The Brand Explorer

China in need of design thinking

2011-10-22T22:11:00.001-06:00

It seems to me that a little design thinking is needed here. If these resources were targeted toward the actual need and level of ability of the people, a lot of good could be done.

AIGA Fellow Award and Cross-Cultural Design

2011-05-26T22:34:00.000-06:00

AIGA Fellow Awards 2008, 2011

On Saturday, 21 May 2011 I received the AIGA Fellow Award thanks to the Salt Lake City Chapter of AIGA. I am touched by the outpouring of kindness from many people in the Salt Lake design community, honored that AIGA national approved the award. This has caused me to think back about ten years of collaboration with passionate designers all over the United States and around the world. Together we spent thousands of volunteer hours to help connect the U.S. design community to the rest of the world -- a cause to use design as a tool of international peace and understanding. This award and the 2008 Fellow Award presented by the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) are in recognition of the significant work done by everyone who contributed to AIGA XCD. This is the first time anyone has received the Fellow Award twice.

In the past few years I have gone from the global to the very local. It has been three years since I left my own practice and began working in-house at the largest community bank in Utah. Cross-cultural design is one of my life passions. This job is giving me the opportunity to pursue another – experiential marketing. I am very lucky to report directly to a CEO that has a vision for innovation. He gives me the room and backing to pursue the whole range of customer experience including “voice of the customer,” product development, marketing metrics and every other method of delivering on our brand promise. We have made exciting progress in the last three years through one of the toughest climates in banking history. In fact, I believe the intense pressure on the industry has created an environment that is more open to innovation and change. Much of our work is behind the scenes, but it is beginning to become more visible.

At the AIGA award ceremony last Saturday, I met a woman who served an internship on the AIGA XCD Sharing Dreams program in Cuba. She told me the experience changed the direction of her career. She has since completed a master's degree in cross-cultural communication, but she’s wondering where the future will lead.

The Center for Cross-Cultural Design still exists, but not under the AIGA umbrella. In the last few years, AIGA ended the community of interest structure on which AIGA XCD was based. Zelda Harrison and a group of others have chosen to continue on their own. I’m not sure of the current status. If any members of that group are reading this, please give us an update in the comments below.

From the inception of AIGA XCD, our goal was to put ourselves out of business. We believed that a global mindset should be an integral part of the organization. It should be woven throughout. Keeping international considerations in a separate “department” makes it impossible to become global citizens. I am very pleased to see how AIGA has made such progress in achieving this vision. Honestly, this would have happened with or without AIGA XCD.

So, back to the central question at hand, “what is the future of cross-cultural design?” Where can designers who are interested in cross-cultural design turn for community? I believe that individuals with this focus are needed in every community as experts to whom others can turn for guidance. I also noticed yesterday that the d.school at Stanford has a cross-cultural design program in partnership with Peiking University and the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). Of course, Icograda continues to be very important source for international design contacts and information. The cross-cultural design movement is beyond the vulnerable germination stage and will continue to flourish in many ways in many places around the world.

AIGA XCD China2009

2011-04-30T21:26:00.000-06:00

I know this is out of date now. It was a promotion for the 2009 AIGA Design Expedition to China led by Zelda Harrison. It's worth revisiting, however, as the AIGA SLC chapter will be looking back at the AIGA Center for Cross-cultural Design at their AIGA 100 awards on May 21, 2011. This is an awesome piece. Thanks to Devon Hirth for the animation. So fresh.

Kurt Weidemann 1922 - 2011: The King Is Dead, Long Live the King!

2011-04-11T11:49:00.002-06:00

Kurt Weidemann, one of the most influential typographers of the 20th century, died at the age of 88 on March 31st, 2011. Weidemann helped form the identities of companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Zeiss, and Deutsche Bahn, changing their corporate designs not only for the better, but for the best. After returning from captivity as a prisoner of war in Russia, he took up a career in the fields of graphic design, typography, and moral courage that was second to none.Thanks to Guy Schockaert in Belgium for the link.
See the video on Vimeo here.

This is when I am proud to be part of AIGA

2011-03-21T12:15:00.000-06:00

AIGA SUPPORTS JAPAN

There is a very strong feeling of solidarity among the international community of designers. this is facilitated by participation in the various design associations. Here in the U.S. AIGA is the conduit. In Japan it's JAGDA -- Japan Graphic Designers Association. ICOGRADA, IDA and other international organizations are the glue that holds them together.

On the home page of their webiste, AIGA has posted a message of solidarity with the people and the designers of Japan. Together with JAGDA they have made a call for ideas for using design to help make the lives of those suffering from the earthquake better. Through this process they will bring knowledge from past projects such as AIGA's "Leave No Designer Behind" initiative from Hurrican Katrina and will document new initiatives for use in the future.

This sort of deeper purpose in design, and in any work, really strikes a cord with me. I also express my simpathy and support for the people of Japan at this difficult time. And once again, I am proud to be part of the international design community through AIGA.

User Experience vs. User Interface Desgin by Kai Brunner

2010-12-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Chicken and Egg from Kai Brunner on Vimeo.

PETA’s New Front for Protesting is Digital - DesignTAXI.com

2010-11-29T21:48:00.001-07:00

Check out this new development in social media protesting.

PETA’s New Front for Protesting is Digital - DesignTAXI.com

The surprising truth about what motivates us

2010-09-28T11:31:00.000-06:00

Summary: What motivates people to do creative, imaginative work? Not money. Of course money is an issue, but take that off the table by meeting this need and what motivates us is:

1. Autonomy 2. Mastery 3. Purpose

This is a little long, but totally worth watching.

Human Pixels from South Korea

2010-06-28T17:20:00.000-06:00

Building Online Communities: BRITE 10 Summaries

2010-04-02T07:57:00.000-06:00

On day one at the BRITE Conference it was great to see some old friends It was great to see David Rogers and "Schmitt" (as he likes to be called). I also had a chance to catch up with Don Sexton, another marketing professor at Columbia. (I'll show a video of his thoughts of the conference later.) And I was pleased to meet up with David Polinchock. He shared a desk in his SOHO office with me at Brand Experience Lab whenever I was in New York for at least 5 years. Schmitt was surprised to learn that I live in Utah--and that I have always lived in Utah. I was in New York so often that he always thought I was a local. Nice.

If there was a major theme on the first day of the conference, it seemed to be about building online communities, putting people to work on tough problems, connecting people and how to find the right vein of desire to make things scale or go viral on a big scale. Here are a series of summaries of the presentations on this theme.

The Anthem of the Poorly Treated Customer
Dave Carroll of Halifax Nova Scotia kicked off with his song. As I mentioned, he really tapped into a widely held feeling of frustration that we all have with major brands. They promise to take care of us and make life better. We believe them, or at least hope the promise will be fulfilled. Then when something happens, we hope they will demonstrate their care and simply take care of us--make us whole. When they treat us like they did Dave--fighting him for 15 months and refusing to replace his guitar that they handled so carelessly, we get mad. Dave's song "United Breaks Guitars" is an anthem for this experience we all share. He tapped into a strong vein.

