My kid will tell you that I make a mean chocolate chip pancake, but that’s only due to my ability to follow the directions on the box. I’m not much of a cook, I’m afraid. I think the most difficult part of cooking a meal is the timing. I admire the planning that goes into starting one thing while thawing another all the while mixing something else and like magic, they all come to the table at the same time. I tried baking a layer cake once and didn’t make it out of the frosting phase unscathed. I ended up with a sticky mess and a birthday promise that went unfulfilled. Thankfully, the local bakery bailed me out.

Evolving a brand into a new, more engaging incarnation can be just as magic, or if improperly handled, just as messy, resulting in a brand promise that goes unfulfilled. Expectations are always high when we embark on the path that leads to transforming a brand, from both our friends on the client side as well as ourselves. Designers inherently embrace a challenge, and we see every project as an opportunity to make a brand all and the very best that it can be. A lot of teamwork goes into executing a brand—that is, following the recipe we’ve created for an engaging shopping experience. If the recipe isn’t followed, your outcome can suffer.

When we look at the physical expression of a brand, there are tactical aspects as well design elements in explicit proportions that bind everything together. The layout can be a big part of a branded experience, which entails orchestrating the shopper path. Lighting can add ambiance and mood to set the emotional tone that encourages purchase. Signage and graphics all act to give the concept life and visual impact. Surface textures and colors give us a canvas on which to work.  There’s a harmony of interdependencies that are critical to the agreed upon outcome. If you skip a step or skimp on an ingredient here or there, you can end up with a mess on your hands.

And as you can probably guess, the impetus for this post was a visit to the store of a former client who last year achieved great results with our design. Tests showed the shopping experience was clearing up shopper confusion, giving the store a look of confidence and quality—the things that lead to repeat business. Well, that changed this year. As often happens, new personnel take over. Their approach is to throw unrelated stuff into the store, pile it high, corrupt the plan and let the shopper dodge and search. Man, that’s not a brand, that’s a mess.

So it’s that time of year again. Over the next three months, you can find me at my kid’s high school athletic field, watching his soccer team practice four nights a week. I rather enjoy those days. They’re a combination of fresh air and pride watching my kid trying to be the next great Springboro High goalkeeper.

As I sit here this evening, there is a slight wind that keeps the flag flying, pulling its cable against the flagpole, creating that hollow metal pinging sound. At the far end of the bleachers, a runner is doing some stair work. Her shoes make a sharp pop, I can feel the vibrations down my row as she hustles up and back down again. The evening sun is warm and the smell of freshly cut grass fills the stadium. Based on these sensations, you could blindfold me and I’d still know where I was.

A few retail brands stand out when I think of sensorial experiences.  How many times have you smelled a Cinnabon before you saw it? You can smell and usually hear an Abercrombie before you come across one in the local mall. A similar volume of music (not to mention the genre) somehow seems very out of place in an Orvis store. Bath and Body Shop does a nice job of seasonal scents to grab your attention.

As retail designers, we rely a lot on the visual sense to communicate to consumers. But let’s not forget that those brands that engage all of the senses create the most memorable experiences.

On June 18, Pixar Animation Studios released the third installment in their flagship franchise, simply titled “Toy Story 3.” Now that the reviews are in, Pixar just missed the mark in producing the first movie trilogy to receive 100% fresh ratings on the popular movie rating site Rotten Tomatoes. A 100% rating is near impossible for any individual movie, considering the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are not a single opinion but an aggregate of hundreds of movie critics’ ratings.  Doing so for all three movies in a trilogy, or even coming this close, would seem to be an impossible task. And yet, they came within inches.

Also, this eleventh feature-length offering from Pixar has all the indications of another smashing financial success. While any individual moviegoer may have some negative opinions about some of Pixar’s movies, it’s hard to argue against the overall universal acclaim and the respective worldwide box office returns.  

So how does Pixar do it? Three simple words: Story is king. From the very beginning, Pixar has followed one simple mantra, which is engraved in stone at their studio: “No amount of technology can turn a bad story into a good one.” Eleven critically acclaimed feature movies, eleven financial successes, all based upon original stories and characters. This seems to fly in the face of the current Hollywood thinking that if you use more special effects, they will come. Make the movie 3D and they will come. Cast the actor-du-jour and they will come. Base it on an existing property (book, TV show, remake of older movie, video game, board game) and they will come. In many current Hollywood offerings, story and characters take a back seat.

