Ruby Tuesday's blows up their brand - literally

The restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday's has been working to renovate pretty much everything about their brand recently from the menu to the stores to the branding. To celebrate the conclusion of this work at 3pm tomorrow they are going to literally blow up the last Ruby Tuesday's with their old look and show it all live on their Web site. I think this is really smart because normally something like finishing a restaurant chain renovation doesn't get doesn't get much attention past the industry trade papers and doesn't get anyone to your Web site.It will be interesting to see if this is as much of a spectacle as they want you to believe but it is the first time I will be going to a restaurant chain Web site for anything but to the find the nearest location.

Kidrobot and The Simpsoms hypocracy follow-up

So anyone who read my posting about Kidrobot and the Simpsons from about a week and a half ago could tell I was really bothered by that turn of events. After I wrote that posting I wanted answers. I wanted to hear from someone about how they came to this decision and how it didn't make them hypocrites. I started with trying to find a way to email their founder Paul Budnitz through his blog but there wasn't any way to communicate with him. So them I moved in Kidrobot.com and the section in the discussion boards where you can ask questions about the company and their guru or a staff member will answer them. I posted the following -

Topic: "How do the Simpsons not make Paul a hypocrite?"
I have been been a fan and collector since pretty much the beginning of Kidrobot. I heard Paul Budnutz talk about his philosophy of making toys that bring back fun and design toys. I have seen him talk numerous times about the company and define it by defining what Kidrobot isn't. His usual example are either a dinosaur from Jurassic Park or Stormstoopers gathered around Star Wars toys in Toys R' Us with the explanation that these toys aren't bought because they are good but rather just a memory connection back to the movie. So I have to ask as I see Kidrobot making Simpsons and Adult Swim toys - how are these any different than those dinosaurs and stormtroopers? How is Paul not a hypocrite to say one thing and then seemingly caving in to the all mighty dollar with these brands?

I will admit that clearly this wasn't a warm fuzzy email how great they are but I also didn't think I went off the deep end on this one. What was the response from the company that is a bastion of creativity and expression? They deleted the posting and shut down my account.

I have talked with consumers in focus groups who used to be a brands biggest supporter but then through a series of events found themselves disillusioned and advocating against them. Between my original problem and their reaction to it they have taken one of the brands that I had such a strong connection with and made it feel hollow. I am not sure if I am at that point where will be selling my collection any time soon (sorry Arturo) but there won't be any more Kidrobot added to my shelves anytime soon.

The new LuxuryCollection.com

Through the course of my careers I have been faced with the challenge of how to create a branding system that would support multiple sub-brands but have those brands roll up to a master brand. It is a lot harder than it sounds. In the case of The Luxury Collection it is made up of 69 of the world's most iconic and award-winning properties that each have historical importance and are completely unique. As such they all have their own unique style, logo, and brand equity. The design of LuxuryCollection.com was the first step and design work that was done in trying to solve this problem.

The redesign, which was done in collaboration with BBDO Atmosphere and their phenomenally talented creative director Arturo Aranda, was the first step in their re-branding and the creation of the brand's new global visual language. The strategy and inspiration for the site came from the world of art museums and galleries where you can see unique and varied works of art from across history that are bound by the curation of the museum that brought them together and made them into a collection.

Explore the Collection

Explore the Collection brings this strategy to life with the properties displayed as slivered works of art against a large white background like the works lining the walls of a museum. You can either explore the slivers by rolling over them or search interactively by Destination or Pursuit which will narrow down the numbers of slivers displayed.

Global Cultural Calendar

The Cultural Calendar so that consumers would have access to the international collection of upcoming unforgettable events curated by each region. The visual design was created to mirror the visual language that uses a similar system of square to form the property logos in to the collection that makes up the brand. Any region that has an upcoming event will be filled in with colored squares so consumers can learn about and book experiences from Chinese New Year in Mauritius to the Bali Arts Festival in Indonesia to the International Aegean Sailing Rally in Greece.