Power to the People: Obama and the Red Cross Lower the Barriers to Making a Difference (with a Little Help from Blue State)
The next example of tapping into and feeding a powerful national emotion was the my.barackobama.com community created by Blue State Digital. Thomas Gensemer, the managing partner of Blue State told us not only about the story of the Obama online community, but the principles behind it. (see case study)

The story was fascinating. just two weeks before Obama announced his campaign, they got a call from David Axelrod to set up a community the way they had done for Howard Dean (the first to use such a grass-roots Internet campaign in this way). Immediately, one of the partners moved his family to Chicago. Eventually, they built a 100-person agency within the campaign itself. It was the largest group on the campaign staff. They gathered 13 million e-mail addresses -- one third of all the people who voted for Obama. They raised $500 million from 3.2 million donors. They sent out two billion e-mail messages, "not all to one person, although it may have felt that way at times," Thomas said.

The principle or goal here is to "Lower the barriers of entry and raise the level of sustained engagement." In other words, they made it easy for people to act on their passion, to do something en mass, to combine their small efforts into a groundswell had the power propel Obama into the White House.

Thomas also talked about their work for the Red Cross and Haiti relief, which was another powerful story.

So How Do I Create a Viral Hit If I Want One?
Duncan Watts, Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! let us in on the secret to this question. The team at Yahoo! did a study of influencers on the Internet looking for patterns and trying to understand how to repeat big hits. They used short URLs from BIT.LY to track an individual's influence, which is a pretty cool idea in itself because each person's BIT.LY URL is unique, even if many people are forwarding a link to the same thing. BIT.LY is one of several URL shorteners. If someone wants to forward a link, but the URL is too long to easily fit into their Twitter limit of 140 characters, they can go to http://bit.ly or http://tinyURL.com and make a short one. It is then possible to track this person's influence. Where did that URL go? How many people forwarded this link originating with that person?

It turns out that a very small number of people or messages make it big and when they do, they get expensive. According to the research, the best way to improve your chances of getting a piece to go viral is to hedge your bets. It's impossible to predict who or what will go big, so go with the people who haven't yet had a piece go big, but go with a lot of them. The same goes for messages. Put a lot of stuff out there and hope that something will go big.

The Academic Model Behind Online Communities
As with the data presented by Duncan Watts, we got a preview of work not yet published. David Rogers, BRITE Organizer and Executive Director of The Center on Global Brand Leadership, gave us a look at the principles in his forthcoming book, The Network is Your Customer: 5 Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age being published by Yale University Press. The photo above gives you a hint at the 5 strategies.

Google Changes Its Name to Topeka

2010-04-01T08:40:00.000-06:00

Today, 1 April 2010, Google announced that it has changed its name to Topeka. Why not? Remember that the word Google once seemed just as strange. With hundreds of millions of dollars in ad support, this too will be big. One day, it may also become a verb. Instead of googling information, we're going to Topeka something we want to know about. Nice work.

Read more bit.ly/937rCW

Carlo Fei on the Future of Luxury

2010-03-31T15:47:00.000-06:00

Carlo Fei of TreCentoSessantaGradi (TCSG) of Milan, Italy works with major luxury brands such as Gucci to help them manage their customer experience and to help them remain relevant in the future.

Carlo believes that luxury brands need to focus less on fashion and more on timelessness. People don't want to buy the newest fashion item every year. They want to buy something that they can enjoy and that will last for years. These companies also need to find new ways to connect with the emotions of their customers.

Dave Carroll Live--United Breaks Guitars

2010-03-31T08:15:00.001-06:00

United Airlines broke Dave Carroll's Taylor Guitar. After 15 months of United's refusing to do anything about it, Dave Carroll decided to respond with a song...and post it on YouTube. Two days after the video started to go viral, and after having the video posted on The Consumerist and other websites, after interviews on David Letterman and CNN, United called to pay for the guitar. Too late. There are now more than 10 million views of the now 3 videos just on YouTube. There are many more if you count the other sites where it is now posted.

Dave has been transformed. His business has grown. People now know about his 10 years of song-writing and recording, but he is also now a spokesperson for telling the stories of both positive and negative brand experiences. He advocates that companies need to shoot for maximizing every customer's experience, rather than providing a good experience most of the time.

Here are some links to Dave's videos:
Dave Carroll and David Rogers live at BRITE 10

Youtube: United Breaks Guitars
Youtube: United Breaks Guitars 2
Youtube:United We Stand on the Right Side of Right

DaveCarrollMusic.com

Intro to the BRITE Conference

2010-03-31T07:19:00.000-06:00

I've been involved with the BRITE Conference since 2006--before it was called the BRITE Conference. I worked with David Rogers and Bernd Schmitt on the staff as the photographer for the first two years of the conference. I also partnered with David and Schmitt for several years in producing global branding events for the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design.

BRITE Conference was created by the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School. Schmitt is the faculty director and David is the executive director.

Zimbabwe Documentary--Shungu: The Resilience of a People

2010-02-02T18:11:00.001-07:00

This documentary film was created by Saki Mafundikwa who received his graphic design education in the U.S., including an MFA from Yale. About ten years ago he returned to Zimbabwe to start a design school, a difficult task in a country that is falling apart. Finally, he could stand by no longer and he picked up his camera. See the IDFA film summary here. See the Facebook profile here.

This film has been shown by the IDFA in Amsterdam and is now seeking theaters across the U.S. If you are interested in presenting this film, you can contact Mr. Mafundikwa through his LinkedIn profile .

Saki and I met at the Icograda Design Week in Seattle where I was an organizer and he was our star presenter.

AIGA ends membership in Icograda

2010-01-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

On Jan. 1, 2010, AIGA did not renew it's membership in Icograda. Ric Grefe, executive director of AIGA wrote this article about this decision.
Why AIGA has withdrawn from Icograda

This is the comment I left at the bottom of the article with a little history of the relationship.
____

I would like to express my thanks to Icograda and to many Icograda leaders for their generosity, friendship and guidance over the years.

It's amazing to see how much AIGA has matured in it's international understanding and role over the past decade. In the late 90s, international issues were not very important to the AIGA population at large. I remember attending AIGA Leadership Retreats where international discussions were met with glazed eyes of disinterest. After September 11, 2001, U.S. designers and the population in general began a new relationship with the world. Even though AIGA did not formally join Icograda until 2005, a small group of AIGA designers began a close relationship with Icograda in 2000--2001. In 2002, the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) was formed as an AIGA community of Interest. Nearly every one of our international connections (with Cuba, with the Philippines, with China, the Middle East, Europe, etc.) were made possible through Icograda introductions and support. Robert Peters, Thierry Van Kerm, and Brenda Sanderson were especially supportive.

Some years later at another AIGA Leadership Retreat, we were looking to the future and setting goals. We envisioned a time when International issues would become so core to AIGA's mission that thinking globally would simply be a part of everything AIGA did. While I am sad that the formal membership of AIGA in Icograda has ended, I don't see the relationship ending. I also wonder if that vision of integrated globalism is not beginning to become a reality within AIGA. My understanding is that International and multi-cultural issues continue to be among the top priorities. I look forward to seeing how AIGA's role in the world will continue to blossom. Icograda has played a key role in this development and I would like to honor that.

