BrandCultureTalk

At BrandCulture we like to acknowledge design done well, whether it’s in our own backyard or across the pond. The Fashion V. Sport exhibit at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum showcases apparel at the intersection of function and elegance from Nike to Chanel, Yohji Yamamoto to Vivienne Westwood. For those of us who don’t have […]

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Most marketers, designers, and consultants understand that there’s far more to a brand than a logo, but that doesn’t mean that logos don’t matter.
Your brand is the intersection between the promise you make to stakeholders, and the reputation (or lack thereof) you’ve earned in their minds. That reputation emanates from their interactions with your products, […]

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Nike’s 2008 “Be True” campaign, showcasing local designers with an urban aesthetic is a new take on the brand’s “Dunk” campaign – part of Nike’s effort to lure and retain an audience that demands increasing authenticity from the brands with which it chooses to truck. The Be True campaign’s informal design grid and individualized […]

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When thinking about identity I often reflect on a 1999 trip to Barcelona, and my first exposure to a highly branded political campaign. As an avid brand enthusiast, it was especially engaging to take in Pasqual Maragall’s artistically designed campaign for the regional presidency.

Since seeing Campanya Maragall, I often wonder, why haven’t U.S. campaigns performed […]

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Let’s play a little game of “Match the Blockbuster Drug to its Possible Side Effect”:

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The behemoth everyone loves to hate has changed its corporate identity. Its name is no longer the choppy, aspirated Wal-Mart; it’s the smooth, mellifluous Walmart. Its logo now employs a minimalist orange starburst at the end of a more fluid sentence case wordmark instead of a literal star between all caps.
Before:

After:

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In these modern times, there’s still a kitchen item you can give a woman as a present that counts as a real gift, rather than a gender stereotyping offense. I found out the hard way at Christmas ’06 that it’s not an immersion blender. No, it’s the KitchenAid stand mixer – a product whose throwback design and positioning hit a number of consumer sweet spots and command a serious price premium at retail.

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There always has been and likely always will be a contentious relationship between creatives and number-crunchers. Market surveys, and even focus groups, which require more art than science to analyze, are often seen by designers and writers as a gauntlet to be survived rather than an opportunity to gather unbiased information. Some advertising firms like […]

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