WUMPWORLD

A Definition For Humanitarian Design?

After reading the many posts and articles discussing Emily Piloton of Project H and Bruce Nussbaum about Humanitarian Design, I’m left thinking there is a lot of hot air and chest puffing going on. I’m not sure there is an easy, clear answer to this debate and maybe there does not need to be one. The center of this debate is the role designers play in solving problems faced by cultures around the world versus solving problems where they live. How equipped are they to be involved in different cultures and provide lasting and necessary impact?

Nussbaum contends that designers wanting to save the world need to tread carefully when playing in other people’s back yards. They might actually be adding to and creating bigger problems with their intrusion and interference. Why not work on problems at home? He points a finger directly at organizations like Project H, Architecture for Humanity and Acumen Fund with his personal account of seeing how local cultures react to their presence. The reaction to Nussbaum from Emily Piloton is to be careful where you are pointing. She fully admits to mistakes her organization made with their first project the Hippo Roller. Moving forward, Project H has made a commitment of partnering with local designers within local cultures. To prove her point, she discusses how she moved the organization to Bertie, North Carolina where they will be working with local school districts to improve the quality of education. Other thought leaders have gotten into the debate including Alex Steffen, Robert Fabricant, and Cameron Sinclair.

A few weeks ago I attended an event by the local Seattle IDSA called “Can Designers Save the World”. This event contained many of the same discussions of this debate featuring a panel of designers who practice design in many cultures all over the world. I enjoyed the event, but found more insight when talking to Kara Pecknold from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (one of the panelists) afterward about her experiences in Rwanda. To be honest I went into that event thinking much like Bruce Nussbaum. Why are we so focused on problems in other countries when we have some real and significant problems right here. As I talked to Kara, I realized that she was changing my perspective on this. Not that she was convincing me to start working on design projects in far away lands (not her intent either), but that you need to be passionate about the work you do for others. For me personally, that means working on issues right here in the Pacific Northwest. Just because I believe my efforts need to be spent here, does not mean every designers’ efforts should. It is not my right to judge what is appropriate for other people.

If you are genuine in your approach, you will find a way to make the work you do beneficial to your chosen cause. Maybe, this is a bit naive and simplistic. After all, not all good intentions work out, but I think that is part of the equation. When you want to give yourself freely to a cause it is not going to be easy. If you fail or run into a wall no one is going to take over and do it for you. That is part of the journey. It is hard work that takes the effort of hundreds of thankless hours, tenacity to get up after being knocked down time and time again, and vision to look beyond the unknown future and darkness ahead of you. This focus of the debate is in agreement in all the discussions I have read. Western trained designers are not going to swoop down into an impoverished area and make everything right with the flip of a switch.

We all have life experiences and skill sets that are uniquely ours. Some of us are prepared to do specific types of design in certain environments that others are not. This is not by chance. While external events may cause us to move down certain paths, I find they are often enough preparing us for a challenge in the future. Everyone has made many choices in their life to get to where they are today. While many people may share similar experiences, thoughts and view points, you alone, truly know what is in your heart. I sit in no place to judge others on the best use of their time and energy. They must decide that for themselves and be honest with what they hope to achieve. This is not a cop-out, because in many cases the people you are collaborating with are most directly affected by those actions and will hold you accountable.

Do we need to categorize Humanitarian Design and determine what it is and is not? I hope not. Doing good work for people should not be defined by others who have not walked the same path of life you have.

Design Your Impact

One of the main problems we have as designers in a time of climate change and over-consumption is how to avoid adding to the problem. After all, our profession promotes branding, advertising, and marketing to companies that make stuff. We design the packaging, paper products, ads, reports, websites, and any other communication device that connect our clients to their audiences. We get paid to communicate every need and desire to consumers whether they need it or not. When we are successful it leads to more services and products being consumed. This leads to our clients growth in wealth and resources and the ability to make more stuff. They become thrilled by our work and hire us to do more. As a designer conscious of the problems we face for our future humanity, how do you balance economic success for yourself and the impact it has on the planet?

The first thing for graphic designers to do is rethink how the product or service we are promoting is communicated. How do you optimize a product or service touchpoint? If that product is a sneaker sitting on a self-serve shelf, how is the item packaged, displayed and transported? What materials are used to accomplish this? What are the upstream and downstream effects of producing these materials? What can be done to lessen the impact of that packaging? If you are designing communications for the services of a Massage Therapist you would have a different set of questions. What media or device has the best reach for their specific market? Are you designing a website, flyer, postcard, brochure, gift box, trade show booth or a combination of any of these? Is it necessary to use any of these communication devices to reach the goals of the project? How do you maximize ROI (return on investment) with the least environmental impact? Once you have a good understanding of what the project consists of, then you can design it to your specific goals. Can it be lighter, smaller, minimize waste, use less materials, reuseable or multi-functional? Can you use recycled, reclaimed materials and renewable resources to make it? Can you avoid toxic materials? Is it sourced from local, socially and environmentally responsible companies? These are design problems that weigh the economic, environmental, social impact versus the communication needs that meet the end goal for the project. What do you hope to accomplish with the project and what are the externalities resulting from it?