"Oriental Angel" reveals racial tension while China pursues relations with Africa

2009-11-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

In January of 2008, I posted about the growing relationship between China and Africa. The Brand Explorer: Chinese Cars in Africa - Half Price

Now here's a new twist on this relationship between China and Africa. Due to the increased levels of trade and official support of African countries by the Chinese government, more Africans are living in China. In some cases, tensions are increasing.

A Chinese woman with an African American father won the Chinese talent contest called Oriental Angel recently. She was raised in China, but "said she never experienced much discrimination -- curiosity and questions, but never hostility." Now that she has won, she has been the subject of some hateful words.

At the same time, President Obama will make his first visit to China and the Chinese government continues to pursue economic ties with Africa, a continent that Western countries have had a hard time learning to do business with. Here are some interesting articles on this subject.

Washington Post:

Racial rethinking as Obama visits

Sky News:

Black 'Oriental Angel' Sparks China Race Row

State of the BLogosphere 2008

2009-08-25T21:49:00.002-06:00

This is a fascinating report on blogging from Technorati. This is some serious data.
http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

Fiscal Future of America: This should be worth watching

2009-08-20T13:58:00.004-06:00

I'm not a big fan of Senator Hatch, but I think this group of speakers will be worth watching. If you are in Utah County, it's a great opportunity to see these gentlemen in a small venue. If you are not local. Watch it broadcast live at this link:

http://www.uvu.edu/broadcast

Utah Valley University will host the following national figures will be speaking next week.

Senator Orrin Hatch

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Former Head of Congressional Budget Office and Chief Economist for President's Council of Economic Advisors

Steve Forbes, Publisher Forbes.com

Learn more at

http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/

http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/pdfs/Economic%20Forum.pdf

Read articles about this event:

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_1129e24e-7445-517a-bcec-f4c136eacdef.html

http://www.fox13now.com/news/seenontv/kstu-economic-forum-at-uvu-info,0,4530564.story

AIGA XCD China Expedition Oct 17-31, 2009

2009-08-03T07:41:00.003-06:00

The 2009 AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) Design Expedition to China is filling up fast. Last year, we connected with designers for the Beijing Olympics. This year, you will attend the Icograda World Congress and meet with thousands of designers from all over the world. So it's a two for one special--visit top design and advertising firms in three or four cities in China AND meet designers from more than 50 countries.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend this year, but the group will not disappoint you.

For more information and application forms, visit the AIGA XCD webiste.

Super Model Series: Integrated Marketing

2009-06-17T22:55:00.002-06:00

This is the first of a series of diagrams that I will post. I call them "Super Models(TM): Powerful Principles of Marketng." Each diagram represents a model for solving a marketing problem.

This model shows how to integrate different marketing disciplines to increase their effectiveness in achieving bottom line results. With any marketing process, an organization must take customers through the AIDA process. You must first make your customers "Aware," then you must develop "Interest." This is followed by a "Desire" on the part of the customer and finally they take "Action." Traditionally advertising agencies were only concerned with building awareness and this is how they defined their success. Thus the famous line, "I know half my advertising is wasted, I just don't know which half." If you are only concerned with building awareness, the rest of the steps are left to chance. This method helps one to think about taking the customer all the way to the final action. The small circles are points where the goal is to measure the hand-off from one medium to another. If you can measure the effectiveness of each effort, improvements can be made. If you can measure the whole process, success can be improved. It's not easy to measure some of these points, but the industry is making progress with things like Personal URLs, unique 800 numbers and other methods to improve measurement of advertising. A company called InsideSales.com is doing some really interesting work in this area.

Thanks to Ken Foster and Tim Larson of the Communications Department at the University of Utah for developing this model. I am fortunate enough to know these gentlemen and have the opportunity to redesign the visual diagram.

Growth Industries are Where the Jobs Are

2009-06-07T09:14:00.008-06:00

In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman lays out strategies for staying employed in the new global marketplace. With individuals and companies all over the world able to do everything from manufacturing to design to bookkeeping, it is important to do your homework to make sure you are in a growth industry. This blog post is focused on job growth industries in Utah and the United States.

Best and Worst Jobs
A survey done by CareerCast.com studies the best and worst jobs--The top three are in the field of math. Here is an article about it from the Wall Street Journal.
Wall Street Journal Survey--Best and Worst Jobs

Math Careers
The Brigham Young University Department of Mathematics (BYU Math) has a website (in Beta) that presents a lot of great information about high-paying careers in math.
When Will I Use Math?

Trades
Green Indusrty Jobs
San Francisco Chronicle--"Green Industry a field with a future"

The Utah Technology Council has been tracking specialties in the IT and Life Sciences industries for growth. Here are a few highlights. Data is from the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Utah Information Technology -- Number of Employees (2001-2006)
Web search portals up 53.30%
Electronic Shopping Auctions up 38.89%
Customer comptuer pregramming services up 17.49%
Computer facilities management services up 12.40%
Utah Life Sciences

Other computer related services down 24.44%
Computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing down 23.36%
Cable and other program distribution down 15.65%

Utah Life Sciences -- Average Annual Pay (2001-2006)
Electromedical apparatus mfg up 9.12% ($56,479)
Testing Laboratories up 8.98% ($44,048)
Medical Laboratories up 6.18% ($41,097)
R&D in physical , engineering and life sciences down 1.33% ($63,219)

KSL Channel 5 report on job growth industries in Utah
ksl.com - Despite rough economy, some industries are begging for workers

If you have any links to specific information about growth industries where jobs will be more plentiful in the future, please leave a comment with a link.

Spring City, Utah ~ Authentic Utah Pioneer Town

2009-05-21T18:10:00.005-06:00

Spring City, Utah Annual Heritage Day
Saturday, May 23, 2009

When I was in sixth grade, I lived in Spring City, Utah. Our school was small so my class was combined with the fifth grade and our teacher was the principal. That winter was the time when I learned about sticking your tounge to a frozen flagpole. Luckily I didn't have to learn it directly. It was another kid who took the dare. I was little then, but I also remember the walls of our pioneer house were about 3 feet thick.

This weekend, and every Saturday before Memorial Day, the City of Spring City holds a historic homes tour. It's worth going. The entire town of Spring City is a historic district that has become a mecca for artists. This trend for artists moving to Spring City was started by Joe and Lee Bennion. They moved there the year I was in sixth grade. I am also happy to say that we continue to be friends.

Joe Bennion, Horseshoe Mountain Pottery
Joe has never locked his shop. You can walk in 24/7 and pay for the pottery in the metal box on the gate.

Lee Bennion, Painter
We are fortunate to have a painting for each of our children at the age of eight years old. Lee is currently working on N's portrait. M is next.

Information on the Heritage Days Tour

History of Spring City (not politically correct in parts)

Video Introduction to Spring City

Google Map of Spring City

Link to this post: http://bit.ly/ONMVV

More stops on the Timpanogos Harley tour

2009-05-16T19:07:00.006-06:00

Lots of bikes and the gear to make the lifestyle complete.