Here is a sample of the final visual language work that was created out of the web site design work. This simple visual system allows for each property to retain it's own unique logo and color while the consistent formatting creates the curation system that makes them all into the Luxury Collection. In print and online advertising this is re-arranged into one long line so the colors form a visual mnemonic so that the collection is always represented in every communication.

The site design and resulting visual language is one a body of work that I am really proud of as it as able to solve a number of complex branding and design problems in a visually strong and elegant way.

What can Kidrobot, The Simpsons and deep branding teach us?

Anyone who knows me, has been to my house or walked by my office knows that Kidrobot is a brand that is near and dear to my heart and I have the collection to prove it. I have been been a fan since pretty much the beginning when I heard their founder and creative director Paul Budnutz talked about their philosophy of making toys that brought the fun and design back to toys. He will often start by defining what Kidrobot isn't and his usual example is a toy from the movie Jurassic Park where consumers buy the toy because it is memory connection to the movie and not because it is a good toy. You can click here to see one of his speeches from the recent AIGA NEXT conference to get the whole picture. As a creative person I buy into that approach completely since it is a value of their brand that aligns with my personal values. For those of us who work in branding these are the types of connections we try and make every day because they are deep and create long term loyal behaviors. The thing about any deep connection in branding or in life is that is has to be respected and maintained to stay healthy. That became really clear to me when I was cruising through the Kidrobot site on a discussion board where they list upcoming toy releases and it listed 5 upcoming releases for the month of August and the 3rd one stopped me in the tracks. Sitting there in the middle of the page was The Simpsons by Kidrobot. My mind raced and I saw red. I love the Simpsons and I love Kidrobot but what the #@$%ing hell were they doing together? How could this brand that I love that told to me about how they are all about making unique toys not based on something else DO EXACTLY THAT? I felt like when I was back in college and found my girlfriend cheating on me and it tortured me all day. I was well aware of the absurdity of equating a plastic toy release with someone that betrayed me but I just couldn't move my emotions from the place. In the end I look at as an overdue reminder of the responsibility that comes with building emotional connections with advertising and branding. We need to do what is right for the people who have connected with the brands we work on and not just what is right for our portfolios.

Walmart gets a new logo that is as generic as their products.

It seems to be the season where some of the world's largest brands need to tinker with their branding. The latest and most under whelming yet was leaked over the weekend for retail giant Walmart. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development had received documents from Walmart with the intent of opening a prototype store there and they had attached an artist rendering showing a new sign over the facade with the new logo. Once it was out in the open and was being picked up by major press outlets the logo suddenly appearing on Walmart.com without a single word about the reasoning or explanation for what the star burst stands for, why they decided to change it or why they wanted to look like an energy company. I have heard rumblings that the new logo was designed by Lippincott which is based here in New York

I am not a fan of the brick and mortar stores but you had to respect their previous logo that was a 16 year old sans serif that was one of the most icon word marks out there. I would guess that the change was to try humanize and soften the look of the brand over their old look but it reads more like a telecommunication or energy company. This one is a head scratcher.

Google resurects Dr. Seuss. to expain Favicon change

I got a link tonight from one of my best friends to an article from Marissa Mayer the VP of Search Products and User Experience over at Google in response to the uproar over the scandalous Favicon change on their site. The article explains that they made the change as the first step in a design exercise to create a more unified set of icons. The one that was the final one chosen was taken from more than 300 permutations which are all shown in the article. Click here to head over to the Official Google Blog to check it out.

Google changes 16 pixels and the world goes crazy

It isn't a new trend that great brands breed fanatical followers but last week the Google faithful created an uproar of intrigue worthy of the best spy novel. Google changed its favicon from the uppercase "G" from their logo to the lowercase "g". It is astounding to see how many people are flipping out over this. If you want to see the strength of what branding can do this is it. Can you image what would happen if they changed the logo, the home page, the results page or anything but a sixteen-pixel square icon that shows up in the favorites menu and in the browser away from all the content?

