In 1981, MTV was launched with the same logo it still holds today, over 30 years later. What I find incredible is the ability for this international brand mark to remain in it’s purest form, the same, whilst representing a corporation that is considered the pinacle of an ever changing pop scene. There is a cool story behind it as well. After hiring big hot shot New York agencies to design the logo without luck, they turned a portion of the budget to give a small time agency a go, and Frank Olinsky produced what is now iconically known around the world as MTV.

As a logo, it could be perceived as a little dated, but MTV have cleverly given their design teams over the years freedom to use it as a base for creativity, and for me, I think this is where it completely comes to life.  Brand is not about rules (you can’t do this, you can’t do that). Brand is about recognition. If you can find creative ways to ensure consistent recognition, then I believe you should be given as much freedom as you need.

The announcement has been made,  the news is out.  Facebook has successfully acquired Instagram for US $1 Billion (cash and stock).

But how does a company whose app officially launched 18 months ago, and with no official revenue, or business model sell for this amount of money?  It is remarkable news and in my mind, a significant comment on the business climate of the 21st Century.

Here are 5 thoughts to consider:

Jealous Much?

Instagram is a great app.  People love it.  In fact, they love it more than facebook.  With 30 million users, and a new release on Android, this up and coming world domination rival was bad news for Facebook.

If first you don’t succeed.

Facebook has reportedly approached Instagram in the past more than once, each time without success.  So why not add another 0 or two to the figure and give it another shot?  That’ll work.

The ‘Myspace’ Phobia.

Facebook is in the process of a stock-market float.  They want security.   Buying Instagram tells us they are aggressive in keeping their perceived market share, and willing to do what it takes to ensure it stays that way.   No doubt the Myspace story lingers in the back of their mind.  The once hailed super power is now the yellow jellybean that nobody wants to eat (it doesn’t even taste like pineapple, why would you make that a jellybean flavour?).  They don’t want anyone doing to them what they did to Myspace (take them out of the market), especially on the eve of looking for stock market investors looking to buy shares.

Backlash.

Instagram users would often either delete their Facebook account, or migrate most of their social media ‘time’ onto Instagram.  A lot of these people have a genuine dislike for Facebook with all it’s privacy laws and “school yard bully” persona.  It’s not surprising then that the backlash from the users has been unhappy to say the least.

Was Android the key?

6 days before the successful offer, Instagram launched on Android (the world’s biggest smartphone platform), and racked up 5 million downloads (That’s almost 1 million per day) marking it one of the biggest app launches in history.  Was this the final straw for FB?  Instagram actually accepted a bulk investment of $50 Million just days before the Facebook acquisition offer (for a minor % of the company).  This tells me they did not see Facebook coming.  They had no idea.  and it tells me FB knew they had to offer big to even have Instagram consider selling everything.

Some food for thought and there’s obviously much more to the story.  What do you think?

Instagram Founders, Mike Krieger & Kevin Systrom

There is a lot of buzz around design circles on the net at the moment, and it’s surrounding the new minimalist Lego campaign, called “Imagine”.  Brainchild of German agency Jung Von Matt.

The idea is in taking the simplest of building blocks and creating known icons out of them, in this case, famous cartoon characters, but it’s genius, because you find yourself staring at these for a little while intent on working it out, and truthfully, I’ll be impressed if you get them all.  Let me know what you score out of 8.  Visual communication is the art of actively engaging with viewers to connect with the design, and to connect with the brand.  I think this does it beautifully.  I love when brands go out of their way to invite the bystander to interact with their design.

You could make a book of these and sell it – it would be a fun way to spend a train ride home.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually happens, and yes I will buy it, and yes I know it’s shameless advertising.

There are online rumours that the idea came from an anonymous low quality photo post of an individual making simpsons characters out of lego.

See if you can work them out.  Answers at bottom for cheaters.

1. Simpsons
2. Asterix and Obelix
3. South Park
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. Smurfs
6. Lucky Luke and the Daltons
7. Donald Duck, Hewie, Dewie and Louie
8. Bert and Ernie

We watched an insightful documentary on New York this weekend centered around Bill Cunningham, the city’s premiere press fashion photographer for the New York Times.

