Looking Back On Two Decades

A recent endeavor of mine was an installation at the Brooks Stevens Gallery of Industrial Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.  This exhibit celebrates the 20-year anniversary of the gallery and features historic work as well as a section devoted to the last 20 years of output from our company.  In addition to pulling together the exhibit I also participated in a panel discussion on the opening night.  Being that I started with Brooks Stevens just about 20 years ago this carried a little emotional weight for me.

The opening statement of our portion of the exhibit touched upon an issue I find very interesting from the view of a consultant design firm:

Industrial Design is often discussed using the language of visual aesthetics. The “function” of a product viewed as something to be captured within a stylish shell formed and polished to conform to the aesthetic vision of a lone designer. With success, that designer’s vision may extend to more and more products, imbuing them with a common “look”.  And so a designer’s brand language strengthens… 

The work of Brooks Stevens Inc. over the last 20 years doesn’t exhibit a common “look” nearly as much as it does a common “touch.” It is characterized by a focus upon bringing true value to the market and to the end user – crafting a balance between the factors of consumer desire, business viability, and functional feasibility. Aesthetic language is more impactful when it cooperates with functionality instead of fighting against it, and promotes the brand of the client rather than the brand of the designer. 

From products you touch everyday to products that touch your life in critical times… From nudging young dreamers to explore design to those careers started with BSI which have gone on to influence other firms and manufacturers…   

The touch of Brooks Stevens Inc. surrounds you – and it goes deeper than just the surface.

The BSG@20 exhibit also features work by Fiskars, Master Lock, Lunar Desgin, and GE Healthcare. The show will be ending its run on the 8th of February, 2014, and I encourage those of you who are in the area to visit this unique show before it closes.

Trust Me, You'll Love It...

I recently attended a branding presentation by Harvey Briggs, hosted by PDMA at Johnson Health Tech.  In addition to his extensive experience with major brands (Chevrolet, Pepsi, Kimberly-Clark, Oscar Mayer, Black & Decker, etc…), Harvey has accumulated numerous accolades including a Cannes Advertising Festival “Gold Lion” and being named a “creative All-Star” by Adweek.  A core message of his presentation stressed that branding should be baked-in from the beginning of the NPD process, rather than applying it as a veneer near the end as so many do.  Products, not advertising, are the ultimate expression of a company’s brand.  Call me selfish, but I support this sentiment.

Still, there are other elements far too influential to overlook.  One way to bake in a consistent brand from inception is to have a dominant personality be the face of the brand – such as a charismatic founder (e.g. Steve Jobs or James Dyson).  It is a bit ironic that Mr. Dyson derides the concept of “branding” when he so effectively represents the brand of his namesake.  This of course presents a problem when the progenitor ceases to be – since companies typically hope to outlive their founders.

Kentucky Fried Chicken soldiered on with stylized images of their founder, even dabbling with a cartoonish iteration which likely caused some heartburn for those who knew the real man.  Betty Crocker’s relatives and friends had no such concerns.  Perhaps the most forward-looking approach is that of KISS - intentional or not.  By turning themselves into cartoons from the start and keeping their identities secret, they created a brand which could survive their departure.  In fact, they currently tour with replacements playing the roles of Ace and Peter in full makeup and costumes patterned after the 70’s originals.  That’s 50 percent, and the band has openly talked about continuing tours with 100 percent replacements – a touring cast in the mold of Cats and Phantom of the Opera.  Is this wrong?  The spectacle, the songs, and everything else will be the same for the fans who trek to these shows…

Brand is a promise of a consistent experience, and the faces, characters, and icons presented in the media all serve as proxies for the product in delivering on that promise.

Am I Constructivist Or Am I Memorex?

As discussed previously, in order for a Visual Brand Language (VBL) strategy to be applied successfully across a diverse line of products, we understand that there needs to be some level of mutability to it.  The "amount of stretch" required may vary depending upon the nature of your product line, but it is always there at some level.

But if a strong VBL relies on recognition and mutability simultaneously, do we have a conflict?  Well, it turns out those two factors are not as mutually exclusive as it would first appear.  In his book "This Is Your Brain On Music" Dr. Daniel Levitin explores how our brains interpret and process musical stimuli.  Throughout the book he uses musical examples to illustrate aspects of how our brains access memory and recognition, and relates these examples to the competing Constructivist and Record-Keeping theories.  While this is all well above my pay-grade, in a nutshell it can be stated that Constructivists argue that we store relational information to inform a reconstruction of events when needed, while the Record-Keepers argue that memories are recorded verbatim as in a video file.  Both schools of thought have evidence to support their views, and in the end it appears that each contain a part of the truth.

If you were able to successfully identify a popular traditional melody whistled to you out of pitch, out of time, and with inconsistencies in interpretation, your brain would be illustrating behavior consistent with the Constructivist theory.  You took an imperfect input and broke it down into sets of relationships which you could interpret and derive meaning from.  Each individual pitch may be off, but if the relationships between them is somewhat consistent with the intended melody (not even in amount, just direction up or down) you will most likely be able to identify the song.

Interestingly, if we turned the tables around and asked you to whistle a recent hit song to me (one with a singular, definitive performance), you would perform it closer to the original performance’s key and tempo than chance could account for.  This is true whether you had musical training in your background or not.  Relationships are not the lone factor of recognition, your Record-Keeping brain maintained a persistent reference for you to recall in this scenario.

The Constructivist theory demonstrates to us that in the absence of specific sensory information, even in spite of it at times, our memory is capable of dynamically reconstructing a story.  This is at the core of why a VBL framework can be manipulated so dramatically yet still remain recognizable to the consumer.  Your VBL is a melody, which is reinterpreted time and time again through the multitude of product offerings you bring to the market.  The individual product may be a cappella, mellow acoustic, death-metal dirge, or a dance remix, but The Song Remains The Same…

Your Brand Is A Melody

Defining a visual/emotional target for a new product is at the heart of what every designer does.  It is one of our "bread and butter" skills.  Things get exponentially more interesting when the challenge shifts to a line of products instead of simply one.  Does the line of offerings have similar basic forms to deal with (such as automobiles) or do they vary greatly (as in sporting goods)?  Do the different iterations imply differing levels of expense and quality, or does each target some unique functional segment of the market?

Just as there are a multitude of scenarios to contemplate, there are a multitude of approaches which can be taken.  Some approaches opt to rigidly define a language and apply it in a systematic manner to the line.  This can be very successful in regards to customer recognition, but it also can be very limiting if your brand needs to serve a wider customer base or react to changes in those markets.  Not exactly niche concerns - I know, right?

To effectively support a brand vision over time a Visual Brand Language (VBL) strategy needs to be agile and adaptable.  The mutability of a brand language is what gives it strength.  We don't want it to be so rigid that it is fragile; one element out of position makes the whole house of cards come down.  We want a VBL strategy to be more like a melody - where if I whistle it to you out of pitch, out of time, with inconsistencies in interpretation, you can still easily recognize it for what it is intended to represent.