WUMPWORLD

The Picture of Sustainability

I met with Alan Alabastro this week. He is a photographer that photographs cultural events and architecture. We had a nice discussion about our businesses and found we connected on a variety topics. At one point, I was discussing the plethora of green leaf logos, water drop icons and planet earth globes, that are the typical arsenal for designers branding sustainability. These logos devalue the true nature of the businesses they represent. By using the green leaf icon they look like all the other “green” companies and programs out there. A great question he had for me is what does an image (photo) of sustainability look like? What a great question. How do you get to the basic principals of sustainability in a visual way? Alan’s own insight into this question was capturing the moment someone is putting their coffee cup into the right container whether that is recycled, compost or trash. This is the most direct and topical. It deals with where we are today and serves as an instruction guide to actions we can make to have an immediate impact on climate change. It gives guidance and informs people of what they do not know and what they could be doing. If everyone does their part, then we would make a tremendous impact on the problem. How this type of direct representation of imagery relates to individual organizations, movements, and companies is a case by case issue. A green product or company has its own direct action that needs instruction on why they are green or sustainable. That was at the center of our conversation; creating the right imagery for the businesses we work with.

I take it a step farther. Showing the object (in this case a coffee cup), and what to do with it, is a specific problem that relates to a moment in time. Each business has a cup and problem (what to do with it) and therefore a solution (recycle, compost, trash) that serves the interest of sustainability. This is what you can do today with the choices we have. But what about capturing the cup, the person holding it, the environment around them and how they all relate together? At first glance, this might seem like an insignificant variation on the original idea. The idea is to pull back our focus on the individual problem or object and capture the bigger picture. The image is showing the process that we can use to be more sustainable but the focus is no longer one action, but how does that one action relate to everything around it. If the background contains a hint of people walking by, a swath of blue sky, or cars rolling through traffic, we get this sense that there is more to the image than the cup and the decision of the person holding it. Part of this is direct in communication (the cup, person, container), and part of it has an emotional impact that we feel viscerally (the environment surrounding the action).

Whether it is the overall problem of climate change or an individual organization’s sustainable product or service, the imagery has to go beyond object oriented. It needs to tell the bigger picture or experience. Some organizations by their nature are dealing with huge concepts like 1% for the Planet. Their organization unites companies across all industries to make an impact together. On the flip side most companies, whether they are green or have green initiatives, are promoting individual products. An architect designs a LEED Gold Building. How do you capture that building, so that it represents the true impact it makes? Create an image of the building with people using it and the environment it surrounds. The aesthetics are important. People are attracted to beautiful things. Combine the beautiful building with the meaning of the building and what it does. This creates the context for the product or service and gives an emotional impact.

Give people a vision. Let them have more to look at and they can have a better understanding of what the choices are. It is hard to fathom how a slew of individual objects (sustainable programs, products, buildings, etc…) within the narrow scope of their own settings, leads to sustainability for everyone. Images that capture these objects as well as their surrounding elements begin to form connection points of interest. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, people can visualize or feel how these bits and pieces start to fit together. The context is no longer individual, but holistic. It is no longer trapped in a single action of now, but how all these actions relate together towards a shared future vision. This is the marriage of the right brain and left brain. The analytical reasoning on a finite point of time matched with the emotional impact of seeing the forest beyond the trees.

Do we want to only create images that tell people what they must do and drag them down the path kicking and screaming? Or show them the bigger picture so they can make their own choices based on more information. Give context to sustainability and people will be drawn towards doing the right thing or at least buying or participating in it.

Branding 101 with Toys

When I was a kid my favorite toys were G.I.Joe and Transformers. These toys did not need to be explained or taught. They were a rich detailed world of imagination and creativity. I could pick one of these toys up and immediately dive in. My brother and I could create our own scenarios and stories to entertain ourselves for hours. Each of us would gravitate towards specific characters that we liked. Sometimes these characters were the same, but most of the time they were different. Our choices tended to follow our personalities. My brother preferred the outwardly brash characters that were at the center of the action. I preferred the secondary characters that were heroic but understated. You did not have to see a cartoon or comic book to start categorizing these characters and fitting them into certain slots like the strongest, fastest, or smartest. As the world of these toys expanded I could put new characters within certain gaps that might have been missing. For toys, these characteristics were stereotypes that enriched the story telling. The packaging and toys themselves communicated all of this.