Any documentary that feature a quote from the long time Vogue Editor, Anna Wintour saying “We all get dressed for Bill” is sure to spark anyone’s attention.

What makes the documentary, and Bill as a character so interesting is his refusal to sell out in any way.  His passion has, and always will be for the clothes, and his commitment to photographing a true representation of the world he lives in.  He seems not to be interested or swayed by celebrity.  He enjoys photographing the street as much as the black tie evening events.  This is to say the least, inspiring to watch, and the respect he receives because of this is an interesting social comment on how people respond to true authenticity.

Check out the trailer and take out 90 minutes to watch this.  It’s refreshing to see someone who has been in the game so long still pursue creativity with such conviction.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

“Bill Cunningham New York” has received greatreviews including 99% Critic review on Rotten Tomatoes.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of MoMA (top) and “Bill Cunningham New York” (bottom)

It seems so convenient to browse the internet and find stock photography for your latest brochure or website.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out for a few primary reasons.

The most obvious reason is that you lose people when it looks deliberately stock.  The purpose of photography is create an emotional and personable connection with your brand.  These photos do the exact opposite.

Stock photography searching can lead you down a rabbit hole that you may just never come back from.   There are so many possible combinations for photo searches. Here’s some of the more “interesting” searches I found, and I’d be interested to find a reputable branding scenario where they have been used effectively.

No doubt you’ve seen these posters popping up online, in books, and on clothing etc..  It reads simply “Keep Calm and Carry On”.

But what does it all mean and where did it come from?  

Now some of us know that in fact, these were actually old World War II propaganda posters used in England to help restore order in a time of chaos, and that they have resurfaced into popular culture in recent years.

However it seems there’s more to the story than just that, and a little bookshop in England has used the story in an engaging way to create a nice little advertising video.

As for the design itself, it has become somewhat of a 21st Century craze and it’s an excellent example of classic timeless design prevailing.  Most of all, I think the messaging is the most timeless piece of all, in it’s ability to communicate as effectively now as it did back then, although likely in completely different contexts.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I love viral videos because here we are oceans away from the very business we’re talking about, and viral video is the reason.

Till next time, Keep Calm and Carry On.

Ok I’ll admit it.  I do love infographics about Facebook.

Something that has such a large global impact is bound to have some interesting facts just waiting to be found.

These facts are sure to impress and scare everyone.

Image sourced from infographiclabs.com.

One of my favourite books following the journey of Michael Jordan through the eyes of his Jordan shoe designs.

The book has been done beautifully and for me it showcases the idea that design and branding can be very powerful when it has a story; a brand story.

Jordan had a brand story that lives on still today, over 10 years past his retirement, and his brand power is currently still worth a lot of money.

Jordan has been relegated to basketball deity and his shoes are still among the highest selling of any basketball shoe around the world.

But what made “Brand Jordan” so successful?  Here’s some thoughts:

1. Jordan was already the best.  There was no need to improve the product.  People recognised that they were watching someone who may be known as the best player ever.  What this does for your brand is unquantifiable.
2. He was smart, and extremely confident.  Early on, Jordan forced Nike to separate his shoe line “Air Jordan” to become it’s own entity. Now that’s confidence.  Turned out to be the best move they ever made.
3. he was visible.  How do you build a strong brand?  Make it visible to the right people.  Jordan was already visible everywhere.  Even now, Jordan still comments in the media regularly and jokes about how he may return to basketball.
4. The beauty of sport is that the longer a person stays retired, the more they become crystalised as deity in the history books (“Remember how good Jordan was?” is a regular conversational point) – This strengthens his separation from the rest and continues to put his personal brand on a pedestal.

See below for some of the spreads from this book below.

Has anyone’s brand been leveraged as effectively as Michael Jordan in sport?

Click here to purchase this book from Amazon

It has been said that fashion has cycles.  The very thing that was in fashion 20-30 years ago is now back in.  It’s a cyclical evolution that is an interesting one to say the least for an observer.