I have developed my own project report card for weighing these options and helping guide Riverbed Design through the process. You can find it here. Here are a few of the many resources that I would recommend for framing sustainable communication design methods; AIGA’s Living Principles, renourish and the book Green Graphic Design by Brian Dougherty. All of these have similar approaches and philosophies that will greatly help any designer. These resources cover the many aspects of sustainable design practices. They speak of the physical standpoint of environmental impact and the other two areas of the triple bottom line, economic and social impact. When I started my own company I had a vision of a truly sustainable design practice that has a positive impact on the world. I wanted to be able to wake up every morning and be excited and happy about the work I would do. I did not want to worry about what my work was actually achieving and who it was ultimately benefitting.  To accomplish this, I knew my company had to involve all three parts of the triple bottom line. Who I work for is just as important as the work I do and who benefits from it.

Everyone has their own idea of what “positive impact” means. You can make the case that working for Walmart will have a positive impact. They have a massive amount of influence on their corporate partners (wholesalers and manufacturers) with their purchasing power. This gives Walmart a great deal of leverage. Currently, they are using that influence to change the packaging for the products they sell. This is their sustainability mission that is reducing carbon in millions of metric tons and at the same time saving them a great deal of money. Personally, I would not work for them because of the negative economic impacts they make on local economies and how poorly they treat employees. This is based on my own value system.

Every designer or design firm has to answer this question for themselves: Who do I want to work for and why? It is important to have a value system in place that you can refer to as a guiding light. When times get murky and it becomes hard to trust your own instincts a value system can tip the decision matrix to making the right choices for yourself. It is paramount to do good research and make sure you will feel positive about the work you will produce for your client. There are plenty of companies that say they are doing the right things, but as soon as you scratch the surface things falls apart. Weigh the cost of the job, the type of work, the opportunities it provides, and what you will be paid against your value system. Interview your potential clients to make sure you understand them as well as provide yourself the ability to inform them on your particular approach. Do not lose the chance to show your strengths and knowledge. Building trust with a client will allow you to advise them on anything they consider you as an expert. On a small scale, this could mean the difference in whether they will explore recycled papers for a project, or on a larger scale, auditing their communication channels for a “green” friendly way. This can give you the best foundation to make the greatest impact. An important lesson I have learned is there is an abundance of companies wanting to do the right thing and they are waiting for someone to show them how. Sometimes you can make a more substantial impact by working for the company that wants to be green versus the one that already is. As a designer working in a the age of climate change and over-consumption, this is your chance to make a difference and feel good about the work you do.

Design Lives in Intuition and Logic

Over the past couple years there has been significant discussion about design thinking and how it is impacting the business world. The spokesman are people like IDEO’s Tim Brown and RISD’s John Maeda. Public corporations like Apple, Target and Proctor & Gamble attribute part of their success in the value they place on design within business process and innovation. Dan Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” outlines how our world of analytical thinking is changing. He makes a case for the need of design to lead America into the future. Business Week and Fast Company have both gotten into the game with many articles on design thinking.
Design Thinking…What is That?
Business Week Exchange: Design Thinking

People see the buzz and the success, but it is still hard to comprehend what exactly is “design thinking”. We know this is important but why? Even as a designer this can be hard to explain sometimes. Talking with other designers we all “get it”, but when discussing it with non-creatives it can be hard to capture that “aha” moment. I recently read the book“The Design of Business” by Roger Martin. He does an excellent job of outlining the process and showing how design thinking works successfully in business. He breaks it down into two main components; analytical (reliability) and intuitive (validity). These two components need to work in a “real time” cyclical basis through the knowledge funnel. A system that captures all ideas and feeds them through three process stages till they become a working algorithm.

“The distinction between reliability and validity, is at the heart of the innovation dilemma. The goal of reliability is to produce consistent, predictable outcomes. The goal of validity is to produce outcomes that meet a desired objective.”

