Richard Canny is a very smart guy when it comes to cars and especially electric vehicles. He’s been a big cheese at Ford as well as CEO of Think, the funky EV company - he has been both David and Goliath.
On Friday November 5th, we attended the first Brand New Conference in NYC. The event was created as an extension of the identity blog Brand New, created by Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio through Under Consideration.
The speaker lineup consisted of many design heavy hitters including:Michael Bierut and Paula Scher (Pentagram), Michael Johnson (Johnson Banks), Connie Birdsall, (Lippincott) and Christian Helms (Decoder Ring).
Michael Lejeune (LA Metro Design Studio) spoke on how small moves can add up to big change in a brand and public perception, raising awareness of LA Metro to 98% in the city one bus at a time. Tom Dorrestejin of (Studio Dumbar) showed exciting work, making most designers in the room swoon; Armin moderated a Q+A with WO’s Jordan Crane and Karl Heiselman on AOL and London 2012; and the steal of the show was legendary type designer, Erik Spiekermann (Edenspiekermann).
A FEW NOTABLE QUOTES FROM ATTENDEES THROUGHOUT THE DAY: See more photos from the event on our flickr.
“We share identity with others. Personality is unique. Should we be personality, not identity designers?” Tom Dorrestejin, Studio Dunbar
[On hammering out a brand] “If you’re digging a hole in the wrong place, making it deeper doesn’t help.” Michael Bierut, Pentagram
“All designers are strategists. We just don’t charge for it.” Paula Scher, Pentagram
“Using a typeface with some depth & character, plus a strong color, can sustain a corporate identity program.” Eric Spiekermann
“Keep your story simple so other people can tell your story for you.” Connie Birdsall, Lippincott
“Typefaces are like your children, you let them go and they get out of your control.” Eric Spiekermann
“You can’t order people to do great things — you have to provide the conditions, inspire them, understand them.” Karl Heiselman, WO
“You’re probably not doing the best work of your life if everyone is ‘OK’ with it.” Jordan Crane, WO
AOL has announced the 25 groundbreakers and visionaries each receiving $25k in the 25 for 25 program. As part of their Project on Creativity, the program awards grants to 25 innovators from a variety of artistic fields.
“25 for 25 is an affirmation of our commitment to the creative community.” — AOL Senior Vice President of Brand & Marketing, Maureen Sullivan.
The winners, chosen from over 9,000 submissions selected by an Advisory Panel including Adam D. Weinberg, Whitney Museum; Andy Spade, Partners & Spade; Kim Hastreiter, Paper Magazine; Jen Bekman, 20x200; and Glenn O’Brien.
For more information and a complete list of recipients check out AOL Artists.
Via AOL Artists and AOL Corp. Images: AOL Artists (Melissa Scott) @hello_melissa
In a collaboration with Wolff Olins and AOL’s music website, Spinner, AOL hosted four free pop-up shows during the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Broken Bells kicked off the series on March 17, followed by Rogue Wave on March 18, VV Brown on March 19, and Rival Schools on March 20. It was surely an exciting weekend for art and music lovers. Times and locations were revealed the day before each performance on Spinner, AOL music’s SXSW hub, the Spinner Facebook Fan Page, and to Spinner / SXSW Twitter followers.
The posters were designed by WO and were beautifully screen printed by D&L Screen Printing of Seattle, a legend in the grunge music scene.
The spirit of this collaboration truly lies in the heart of AOL. Connecting with the latest in art and culture is an important aspect of their brand and one they aim to bring to their readers.
Today’s article about AOL on Fastcompany.com includes a quote we made about changing AOL’s name. The quote was that changing the name would have been the “lazy consultant” answer. I’d like to explain why in a little more detail.
The world we live in today is more transparent than ever. As a result, changing names has become a much more sensitive topic than it used to be. It will never be the ‘fresh start’ as is often claimed, as the court of online opinion will be swift to point out who you really are, and to ask the question “what have you got to hide?”
AOL is a controversial brand for many reasons. Against this, changing the name would simply have been perceived as a defensive move, a weak position from which to enter life as a newly independent company. Had the name have been changed, the very same people who today say it should be changed, would instead be highlighting the name change as a “desperate move” to break with the past.
AOL are not Altria. They don’t make products that kill people. Their problem isn’t fundamentally that they are hated. Their problem is one of relavence and of perceptions. Their future is as a content brand, not an access brand. That had to be our singular point of focus.
AOL also has a huge strength in that everyone already knows who they are. If you change the name, you introduce the significant cost of building as much awareness all over again - money that instead will be better spent on developing the AOL product experience.
In sticking with AOL, they’re not hiding from anything. They’re stepping into the future with a confident stance, and focusing all of their attention on what really matters - creating amazing content experiences for their users.