What if Satan were a brand?

I have been doing a lot of reading lately to take a survey on what other people are thinking in the world of branding theory and I have found some interesting experiments that I have been posting. The latest comes from Von Glitschka over at Art Backwash who took on the challenge of how would Satan and his minions sell their brand if it was a literal mark containing the number 666? His guidelines for creating the brand were where:
- Has to be in the logo.
- A brand name has to be developed. (Think "Zoloft", "Viagra" or "Crestor.")
- Must use "Red". (Satan owns this color. Sorry "Target" and "Coke.")
- Spend no more then 30 minutes on it. (Have work to do.)
- Approach it like a corporate client.
- No cliches. (Think "Devil Horns" and "Trident.")

Click here to read his whole article and see the different solutions he came up with.

A typical Friday in logo's

Jane, who is an advertising account executive, did an interesting experiment where she took a typical Friday and documented how brands affected her life that day. The chart is broken out by time of day and is created visually so you can see what brands she interacted at the corresponding times. It is an interesting look at the number of brands we encounter each day and if you are paying attention how something this simple can turn into a really revealing looking look into someones personal life. Hint: Check out 10pm and is marijuana a brand?

Branding Mash-ups

Mash-ups have been around for a while but they are usually the marriage of different technologies or ideas to create a new combination that takes advantage of all of them. Thus the name. Brazilian graphic designer Mario Amaya has put together a series of logo mash-ups that are funny and scarily convincing. The list includes:

Windows Vista + Volkswagen
Nintendo Wii/DS + Microsoft Windows XP
Unix + Unilever
Underground (London Transport) + Unibanco
HSBC + Sao Paulo Fudebol Clube
Sony + I (heart) NY
Samsung + Sam's Club (Wal-Mart)
Dell + Shell
Nikon + Nike
Macromedia + Motorola
Microsoft + Mac OS
Macintosh + McDonald's
Linux + Lux
Intel + Itau
IBM + GM
Harry Potter + Hewlett-Packard
Carrefour + Canon
Apple + Adobe

Brand Tags - Using clouds to explore brand perception

We all know that since branding deal with perception that it can be more art than science. Noah Brier who is a strategist with Naked Communications has launched an interesting experiment called Brand Tags to explore the popular perception of numerous major brands. When you first come to the site you are presented with a brand logo and an entry field where you can type in the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of that brand. You can then keep going through more brands or see the results which let you see the results for each brand as a tag cloud. The largest tags are often what you would expected them to be but for me the really interesting ones are the small tags as they can be amusing and insightful. Some of favorites are "Leash" for BlackBerry, "Drug" for Red Bull, "Evil" for Disney, "Meatballs" for Ikea and finally "Help! my penis is stuck in the toaster and this is my only form of communication!" for American Idol. Obviously this isn't a highly scientific experiment but I think that can be a good thing when it comes to understanding perception because some times this is the way to get to a key truth. If you are interested in having your brand participate in the experiment there is a form where you can submit it for consideration. It will be interesting to see what brands get added, how the clouds grow and what gets done with the information.

Ultimate Logo Bracketology Showdown

Today a friend of mine sent me a page from a recent issue of Fortune magazine that I thought was an interesting conceptual exercise. They pitted 16 of the world's most recognized logos and pitted them against each other March Madness style to determine the ultimate logo. Obviously the outcome of the this mini tournament can and will be debated and contested but it is a fun exercise to go through.

Modernista Take 2

The Modernista site re-design I wrote about last week probably caused more discussions and emails than anything else I have written about in a long time. All of these conversations have kept by brain rolling over the site and trying to understand my mixed reaction to it. Today I think I landed on a conclusion.