How does this work even at a young age? Why is it so much fun and mesmerizing for kids? It is part discovery, part creativity and part making sense of the world. This process did two things for me as a kid. One, it made the characters easily understandable. Two, because I was involved in the process, I became personally connected to them through my understanding and imagination. I began to identity with the characters and anticipate how they might think or act. Later when I watched the cartoon, the storytelling matched up to my viewpoints and gave me more story to learn and explore. This all came from my need as a child to understand the world around me. These toys and characters are a language of archetypes that teaches universal ideas. When I came across similar stories, I applied these universal ideas to comprehend the new stories more quickly and completely. It allowed me to dig deeper into understanding the world. As the characters developed I started to attach more meaning to them and they became more complex.

These characters are symbols to an intricate web of ideas and concepts. When the characters interact with each other the complexity quantifies and patterns start to emerge. These patterns are similar to archetypes and symbols you can find in mythology, literature, fine art, music and other communications involving storytelling. Another communication method that works this way are brands. Brands, toy characters, music, stories, fine art are all communication devices that represent an abstract concept, idea, thought or a system of concepts, ideas and thoughts. Some are easier than others to translate. I’m sure the people that designed G.I.Joe and Transformers purposely made them outwardly simple and left room for the toys to grow with imagination and understanding. They used universal symbols with the toys in order to get the messages across easliy and therefore catch on quickly. The marketplace for toys is aggressive and demanding. New ideas like brands or stories depend on universal symbols, but they also need to be delivered in different combinations to fine tune that particular message. This is why it is important for companies to distill their brand down as far as it will go. Once the first message is delivered and understood, brands can start adding more complex ideas to build a true connection to a single individual. Brands must answer our needs for matching to universal symbols and work dynamically to differentiate internal characteristics and quality of that given product or service.

Man Made Image

“We can recognize random logos of corporations but cannot identify a tree in our front yard.” I was inspired by this from the documentary “11th Hour” by Leonardo DiCaprio. It reinforces the idea that nature is not relevant to our daily lives. If it is not a part of our culture and daily interactions, then how do we expect to understand the magnitude of what we have done to the planet. In “Blessed Unrest” Paul Hawken describes how much we miss if we are not looking for it. Right now we are looking for corporate logos because we feel they have more relevance in our lives than the tree you stare at everyday outside your window. It makes sense because we have been trained to think and look at things this way. The abstract symbolism of a corporation we buy products from becomes ingrained in how we look at ourselves. Thanks to designers and brand strategists like myself, the force of brands connecting to individuals is powerful.

The tree outside, while it lives in our physical environment it does not actively try to interact with us. It does not send you emails or connect to you on Facebook. It does not know about the latest trends or best buys. What that tree does is far greater. It takes the carbon dioxide we produce and turns it into oxygen that we breath. It prevents the foundation of your residence from being flooded. It traps moisture in our environment to help support a water rich ecosystem. We do not see these things happening. These processes are not as eye catching as the latest Hollywood blockbuster or beer commercial. This tree does not effect our conversation we have with our friends, family or co-workers. The tree is not relevant. We need to change that. I’m not saying world peace will happen if everyone can identity 30 trees. What I am saying, is we need to take a deeper look at what we consider important in our lives. We need to change our perspective. If we as individuals knew as much about what was happening in our environment, that truly effects us, we could accomplish amazing things.

We need to create new images that represent more than one organization’s success. If Coca Cola’s brand is worth billions of dollars, what could we make the ocean’s brand be worth? What is it worth today? I think we could all survive in a world without Coca Cola (at least the majority of us), but could we survive without a healthy ocean? These issues are not only about the environment or nature. Everything is dependent upon each other.Humans are part of nature whether we like it or not. In many ways we have thought and acted as if we are separate from nature. Now is our wake up call to reassess that idea. How does poverty affect toxic levels of mercury? Overcrowded prisons affect air pollution? I’m not a scientist so I could not tell you, but I do know that all things are interconnected. The cause and affect might have dozens of steps in these examples or seem unrelated altogether, but at some point they connect. By changing how we perceive and approach these issues we can change our understanding and how we see ourselves in relation to the world. We can turn selfish consumption and our instinctual need for production towards bigger tasks that ultimately save the human race. Humans possess a great gifts in innovation and creation. We just have been using them to gain independent wealth. Fathom what it might be like to live in a world where we work in harmony with the planet. Our skills at creation and innovation could spur a better world for us and the trees.

