Identity on The Findings Report

From Badging to Hacking

Sun, 25 Jun 2017 16:06:00 -0700

Last week the marketing elite gathered in Cannes for the annual pilgrimage sometimes called “ad agency spring break.” Meanwhile, Publicis announced that all of its agencies would take a year off from awards events like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to focus its investment on new artificial intelligence named “Marcel,” sparking considerable angst within its ranks. Meanwhile, Amazon purchased Whole Foods and Walmart purchased Bonobos. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Confessions of a Strat-o-Saur

Sun, 12 Feb 2017 15:28:00 -0800

Design-o-saur is a pseudo-pejorative expression in the branding community. It’s both an insult and a badge of honor. We use it to refer to old-school identity designers—the ones who came up in an era heavily influenced by the Swiss and hyper-focused on logos. There aren’t many design-o-saurs still with us. That’s why it’s a badge of honor. These lucky few followed the footsteps of legends like Walter Landor, Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Raymond Loewy. It’s entirely true to say they don’t make them like that anymore. But the term is also a bit of an insult because there is an increasing feeling that that approach to brand identity design is becoming less relevant. It’s facing extinction.

A Historian's Thoughts on America's Identity

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:40:45 +0000

Thinking about the brand of America—our identity—and what it will take to continue to keep the American identity strong, I was struck by these comments by historian Joyce Appleby in an interview with Bill Moyers. Watch it for yourself. The discussion on identity begins at 27:51.

Moyers: Can we create a new identity as Americans? What is an American today?
Appleby: Do we want to create a new identity? I think we want to recover what's best in us. A tremendous respect for each individual. A belief in expanded ambits for action and thinking. An admiration for innovation. A respect for the law. A belief in an independent judiciary. I'm sounding like a terrible chauvinist but I do admire the best qualities in our country.

Appleby’s books have examined many of the characteristics of what it means to be an American. Her latest book, Shores of Knowledge, examines the curiosity that led to the European colonization of the New World and the birth of modern science. In her own eloquent way, she defines the essence of what it means to be American–to be curious and to go forward with a sense of optimism. Appleby doesn’t sugar coat the American experience. She reveals many of its dark sides, but again and again she reminds us of what the brand of America means today and has always meant–from the first colonists to the baby boomers. Here’s an example:

Why is Black Friday Black?

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:21:29 +0000

You can’t surf the web, listen to the radio or watch TV today without hearing some reference to Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving here in the States and one of the busiest shopping days in the holiday season. Shoppers love Black Friday because there is an opportunity to find massive discounts. That’s why people are willing to line up in front of stores the night before.

But how is it that Black was chosen as the name for this annual discount ritual? Conventional wisdom says its because the one-day sales hit from this day can put a retailer “into the black.” But that seems an odd reason to attract shoppers. You’d half expect them to react to Red Friday, a day when you’d expect prices to be slashed. Then again, red has perhaps some negative connotations of its own. Perhaps Red Friday is better suited to a massive discount on Stephen King novels. But the color Black doesn’t always conjure a positive association . For example, Black Flag is a line of insecticides. It’s a brand name that earns your purchase because it is guaranteed to kill.