Windows from the retail shop present a view of the pristine repair shop. The bikes are lifted up for ease in repairing, but this also serves them up nicely for viewing.

Various custom manhole covers are spread about both inside and out.

Dopler Radar is available to help you plan the next leg of your ride. Although in Utah, the weather is pretty dry during the summer. Not a lot of chance for rain.

Visit the Timpanogos Harley website.

Timpanogos Harley Davidson--Taking the Harley experience one step further

2009-05-16T18:47:00.003-06:00

Welcome to Timpanogos Harley Davidson in Lindon, Utah. This is an amazing place and a great example of creating a strong retail experience. Timp Harley is a destination and the only Harley dealership to have a restaurant according to the owner. Here's a tour of the place.

Marley's, where the slider is king.

Is Middle America Anti-Design?

2009-04-10T21:44:00.002-06:00

After many years championing cross-cultural design, I'm working a lot recently on community banking which is hyper-local. As part of this effort, I'm interested in the relationship between the home-town/middle America audience segment and design. It seems to me that this segment rejects high design when it conveys a feeling of the big city and all the decadent values it represents. I would like to know more about this and I will be studying it for some time.

If you have any information on this subject, please post a comment or e-mail me at info [at] christopherliechty [dot] com.

PRISM Social Groups

2009-04-10T21:35:00.002-06:00

I am fascinated lately with audience segmentation. This page is the best I have found recently for easily finding a particular segment. The others just list the segments and leave you to read them all to find the ones you are looking for. I like these groupings.

http://www.srds.com/frontMatter/ips/lifestyle/reports/prizm.html

Semiotics: the study of signs

2009-03-21T17:34:00.001-06:00

Here's to my sweetheart Hailey who introduced me to semiotics. She's one smart cookie. This is one more example of how she makes me look good. :x Thanks H!

Introduction to AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design

2009-03-21T17:16:00.001-06:00

2009-03-20T14:17:00.002-06:00

"This is what I see whenever I see the new Pepsi Logo."
~ Lawrence Yang, San Francisco

http://blowatlife.blogspot.com/2009/02/pepsi-logo-response.html

IDEO Designs Shopping Cart on Nightline

2009-03-12T00:45:00.002-06:00

This is old (1999), but it's still the best description I can find on Google or YouTube of the IDEO process. It includes a description of the culture or environment needed to nurture innovation, the ethnographic research process, the messy creative phase, the break into teams and solve problems phase and the final bring it all together in a real product phase. It is presented in three parts as follows.

If you have other examples of good videos on this process, please post a comment.

Inside IDEO - Part 1

2009-03-12T00:43:00.001-06:00

Inside IDEO - Part 2

2009-03-12T00:42:00.001-06:00

Inside IDEO - Part 3

2009-03-12T00:40:00.001-06:00

A Crisis of Multiculturalism?

2009-02-21T17:55:00.005-07:00

The NPR program On The Media presented a 17 minute piece about the UK's refusal to allow right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders to show his film Fitna. It's a fascinating piece that covers a variety of substantial issues including free speech and cultural tolerance. It's a 17 minute piece, but worth listening. If you want to cut right to the chase, try tuning in at the 10 minute mark, or read the transcript. At this point in the piece, Bob Garfield interviews, Flemming Rose, culture editor for Jyllands-Posten of Denmark, and the man who published the political cartoon depicting Mohammad that incited riots around the Muslim world. Mr. Rose states that "the multiculturalist model [in Copenhagen] has failed. ...we have to come up with something else."

The UK's argument for keeping Geert Wilders out of the country is that his film will "threaten community harmony and therefore public safety in the UK." Are the criticisms in his film like crying "fire" in a crowded theater? Is there a blind spot in the multi-cultural tolerance of the West?

The questions posed by this piece are fascinating.

Listen here.

See the original piece here.

Journals :: Moleskin and Otherwise

2009-02-07T12:35:00.002-07:00

Notes for an illustration for Symantec in 2004.

My journals back to 1999. I also have planners, note books and journals back to at least 1983.

I've been keeping sketch books since I was in high school. At first I kept several books separately--a sketch book for drawing and ideas, a journal, and a Franklin Planner for to do items, calendar and meeting notes. Now I have evolved to keeping almost everything in one journal. You can see that I have used several different types, but at this point I definitely prefer the Moleskin squared journal. It's not much more expensive than other journals, but I find that it lasts months longer than the others so I spend less overall. The paper is thinner with more sheets and the small size of the grid helps me to write smaller and use the space better.

I keep personal thoughts, meeting notes, to-do items, and creative development notes. I like to think that it's also a sketch book, but in looking back they contain mostly words. My most recent journal is showing more drawings. I'm going to work on drawing more.

Advertising in or about a recession

2009-01-30T08:30:00.003-07:00

Should you spend or save? Advertise or not?

These are two tough questions. In Finland the government is advertising that thrift threatens the economy. We've heard that from George Bush in past recessions. Currently, however, the U.S. is focused on saving. From everything I've heard, I'm on the side of saving. Check out the Dueling Ads report on NPR.org to hear both sides of the argument. You can see the Feed the Pig site here.

So what about advertising your business in a recession? Research shows that 75% of companies cut spending on advertising in a recession. On the flip side, those 25% who maintain or even increase their ad spending are the ones who gain. In the short term, it may reduce their margins, but they recover from the recession faster and most importantly, they have been shown to gain market share. Think about it. In an up market, everybody's advertising, but nobody gains in terms of market share. In a down economy, those who advertise aggressively gain as much as 2 or 3% market share. There are lots of stories about companies that have used recessions to leap ahead of their competition. McDonalds is the most notable. They used the early '70s recession to move ahead of Burger King who was the king of fast food at the time. Burger King held back, McDonalds moved forward, and the rest is history. In fact, recent reports have shown that McDonalds is once again gaining due to the recession.

And when will the current recession end? No one knows, but if we look at history, we are already on the long end of the scale. This is the 12th recession since the 1930s. On average those recessions have lasted 7 to 18 months. This recession is already in it's 13th month and looks like it may last all year. I hope I'm wrong and it ends more quickly.

An Epidemic of Happiness

2009-01-02T14:18:00.002-07:00

It's emotional contageon, happiness spreads through social networks. One happy person effects those with whom they are close (geographically and emotionally). A person in the closest circle of friendship to someone who is happy is 15.3% more likely to be happy. In the second circle, a friend of a friend, a person is 9.8% more likely to be happy. And in the third circle 5.6% more likely to be happy. Of course, this applies to negative emotions and habits as well. The same numbers apply to the spread of obesity and smoking.

How does this relate to branding? Allegiance, a company started by BYU professor Gary Rhodes, provides tools to help companies measure employee and customer engagement found in their research that the only factor they could link through research to increased revenues was a positive emotion or excitement about your company. They now measure the degree to which your customer rates you on the following question: "I am excited about the direction this company is going." I'm still learning about this, but I understand that a high score coreleates with higher revenues.

The emotional contageon study shows that hapiness does not spread among co-workers, so I would want to be careful to extraplolate the findings too far. Even so, putting these two findings together pushes me in the direction of working within social circles. I like the idea of targeting a group of people working within the network to raise the excitement about my brand.