Buy What Matters

Do you consider yourself as part of the masses? Then why do you act like it? We have more freedom now than anytime in human history to buy the things that express ourselves and meet our needs. Why do we continue to follow companies that do not represent our interests?

It’s in our DNA. We learn at an early age to follow the path of least resistance. Our brains program connection points and map out our understanding with each new experience. When we do things a second time we expect it to be similar to the first time. If it is not, we feel it is different or not right. Ever drive somewhere a second time and feel like it took less time, but in reality it did not? That is because you are not paying attention to every detail like the first time. It is easier and less work because you know what to expect. That is the power of the big brands. They create an environment of consistency. We can expect the same product or service for the same cost over and over again anywhere in the world. This creates trust to the consumer because they reinforce our expectations. Whether you like it or not you know what you are going to get. The choice to go with these brands becomes the path of least resistance. You do not have to think about it. Even if you do not get exactly what you want you get something you kind of like for a cost that feels right. Who knows what the true cost of that product or service is to the planet or human society. “The grass is always greener” cuts both ways. Most of us desire something different, but rarely do we choose to change unless we are forced to.

We have a chance now to break from this structure, if we can get out of our habits. The opportunities to show people the “grass is greener” is right in front of us. The big brands today must work harder to keep our attention because the internet and social media provide a forum for people to share an opinion about anything. New companies can reach directly to a consumer without building a brick and mortar presence or advertise in traditional media. Not only can they talk about themselves, but so can consumers passionate about their new product or service. That is the power of blogs, twitter, facebook and the many other social media outlets. It is still an exposure game but the diverse number of people’s interests create a more specific communication outlet that can drive to a specific niche. If companies can find those “influencers” they have a chance to make an impact overnight.

Follow the brands that represent your interests and make sure you let people know about it. You have the chance to change the way we do business and give a good company a chance to compete with the big brands. We should not accept mediocrity or morally questionable products because it is easy. There is plenty to go around when people follow what they like versus what has been presented to them at the “global” neighborhood store. Use your buying power to voice the products and services that mean more to you and create a diverse marketplace.

Valley of the Wind

Recently I watched the “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” a film by Hayao Miyazaki. With the release of Miyazaki’s latest movie Ponyo, I wanted to take a look at some of his other films. I started to watch Nausicaä and realized I had seen it years before. Looking back I did not get the full impact of the movie until now. Partly because the original American release was missing 20 minutes and titled “Warriors of the Wind.” Hollywood/Disney did not think Americans would get it.

This movie is beautiful. Not only is it aesthetically wonderful, but the story is compelling on many levels. It takes place in a time unrecognizable to us today. The world has been completely changed due to an apocalyptic event and the birth of a poisonous forest dominated by giant insects. The source of these epic problems is man and his need to consume. I have read and seen several apocalyptic style books and movies over the last couple years. The great ones being “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy and “I am Legend” (original book) by Richard Matheson. These stories are dark and gritty and show the struggle of humanity’s last days. The next phase of the Earth is desolate and empty of what we humans consider to be beautiful.

What Nausicaä shows is that the earth will continue on and it could very well be beautiful without us. The poisonous forest teem with a brand new life looking like an alien landscape that is deadly to humans. It gives a glance of how humans would struggle with a new paradigm of our own creation. What we see as antagonistic like a poisonous forest and giant insects, are a way for the Earth to bring balance back to its’ ecosystem. How do we fit into this? Do we continue to struggle for our normal way of life? Do we find a way to have a symbiotic relationship with the evolution? Nausicaä does a great job of showing how hard those decisions are and how we can be completely blind to the environment around us. Often times those answers are sitting right in front of our faces. Let us hope it does not take a thousand years for us to figure it out like in the movie.

Paint a Picture with Your Brand

How do you translate your brand into the right image for your company?

As a business you have answered the basic questions for your company in establishing your brand:
What business you are in
Who your customers are
What products you are selling
What differentiates you in your marketplace
What value you bring
Why someone should care

Community Skate & Snow design program

You might have taken the big step and created your brand promise or brand positioning statement. Now what do you do with it? You have to start communicating it. You need to put together the materials that will represent your business. Part of this is taking that brand concept and communicating it through imagery. This begins with your logo and is followed by photography or illustration, graphical elements (lines, shapes, patterns, etc…), colors and fonts. All of these elements will be used to translate your brand into marketing communications like websites and business collateral. Hopefully, you are hiring a graphic designer that has the right experience and skill to develop your company’s visual brand.