I have seen more sites than I can count that let their execution drown out the realization that they need an idea or concept. I am so tired of saying it that it's why I don't post as much as I wold like because I know there is no value in the same thing over and over again. It comes as a result of our process and success metrics that are only satisfied by the endless search for the new. I almost envy designers who only work in print or TV because the medium doesn't evolve so it keeps the focus on the concept. With Modernista I came to the realization that for the first time in the history of this blog there is a site that is letting their idea get in the way of the execution. It is an interesting idea but it isn't the easiest thing to use with it's multi-site based disjointed experience.

I am sure the debate will rage on through the weeks ahead so leave a comment and let me know what you think about all of this.

BMW pulls back the curtain on The Ramp

I recently wrote about my friends down at GSD&M and their work on the new viral campaign for BMW called The Ramp. They have now pulled back the curtain to reveal the entire story through a 35 minute long documentary. No doubt it is ambitious and I will let you know what I think as soon as I can find 30 minutes of free time.

Modernista! radical redesign

It seems like it is the season for agency site redesigns as Modernista! relaunched their site last week. With the site re-design they again went the route of using an interesting new technique for the core of their site but this time they took it to a whole new level. They turned the site into a redirected rollover HTML menu that appears on the top left corner on many established sites including Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and Flickr. You can mouse over and check out the agency's portfolio on Flickr, an about section through Wikipedia, latest agency news through Google News spot work through YouTube and contact then via AIM or Skype.

The site launch did hit a big snag when days after its debut Wikipedia yanked it from it's site for a day or so. Wikipedia aid the deletion occurred because the community interpreted Modernista as violating of one of Wikipedia's two critical pillars: maintaining a neutral point of view and no conflict of interest. They felt that Modernista "created a page solely for their business or to talk about themselves, which isn't what Wikipedia is about." It was restored when it was made clear that Modernista wasn't controlling the content of the page.

It is a radical departure from anything we would think of as a Web site. Through my work I hear from tons of agencies who want to tell me about how they believe in social media but this is the first time I have seen one really putting their money where their mouth is. There are two things I want to watch on this site for in the future. First to see how and if the site evolves as new social media sites come to the top of the popular consciousness. Next to see if it runs into a problem since where they have opened their brand, their work, and the potentially their clients up to brand vandalism. They have turned all of it over to more than 75,000 active contributors in more than 250 languages on Wikipedia alone who may not all want to play nice with their brand.

Finally in true digital fashion the site has already been spoofed by britnista.com where visitors are redirected to Google News for reports about everyone's favorite fallen pop princess and Flickr pics documenting Britney Spears' fashion faux pas.

Xerox rebranding (No one tell Xbox)

Yesterday Xerox unveiled a huge change to its logo and brand as CEO Anne Mulcahy and president Ursula Burns hosted a town hall meeting and live webcast to revealed the new logo and brand identity to Xerox’s 57,000 global employees. It was developed by Interbrand to "better reflects Xerox today, a company that has transformed itself in recent years far beyond its roots in copier systems. The new design is meant to make people pause, and take a new look at the iconic brand." This is one of those cases where I think that corporate culture can be the death of creativity and perspective since obviously no took the time to ask why everyone would also be stopping to asking why the Xbox logo is now red.

Logo Redux

Tis the season to get a new look as Applebee's and Toy R Us follows in the footsteps of Holiday in with new logos and branding. I actually like the new Toys R Us logo as it feels more refined while keeping the spirit of the old mark.

Holiday Inn branding checks-out

Holiday Inn and decided to "update" their logo with the new mark shown above. Maybe it is just me but I think this is really stupid since their old mark had tons of history, brand recognition and memories for their guests. They left all that behind for this new one that looks like it should be on a bar of soap or a second rate juice box.

Wacom goes wacko

I have designed with Wacom tablets for years and have converted a lot of my designers over to them over the years.I went to the site today to update one of my drivers and found that they a new logo and it is very... different. It seems that it was designed by Wolff Olins of the London 2012 Olympics logo meltdown fame. The new typeface is better but the new logo mark looks like a 1980's Photoshop gradient experiment gone haywire. I am very interested to see how this comes to life in their advertising and packaging.

