Like many others in my age who didn’t grow up with his music, I didn’t care much about Michael Jackson. That is, until he died.

For the past few weeks, his performances have been literally all over the place. And I, seeing how many die-hard worshippers gather infront of those ubiquitous projector screens with blaring speakers of “Man in the Mirror,” and repeated fantastic performances of his infamous moonwalk, suddenly realized that I love his music.

This is not because it’s pleasant to my ears. But after seeing communities, tribes, nations and practically the whole world follow this man to his grave, I saw a glimpse of the meaning of Michael Jackson.

Haven’t you experienced liking a song not because of how it sounds, but what it meant to you?

Haven’t you gone to a place not because it’s beautiful, but because of the meaning of the memories you’ve had with it?

The strongest brands are those where people derive meaning from. When a product suddenly develops a motivational and emotional attachment, it ceases to be one—it metamorphosizes into a brand.

Yes, you can just pick your favorite color and design with it.

Campbell Mushroom Soup from Official Station's Flickr.

In one of Fast Company’s Slideshows, I stumbled upon Campbell’s Soup Packaging History. Apparently, the colors red and white were chosen after  the company’s treasurer attended a Cornell University football game, where he admired their red and white uniforms, and suggested those colors for the label.

That personal whim was so successful that the tomato soup label hasn’t gone through a major facelift for over 100 years. The design has evolved into a popular icon that even the ever-famous Andy Warhol made works from it. The design is just too darn successful.

by Andy Warhol

Of course, technical designers and purists would disagree with the argument that one, they’re just lucky; and two, that design is a difficult process that requires extensive thinking, and so on and so forth (which, I agree with.) However, we shouldn’t be counting our prejudiced selves out.

As designers, we have the ability to – as Malcolm Gladwell puts it – thin-slice which allows us to rely on quick decisions that may not have been backed by grueling nights of research, but rather with millions of subconscious memories, experiences and associations. In short, designing with bias, intuition and whim is not invalid.

Like everything else though, use it with caution.

Illustration by ThaZumi

I read this post by Eric Karjaluoto with an interview with Blair Enns of winwithoutpitching.com. In reference to design firms screwing things up with their sales strategies, he mentions the following:

The only real way for a firm to shift the power (from client to firm) is to eliminate as many substitutes to hiring their firm as possible. They do this by building a deep expertise. The easiest way to build deep expertise is to narrow the focus of the firm. But this is where the conflict starts. Creative people, by their very nature, have broad interests and tend to resist focus.

The typical designer will want to offer everything to everyone because of their “limitless creativity,” fear of missing opportunities or simply because of the fact that everyone else is doing it—including all the big players in the industry.

What’s misunderstood is that these big players came during a time when there never was an industry. They arrived in a vacuum (or a minimally competitive market) which is the reason they’re able to play the field like they’re doing now. Newer ones don’t have that luxury.

Young and new designers have to learn to focus. When they focus, they establish themselves as the gurus in that field. They go to places where they become unreachable. Barriers to entry begin to shoot up and competition won’t be able to casually copy like they do.

Suddenly, there is no (direct) competition because the bar in the playing field has been raised. They’re no longer competing in the design rat race.

From a consumer product standpoint, look at companies like Wacom, the leader of pen tablets. Microsoft, Genius, Logitech and others have the capability to produce tablets and compete in the field; but people still buy from them because of their expertise in making pen tablets. Because of their focus on their few products, they are able to perfect it and make it the best that the industry can offer. They’re irreplaceable and unstoppable.

From an artist’s standpoint, check out Pablo Picasso. Although he was creative enough to be able to do so many forms of painting and illustrating, he persistently mastered his craft in Cubism, which eventually made him a legend.

As designers, what do we really want to focus on? Brands Identity? Layouts? Environments? Publications? Illustration? Motion Graphics? Packaging? Print and Production Finishing? Web Design? Typography & Lettering? Design Thinking?

Pick or die.

