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Making a connection with color
Subtle and spectacular: two words that describe the colors of the Arizona landscape. The daytime palette is dominated by blue skies and red earth, punctuated by the soft green of cacti and desert scrub and the mellow beige, gold, and brown of dry grass.
As evening approaches, the blues transition to lavender and purple; the reds shift to crimson and maroon. The once-saturated colors wash together to produce a gradient of extreme subtlety.
Somehow, Southwest Airlines has managed to capture that palette in their livery. The airline’s palette isn’t subtle or sophisticated, mind you. In fact, until I visited Arizona, I thought of Southwest’s as one of the uglier liveries on the nation’s runways.
But now I understand that it works. They’ve managed to evoke a palette that would be impossible to replicate on aluminum (and, indeed, is impossible to replicate photographically.)
Now, when I see their planes, I’m reminded of, and transported to the transcendent moments of extreme beauty we experienced driving and hiking through the Arizona landscape. Their brand uses color as a reference or reminder of something much more powerful than could ever be designed or distributed.
Southwest (their aircraft and their brand) becomes both the literal and metaphorical connection between customer and place.
Categories: Branding, Design, Outside the Square
“Ghost signs” in the neighborhood
There is something romantic about old signs.
Ghost signs, fading away over time.
Signs for businesses — often no longer in existence — that we walk or drive by each day. They were fabricated in the era when signs were hand-lettered, painted on the sides of buildings, and sometimes burnished with gold leaf. They were posted prior to the days of characterless, generic awning signs, or box signs with fluorescent lights illuminating cut vinyl from the rear.
(And clearly also before the days of spell check, and signage regulations!)
These signs have a vernacular aesthetic that has evolved over time to reflect the environmental, cultural, and historical context in which they exist — much like vernacular architecture. Often they are just text with an occasional graphic element; all caps with sans-serif type seems to be the most ubiquitous treatment.
What follows is a sample of signs I see in my daily travels. Some have already been taken down since the photos were snapped, or will soon disappear as the buildings they grace are “rehabbed”. Once in a while, you may see a new sign made to look like a ghost sign… but they are far from standard.
So tell me, where are some of your favorite fading beauties?
Categories: Outside the Square, Photography
Wait… White Coke?
If you’re a loyal Coke drinker, you’re likely feeling a little confused these days.
Recently, when you scanned the soda aisle at the grocery store looking for your familiar red and white can, you may have wondered if you’d accidentally landed in the wrong section. But, wait… all the other soda is here. So where’s the Coke? They can’t be out of Coke.
Then, after another scan and a squint: “Wait, is THAT what I’m looking for?!”
And you’re not alone: many loyal fans have been greeting the new white Coke can pictured above in a similar way. The new design, complete with silver polar bears, was a cause marketing effort recently introduced by Coca-Cola Company, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund.
In a statement to their confused fan base, Coke explained that the campaign was launched to highlight the threat global warming poses to the Arctic habitat of the polar bear. They designed the white can to be bold and attention-grabbing –and most importantly, to “reinforce” the campaign theme.
However, most customers didn’t buy it — literally.
Some buyers wondered if the cans actually contained the Coke they knew and loved, and as a result, were reluctant to put them in their grocery baskets. Another — likely foreseeable — complaint arose from the similarity of the polar bear design and the Diet Coke can: many consumers purchased the non-diet formula in the polar bear can, and didn’t realize they were getting more than one calorie until they took a swig.
And with the most subjective response of them all — though potentially the most damaging — some longtime Coke drinkers said the new can had an impact on the taste.
I think it’s a beautiful design, actually – but does the aesthetic value of the design really have anything to do with the buzz? Personally, I don’t think so. It’s more of a failure of expectation, and a failure to respect their own brand equity.
Coke’s customers have developed a solid brand loyalty over the years to the company’s iconic visual system — a system that both drives and relies on their emotional attachments to a certain look and feel.
A red can = Classic Coca Cola.
A silver and white can = Diet Coke.
They also sell Coke Zero in distinctive black cans that were introduced in 2005 — but the design clearly signaled “new product!” when they launched the formula.
The system is internationally recognizable, and has sustained value over time, even through the New Coke debacle and various successful and unsuccessful product extensions. That’s why the new holiday design was not simply a swapping of brand colors, but a risky muddling of a well-established system… and in the end, it failed to engage their loyal customers.
Another example: imagine waking up one day to discover that the colors on the ubiquitous McDonald’s logo had switched. Now the arches are red, and name is yellow. The shock would be instant… and understandable. Visual systems give us something to connect to, both consciously and subconsciously. While adding a little dissonance to a design can be a positive kind of disruption, flipping the whole system on its ear is a dangerous decision for a major brand to make.
In response to the wave of negative reactions, Coke announced a recall of the white cans from the shelves, and introduced a seasonal red can of a similar design “to maintain the excitement” of the campaign.
I think that’s a smart move; not only because customers will find what they’re looking for in the soda aisle more easily, but because Coke decided to reward brand allegiance, and make a truly customer-responsive change. Hopefully the polar bears will benefit, too!