Again this gives a great understanding of the importance of design thinking and the balancing of analytical and abductive logic. Undersanding reliability and the need to measure, report and predict based on past events makes sense. There can be difficulty in setting up the right systems to get the data that you need. Many organizations spend vast resources to make this happen. It is effective and proven to be well worth the expense. The part of design thinking that is harder to grasp is the intuitive. Is this a matter only for designers? Do you need only to hire designers to make this work? Part of the answer is yes and part of the answer is no. If you need to make it happen right now and your company does not have this skill set, then you need to hire a designer. Most likely this is the case, since intuition and abductive logic are not supported or emphasized in our current business culture. Designers have been trained to hone these abilities, recognize their effects and demonstrate why.

You hear the term “look and feel” associated with design and separated from content. “Look and feel” is emotion and emotion lives in the world outside of logic. I spend quite a bit of time observing and listening to my clients. As I listen, I let my thoughts create images and free associations in response to what I hear and see. These are intuitions. Some of these thoughts or visualizations happen because of associations to past experiences and the need for my mind to make sense of new concepts and categorize them with other similar ideas. Sometimes these thoughts are not associations at all. They are a feeling. When I sketch, I start with these feelings, ideas, words, concepts, and attributes written down next to me or floating through my mind. As I draw and work through ideas, I might control the designing of these concepts with particular strategies. On other occasions, I do not control it at all and let things happen. It takes time, patience and practice to perfect the honing of intuition. It also takes time and practice to gain the ability to see and identify why certain elements work or do not work. This is my own knowledge funnel of implementing strategies, experience and proven techniques in contrast to seeking out new innovations and ideas in a constant feedback loop.

As a visual communicator you learn how value, hue, line, space, rhythm, relations, symbolism, composition and depth can have an effect on design. How a tweak here or there can make a vast difference on how a viewer reacts to a what they see. This is the “look and feel” that others react to, but cannot always describe why. This is what you hire a designer to do for you today. In contrast, many organizations can start down the path of design thinking by creating processes that value intuition and practice it within the organization. It may take awhile for this new process to work. In the long run the practice will create muscle memory through proven success and innovation. This success will lead an organization to trust using intuition and logic together in a design approach.

Visual Development of a Logo

Last month I had the pleasure of teaching a one day class on logo design for the LINK program. For those of you unfamiliar (which a majority are), this is a program aimed at High School students with interests in Art and Design. It is affiliated with the local Seattle AIGA chapter, where I am on the board.

“The AIGA Link Program connects Seattle area high school students with creative professionals through nine monthly workshops. Every third Saturday of the month, students complete artwork that demonstrates an understanding of the medium presented by a guest artist. Seniors participate in a portfolio-building workshop to create a professional presentation of their work. Finally, the AIGA Link Program awards scholarship opportunities for qualified graduating seniors.”

I really enjoyed the session and was amazed by the talent of the students. In my preparation for the class, I put together a presentation that talks about logo design and branding. With this, I ended up creating a visual case study of my work on the Seafair logo to get the students primed for the same process they would go through. It was fun to put together and I thought I would share it here. If you want to see some of the particular ideas and concepts for how this process works, you can check out this previous post “Paint a Picture with Your Brand”.

This was the original logo we redesigned for Seafair. After going through a strategic branding process with Seafair, we developed key messaging, values and these six attributes.

The first step in logo design is pick up a pencil. Here is where the key ideas develop and sparks fly.

These are the first design concepts presented to Seafair. Things were off to a good start, but we needed to push it farther.

This was the second phase of the designs. Ideas were starting to coalesce but it they were not perfect yet.

This is the final logo. It has the right tone and combination of elements we were working for. The mark matched up with the attributes and represented the main aspects of a Seattle summer; sun and water. We also started developing ideas on how to incorporate the logo with the other 9+ logos in the event family matrix.

The final Seafair logo and brand family logo system

Internal Dynamic Communications

When two different pair of eyes view the same object, how can they see it or comprehend it differently? Because of the experience they bring with them. If you give a paddle to someone who has never been exposed to boats they will not know what a paddle is intended for. So how do you see things for what they truly are or meant to be? Or the question for any company; how do you tell your company’s unique story in a way that everyone comprehends it? You have to account for the context. Claude Levi-Strauss argued “it is only the way in which different elements of the content (form and context) are combined together which gives meaning.” You need to have context in order to have meaning. The solution is to create context within the form. This system gives structure to the form and therefore the context to explain the concept to new eyes experienced or not with the system. Put the uninitiated paddleman in a non-motorized boat on the water and give them a paddle. They will instinctively know the paddle is a tool to be used for this situation. They might not know exactly how to use it, but they will figure it out eventually.