The graphic designer’s job is to communicate answers to questions like: who made this? Who owns this? What is it? What makes it special? They also have to communicate the emotional aspects of your brand. On top of this, the designer must make your brand appealing to your business’ target audience. After all, if your potential customer does not like your image, then how far will you get? That is a tall order for a logo that might not appear bigger than one inch square on a business card or website. Here is some information that you can provide the designer to lead to a successful end result.

Attributes – describe your brand with personality traits. If you saw your brand walking down the street what would it look like? Is it classic or contemporary? Flashy or cool?

Associations – play the association game. What people, places, things, metaphors or symbols come to your mind when you think about your brand? Is your brand Teddy Roosevelt or Bono? Zeus or King Kong?

Values – the rules that guide your company. How do you go about your business? Are you loyal, ethical, a team player or only in it for the money?

Tone – the approach you take in the professional world. How do you communicate with your clients? Are you serious, edgy or funny? Are you laid back or a social butterfly?

Create a list of each of these categories. Brainstorm and look at every possible angle. Then pull five descriptions out of each category. Put all of these elements together and you begin to paint a picture of your brand. Here is an example:

Kaleidoscope Office Galleries
Attributes – stylish, connecting, knowledgeable, hip, global
Associations – Miles Davis, harlequin, kaleidoscope, collage, Paris
Values – creativity, inspirational, egalitarian, collaborative, community
Tone – respectful, flexible, approachable, personable, meaningful

Once you have compiled these descriptions together you will need to take it one step farther and analyze it. What do you think of this picture? What would your target audience think? Your competition? Does this make you stand out? If you like the answers to these questions then you are ready to create the imagery for your brand. If your answers start to look confusing and contradictory you will need to change your approach. For instance, if you are a web developer and your tone is elementary. That might not be the right approach. Analyze your list and cross off the descriptions that might be industry standard like professional or quality. Take a look at the competition and see where elements on your list separate you from them. Look for descriptions that make you unique. Be sure you can back-up anything you say. Do not promote your brand with something unrealistic or impractical. That might get you noticed, but will backfire as soon as people experience your brand.

Now you have a refined description of your brand. This description combined with your business strategy will give the designer the whole picture. This picture is what your designer will work to create into graphics and imagery. The clearer the vision for your company is, the more potent your brand’s imagery can be. There are people and businesses out there looking for your company. The problem is they will not know it till they see it. Make sure you paint the right picture for them to see.

Compostmodern

GREEN SALON #3 / COMPOSTMODERN

Last month I went down to San Francisco to go to AIGA’s Compostmodern event. It was an enriching trip. I heard some great talks from amazing speakers like Saul Griffith, Ph.D., Allan Chochinov, Emily Pilloton, and Dawn Danby and even got to speak with some of them one on one. On April 8th I have been collaborating with others in the AIGA to put together our third Green Salon where we will be showing via webcasts these speakers once again. Not only that but we got a tremendous opportunity to have Algalita Marine Research speak at the event. Have you ever heard of the Island of Trash? Check out this video.

Eating our trash?

Please come to the event next week if are intrigued. It will be interesting, informative and entertaining. Click here to register. I would love to see you there.

Clean Coal

The World Without Us

I just finished a great book called The World Without Us by Alan Weisman http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html

While this book is not directed at the sustainability movement, it includes a great deal of the information and data that supports the effort. It brings to light how much we as humans have effected the planet and how long lasting our effects will be on the earth if we were suddenly removed from its’ surface. There are passages in the book that are beautifully moving with detail and imagination about what the world will look like without us.

“As pavement separates, weeds like mustard, shamrock, and goosegrass blow in from Central Park and work their way down the new cracks, which widen further. In the current world, before they get too far, city maintenance usually shows up, kills the weeds, and fills the fissures. But in the post-people world, there’s no one left to continually patch New York. The weeds are followed by the city’s most prolific exotic species, the Chinese ailanthus tree. Even with 8 million people around, ailanthus—otherwise innocently known as the tree-of-heaven—are implacable invaders capable of rooting in tiny chinks in the subway tunnels, unnoticed until their spreading leaf canopies start poking from sidewalk grates.” Alan Weisman

The book introduced a few new things to me like the island of trash in the pacific and the planned nuclear waste storage center in Nevada. Another concept that it cleared up for me was clean coal. The name itself seemed counter intuitative when I heard it for the first time. Clean coal? Really? The way Alan Weisman describes it, it proves to be counter productive and putting off the inevitable. Clean coal does not change our need to move away from the carbon it produces. We cannot hide the waste beneath the carpet so we look better. The new ads the Coen brothers put together for Reality Coalition has the right take on this problem.