Categories: Design, Outside the Square
Time flies: digital collages illustrating observations about “psychological time”
Flashback 1993: As part of my Masters thesis at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, Germany, I created a set of digital collages, which I recently came across while looking for some papers. Rediscovering these illustrations made me realize how much has changed in the world of technology for designers over the past 18 years.
I also realized how very much the idea of ‘time’ still resonates with me. We can’t turn back the hands of time, which is in opposition to our inner experience of time. How we perceive time is very much based on our current situation, and our way of seeing the world around us.
Obvious phenomena of the subjectivity of how we perceive time—like “how time flies”—are juxtaposed against the phenomenon of melancholia, where time often seem to move very slowly. Or how experiences from a week ago might slip our mind, while others—good or bad—linger seemingly forever.
Illustrating those observations was a challenge, but also lot of fun—and yes, the trying times are almost forgotten. Equipped with my own Apple Macintosh Performa (now vintage!), a scanner, and an inkjet color printer, I was experimenting and discovering all the features early Photoshop had to offer. I quickly learned how to use the program to create the image I envisioned. I researched and collected anything and everything that might have made good source material: various books, magazines, fabrics, papers; even objects set on my scanner (this was, of course, long before your everyday household owned a digital camera). So I scanned and scanned and scanned… one could say I actually became kind of a “digital hoarder”.
Unfortunately my Bernoullis became obsolete, which is why I no longer possess the digital source files for these collages.
What I do still own is my final bound theses with 22 illustrations that accompany the written part of my thesis. Here are some of my favorites…
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”—Bertrand Russell
“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered—the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls— bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory”—Marcel Proust
“Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.”—Neil Armstrong
“At times everyone must go through a place where everything is temporarily called into question (the reason for all of our depression), the passage over the swinging mountain bridge. The new is not yet, the old is no more; you pass over an abyss between two walls of rock. Solid was the rock behind you and secure once again will be the new. But now emptiness lies under your feet.”—Ludwig Hohl
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”—William James
all illustrations copyright Joerg Dressler
Categories: Design, Digital Media, Outside the Square
Living messages and Living Walls
One of the challenges we are called upon to tackle most often is helping large organizations with diverse activities (and equally diverse constituent groups) to coalesce around a unified and mutually reinforcing set of messages that can live within all of their communications.
Earlier this year, Roger and I traveled to Atlanta for an on-site messaging workshop with a diverse cross section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra staff. Working with representatives from the performing and presenting sides of the house, their community and education programs, and their institutional advancement team, we conducted a series of exercises designed to identify the unifying messages across the organization — messages that also have the power to speak to multiple constituent groups.
Our day-long workshop produced great conversations, and, more importantly, a host of great ideas we’re now helping the Orchestra bring to life throughout their organization.
Fortunately, I had a little time around the workshop schedule to do a little exploring around the art scene in one of my favorite cities. (Full disclosure: I went to Emory University for my undergraduate degree).
One of the ‘sites’ my friend and former roommate, Josh Phillipson of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund showed me was a series of street art installations.
Part of the multiple-city Living Walls Conference, these installations are scattered around the city, transforming and punctuating otherwise nondescript or abandoned walls.
Some of the installations we saw were still in progress; I’m looking forward to returning to Atlanta to discover more of these extraordinary works. And perhaps, one day, Living Walls might just come to Boston.
I can certainly hope!
Categories: Design, Nonprofits, Outside the Square
BREAKING NEWS: Joerg Dressler on an expedition impossible?
REPORT (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION): Joerg Dressler was transported to an undisclosed location Sunday morning, making his second visit to a secret spot with stunning views.
Dressler arrived under not-so-tight security wraps in an area where the forces of nature are battling unabated: the weather promised cloudy skies and temperatures, and perhaps a chance of heavy snow storms throughout the day.
He was slated to meet with friends at an elevated platform to embark on a long walk, according to a close source traveling with the designer.
“There are two main purposes to his visit,” the source said in a secret briefing to reporters Monday. “He wants simply to experience nature at its best and to escape the hectic, overcrowded, and noisy city life.”
THIS JUST IN: The location of Dressler’s expedition has been revealed: the “High Line” in New York City.
Categories: Design, Outside the Square
Turning a kitchen into a design studio
While I handle colors, shapes, textures, and compositions with care during the day to make my clients happy, I also try my best to bring these things to my off-duty time as well, including when I create meals.
Light and fun stuff is always on my menu — and in the photo above, it was a Japanese feast for 5. This popular cuisine made from vinegared rice and raw fish can seem quite difficult to produce in one’s ordinary kitchen… except when you treat your kitchen like a design studio, and approach food preparation with great attention and care. Thanks to H Mart, the national Asian grocery chain, I was able to find all the fresh ingredients I needed.
Cutting the fish to perfect thickness and rolling the maki in consistent sizes requires practice — just as we do in our training as as designers, we spent time learning how geometry, crafting, and paying strict attention to detail plays a role in creating beautiful sushi. Using the right tools is also important, too — even if it’s a sushi knife and not an X-Acto knife.
