A single-serving website where you pick two materials (such as wood, vinyl, or fabric) and find out what glue will bond the two. More of this sort of thing, please.
This week, we launched the ANZ Online Shareholder Review. Working to meet the high standards set by ERD in their print version, we’ve worked to present the information to shareholders in a way more appropriate to online reading habits.
Recent work for the Amy Gillett Foundation – a group dedicated to ensuring that both cyclists and drivers work to reduce injuries on our roads.
As initially simple as this device seems, it went through numerous iterations to ensure that it was immediately comprehensible while easy to reproduce at a range of scales.
Its first use is on the back of a cycling jersey to be sold and given away at major cycling events.
We’ve just started work on their annual report, which we’re going to give a major revamp this year.
If you work in design, you’re constantly asked to do project-based work.
“Can you please create a brochure/website/package/logo for our company?”
The problem with many of these projects is that the outcome has been conceived before the problem has been outlined. The client has worked out that there is a problem with, say, not having a website. So they call me and ask for a website.
Like I said, this is starting in the middle.
Before a designer can do anything meaningful for you, they need to have an understanding of what your organisation is about. They need to be familiar with what you stand for, what your benefits are, and what your weaknesses are too.
Good designers and communicators can create powerful work when armed with this information. Without it, they’re just making pretty shapes in the hope that one will take your fancy.
During a rebranding, or any communications re-assessment, it is very tempting to think only of the things that an organisation does well. That’s what we normally do - sell our good points. It’s what we’re used to, and it makes sense viscerally.
But if you have existing business that you’re making an attempt to revitalise, it’s important to take a look at the things that you’re doing poorly. Is it possible that you’d get a better return by fixing the things that are broken, than you might get by advertising how good your benefits are?
Possibly. And if you can fix your problems before your competitors let your customers know about them, then you’ve saved yourself a headache right there.
Don’t let people trash your optimism. The guy in the meeting “playing devil’s advocate” is probably just looking for a way to contribute, and this is the only way he knows how.
Of course, he could also be a jerk. Either way, stay up-beat.
Most organisations want their designers to turn them into something they can’t be. If I had $1 for every time someone has asked me to turn them into Apple or Nike, then I’d be on a beach, instead of here in my office.
What people seem not to understand is that at essence branding is a very very simple discipline. To have a successful brand you need to do two things:
1 - Make a promise.
2 - Keep that promise.
Item one is easy. Item two is hard. What organisations need to realise is that, at their behest, we have started to imbue companies with personalities. If you can’t do item two on the above list, then I’ll let you know what personality trait you just got tagged with – liar.
Nobody likes it when people lie to them, and we’re no different with companies. So my advice to all of my clients from now on is going to start with the following simple idea.
Find out the lies your company is telling. Now stop telling them.
