each level of the site reaches to creating another form of message.

Touch here, and there’s another component of communication, an attractive amalgam of text, photography and emotional negotiation.

Working early on with World Vision, the function of our work was aboutstrategy and intentionality — working into the inside of the organization, at the highest level — then creating an approach that was about direct and immediate outreach at the emotional level. Simple: Sponsor a Child Now. Not loud. But predominant in everything that is communicated.

There’s been extensive discussion about the idea of the human brand. And Girvin has been focused on this attribute of communication experience and brand management for decades. People are everything. Working with Trish May, Girvin explored strategy, story, positioning and naming support — and packaging — for the founder of the brand. There’s more to the story, here.

This human component figures prominently in other references — organizations for which a single leader exemplifies the brand, for example Ken Stuart — suggests a path in which leadership visioning is supported by a team and an organization, to build a path of messaging and visualization that is holistic, even to the point of creating environments. This branding positioning not only relates to the issues of storytelling in the spirit of science and biomedical research, but as well, the notions of placemaking in explaining the depth of the brand experience strategy.

Girvin’s original launch design, for the creation of BioQuest, a key storytelling and presentation experience portal to the overall spirit of the SBRI brand.

This selfsame messaging extends to website, and you’ll note below, the structuring shows an analyses of messaging and imagery to relate to the construct of the framing of the brand strategy and the outcomes. Here too, the benefits of the cumulative exploration of Girvin’s BrandQuest® methodology in building aligned leadership and community messaging.

Larger scientific initiatives can be more comprehensive in building plans that relate to holistic conjoining of multiple scientific programs, like Duke’s efforts in building one of the most powerful genetic research groups in the world.

That concept of brand unification was envisioned by Dr. Huntington Willard, and Girvin’s team met with a circle of scientists, leaders of various genomic exploration groups, to unite them under the aegis of a single cause, Duke’sInstitute for Genome Science & Policy. Girvin created the master branding document, as well as the opening website launch, campaign and visual materials in the form of collateral.

This conception of positioning assets — in this case, donation based channeling for the Pacific Northwest — is the fundamental imperative of The Seattle International Foundation. In this expression, to visual brand alignment, the modeling of the site components relate conceptually to the logotype of the organization, shifting to varying imagery and messages that relate to the group’s efforts — all based on the circle, the o, the ring portal. Girvin’s team worked directly with the founders, Bill and Paula Clapp, to initiate the strategy of the organization, the identity program and visual components.

Even the concept of story could be considered in the relationship of reviving legacy in the case of historical heritage — in this case, the creation of a website and video series that relates to the significant character of emergency care innovation — no, the invention of it — in Seattle’s Harborview Hospital.

I’ve outlined some conclusions below, that suggest a parting shot at the summary of our references in experience. And what could be your experience, in evolving the structuring of your brand, your story, your cause related marketing power, and finally the humanitarian branding initiatives of the future.

Love, finally, is everything.

tsg
….
Exploring the human brand:
http://www.girvin.com/subsites/humanbrands/

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