Everything that evolves or is created within the form has a reference point. If this element changes within the form it delivers a new experience. Now give the newly experienced paddleman a new tool that looks like a paddle, but has an added feature like being lighter weight or an adjustable shaft for different sized people. The context you have created allows their comprehension to grow. This is called internal dynamics. You are not relying on general education of the masses to provide shared context to give meaning.

In communication or experience design you rely on shared context and internal dynamics. A web site is a perfect example. The usability of a web site is based on the instinctual nature it contains; how easy it is to navigate, to find information quickly and to understand how to use it. The level of someone’s experience in surfing the web is part of this, and other factors like how a culture reads, understanding of visual space, and readability of a typeface. Designers want to use these external elements that are part of our shared context to make communication happen faster and get straight to the center of meaning. What they do not want to do, is use external context to play a major role in the communication of a unique message. You need a good portion of internal dynamics to create the story.

If someone comes to a web site and easily gets the structure, that is good. But if they too easily perceive the content, that can be bad. That visitor will lose interest because they feel like they have seen it before and there is nothing new to experience. Seen that, done that. What keeps people intrigued is a new experience and delivering that consistently. This requires a system that relies on internal dynamics to drive the engine. A good blog site will often refer back to previous articles. This sets the tone and understanding for the current article or leads someone to learn more. Design uses this also. An often used example is Apple. You can take the Apple logo off of any of their ads and you will still know who the ad is for. Apple’s success means their style and approach will be copied. Again, when a design, thought or message is copied what benefit does it bring? In the short term it plays well and can give a quick boost. As time changes and trends fade the imitator will continually have to look for the newest fad to copy. Trend followers rely on external context to survive and thus are left to the whims of the trend setters. They are reactionary. Companies or organizations that rely on internal dynamics naturally evolve without the same struggles. These companies are proactive and do not use external forces to position themselves. They continue to push themselves by building upon their foundation of context. Each new idea carries with it a part of the original DNA. Because of this, internal dynamic companies do not have to explain themselves over and over again. Instead, these companies can concentrate on deepening their content and pushing innovation. They can afford to try new things because they have a structure to support them.

At Riverbed, we make our client’s communications successful through internal dynamics. We are lucky enough to work with clients that are innovative and full of rich experiences and services. We want to keep it that way. By concentrating on demonstrating their unique qualities and values, and developing an internal context for that experience, our clients can continue pushing the boundaries of their great work.

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.

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.

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 Wumps in Us.

I am sure you are curious about the name of this blog. A few of you might know the children’s book “The Wump World” by Bill Peet. I was lucky enough to read this book when I was a teenager. I instantly fell in love with it. It quantified my own feelings about environmentalism at the time in a grandiose way. As most teenagers, I was drawn to the dramatic. I now read this book to my kids and they love it.

It tells the story of a small simple planet called Wump World. The only occupants, the Wumps, are a species of hooved and happy animals whose routine consists of eating grass, drinking stream water and experiencing lazy days. The conflict arises when a fleet of space ships touch down. Out step blue aliens that proclaim ownership of the planet. These aliens are the Pollutians. They have lost their own planet to their industrious and destructive nature and had to find a new home.

Cover of The Wump World by Bill Peet

You can guess where the story goes from here. The Pollutians build their new empire as the Wumps hide underground.  They destroy Wump World and leave after finding another planet to inhabit. The innocent Wumps return to the surface only to be devastated by it’s condition. There is hope in the end. The Wumps discover a small plot of park and the green begins to push through the concrete jungle.

This is a great story on so many great levels. It is told so that even a young child understands it. As humans we are not that far from the self-indulged, industrious and all consuming Pollutians. We can also empathize for the defenseless Wumps and the destruction that has been done to their habitat. In the end it is not as simple to say the Pollutians are evil and the Wumps are good. The Wumps went into hiding before the Pollutians can see them or connect with them. They do not know they are hurting the Wumps at all. Would they care if they knew? Who knows, but both sides could have benefited from the confrontation.

As humanity, we must make decisions that fall between these two extremes. We should not be wasteful consumerists, but also cannot be blanketed in innocent ignorance of righteousness. We have to find ways to be industrious for the benefit of ourselves and our world. Let’s use or industrious nature to create innovation. With better solutions, we build awareness and a belief system supported by our individual communities.

This blog will use Wump World as an inspiration. I will talk about branding and how it relates to developing your business and personal brand. What business are you in and does it fit with your ideals as a person. Does it effect your world and community? I will discuss design and communicating your brand through images and messages in a sustainable way. I will also post on other intriguing news and thoughts about sustainability and social responsibility. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to let me know one way or another.

Corbet