When I read this I don't miss agency life

I spent a lot of years running the interactive portion of new business pitches at my last agency. I realized along ago that more often then not they are not determined by the quality of the creative that gets produced. They are determined by who knows who and how cheaply you are willing to do your craft.

You may have read about the nightmare that was the Wal-Mart Ad Agency review over the past year. The Martin Agency was the eventual winner. I almost went to work there because they do great work. I have a huge amount of respect for their creative director Mike Hughes and have good friends who work there.

A few weeks ago they launched Wal-Marts new tag line of "Save Money. Live Better" but it has sparked all kinds of head-scratching around the industry thanks to a the fact that that a shop other than Martin actually came up Wal-Mart's tag line. I first heard about this through former co-workers who now work at GSD&M who create a similar tag line, "Save More. Live Better," which they had previously pitched when they were Wal-Mart's agency. Wal-Mart has responded by saying that "Shop Smart. Live Better." was on the creative brief that each finalist received. Martin then recommended the testing of a few tag lines and "Save Money. Live Better" emerged.

So just to recap: Wal-Mart went through two agency reviews and an embarrassing scandal only to result in an ad campaign that amounted to the re-use of something from the creative brief used before the review.

Adobe reveals new Photoshop logo

Adobe has been de-volving the logos of all their products over the past year as they fold in all the Macromedia products into their stable. Last week at Photoshop World in Las Vegas they revealed that the first product to emerge from the generic colored block identity will be Photoshop with this new logo. It leaves me flat to have a product used by creative people that has a such boring Microsoft look alike icon. Maybe this is their play to get more mass market recognition as they once against forget about their base customers and supports.

New favorite worst tagline

For a while Saab's tagline of "Born from jets" and the Army's tagline of "Army strong" have been fighting it out for what I feel is the worst corporate tagline.
I think tonight I got a new favorite when I saw the new tagline for Sargento Cheese - "Persnickety People. Exceptional cheese.". Persnickety? Really? This bizarre choice makes it sound like the cheese they would have for Harry Potter at school.

JEEP teams up with Marvel for Patriot launch

So in their latest attempt to boost their brand, Jeep has teamed up with Marvel comics and Organic to create the online campaign that will support BBDO's launch campaign for the new Patriot SUV. The site has an interesting take on user generated content where users go to the site and they help shape the plot of a 20-page comic-in-progress (starring the car, of course) by submitting their comments and story ideas in the form of written text, digital photos or scanned artwork. The best ideas are then incorporated into the evolving story by Marvel artist Bing Cansino.

The site has an interesting interface where all 20 pages are laid out next to each other and you can page through the work so far. On comics pages see the artwork in pencil, ink and color layers. It is interesting that in terms of automotive advertising, the car does take the back seat to the comic content. It will be interesting to see if this take on user generated content works and can help create a successful launch across a wide demographic.

VW Rabbt Online Advertising

A friend over at Organic turned me on to the new VW online advertising campaign for the Rabbit. One of the working ad units is shown above. It is a simple idea that is nothing more than subservient chicken in an ad unit but this ad fixes the fatal flaw of that site. This ad actually shows the product and the brand. Type in "run" and the car zips around the ad unit. Type "jump" and the car jumps off a ramp. Type in "multiply" and well - see what happens. Now if only good online advertising would start multiplying like this.

New Mastercard branding

I saw today where Mastercard has followed in the recent steps of Intel, Volvo, and Kodak by updating their logo. They also went a step further and changed their name to MasterCard Worldwide from MasterCard International and introduced a new corporate tagline, "The Heart of Commerce.". Unlike the other brands I listed, I can't say that I am a fan of the new logo. I just spend all my time trying to figure out what the new circle over the middle of the logo is supposed to represent. Their branding site describes the circle as "intended to reflect the company's business as a franchiser, processor and adviser". Somehow I don't get all that from a circle. What are your thoughts on this?