Here are some good examples of design firms who focus:

Matchstic—Brand Identity house
Motionographer—Motion Graphics Specialist
Hoefler & Frere Jones—Typography Masters

On the other side, I don’t have to enumerate bad examples because there are just too much to list down. Google up, “multimedia design firm,” or “all your design needs,” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Disclaimer: As Seth Godin says, the ideal is to capture the widest market as possible. However, starting out, that’s pretty much impossible as all the big players will eat you up. So the solution here is to focus and saturate your relatively small niche market with your expertise until it reaches the point of explosion where expanding is the only way to go. Milton Glaser, Sagmeister Inc, Neville Brody and all the other greats have reached this point.

Notice the changeable Color Rings

After her grandmother took her grandfather’s medicine by mistake, Deborah Adler developed and crafted the Clear Rx Medicine packaging and visual identity system for her school thesis, which eventually led to corporate giant, Target Pharmacy adopting the system. Everyone, including Milton Glaser & Co who took her in, was singing praises.

Who wouldn’t love it? Using color-coding, custom icons, uncluttered type and visual triage, it was an amazing design feat that combined aesthetic considerations with sensitive problem-solving skills that addressed the needs of people taking medicine. Clear Rx was definitely appealing, easy-to-use and helpful for everyone who used these drugs.

It was the greatest feat in drug packaging…until I saw Help Remedies. Read the rest of this entry…

Simon Cowell—the man who makes millions from opinions

Opinionated people make the world more interesting. My favorite blogs and shows are all run by people who know how to make a claim, get angry and talk funny. Typical, ordinary ideas are souped-up with emotions through opinions that make listening and reading more fun.

Last week, I expressed my opinions on spec work which apparently, pissed off some personalities in the design community. But those are my personal opinions and I really can’t change them. Or can I?

Bob Sutton pointed out a very important opinion(ironic, isn’t it?) on the difference between the wise and smart:

And the virtues of wise people—those who have the courage to act on their knowledge, but the humility to doubt what they know…strong opinions which are weakly held.

Opinions, as we know them, aren’t facts. Obviously, they’re not indisputable and they can be doubted, questioned and refined. Unlike facts that are sturdy and permanent, opinions are fragile creatures that you can break, restore and further improve. (Hint: There are different ways to approach spec and not scream and curse all over the place!)

Quoting creativity guru Edward de Bono, “If you never change your mind, why have one?”

Sadly though, I must end with a caveat. In order to express the thought about doubting and refining opinions, I’ve inevitably expressed several of my own breakable opinions, which you can of course, politely or violently disagree with.

Who's it gonna be?

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds is confirmed to play two, distinct superhero roles—Deadpool and Green Lantern. (EDIT: Kevin points out that Green Lantern will be his third comic book role.)

Both movies are slated to be released 2-4 years down the road with the booming hearththrob playing both superhero roles. I am not aware of all the specific details, but the first thought that came into my mind was, how are they gonna pull this off?

In the superhero movie industry, actor-hero associations are extremely powerful. Christian Bale is Batman. Tobey Maguire is Spiderman. Robert Downey Jr. is Ironman. Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. You can’t just simply detach these guys from their costumes and place them in another. Read the rest of this entry…

South Luzon Expressway Ad

If you’re a designer, you probably know what’s wrong with this picture.

To the rest of the world, here is the problem: When you tell people to “Drive Safely” tell them only that and nothing else.

Because when you’re distracting drivers who have a three-second attention span with ineffective text-heavy ads, inflated breasts, or celebrities flashing their pearly whites while they should be focused on the wheel, you’re hypocritically telling them to drive safely while also inviting road accidents and unintended deaths.

Drive safely means drive safely. Stop barraging people with messages they don’t want and need to hear.

On a side note, here’s a really cool video (although I’m doubting its real effectivity) of a bleeding road safety ad:

If you’ve tried Peking Duck before, you know how the routine goes. Dressed to do the perfect job, the chef comes out of the kitchen doors gracefully rolling the signature cart. On it are four plates—the sauce, fillings, wrappers and the duck temptingly hidden under a flattering, shiny plate cover.