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Pepsi

You have probably seen this document before, but I find it fascinating. There was a supposed leak of Pepsi’s ideation document supporting their new logo. Pepsi spent millions of dollars on their re-brand and it looks like the Arnell Group spent a huge sum of it to come up with this document. Attached is the document.

pepsi_gravitational_field

At first I thought it was a joke. As I read the document, I realized it was not a hoax, but completely misdirected. It is amazing the amount of time and energy that went into this document to sell the idea of Pepsi’s new logo. The Arnell Group used this to deliver an ego boost to the Pepsi executives so they could be justified on the money they spent for the logo. The general public was never meant to see this document and it is a shame that it has.

While I’m not much of a soda drinker, I was beginning to think that Pepsi did a good job with the re-brand. I did not think (like most) that the logo was designed to mimic Obama’s logo. The similarities are few and far between. I’m also not sure it is better than their former logo. What I did think they did a good job with was the packaging. It is simple and clean, causing it to stand out in the visual chaos of the soda pop aisle. For once, I thought Pepsi was not following in the tracks of Coca-Cola.

Now all I can think about is how egocentric and out of left field this logo is. Maybe Pepsi can do something to change my mind in the future. It is going to take a great deal to overcome my feelings about them, because as it goes in branding:

Perception > Behavior > Reality.

The Long Tail Brand

There is a lot we can learn from the success of internet based companies. One concept in particular, applies well to creating a strong brand, the Long Tail. The Long Tail is a phrase coined by Chris Anderson in October 2004 in Wired magazine (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html). It is created by a market of unique products. These products do not appeal to masses but instead to distinct tastes. What makes them distinct also makes them different. Differentiation is pivotal to creating successful brands. By creating companies and products in the Long Tail you have already solved one of the challenges of creating a strong brand. Here is some background information on the Long Tail from wikipedia:

The Long Tail

“The concept of a frequency distribution with a long tail — the concept at the root of Anderson’s coinage — has been studied by statisticians since at least 1946.^[2] The distribution and inventory costs of these businesses allow them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The group that purchases a large number of “non-hit” items is the demographic called the Long Tail.” To read more go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail

As individuals in society we are looking to find networks where people have the similar tastes, values and shared experiences. We want to to be a part of a community united by common thoughts where we feel ourselves, and have the freedom to be ourselves. As these unique ideas, thoughts and tastes become popular they pull away from the Long Tail and land themselves in the masses. Individuals following these ideas, thoughts and tastes become lost and no longer feel unique and part of their own community.

This is where the great long lasting brands step in. Brands like Apple manage to straddle the Long Tail and the masses very well. Apple appeals to individuals that have tastes similar to Apple’s brand and business approach, like the design industry (the Long Tail and long term buyer). Apple also uses product innovation like the iPod, to appeal to a mass audience (one hit wonder).  At the same time, they have not alienated or lost either market. Quality, innovation and design becomes the great equalizer. Brands that actively and visibly communicate their desired qualities have a much better chance of succeeding no matter where they start on the tail.

“As they wander further from the beaten path they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought, or as they had been lead to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture” Chris Anderson

Our networks that are gathering are creating their own markets that do not pertain to the mainstream. As companies realize the can make money on these smaller markets they will increase spending in the Long Tail. In the physical retail space people want one-stop shopping Wal-Mart style. It is lower value and they can live without the perfect fit for the sake of convenience. The opposite is true of the internet world. It is already seen as convenient and more personal. You can always find what you want. This combined with our economic climate and the sustainability movement will cause the physical retail world to react. Will we see the Wal-Marts disappear? Doubtful, rural areas have become dependent on them like the general stores of old. But we could see urban areas revitalize the butcher, baker and candlestick maker in a similar vein. In our information age, local companies and products can begin to tailor to the Long Tail interests. If they are communicating their brand well, they can build success on the local level but also interest on a global scale. There are some great opportunities for companies that appeal to a smaller niche that have never existed before.