So what happens when you take that same strategic thought and you apply it to technology?  Will technology have cycles as well?  Was the very thing that stopped being cool years ago make a glorious comeback onto the world stage?  It seems so.

Recently Burberry combined the new technology of Twitter with the old technology of animated Gifs to produce make something cool that has not been cool in a long time.

I love it.  See for yourself, and maybe hold on to your old Flare jeans and Commodore 64′s.

One of the most recognised brands on the planet is only 17 years old.

Thought I would give you a short snapshot of it’s history of innovation.

Great companies learn to innovate in ways that make people’s lives better, and being perceived as an innovative organisation increase brand power.

1995

Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford, and decide to collaborate on a search engine project called BackRub.

1997

Rename BackRub to Google (maths terms represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros.

1998

Receive a check for $100,000 to develop Google

Move into a garage

1999

8 employees strong and too big for a garage, Google moves into a new office in Palo Alto

2000

On April Fools’ Day, Google announce the MentalPlex: Google’s ability to read your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins their annual foray in the Silicon Valley tradition of April 1 hoaxes.

10 languages introduced to google.com

Google becomes the world’s search engine (the first ever billion URL index)

2001

Image search launched with 250 million images available

Internal offices open in Tokyo (ironic)

2002

Running at 3 Billion + index size

Introduce Klingon as the 72^nd language interface

2003

Acquire blogger

2004

8 billion strong index and counting

800 + employees move to Googleplex offices

IPO of 19.6 million shares opening at $85 each

Keyhole is acquired and renamed Google earth

2005

Over 1 billion images on google images

Urchin acquired and renamed to Google Analytics

Google mobile launched

2006

Google docs is launched

Acquire Youtube

2007

Google apps is launched

Street view is launched

2008

1 Trillion unique URL’s indexed

Google Chrome is released

2009

The Vatican launches a YouTube channel

The White House uses Google Moderator to hold an online town hall meeting

Google Chrome OS announced for laptops

Monetise Youtube Viral videos to allow people to earn money from views

2010

Lots of acquisitions

Google maps introduces Bike Trails

Google TV announced

New look for the search engines

Google apps for education surpasses 10 million users

35 hours of YouTube video are now uploaded every minute

Google Chrome users triple from 2009 to 120 million

2011

Google Maps Navigation helps you avoid gridlock by routing you around traffic

Google + launches

More acquisitions

1 billion downloads of Google Earth

Long awaited Gmail redesign

32,500 employees with a revenue of $37.9 billion (profit $9.7 billion) and assets of $72.5 billion

But who is Google and what are they trying to achieve?  Perhaps this video will help.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Barack Obama’s campaign will be remembered in the pages of history for undoubtedly a few reasons.

One of those reasons will be the design and advertising component to the campaign.  In a word, it was done “masterfully”.

The Obama presidential campaign was an innovation in American politics and American design. For the first time, a candidate used art and design to bring together the American people—capturing their voices in a visual way.  See some spreads below from the book “Designing Obama”.  It’s currently sold out and not in production.

How did design help choose a president?
Why are people buying houses they cannot afford?
Why do U.S. car makers now struggle to compete? Why do we really have an environmental crisis?

Design matters. Like never before.

Disarming the weapons of mass deception.
Designers create so much of what we see, what we use, and what we experience. In this time of unprecedented environmental, social, and economic crises, designers can choose what their young profession will be about: inventing deceptions that encourage more consumption—or helping repair the world.

Do Good Design is a call to action:
It alerts designers to the role they play in persuading global audiences to fulfill invented needs. The book outlines a more sustainable approach to both the practice and the consumption of design. All professionals will be inspired by the message of how one industry can feel better about itself by holding onto its principles. In this provocative and dramatically-illustrated book, David Berman offers a powerful and hopeful message for all designers.

Today, everyone is a designer.
And the future of civilization is our common design project.

What you just read was the synopsis to a book written 2008 called “Do Good Design” by David Berman.

I am going to read it and will post it out after another copy to the first person to comment below – Perhaps we can keep the postal sharing going after that.