If you are interested reading more about the happiness study, follow these links:
Happiness Study: LA Times Report
Happiness Study: Original Report in British Medical Journal

Personalized Guilt Trip for Obama

2008-10-28T21:36:00.003-06:00

It looks like a real newscast, but when your name shows up, it messes with your mind.

This viral video is a powerful guilt trip. It's all about a single person in the future that didn't vote and lost the campaign to John McCain. It shows demonstrations of people chanting for an apology, a foul mouthed grandmother saying how she stood in line for 5 hours with an arthritic hip and you, yes you, named by name, are to blame for Obama losing the election.

This is a clever database driven viral campaign where you can enter your friends names and send them a newscast of the future blaming them for Obama's loss of the campaign.

Try it out. Send one to yourself, or to some friends. Here's the link:
http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/taf.shtml?hp=1

Posted October 28, 2008

Bank of American Fork :: Flying Piggy Bank

2008-10-18T22:36:00.002-06:00

Earlier this year I went in-house by taking a position as head of marketing at Bank of American Fork. Hot air balloons have been a key element of the bank's identity. This summer I had a lot of fun going up with the balloon pilots to get a sense for how this marketing vehicle is working. It's working pretty well. We have tremendous levels of awareness for the balloons. In fact, in our area, people pretty much associate hot air balloons with Bank of American Fork.

The piggy bank balloon is funny. I like it.

Brian Kelly is our master balloon pilot and mastermind behind the balloon strategy. Back in the 80s, he also did all the advertising for the bank. Therefore his hobby and his freelance client got hooked up.

Brian's work is legendary in the LDS community. He was the art director for the New Era magazine, an LDS Church produced magazine targeting teenagers. He created the MormonAd series. Even though he's now retired. The MormonAds are still going.

The Decline of Men

2008-10-01T20:06:00.002-06:00

I have been very fortunate to be included in a new book by Guy Garcia, author of The New Mainstream. The book is The Decline of Men which is about a new trend in American society where more women are succeeding and more men are struggling to earn competetive wages and compete in the global economy. A preview of the book was published in Fortune Magazine/CNN Money last week. Here are a few snippits:

"...Changes [in the job market] tend to favor women, whose innate networking and social skills often give them an edge in the service industry, now the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy. In corporate America the cycle has accelerated because women tend to know their customers: other women. The ability of women consumers to make or break a brand is being felt in industries from publishing to health care. Women, armed with advanced degrees and expanding spending power, are increasingly seen as the decision-makers in housing, autos, and technology."

"While it's been widely noted that women have innate skills that help them thrive in an organization - communication, multitasking, collaboration - what's less well-known is how this extends to global competition. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist who worked at IBM and now consults at major corporations, has profiled national cultures according to key values, including masculinity. On that index the U.S. scores relatively high at 62, compared with countries like Sweden (5) and Norway (8), but lower than Japan, which has the highest masculinity index in the world at 95. For Christopher Liechty, a design and marketing executive based in Salt Lake City, "Masculine is primarily competitive and prestige-oriented; feminine is primarily nurturing, caring, but that means egalitarianism. Women are more consensus-building."

"Liechty notes that when national gender values are overlaid onto corporations, many of those with the most "feminine" traits, including Scandinavian companies like Nokia (NOK), IKEA, Lego, and Volvo, have an inclusive brand identity that often gives them an edge in today's global - and increasingly feminine - markets. The world, it turns out, may be curved after all."

For the full article, see CNNMoney/Fortune Magazine "Men: the new misfits" 29 September 2008

ASL Alphabet

2008-06-24T22:51:00.003-06:00

I realize that I have massive amounts of stuff to post about the China trip and all sorts of other stuff, but H showed me this and I had to post it. H makes me look good again.

American Sign Language alphabet in matchbook style

http://www.c71123.com/asl-matchbooks/

Beijing Olympic Logo by AICI

2008-05-15T16:37:00.002-06:00

One of the many highlights of our trip so far has been to visit the firm that designed the Beijing Olympic Logo. Chun Guoning and Zhang Wu are the partners with Xu Shiping and Sun Yongjian as leads in branding and creative direction.

Our group of 29 was too big for their conference room, so we basically dominated their work space. This was very generous of them as they are very busy still producing work for the Olympics. They are in charge of much implementation of their logo and creating special logos for special events on subjects like the environment, volunteering, etc.

Here are some photos.

AIGA Design Expedition to China

2008-04-27T21:40:00.003-06:00

I can't believe that I've been planning this for three years and that it has been occupying a good portion of my life these last few months, and this is the first I have posted about it.

We are leaving in less that two weeks and everything seems to be going smoothly. There are 27 of us from all over the United States and two joining from Brazil. We have a full schedule of visits to design firms, advertising agencies, and design schools in Beijing, Xian, Guangzhou and Hong Kong lined up. We will be visiting at least two designers related to the Beijing Olympics -- Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) where they designed the Olympic medals, and the designer who created the Olympic logo.

Huang Li, editor of Package and Design Magazine (one of two official graphic design magazines in China) is helping to organize this tour. Profiles of most of the participants will be published in his magazine. The profiles will be split between two issues -- May and July 2008.

From past experience, using the Internet from within China is difficult. The Chinese government seems to block many websites, including blogs. In the past, I have not been able to post on this blog from inside China. I'll try again this trip. If I can, I hope to post some of our activities as we go along.

For more information on the trip, see AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design website:
xcd.aiga.org

BRITE 08

2008-03-13T10:16:00.006-06:00

The BRITE 08 Conference was amazing. The combination of people and case studies on cutting edge branding and the latest in social media were very exciting. Here are just a few highlights.

Bernd Schmitt (prefers to be called Schmitt rather than Bernd) presented his newest book Big Think Strategy published by Harvard Business School Press. This book lays out Schmitt's method for competing in a world where excellent marketing has become the status quo.

Schmitt uses the story of the Trojan Horse in the book. He commissioned this version of the Trojan Horse from a sculpture workshop in Shanghai.

The BRITE Jury Award for Big Thinker was given to Marty Homlish, Global Chief Marketing Officer for SAP. He is responsible for creating the key SAP strategy, "The best run companies run SAP."

Stephen Voltz is the creator of the original Coke and Mentos videos. He has an interesting story. He was an attorney and quit to pursue a dream. He spent 6 months developing the first Coke and Mentos. They posted it on Youtube on a Friday. By Monday they had 40 million hits and got a call from David Letterman. Sales of 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke skyrocketted and sales of Mentos went thru the roof. Stephen, however, has still not made any money on this. He would like to develop a business around viral marketing and performing, but the business model hasn't kicked in yet. Coca-Cola and Mentos companies had very interesting reactions to the videos. Mentos tried to be too close. They called right away, but they didn't know if this guy was a crazy or what. They were not able to cut any deals. The Coke people were in China at the time of the video and the issue was routed to the Coke risk management people. They were very stand-offish. A deal was not made there either.

