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The 5 Basic Building Blocks for Branding Your Startup

Kenneth Grange, CBE, MCSD, RDI, (b. 1929, London) is a British industrial designer.

Grange’s career began as a drafting assistant with the architect Jack Howe in the 1950s. His independent career started rather accidentally with commissions for exhibition stands, but by the early 1970s he was a founding-partner in Pentagram, the world-renowned interdisciplinary design consultancy.

Grange’s career has spanned more than half a century, and many of his designs became – and are still – familiar items in the household or on the street.

Adshell Bench, 1972

Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern (exhibit)

Boots baskets

Kenneth Grange, Iconic British Designer (gallery)

Giving a Kick-Ass Presentation in the Age of Social Media__It was painful to watch. Jon Bond, the former ad giant turned social media honcho, was actually getting heckled at the Pivot Conference. When faced with what was a feisty crowd to begin with, Bond admitting that he “didn’t like Twitter” was like throwing fresh meat at rabid dogs. But rather than raise their voices, they let their fingers do the shouting. So while Bond continued to speak, a steady stream of snarky tweets projected on the wall behind him, acting like foghorns and essentially drowning him out.

Being a great speaker was never easy, but now, with your audience likely to have a mobile device in hand and real-time access to multiple social channels, the challenges have gotten that much greater. To get a sense of the impact of social media on conference presentations, I interviewed a bunch of regulars on the social media circuit. In the process, they helped me identify these seven (somewhat snarky) new rules for public speaking in the social media era…

COMMENT__I deliver 50-60 global keynotes / year; no argument with your points above. I would submit that “kick-ass presentations in the age of social media” still have to be kick-ass regardless of social media. You still have to bring great energy and passion to the stage, along with considerably more depth in your specific area of expertise. Expert first - speaker second. Unfortunately, even the speaking profession (and respectfully, it is a profession and not a hobby or something to do while you’re unemployed) is not immune to the hacks who read an interesting blog, research a topic, maybe even write a book and use the PR to get on far too many stages. Real thought leadership encompasses the capacity and the ability to articulate a compelling point.

One other quick point: I think if people are NOT tweeting about your session, that should give you a clue that it’s time for some introspection on your content or coaching on your delivery as well. The real time feedback is great. I also go through them after my session for key insights on the “sound bites” that resonated most. -David Nour (author, Relationship Economics)

Speaker’s Spotlight: David Nour (video)__”How can you innovate in a culture that doesn’t allow you to fail?”

This is Bullshit: My TED x NYED Talk (video)__”This is a world where anyone can teach and everyone can learn.”

PIC # 1: Virgin Mobile’s Own Kickback Scheme__PIC #2: BioLytical Partners with Virgin Mobile

Richard Branson on Branding__Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealized, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust. And beware: brands always mean something. If you don’t define what the brand means, your competitors will. [From: “Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur”]

Clients are the difference between design and art.

—

Michael Bierut, designer at Pentagram // CreativeMornings: Michael Bierut in “Clients” (video)

Sean Adams Interviews Michael Bierut__“MENTION A DESIGNER AND MICHAEL KNOWS THE MOST RECENT PROJECT THEY’VE COM­PLETED AND THEIR FIRST PROJECT, HOW THEY’VE CHANGED, HOW THEY HAVEN’T, WHO INFLUENCED THEM, WHO THEY INFLUENCE, AND HE SOMETIMES WILL MAKE A LITTLE SKETCH OR DIAGRAM OF THEIR WORK.” WHEN ASKED ABOUT BIERUT, HIS PENTAGRAM PARTNERS AND OTHER DESIGNERS WILL BEGIN WITH HIS MAGNANIMOUS NATURE AND GENEROSITY TO OTHER DESIGNERS. THESE THINGS ARE TRUE. HE DOES KNOW WHO IS DOING GOOD WORK, HE IS ENGAGED WITH THE COMMUNITY AND THE FIRST PERSON TO PROMOTE ANOTHER DESIGNER, AND HE IS A TRUE CHAMPION OF THE NEXT GENERATION (DESIGNERS, NOT STAR TREK: TNG). BUT THESE THINGS ARE DIVERSIONS FROM THE ACTUAL REA­SON BIERUT RECEIVED THE PROFESSION’S HIGHEST HONOR AND IS A HOUSEHOLD NAME IN HOUSEHOLDS WHERE FRANKLIN GOTHIC MIGHT BE DISCUSSED: HE IS A REMARKABLE DESIGNER. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.

SA: So much of your work is large-scale, long-term corporate projects. These involve large-scale politics. How do you handle this and maintain the ability to do good work?__MB: Any time you’re working with people, you’re working with politics, power struggles, turf battles, personality clashes. I realized early on it wasn’t enough to have a good idea or do a good design. You have to be able to persuade other people that your idea is right or your design is good, or else it’s never going to exist. This kind of persuasion depends on a number of things. Does the client trust you? Have you been listening to the client? Can you make your work understandable on their terms? Can you help them negotiate what may be an unfamiliar decision-making process? Unless you take all this stuff very seriously—and, more importantly, learn to take pleasure from doing it right—you are going to have a hard time getting anything done. I simply love this part of my job.

