The Nation and the Brand and the Nation as Brand

Wally Olins, founder of Wolff Olins and now chairman of Saffron, a branding agency, presented a no-nonsense review of branding nations, using excerpts of research done on how nations are perceived and his own practical experience.

Not surprisingly, national stereotypes are still strong in the marketplace. At one point he flashed up a pic of a group of Spanish flamenco dancers in costume, saying "This is the impression that many people have of Spain. Now, we have an office in Madrid, and in all the years that I have been going to Spain, I have never seen anyone dressed like this!"

"little countries think of big countries all the time, but big countries don't think about little countries"

What was most entertaining was his no-bullshit style of talking, which generated gems such as the quote above in response to a question from a Latin American conference attendee - tough but true, and a style worth emulating. You could easily see why the man is a member of the pantheon of globally influential designers and an outstanding business success to boot.

The Crowning Touch

Bo Linneman of Kontrapunkt, Denmark, reviewed work they have done for a huge range of Danish government ministries, where the primary visual icon is the Danish crown.

Interestingly, in Denmark, there is no prescribed visual form for presenting the crown, but rather a Royal-appointed arbiter of "whether the visual form accurately represents the Danish crown." This gave Kontrapunkt a lot of freedom to play, for example hiding a keyhole in the crown developed for the Ministry of Finance, or turning the crown into a subtle version of a jester's hat for the Royal Theatre Company.

Even though someone later made a crack about how boring it must be to base such a wide range of identities on the same visual core, it was illuminating and also inspiring to see a designers exercising their freedom of choice in such a focused fashion.

"she doesn't make any decisions, the power is with the state"

Bo was talking about the Danish queen in the quote above. It reminded me of the predicament that many CEOs are in. Because the CEO usually the personification of the corporation, outsiders tend to assume that the CEO is the one who has made all the decisions that they announce. In my experience it is much more complex and political than that. So, as with the Danish queen, CEO's have to deal with a "state" (the rest of the organisation) where much of the decision-making power, and opportunity for action, really lies.

http://www.kontrapunkt.com

Brand D'nA

This is visual identity application system created by Trademark Design, a studio based in London and South Africa. The system automates the production work of implementing a corporate identity system. You know the stuff I am talking about - endless business cards, with comps slips, letterheads and standard signage, etc. etc.

The system is really very impressive! Since I am paid to be a cynic about this type of software, it takes a pretty solid demo to convince me that a new piece of software is worthwhile.

Once the design templates have been created, anyone, including client staff, can use a series of simple interfaces to create the artwork. Trademark Design have implemented this system with over 100 clients in the last 9 years, and have also been smart enough to ensure that they hold the patents as well.

This software is a preview of the next phase in the automation of design labour, now that automation of the design tools (eg. Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop) has been completely integrated into the profession and educational curriculum. Whereas these tools moved work from the drawing board on to the computer, this type of software is about moving work from production workers hands into the computer!

Older designers probably recall the upheaval that occurred during the late 80s and early 90s as a result of the proliferation of Apple Macs, design software and laser printers. Productivity took a leap, but it was a wrenching change for the studios that were completely geared towards hand-crafted production processes.

Brand D'nA is probably an alarming development for studios that still rely on production work for a significant proportion of their profits. This software effectively automates a work process currently resourced with mostly production bodies, but that also requires a degree of senior design management time.

Smart designers will recognise this system as an opportunity to increase their focus on the identity and system design, and as a huge lever that can enable them to tackle really large projects without having to have a small army of people doing to the production.

http://www.trademark-design.com
http://www.dnaprojects.com/main_site/home.htm

Managing CI via Internet and New Technologies

Roland Schweighöfer used Metadesign's long term relationship with Audi to illustrate some of the challenges in adapting visual identity to the Internet. It was evident from the range of work that Metadesign has an enviable "primary advisor" relationship with this client as the examples included many that they had not executed but rather advised on, for example, new car showrooms in Germany, or national websites in Latin America.

However, as with all CI programs that have to span many locations, Roland highlighted the problem of getting far-away subsidiaries to play ball with the core design system. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that in many countries, the public face of Audi is of independent sales and distribution companies, rather than of Audi itself.

For MetaDesign, it seems that creating the CI manual online is now standard operating procedure - an idea definitely worth picking up on. The other remarkable thing about Roland's presentation was how refreshingly matter-of-fact it was - no hype, no jargon, no specially-named methodologies - just a great, clear explanation of the challenges of managing globe-spanning work.

http://www.metadesign.com/

Corporate Identity in the Czech Republic

Ales Najbrt is one of the most successful designers in Czech Republic. He gave us a whirlwind tour of a number of designer colleagues. Some of the work was outstanding, some of it was just interesting.

What was surprising was the amount of thinking behind many of the designs - it was refreshing to see so much real creative and design thinking as a change to the flood of "novel but mostly just decorative" visual design that flourished in the dotcom era.

Many of the issues facing designers in the Czech Republic, and indeed elsewhere in Central Europe, would be very familiar to designers in Australia, eg. Sustaining a practice, developing creativity, working with clients, etc. Hmmm, is that commonality a good thing or a bad thing?

http://www.najbrt.cz

Managing for the Creative Spirit

Earl Powell of the Design Management Institute talked about the need for organisations to nurture and sustain the creative spirit. Earl is a decent man with loads of experience, but I got the impression that his talk was originally aimed at design managers within corporations, rather than to creatives. As a result, I felt he never fully connected with the audience because he was speaking too abstractedly.

His fundamental point, that organisations should manage for creativity, rather than try to manage creativity itself, was well made. He argued for the need to focus on developing the creative teams, individuals and a supportive work environment - this message applies as much to design businesses as it does to corporations.

There was a moment of controversy when, during the Q&A, someone asked whether design schools should include business subjects in their curriculum. Earl was initially quite adamant that they shouldn't, but a tide of opposing sentiment forced him to clarify that position.

I agree with Earl in that it is not necessary for design schools to include business subjects at the same level that they would be taught in a business degree, but I do believe that some business basics are necessary and useful to ensure that designers can understand their clients, and also look after themselves in business situations. In my experience of successful designers, being genuinely creative doesn't seem to prevent the same head from having business smarts as well.

http://www.dmi.org

Corporate Identity: A Business Perspective

I was the last speaker in the conference, and had been asked to speak about the relationship of corporate identity to corporate strategy. What I spoke about was three "design-business puzzles." These were:

• If brand is so important, how come client marketing and brand people don't have more influence?
• Why do clients find it hard to come up with precise briefs?
• How can business people find out if the new identity actually stands for a real change in the business?

Rather than bore you with the details, you can download my presentation and speakers notes here. The presentation includes a simple schematic that I suggest is one way to explain corporate identity to a business person - since there are so many ways that this explanation is done today, I figured that one more diagram couldn't hurt, and some folks might even find it useful!

• download presentation and speaker notes [87K]

In addition to speaking at the Identity/Integrity Conference, I was also very involved in the Icograda Regional Meeting (IRM) that preceded the conference. The topic of the IRM was "Raising Design Awareness." I will be posting a report on that meeting in the AGDA section, where it will be accessible by AGDA members only.