Every attendee at the BRITE conference received one of these Spotme devices. Each person has a personal profile. The device allows you to interact with the rest of the group. You can see who is near you and how close they are. You can send text messages or just use the info in their profile to know who you want to talk to. There were also group voting activities and speaker feedback activities during the conference. Bänz Ledin is the founder of Spotme. He is just moving from Switzerland to launch Spotme in the U.S. Regine Flimlin is leaving Dialect and has taken a position as director of new business development for Spotme. We are very excited for her.

Brite '08 :: Branding : Innovation : Technology

2008-01-31T10:23:00.001-07:00

I will be working on the staff of the Brite '08 conference next week as the photographer. In 2006 I also worked with the Center on Global Brand Leadership team on their Innovative Marketing Conference 2006, the predecessor to Brite. Since it was a conference about innovative marketing and media, the conference invited bloggers to post live from the conference. I uploaded my photos to Flickr several times a day and the images and news of the conference streamed almost real time from the event. We will also be posting live from Brite '08.

See the Brite '08 website
Photos on Flickr from Innovative Marketing Conference 2006

Chinese Cars in Africa - Half Price

2008-01-27T20:28:00.001-07:00

Today I read in the Financial Times an entire section called "China-Arfrica Trade 2008." It's about China's dynamic role in economic development in Africa -- far outstripping the World Bank and the West in responsiveness and interest. Of course the Chinese don't seem to care about the atrocities they support with their investment. Darfur is an example. With full recognition of this connection, I want to simply make some observations about trade, taxis, and Chinese automobile brands.

In 2005 I led a panel discussion on branding in China at World Trade Week NYC. One of the big items of discussion was the expectation of the emergence of Chinese automobile brands on the world market. Here they are. Introducing Chery and Great Wall automobiles. I took the above photos of a Chery display at the Guangzhou Airport in August of 2007. It looked beautiful and included leather interior. At the time, I heard that China was selling primarily to Africa with little interest in the United States. I thought it an interesting strategy to concentrate on a market where others are less interested. Africa and developing countries in general are a blind spot in the West.

In an article titled, "Time for the West to practise what it preaches" Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade makes his case for China . He tells how China is responding to Africa's needs while others are unable or unwilling to act. I'll let you read the article if you are interested. I simply want to point out one reference in the article that I find particularly interesting as follows.

President Wade says, "For the price of one European vehicle, a Senagalese can purchase two Chinese cars. The proof is in the parking lot at the presidential palace. Low-cost Chinese Chery and Great Wall models are giving Senegal's middle and working classes access to a new car, a sign of our emerging consumer class. We are even using these affordable Chinese cars in a pilot project to reinsert unemployed women into the workforce by creating a fleet of taxis called Sister Taxis."

Week's Supply of Food

2007-12-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

I am posting the following photos and descriptions from an e-mail that apparently has been forwarded and posted widely. I was not, however, able to find the source. When I did a search for this on Google, I found 10 pages of blogs that had posted this, but I would really like to know the full story. Who did the research? How was this set up? Who traveled to help the families track their food intake and then gather and display the food? If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

Thanks Malina for sending this to me. :)

______________

What is eaten in one week

Ecuador : The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad: The Aboufakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Germany : The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week $341.98

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Poland : The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt : The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Fuse.TV at Penn Station

2007-12-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Experiential Marketing is a topic that I will address in this blog many times. One of the main principles of creating an experience is to respect the viewer. Provide them with something of value, something they will enjoy and want to tell their friends about. This ad by Fuse.TV is worth telling your friends about. I love the way the words go down into the sidewalk. How did they get a permit to do that?

Common Cents Penny Harvest NYC

2007-12-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

A harvest of pennies in Rockefeller Center. There is nothing like millions of pennies to make you feel the need to empty your pockets. What a lot of fun to see children throwing change onto the field.

For more information visit the Common Cents website.

Visual treats in London and NYC

2007-12-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

While I was in London last week for some meetings, I saw this "rubbish collection vehicle." The City of London seems to be very proactive in using and promoting design in the public space. In addition to the garbage trucks, their newer public buildings are often highly modern and beautiful. It made my day to see this work of art on the streets. It's a lovely way to turn something so ordinary, necessary and potentially unpleasant into something delightful and surprising. Brilliant!

I stopped off in New York on my way home from London. Here's another visual treat from the back side of a diner in Tribeca.

Canadian Government Explores Internet Design and Culture

2007-12-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Government publishes Intercultures Magazine. A few months ago, I received a call from Mara Munro, a freelance writer, to discuss cultural issues and Web design. We had a lovely discussion that went way beyond what I think Mara was expecting. Mara also interviewed Aaron Marcus, a fellow AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design activist.

Here is the article:
Internet and Design Culture - Unraveling the Tangled Web
by Mara Munro

Halloween at Dialect

2007-10-31T17:05:00.000-06:00

The Dialect staff dressed up for Halloween. Here they are, from left to right.
Standing: Christopher (Tin Tin), Noriko (Halloween colors), Jane (Studious), Scott (with mask -- Malfoy from Harry Potter), Brian (Elvis), Malina ("Hi, I'm a PC"), Katri ("...and I'm a Mac")
Kneeling: Mike (iPod), Melynn (Cowgirl).
Missing from photo: Regine (in New Jersey), and Sandee

We know how to have fun around here.

Icograda World Congress, Havana, Cuba

2007-10-29T12:59:00.000-06:00

The Icograda World Design Congress 2007 was held last week (20-26 October 2007) in Havana, Cuba. This is the largest and most comprehensive design event in the world with participation from national design associations in 49 countries and individual attendees from who-knows-how-many countries. The AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) and Prografica, the Cuban design association/host of this congress, presented an exhibition of peace posters called Shared Dreams 2007. Many of my associates from AIGA XCD were there. The above image is a set of posters created by Prografica for the Congress and I am including links below to more information and photos about the World Congress.

Links:
The official site for Icograda World Design Congress 2007
Photos of the Congress by Stuart Alden (Denver)
The official AIGA XCD Shared Dreams 2007 site
Photos of Cuba and design exhibitions by Valerie Romley of Moving Target Research Group

The official site for the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design

On Craft by Hailey Meyer Liechty

2007-10-22T21:39:00.000-06:00

C and I were just in California for the 100th year celebration for CCAC, now CCA.

CCAC used to stand for California College of Arts and Crafts. A few years ago the powers that were changed the name to the very generic and bland CCA, for California College of the Arts. Several people at the celebration had buttons created by the print-maker Jack Ford, that read, "Conceptual Crap and Art." Seemed fitting.

I really miss "Craft" in the name. Craft is so dang right and cool, not only the 70's macramé and scrap booking (all that is great too!) but the notion of craft, doing a skill so well it becomes art. The question remains, can graphic design, architecture, art education be a "craft?" Of course. All of it can be art as well. Dialog about a teapot or a blown glass vase can be just as valuable, deep and riveting, as that of a sky scrapper, or logo design or painting.

Them is fighting words ... to put that in writing makes artistes defensive and craft people repulsed. Don't compare my teapot with some lousy logo... Don't compare my use of clay with your use of steel or that %!™&#*¡?* computer! All the elements are the same though! Line, contrast, content, composition, materials, intent, use, location, climax, value, color, flow, the list goes on and on, happily. Embrace it all -- and GET TO WORK!