After I completed the individual pieces of nigiri sushi, sashimi, and maki rolls, I worked hard at making things look just as they should; in this type of cuisine, presentation is everything. I chose containers that matched the shapes of my creations — this was a nice way to decorate without having things get fussy. I made sure all the same kinds were grouped so each piece would be easily recognized; that the quantity of each kind was consistent so they would all receive equal attention; and that the colors and textures were strategically distributed to create the best use of color, and most thoughtful organization.
The extra amount of attention put into creating a beautiful meal made my night, and delighted my visitors.
Just another example of how design exists in our lives, beyond the page or screen.
Categories: Design
Small team… big ideas. Come be a part of it!
One of the most interesting things about working at a “small shop” is that everyone tends to have a range of responsibilities and interests that extend past their job description. If you’re good at something, you’ll likely get a chance to do it.
This also tends to come up in how we hire new team members: we look for people who have diverse experience and interests, who show initiative in making things happen (even if it’s a little outside the parameters of their role), and who value collaboration in all things.
Everyone has a voice, so we want to make sure we bring in people who have good ideas—and who listen (and get excited) when other people come up with them, too.
Right now, we’re in the midst of hiring two key positions to fill out our team: a Brand Strategist, and a Designer.
In the time since we’ve been on the hunt, we’ve learned a few things (well, we kind of already knew…):
- Most people are used to a certain kind of hierarchy when it comes to creating communications for clients: the client wants something, the strategist comes up with something that something should say and an idea of how it could look, and the designer takes the creative brief and makes it happen. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- The idea of “brand” is one that has taken a big hit as of lately, what with the notion of “personal brand” running rampant through social media, and the reality that many people think of a logo and a color scheme as “branding” (which leaves out the meaning side of things: a brand’s foundation, positioning, messages, etc. )
- We’re a bit different.
(And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s why we’ve been around for 32 years.)
We’re “system thinkers”: we make sure everything we create—from top to bottom web projects for financial companies, to postcards targeting potential applicants of a summer high school program—strengthens our clients’ brands. If the visual elements don’t jive with their other communications… if the message doesn’t ring true to the organization and their goals… if you can’t point to where it “moves the needle”… well, we’re wasting an opportunity.
To us, a “brand” isn’t a logo or a tagline or an eye-catching color you choose. A brand lives in the hearts and minds of an organization’s constituents: it hinges on how people perceive them and what they do, both in the context of the communications they create, and what others are saying (in the press, via social media, through word of mouth… and beyond.)
And no matter how big or small an organization might be, they are only so much in control of their brand—which means that at the moments when they are in control, they need to do a great job of sharing who they are.
That’s where we come in…
Designer
We’re seeking a Designer who makes beautiful things—beautiful things that do what they’re meant to do, within functional, smart, compelling systems. You will work on a wide range of projects—across an equally wide range of clients, both for- and nonprofit—in print and electronic formats, from worldwide brand identity systems to multi-year capital campaigns. Versatility is a must (if you couldn’t tell already!)
If you:
- do exceptional work on projects large and small, and across media
- work and communicate well with clients, and can articulate the thinking behind what you create
- make “problem solving” a priority in meeting the needs of organizations
- have a passion for innovative, progressive design
- have experience in both print and digital media
- are typographically savvy
- can multitask like a pro—without missing details or dropping the ball on communicating
- enjoy a collaborative environment, both as part of a deeply creative design community, and as part of a focused client team…
… then we’d love to talk to you. Scroll down to learn how to get in touch!
Brand strategist
We’re seeking a Brand Strategist who sees both the forest and the trees: you understand how brands are created, maintained, and loved, and how every aspect of an organization’s communications can reflect and strengthen that brand. You’ve ideally worked with both for- and nonprofit organizations (because we do!), and see each one of your clients as a unique, complex entity with their own needs and goals. In fact, you’ve thrown out all your cookie cutters… because you haven’t used them in years.
This isn’t an “account exec” position or a “brand manager” position or a “project manager” position, though all of those things are wrapped in to what you’ll do with our team.
If you:
- see “brand” as a never-static, living, breathing thing
- believe that stories are important
- can capably research (both qualitative and quantitative—stats AND in-depth conversations), envision, and implement brand-focused strategies
- love to dig into a new industry to learn all you can in a short space of time
- can articulate, write, and present in a compelling way
- can lead multiple client teams simultaneously, with efficiency and respect
- are conversant with both traditional and new media
- collaborate with designers, writers, and developers with respect and open ears
- manage and grow healthy, productive client relationships, and
- want to help find and realize new opportunities
… we’d love to talk to you. Our ideal candidate has 5+ years experience in and around branding, business and communication strategy, marketing, and website development. Experience in nonprofit marketing and fundraising wouldn’t hurt, either.
Ready to join us? We’d love to meet you—and we think we’re pretty fun to work with, too.
Please send your resume (directed clearly to one of the positions above) and some words about who you are and why you’re interested in being a part of our team to Human Resources, Sametz Blackstone Associates, 40 West Newton Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02118. You can also email hrATsametzDOTcom (no phone calls, please!)
Categories: Branding, Design, Digital Media, Nonprofits, Strategy and Management
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