Michael Bierut is also a co-founder, editor and writer for Design Observer, “the most successful design publication online” (275,000 site visits per week).

Postcards From the Revolution: photos by ALEX MAJOLI

Alex Majoli Points and Shoots: In 2003, Magnum photographer Alex Majoli shot some big stories for Newsweek magazine.

Magnum: Advice for Young Photographers: Give it all you got for at least five years and then decide if you got what it takes. Too many great talents give up at the very beginning; the great black hole looming after the comfortable academy or university years is the number one killer of future talent. (Carl De Keyzer)

(Source: thisphotolife)

Time to Rethink Design (2010)__Let’s face it: design is now a major source of pollution. As process and a phenomenon, design has degenerated into a state of aesthetic proliferation that has reached accumulative and destructive levels, in terms of loss of meaning, value, and identity. The result is a vacancy of purpose, a world full of ‘designer jetsam and flotsam’ that is swilling around or embedded into or above our planet; poorly designed products, unwanted solutions, unfriendly materials, and a mutlichoice of artefacts that are discarded as fast as they were adopted. […]

Part of the issue is the success story of Design itself. Design has come a long way in a short time, a profession that is barely a hundred years old. The practice of conceiving, planning, shaping, and fashioning solutions to our natural environment, has made for a highly designed world of the purely man-made. We have become so successful in our ardour to improve and refine, that the act of designing has become part of the problem and not the means to respond to authentic human need. Why are we not more perturbed or disturbed as professional community, why are we so tolerant of the surplus, and indulgence of pure creative experimentation? […]

Fact: Responsible design is not about doing nothing, but it’s about doing the right things. To create long term acquired value, instead of short-term gain and profit. To build a future on generosity instead of greed, about care and attention, about making a difference rather than making more things! […]

Design is no longer about the lifestyle, but the lifecycle. Everything that is man made is designed, so we cannot blame nature for overreacting or the current design aware generation for poor quality. We must orientate our endeavours towards understanding ambiguity and contradiction, embracing diversity over uniformity and identifying inclusiveness, over exclusiveness. […]

Much of present design has become unresponsive in being irresponsible and wasteful, disregarding traditions and accumulative knowledge of the community. It has instead become a global language of the objectified adhoc, juxtaposition of hybridization, random customisation that has been still born, rendered obsolete as its newness is replaced by more newness. One is left with questions without answers. Who understands this language? Is there a purpose? Do we need this Esperanto of design? Can we afford this incoherency? What legacy does this leave our children?

Successful design thinking often manages to transform a problem into a solution, and permits confusion to become clarity, obstacles to be overcome. The better design processes create order and effectiveness without affecting the creativity and wit of the designer. It is about cross pollination, and non-linear diversification and converging given attributes into a transformative resolution. These kinds of methods could create design that unites the past with the present, balancing the simple with the sophisticated and the discreet with the bold. Quite simply creating a new generation of design outcomes that are founded on a holistic, sustainable, meaningful view. We need new storytellers. […]

I Shop Therefore I Am (2008)__In the future consumption will be more about experiences and services than things. There is always a stop somewhere, the strong generation of the forties, with a big purchasing power, who had nothing as children and grew up in a constantly ascending conjuncture and hence could buy everything! They are decreasing. This generation and earlier are/were very possessive and materialistic. Today the world looks very different. The importance of owning is slowly turning into the importance of experiencing. It may be looked upon as an escape from a turbulent world (possessions can be lost but memories are for ever) as well as the natural order. There is always a reaction to an action. And the action of that generation was buying, owning, buying, owning…

Traditional luxury consumption, as we define it now, will not provide the same status in the future as it does today. If one seeks attention money is better spent (if you necessarily need to spend them) on something useful. Something that will benefit many people. Perhaps in the future giving will be more important than having. Are the companies, who survive on our consumption, prepared for this transition?

Perhaps we shall also buy fewer but better products, aim for quality (both in material and design)? True sustainability is achieved first when we keep the things that we buy. It could because we’ve become emotionally connected to them, because they’re special and has a special meaning to us or because we saved up to be able to buy them, or perhaps even that they were difficult to get by. If we still want to get rid of them it is important that the products can be given away or put back on the market, preferably unaltered to save material and energy. Defenders of consumption are however not the least worried about the social and environmental problems caused by our consumption. Their motivation being that innovation and new technical solutions will save us. What do you think?

RELATED: Closed Wallets, Closed Minds__As remarkable as it may sound, we are moving slowly into a post-consumer society. As consumers we have begun to feel doubtful of this circus, to resent being part of this unthinking consuming collective. Downshifting has become a real phenomenon, off-the-grid living an experiment more are taking up, while even the love of vintage might point to a greater demand for products of both more emotional and sustainable meaning. We have even started to become anti-brand, prioritising fundamentals the likes of value for money, utility and ease of use above the label. The good thing is, consumers also have the power not only of the democratic vote but the ‘economic’ one, through which this agenda might be pursued.

I find beauty in the grotesque. Like most artists, I have to force people to look at things.

—

Alexander McQueen (collection)

Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.

— Martin Scorsese

Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.

—

Walker Evans__photog (via theimpossiblecool)

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