Silence looms over the table. All eyes are fixated on the magical carrier of the glorious dish. The cart stops and the drum roll begins. You and your salivating friends see the perfectly roasted skin evenly glazed with oil. Holding a sharp knife and with extreme precision, the masterful hands of the chef divide the dish into convenient pieces. The steaming wrappers cover the duck and it is finally served.

You dig in and take a bite out of heaven. (But after three or four pieces, you feel bloated and nauseated.)

Now, let me get to the point!

It has become Chinese tradition to serve the duck that way; but the reason it has been solidified as a time-tested tradition is hinging not (entirely) on the taste of the dish itself, but the intricate process of carving and serving.

Peking duck is loved by many because it accomplishes many things that don’t directly connect to the taste of the dish itself. First, ordering it gives the customer a (subconscious) sense of pride as the expensive dish is being paraded around the whole restaurant for everyone to see. Second, others who do see it become envious and eventually orders it too the next time they get their hands on the menu. Third, the anticipation created by having to actually observe the lengthy spectacle of slicing simply makes us hungrier, and the duck more desirable. It turns the duck into some sort of reward rather than just another dish to be chomped off the table.

Perhaps the next time we’re trying to sell something, innovating on the experience of trying out the product rather than the product itself may be the elusive answer to our problems.

As they always say, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” or in this case, “Sell the really cool, mouth-watering process of slicing and serving the duck, not the duck.”

Design is as much a matter of finding problems as it is solving them.

—Bryan Lawson

My previous post on how the Free industry has been developing and damaging the design world has been met with a relatively good number of varied reactions (thanks guys!) considering how tiny my blog is. But the most interesting feedback I got was from a guy named Ross Kimbarovsky who ReTweeted my post over at twitter. (Add me up!)

Apparently, to my big surprise, he’s the co-founder of the infamous Crowdspring.com!

I really don’t know if my writing was confusing as it was apparently misinterpreted; but let me try to clarify. Although I am not a supporter of Crowdspring and Spec work, I do not fully agree with the way designers are responding to spec. Read the rest of this entry…

A Site called "All Free Logos."

If you’re a designer, you very well know how difficult it is competing with Photoshoppers offering their services so cheap that they’re almost free.

Yesterday, I read a post by Malcolm Gladwell arguing with some ideas Chris Anderson pointed out in his new book, Free. Basically, Chris is telling us that information wants to be free. Newspapers and other sources of information that used to work are quickly dying because faster technological mediums like the internet are becoming cheaper(or free) and more convenient. “The digital age is exerting an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things “made of ideas.”

He goes on pointing out that “Musicians who believe that their music is being pirated…should stop complaining, and capitalize on the added exposure that piracy provides by making money through touring, merchandise sales, and “yes, the sale of some of [their] music to people who still want CDs or prefer to buy their music online.”

Malcolm counter-argues; however, that Free is not the way to go. He gives a detailed and compelling case explaining how Youtube has been finding extreme difficulty in sustaining itself and making money because of the Free business model. He tells us about how iPhone apps (ideas), which aren’t free, are outselling the actual units of Iphones (stuff) themselves. He tells the story of Myozyme, a drug that cost 500 million dollars to develop, and how it sells for $300,000 a year, which is far from free. Simply put, he’s saying that information and ideas aren’t supposed to be free and that iron laws dictating that these things should be are all compromised by the digital technology that we all have access to. (If you want to read more, also check out Seth Godin’s reaction.)

***

We’re living in exponential and transitional times where things are quickly changing. Both arguments by Chris Anderson and Malcolm Gladwell are right. There are industries where free will effectively work and change the way business is done; but there will be some where it will sound absolutely absurd.

Too bad for designers, we’re in an industry where free is quickly taking over the place. Read the rest of this entry…