The importance of “Brand”
In today’s marketplace a great product/service with an average brand will be outsold by an average product/service with a great brand_
Brand Development, Business, Design | No comment
Brand vs Branding
To us, there is a big difference between “Brand” and “branding”_
One is the emotional pull, the other is the logical application of pushing it out_
We see these words banded around a lot but quite often the meaning of them is misunderstood_ It is all intertwined but its amazing how many companies go straight to the end products like websites, packaging (the branding) without working out their brand value before they start_ We know your “brand” is not your logo, and we would say it’s also not the physical applications of things like websites, packaging, etc but it’s the things you can’t always see, like personality, integrity, passion – the things that bring the elements like the website, brochures to “life”_
So please before you fill the world with more junk, please spend some time working out what it is that’s going to bring your products to “life” and you know what, you may find people spend more time reading your brochure, think more positively when looking at your website and it might result in less business cards and mailers being filed immediately in the bin!
Brand Development, Business | 1 comment
Brainstorming
We’ve just finished reading an interesting book by Professor Richard Wiseman called :59 seconds Think a little, Change a lot_ It’s about scientifically proven advice over misleading myths, on which a chapter is on brainstorming_
Now from our experience from working in some large advertising agencies we’ve found group brainstorming to be nothing more than the so-called non creatives to have a go at it and what we found was one person would become very loud and shout out “ideas” and the other account directors would follow like sheep without questioning the offer or actually looking to solve the problem, and for the majority of the time we found it a waste of time_
Then 1 hour later, and for some reason its always an hour, we would come out of the meeting with this idea dropped on our laps and we would then mention the problems of executing the “idea” and the original problem we sort of haven’t solved_
But the majority thought this was good so we had to be wrong, right?
Well from the research for this book they tested individual and group brainstorming and were amazed to discover that in the vast majority of the experiments, the participants working on their own produced a higher quantity and quality of ideas than those working in groups_ Other research suggests that group brainstorming may fail, in part, because of a phenomenon known as ‘social loafing’ – a diffusion of responsibility_
In short, a large body of research now suggests that people using group brainstorming may have inadvertently been stifling, not stimulating, their creative juices_ When working together they aren’t as motivated to put in the time and energy needed to generate great ideas, and end up spending more time thinking inside the box_
At blankzero we’ve always worked initially on our own to brainstorm and only come together afterwards to discuss the ideas and see if there are any obvious flaws or problems we will need to overcome before we present to our clients or to use it as a spark to create a new line of thinking_
What Design Means to Us
We decided to look at this question after watching a recent episode of “Design For Life” on BBC2_
“In an effort to find a new generation of British design talent, Philippe Starck, one of the world’s best-known product designers, invites 12 hopefuls to a school of design he has set up in Paris. Over coming weeks, he will whittle them down until one fortunate student wins the opportunity of a lifetime – to work alongside the master for six months at his agency in the French capital.”
One of the things we noticed was the lack of real problem solving_ Admittedly some of this is down to time and the speed at which answers are required without the lack of knowledge, curiosity or understanding the brief_
We also noticed a lot of information on design blogs and websites are not actually about “design” but rather how to use the tools to create design (graphics)_ Now this is, to a degree useful, but its not what makes the design successful_
To us, design has nothing to do with the software we use, but questioning the brief, then working in partnership with our clients to understand the problem and taking responsibility to solve it_
Usually in our line of work that problem for our client is they want more sales, or more people to respond, or more footfall etc_ So visual communication plays a huge part but even then the software plays the last small part, to us the first questions are about sustainability_ This is not to be confused with green issues but whether our solutions are timeless, we feel there is no point coming up with a solution that needs to be redone 6 months later_
Usability is extremely important and this is achieved by firstly considering how the things around us are or are not related to one another_
On the visual design we believe it should be aesthetically beautiful_ Its then about disciplines like proportions, space, typography, environmental or spatial exploration and also looking at a multi-sensory approach_
