Creativity with Purpose

Some interesting, inspiring and occasionally trivial posts on design and branding found by the team at DesignTactics. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9345357-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

[designtactics]

Can Stock Images Portray Real Women?

Sheryl Sandberg thinks they have to try harder. She's partnering with Getty Images to curate a collection that represents women in "more empowering ways". Could they work on a more real portrayal of men - and Europeans - while they're at it?

[designtactics]

It may be a bit early in the season, but we couldn't resist sharing this innovative (and festive!) tea packaging from Kresimir Miloloza.

[designtactics]

New issue of Discover Ireland in the paper this weekend...

Keep an eye out for our next collection of great holiday-at-home ideas and offers in the Irish national press this weekend... and when the weather's this good, doesn't a staycation sound like a brilliant idea?

You can also browse a regularly updated collection of special offers for Irish holiday accommodation on the Discover Ireland website.

[designtactics]

What's your brand worth?

The Ford Motor Company has just regained full ownership of their brand identity, after a six year period where it was held as collateral for a loan. Want to know what kind of financing this brand asset was worth? Try $23.5 billion. Think about that next time you wonder about the value of branding...

[wolffolinsblog]

[designtactics]

Here's an interesting story that involves Dali and Chupa Chups. Apparently Salvador Dali created their (still in use) identity - and insisted that it be placed in a particular position on the wrapper. Click through for more details...

Found on the always interesting Wolff Olins Tumblr...

[designtactics]

Google and Coke partner to turn a 41 year-old jingle into reality

This campaign has been getting a lot of exposure, but it still deserves a mention: Google is "reimagining advertising" with Project Re:Brief - where they rework some classic commercials using all their web 3.0 bells and whistles.

This video shows how they created a mobile app that - literally - lets you buy the world a Coke. (One person at a time, mind you.)

Read more about the campaign here and here.

[designtactics]

New Issue of Discover Ireland Special Offers

Keep an eye out in your favourite paper this weekend for the latest issue of our regular "Special Offers" Magazine for Discover Ireland. Start planning your spring staycation!

You can read the new issue here, search the special offers site here, and follow the promotional fun and frolics on Facebook here.

[designtactics]

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival - new brand, new beginning

Our JDIFF brand emerged with some fanfare at the launch of this year's festival last week. It's been a thrill to work with this this great event, and the launch marked a culmination of strategic and creative work that started last summer.

Our primary goal was to ensure the festival had its own identity: Despite 10 years of success, the festival had no consistent branding, and was at risk of being subsumed by the strength of the title sponsor's brand.

We worked with the festival's CEO, Joanne O'Hagan, to create a strong but flexible brand that still allowed each year to have its own visual theme, and that respected the requirements of their title sponsor. Roll on the 16th of February, when the brand will get to rub shoulders with Al Pacino, Glenn Close and Mark Wahlberg - among others! 

Credit to David Mannion for the photographs

[adverve]

[designtactics]

Beauty is truth...

The (un)reality of retouching is probably well understood by most consumers these days - thanks to mandatory on-screen warnings and campaigns by (slightly conflicted?) brands like Dove.

But this viral by commercial director Jesse Rosten gets new mileage from the idea, in a toe-curlingly perfect pastiche of the beauty sector.

Thanks to adverve: for the find!

[designtactics]

Fold, snap, submit!

As part of our 2011 festive greetings, we're curating a little Tumblr called Origami Santa.

Head on over to www.origamisanta.net to get your instructions, then e-mail us a photo of your hand-folded festive figure to [email protected] and we'll put it up.

So spread the word across the social networks - there's nothing like a bit of home-spun arts and crafts to mark your countdown to Christmas.

[designtactics]

The art of brand name translation in China

We liked this NYT article recently - it's a fascinating insight into the big business of adapting Western brand names for the huge Chinese market.

While early attempts at localising established brands just created phonetic equivalents, recent entrants have opted to convey both meaning and a phonic mimicry of the original name.

Some of the results add a poetic resonance to well-known brands - such as "Quick Steps" for Reebok (Rui bu) or "Tasty Fun" for Coca Cola (Kekoukele).

It made us think: What will happen to the names of Chinese brands that eventually become sought after on this side of the world?

[designtactics]

Busy day today - launch at Convention Centre Dublin of the Marketing Plan we designed for Tourism Ireland.

[designtactics]

Steve Jobs’s Patents There's not much to say about Steve Jobs that hasn't already been said in the last 24 hours - but this New York Times piece on his patent history shows the level of control that he exercised on the design and user experience at Apple. Amongst the thousands of patents that Apple owns, 317 of them list Steven P. Jobs among their inventors. These patents offer a glimpse into the details he was concerned with on Apple products: they range across the spectrum from a plug to this glass staircase, and include the innovative packaging designs that made the Apple "unboxing" experience a geeky pleasure every time.

[adwriter]

[designtactics]

adwriter:

CoffeeCompany WiFi headlines.

Holland’s largest chain of coffee shops is called CoffeCompany. They wanted to attract more students, so they installed WiFi in some of its stores near universities. The problem is, lots of students just come into the store for the WiFi but hardly look at the menu.

So CoffeeCompany decided to move the store’s menu into the WiFi menu of customers’ laptops. They periodically changed the wireless network name from the normal “CoffeeCompany” to hard-selling headlines. So as students looked for a network, they found menu lines such as “mmm….YummyMuffinsOnly1,99″

Agency: They Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

[designtactics]

Give your brand the "no-logo" test

We missed this great Fast Company article when it was first published earlier this year, but it's worth a read. Martin Lindstrom asks: Do your communications still convey your brand - even if the logo is removed?

His thesis is that a true brand will still create recognition without the primary identity device, and the examples he cites (Coke, Apple and Guinness) certainly prove the point.

But don't despair that your marketing budget will never create the recognition of such mega-brands. Yes, part of these companies' branding success is a self-fulfilling function of their market share: But the primary reason their brands are strong is because they have always followed a brand-led marketing strategy. Every aspect of their customer experience is oriented in their brand values, and they invest wisely in design (across every medium) to deliver this consistently.

Can you say the same about your brand?

[chanett]

[designtactics]

chanett:

Designed by Mat Bogust of Think Packaging, New Zealand.

(via Paper Cup Holder (Concept) | Packaging of the World: Creative Package Design Archive and Gallery)

[designtactics]

Congratulations to Killarney, the overall winner of TidyTowns 2011 - another great ceremony wrapped!