The place (CCAC's Treadwell Hall, the ceramics building, especially) is still so inspiring to me. Someday (strike up the soaring violins and moving cellos) I'd love to work/teach there, simply be more involved. Or ideally, create that environment in my family life, it is serious and committed while also being progressive and light.

The above art that I discovered in a bathroom at CCAC is an example of that last statement. :)

Wouldn't you just love to see this artistic combo at a bathroom at BYU? Within a day it would be sanitized, treated as vandalism. What a shame.

The contrasts between BYU and CCAC were staggering to me. One school (CCAC) celebrates and encourages creativity through any outlet necessary and the other tries to teach creativity through obedience to all sorts of ideas, religion, leaders, famous dead artists' rules, to craft. How ironic that CCAC had craft in the name and now doesn't celebrate craft and BYU was supposed to be spiritually based and had no spirit.

Citizen Designer Takes Action

2007-10-10T09:29:00.001-06:00

Frank Baseman, a designer, instructor, and friend of mine based in Philadelphia is concerned about the rising murder rate in the City of Brotherly Love. He did something about it, and despite a mid-level bureaucrat in city government blocking his campaign, he is succeeding in bringing attention to his cause. The following are several links to articles about this campaign.

AIGA Voice :: Journal of Design

Philadelphia Inquirer, 7-4-07

Philadelphia Inquirer, 8-22-07

Tell Me More with Michel Martin, National Public Radio, 8-28-07

Meyer & Liechty is now Dialect

2007-10-04T17:49:00.000-06:00

Meyer & Liechty, Inc. has changed its name to Dialect: Global Brand Rollout Specialists. With this change in branding, we are also changing our focus. With this, we are changing our focus from a generalist agency with international skills to what we call Global Brand Rollout Specialists. This basically means that we are focusing on providing global tactical creative for in-house marketing communications groups at medium and large corporations. We do not threaten the relationship with a lead agency like Ogilvy, Sattchi, Landor, etc. but compliment them by providing high-quality implementation of "below-the-line" creative on a global scale. A website update will be launching soon.

Lecture at BYU Kennedy Center

2007-10-04T15:38:00.000-06:00

On 13 June 2006 I gave a lecture at Brigham Young Univeristy's Kennedy Center for International Studies. I started off the lecture with a shadow puppet show on the theme of empathy in design. We had a lot of fun and it seems I got the audience's gears turning which is one of my main goals.

My son Karl is helping me here with the shadow puppet show.

This lecture covers the following topics:
- AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) -- programs and my role
- My philosopy on experiential or integrated marketing communications which includes:
- Customer orientation and ethnographic research
- Using a brand promise in place of a traditional mission statement
- Case studies on delivering a brand experience

Watch a video of this lecture here.

AIGA XCD Fellow Awards

2007-09-22T23:23:00.000-06:00

Henry Steiner and Anne Ghory-Goodman in Hong Kong, 12 September 2007

Shelly Langton (center in black) and other AIGA Fellows at the AIGA Gala, NYC, 20 September 2007.

The AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (AIGA XCD) has given two AIGA Fellow Awards and Shelly Langton has received the fellow award from the AIGA Seattle Chapter for her key role in founding AIGA XCD.

This year, we (at XCD) presented AIGA Fellow Awards to two of the early voices for cross-cultural design, Aaron Marcus and Henry Steiner.

- Aaron Marcus, president of Aaron Marcus and Associates in Berkeley, CA
Shelly Langton presented the award to Aaron at a San Francisco Chapter award ceremony in June.
http://www.amanda.com/

- Henry Steiner, principal of Steiner & Co. in Hong Kong
Anne Ghory-Goodman, one of our new XCD board members presented the award in Hong Kong on September 12.
http://www.steiner.hk/

Shelly is very humble about her role. She never liked to take the spotlight, but it would not have happened without her. She is the person who introduced me to Icograda and provided much of the drive, connections, and insight necessary to make the organization successful.

Here is a Link to AIGA's list of AIGA Fellows

Chinese Element: Day 2

2007-09-16T13:54:00.000-06:00

On the second day of judging the finalists had been selected and the task at hand was to choose bronze, silver, gold, and a grand prize. While there was some excellent work in the print, TV and Interactive categories, there was not one piece that stood out among the rest. There was a vote, and the judges agreed to cancel the grand prize this year.

I am not going to reveal any secrets about the winners, but am posting a few pieces that I liked personally. It was very interesting to see how the judges disagreed on some of the pieces. There were a few pieces that were very controversial. Some judges really loved them and others really felt they were lacking. They are a strong willed group of people as would be expected.

On the first day we arrived Kao Jun gave me a hug. One of the other judges commented on this and Kao Jun said, "hey, we are old friends." I have been fortunate to spend time with Kao Jun on each of my trips to China since 2005 and it seems I have been accepted into their circle of friends. Huang Li introduced me to Kao Jun with high commendation and so Kao Jun accepts me. In China "guanxi" (relationships) is everything. Here it is in action. You can see he was very kind to both me and to Karl.

Chinese Element: Day 1

2007-08-29T07:39:00.000-06:00

Here are a few photos from day one of judging.

I love the way this Chinese typography flows from the dandelion.

This is a print ad that goes with a TV commercial about a Taiwan noodle company that gives a portion of each sale to help build schools in China.

The first round of judging was done individually.

Later we voted on some final selections.

I am standing next to Ma Quan of Tsinghua Univeristy in Beijing. Later, I will post short introductions to all of the judges.

Huang Li: Center of the Chinese Design Universe

2007-08-27T18:10:00.000-06:00

Huang Li (left)

My son Karl (age 12) and I have spent the past few days in southern China with Mr Huang Li, editor of Package and Design Magazine based in Guangzhou. Package and Design is one of two official, government-owned design magazines in China. It's pretty much like Communication Arts in the U.S. in quality and stature.

Huang Li and I have become good friends over the past few years. Originally, he soght me out because of my work with the AIGA Center fotr CrossCultural Design. Since then, he has taken me under his wing and introduced me to many of his friends in China. Kao Jun is one of these introductions. His son, Huang Shan, also came to stay at my home this summer and to intern with me in Utah.

This last few days, Karl and I stayed at Huang Li's home in Guangzhou, as a base for for our adventures in Shenzhen and Zhongshan, a tremendous honor.

Chinese Element

2007-08-27T18:08:00.000-06:00

Today I am arriving in Shanghai to judge a new design competition called Chinese Element. The competition covers advertining and design that includes, as the name says, Chinese cultural imagery. This is the second year of the competition. I was invited to be a judge last year as well, but because of last minute schedule changes for the judging, I was unable to attend. The included me in the book as a judge anyway. I presume this is because They had already inclued me in the publicity. Last year this book was produced. I'll see what I can do to learn how people outside of China can order the book.

The competiton is organized by Kao Jun of Meikao Co., an advertising and design firm in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guiling. They are one of five design firms doing work for the olympics. If you visit their website, you can see their work and read their famous toilet intro page. Kao Jun firmly defends this toilet philosophy as the basis of their success. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.meikao.com

Visit the Chinese Element site (English)

Ingredients make all the difference.

