Origin of ideas

Came accross this information about the world’s top ten ideas being generated in the following places

1. In the toilet (no. 1 on the list)
2. While commuting to work
3. In a boring meeting
4. While exercising
5. Waking up in the middle of the night
6. While listening to a church sermon
7. In the shower
8. While falling asleep or waking up
9. While performing manual labour
10. While reading for leisure
    

I for one will pick no. 10 as my most effective period spent generating good ideas. What is yours?

Redesigning the bookstore

The other day, I was at a bookshop and then walking through the shelves, I came across a book I had read a few months before and it brought back memories of what the book was about and what I was going through at the time, career wise and all. The same thing happened with a second book I recognized and then a third – each one I touched; each a unique piece of me. In a manner of speaking each book was like a (computer interface) window which when you clicked on open up this universe of sensory and cognitive experiences.

The truth is this experience was entirely personal. In a way, the bookstore created – with its shelves, cool décor, books and their arrangements – expressions, raw materials which together with the input of my past memories brought about a specific experience. In other words, the bookstore had inadvertently played a crucial role in “designing” this experience.

The design of the bookstore has stayed essentially the same for many years. Shopping for a book hasn’t changed significantly even with the advent of the internet (alright I give up, there is Amazon.com). Perhaps this is largely on account of the pristine nature of books themselves.
Should we really trust blurbs and book summaries to help the consumer make an informed choice? Most bookstores tend to be conservative in their architecture and décor. Next time you take a walk through a bookstore, notice how people interact in that environment. In all happens in their minds. There is a huge divide that consumers can be helped across, especially those who do not have experiential knowledge of the books and thus have no idea what lies behind that “window”.

Perhaps, stores should have book consultants (not attendants who shadow you asking over and over if you have found something you liked) who can relate with the client. Better use of interactive media could help. I admit that book clubs have come in handy. But if what is really purchased by the consumer is the experience, then more needs to be done to bring them home.

Judging a book by its cover (a case for design in enterprise)

Tom Peters, the management maverick, is one of the most vocal proponents of getting design to have its rightful place in corporate strategy. Not only in the creation of products but in the development of what he calls “Beautiful systems” as well. In short, he speaks of design as being a pervasive philosophy in strategy (Check out his book, “Re imagine!”).

It is as important for the small business as it is for the blue chip company. It is at the interface of the consumer’s interaction with the product, service or company. Thus it is an important frontier for the battle for the consumer’s mind space. From print adverts to invoices, product packaging to corporate culture; design has the capability of creating a level playing field (just as websites or “internet real estate” has come to be) among competitors.

Apple did it with their sleek designs and the birth of the celebrity creatives like Jonathan Ives while for a company like Bang and Olufsen, it gives wings to its poetic flight. Thankfully, the idea has trickled down form product development to a new way of thinking. As a conceptual model, design’s essence is revealed and can be readily seen in everything the organization does.
Everybody loves good design. They want to perceive things as affirming their sense of form without compromising functionality. They want something truly beautiful.

About FinBank brand

Came accross this article in Vanguard online about FinBank's new brand (http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/18063/49/). I think it is a nice article. I even find the new appreciation for design in corporate strategy laudable. Again branding is serving as a new frontier for competition among banks which offer similar services anyway. However, I do not think it is limited to logo design or a new website. Though it is yet to be seen if there will be excellent execution of the brand strategy document which I am sure would have come with that colourful logo, I believe we can only wait and see it go beyond lip service. About the logo, I do not see all the qualities listed in article without help. If a logo is a symbol and should be representative of certain features then it should not "need an instruction manual" for us to understand it. Or at least it should be simple enough for us to grasp.

In all we wish them the best

For more, check my post on "Logo design:a consumer's perspective" below

Mask as metaphor

This write up was inspired by a paper I came across entitled “Brand as Mask”. Written by Nikhilesh Dholakia and Detlev Zwick, their idea examined the nature of the brand as an interface; as a symbol through which consumers may interact with the product. Tracing the evolution of branding from its place as testimonial of the quality of manufacturing, distribution etc of the product and service, they followed it down to what it has now come to represent – itself.

The increasing power of global corporations and the need to maximize profit have led to practices that certain consumers might consider to be less than honourable. From the cheap labour procured through outsourcing partners in third world countries to the environmental consequences of their work habits, the practices of these organizations have under closer scrutiny. Thus the birth of a new kind of production. This does not take place in factories in India or the rungs of a service company but in the creative enclaves of advertising agencies and brand consultancies. Naturally, this leads to the creation of another “product”, a carefully crafted message and philosophy which interestingly might bear no resemblance to the physical product or service. Here is what I think of as equivalent to a bi personality disorder.

Perhaps, this dissonance may come to some form of convergence now that the message becomes the product itself. In other words, the brand is the product. Thus we return to the era where it all began, when the brand was the product but not without our experience with creating that unique brand “philosophy”.

Take the green strategy prevalent in the western world. It reveals a symptom of this conflict and an attempt at resolving it. The increasing support among consumers for environmental causes has caused a rethink in the board rooms. Thus corporations are not just voicing their support for environmentalism but showing this in the creation process of their product (e.g. use of environmentally safe chemicals) and even the product itself (e.g. Electric cars).

May be what is needed is the brand as a mask with a clear patina which guides our perception of the truth. The brand becomes the image of the corporation – an icon. Where this return to the core of branding allows for honest appreciation and a more complete brand experience for the consumer.