2007-08-19T22:29:00.000-06:00

Tomato Mozzarella Salad
> Tomatoes — several varieties fresh from the garden
> Fresh mozzarella
> Fresh basil leaves
> Extra virgin olive oil
> Balsamic vinegar
> Salt (optional)

Recently, I have been preparing training for our design and production staff and I asked Hailey (my wife and silent partner in Dialect) if she had any ideas on how to convey our design philosophy to the staff. She suggested using food as an analogy. This tomato-mozzarella salad is a perfect example. Good design and writing are best when they are very simple and pack a lot of flavor. They must also be on strategy, of course, but I will leave the strategy discussion for another day.

In contrast, ingredients like stock photos, sloppy typography, and generic-overused-salesy language are like cooking with tomatoes from the produce isle or canned ingredients. They have no flavor and there is nothing special about them.

Don't get me wrong, we cook with stock photos often and there is a time and place for them. But when you want to serve a meal that someone really remembers, the quality of the photos, the writing, the paper, and the typography make all the difference.

8 8 :: Father's Day in China

2007-08-08T09:27:00.000-06:00

Happy Father's Day in China. The sound of 88 is the same as daddy, "BaBa" in Mandarin, so in many places they celebrate fathers day on the eighth day of the eighth month. Easy to remember.

I did find some references to Father's Day in China on the third sunday of June as well. But that's not as fun.

Icograda Design Week in Seattle 9-15 July 2006

2007-08-06T08:16:00.000-06:00

Saki Mafundikwa of Zimbabwe presented his views about design and
globalization.

Icograda Design Week in Seattle Press Coverage and Web Links

9-15 July 2006

Seattle, Washington, USA

Icograda Design Week in Seattle was a major global design conference exploring the role of design in the age of globalization. Speakers came from all over the world to provide a truly global perspective. Christopher Liechty was a co-chair and organizer. Here is a list of related websites, photos, and press coverage on the conference.

Icograda Design Week in Seattle

OFFICIAL RESOURCES AND SITES
Main Conference Sites
http://seattledesignweek.com
http://www.seattle.icograda.org/

Student Workshop -- Overview and Posters
http://art.washington.edu/icograda

Official Photos of the Conference by Stuart Alden
http://www.idahostew.com/ICOGRADA

Official Photos of the Conference by Christopher Liechty on Flickr
Regional Mtg-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594228209956/
Set Up-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594228265775/
Press Conference-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594228304190/
Over the Fence-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594229226548/
Cuba Poster Exhibition-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594229250763/
Int'l Conference-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594229294892/
Closing Party-Icograda Design Week in Seattle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70852113@N00/sets/72157594229298247/

YouTube
Christopher Liechty's Shadow Puppet Show, presented at the beginning of his lecture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfP5nbfhjMw

Icograda official website
http://www.icograda.org/web/

AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design
http://xcd.aiga.org

PRESS COVERAGE
Taxi Design Network
Article by Mark Busse
http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=235
Taxi Media Partner Notice
http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=229

Taxi -- Speaker Profiles: International Conference July 14-15
Jacques Lange and Christopher Liechty http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=223
Saki Mafundikwa and Ravi Naidoo http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=193
Sara Little Turnbull and Darrel Rhea http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=181
Adelia Borges and Linda Fu http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=186
Esen Karol and Mervyn Kurlansky http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=189
Sanja Rocco and Henry Steiner http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=196
Omar Vulpinari http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=201

Taxi -- Speaker Profiles: Over the Fence Seminar July 13
Tarek Atrissi and Sean Bolan http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=204
Cristina Chiappini and Halim Choueiry http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=208
Lorraine Gauthier and Andrea Marks http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=211
Maurice Woods and Henk van Assen http://www.designtaxi.com/features.jsp?id=220

Industrial Brand Blog
7/14/06 Student Workshop Review
http://blog.industrialbrand.com/archives/2006/07/icograda_student_workshop.html#more
Main Review of the Conference
http://blog.industrialbrand.com/archives/2006/07/defining_design.html#more
Between the Lines
http://blog.industrialbrand.com/archives/2006/07/between_the_lines.html#comments
Starbucks Studio Tour
http://blog.industrialbrand.com/archives/2006/07/starbucks_studio_tour.html#more

Core77
http://www.core77.com/blog/events/icograda_design_week_2006_4087.asp

Under Consideration/Speak Up
Globalization and Design Guest Editorial by Christopher Liechty
http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002737.html

Flickr
Icograda Seattle Design Week Flickr Group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/icograda_seattle_design_week/
Discussions Posted on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/icograda_seattle_design_week/discuss/72157594199207221

Photos by Callieo (Callie Neylan) Day One -- Student Workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594194894345/
Day Two -- Student Workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594197122865/
Day Three -- Student Workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594197130359/
Day Four -- Student Workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594198215056/
Day Five -- Over the Fence Seminar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594198232483/
Day Six -- International Conference
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594200187979/
Day Seven -- International Conference
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcatherine/sets/72157594200189590/

World Trade Week Branding in China 19 May 2005

2007-08-06T08:14:00.000-06:00

In May 2005, I organized the first World Trade Week Global Branding Event on the subject of Branding in China. This was the first event in a now three-year partnership with the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School. Bernd Schmitt and David Rogers have been great to work with.

The panelists above (from left to right) are LiAnne Yu of Cheskin, Donald Sexton of Columbia Business School, Bernd Schmitt, and Tom Lowry of Business Week Magazine. I was the moderator.

Read a summary of the Branding in China event here.

Read the full transcript of the event here.

In 2006 the World Trade Week Global Branding Event featured Enoch Palmer, vp design of Aveda and David Boorstin, branding consultant and former worldwide managing director of FutureBrand.

In 2007 the World Trade Week Global Branding Event was on Branding in India. the Panelists were Arvind Sharma (Chairman & CEO of Leo Burnett, India Subcontintent), Harjiv Singh (Co-founder & CEO, Gutenberg Communications), Hitendra Wadhwa (Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Business School), and Debera Johnson (Professor of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute).
To see a review and to watch videos of the Branding in India event, click here.
More will be posted about this event later.

Verge: The OgilvyOne Digital Summit 17 June 2004

2007-08-03T11:08:00.000-06:00

The 30 second television ad is dead! I’ts the cornerstone of the advertising industry and the media buying has been the basis of the advertising business model. Unfortunately, the mass audiences on which these ads depend no longer exist and the cost of reaching the ever-shrinking viewership is constantly rising.

In response to this crisis, OgilvyOne has held a series of conferences called Verge to talk about new ways of reaching audiences. These conferences explore new technologies and ideas for attracting customers rather than interrupting them. It is part of the experiential marketing movement—one of the main themes of this blog.

Thanks to David Polinchock at Brand Experience Lab, we were among the presenters at the first Verge conference held at the Guggeneheim Musem in New York City. We presented two experiments: Name Poetry – an exploration into one-to-one marketing and Culture Map – an interactive map based on Geert Hofstede’s research on cultural values.

The above photo shows someone using our name poetry piece which was positioned under the stair in the main rotunda of the Guggeneheim.