Tell a good story with compelling characters, and they will come. It seems so simple and common sense, yet it seems to be forgotten. Pixar’s track record speaks to the effectiveness. They single-mindedly stick to their mantra and always strive to deliver against it in all they do. Now that’s a lesson that any brand could take a cue from.

We are all students of brand in one way or another, and I believe we begin  that learning early, in our  formative years. I remember sitting with an Etch A Sketch for hours and being completely engrossed in little lines drawn in a field of silver dust. A few shakes and I got a completely new canvas. Amazing. Maybe that helped shape my future as a designer and if so, thank you Etch A Sketch. But I suspect there is another brand that, at the very least, helped shape my love and fascination for the automobile. Could there be a cooler brand than Hot Wheels?

I admit to still having my very first Hot Wheels car, a red ‘68 Custom Mustang that is my sole prized possession. It is missing a hood, a bunch of paint, the wheels in the back are curled up like many did back then and it has some original dirt that I happily applied as a kid. It never lost a race. Somewhere, playing with that car flipped a switch in my brain and I’ve loved the automobile ever since.

I could get philosophical about the Hot Wheels brand and how I think it mirrors many aspects of the time in which we live. About how the graphics on the packaging can be seen as an indication of trend and how it becomes a miniature testament to the actual car brands themselves. About how the proprietary designs from the Hot Wheels design studio draw from many aspects of modern culture. Ask any young child what you call the little tiny cars and I’ll bet that you’ll get the correct answer 9 times out of 10. The folks at Mattel have done a great job over the (40!) years of providing a consistent message, keeping true to their calling while managing to leverage their asset across a vast array of other products, from PJ’s to fruit snacks and Saturday morning cartoons. It’s a great historical brand case study and one that continues to be relevant.

A casual glance at eBay will provide you with over 10,000 opportunities to purchase a Hot Wheels, some for thousands of dollars, none of which seem destined for ripping down an orange track and careening down the hallway. But, that doesn’t change the fact that for 99 cents and a little pile of dirt, a kid can still enjoy a truly distinctive brand and maybe launch a  lifelong love affair as well. Thank you, Hot Wheels.

Having read the article about the half-mile-long beaver dam in Alberta, Canada, it occurred to me that those beavers exemplify something frequently overlooked in the retail design business, the idea that it’s okay to fail.

You would have to imagine that over the reported 2800 linear feet of dam in what is basically a flat terrain, there’s the likelihood that sometimes it just doesn’t work the way they intended.  The colony has to react quickly to failure to ensure the safety of their habitat. If any of you beavers are reading this post and would like to broaden your portfolio, by all means, give us a call. Failure is an option in design as long as it’s smart failure and failing for the right reason. If it helps the idea move forward, then it might just net out the absolute best result.

In today’s market, retail brands developing a new design concept rarely have the luxury of time. Business pressure demands short design-and-build timeframes, followed by testing and refining. The original concept gets implemented across a variety of locations and architectures the offer the opportunity to engineer a new experience. In some cases,  the opportunities never get the proper amount of attention.  But when they do, the brand benefits. Much good comes from exploring various options, thoroughly test them with consumers and then using the insights to build something even more engaging at the next location. Failing forward.

My experience tells me that some of the most successful projects that I have had the opportunity to be involved with ended up that way because they continue to improve long after the first location is opened. Those brands realize the customer is a moving target whose expectations increase daily. To satisfy them and to keep them coming back, it takes a strong resolve to continuously improve.   

I am always inspired by my surroundings and the story of the beavers is a great case study on design. If and when beavers learn CAD and Photoshop, the design community at large might have some serious competition.

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time in our Madrid office collaborating with a cross disciplinary team to brainstorm and develop a cultural food destination concept that would be a reference point for the city of Madrid.  So far project and our ideas are having great success with the client and we are really excited about the potential of the concept.  

The experience of working abroad, for however long a period of time, in another office is fantastic!  If you ever get the chance to work in another office, especially globally, drop what you are doing and go!  It’s a great way to get a fresh perspective on what we do by seeing how other offices/cultures work and engage with each other and their clients.  Anytime you can get exposed to new people and fresh processes and ideas it’s really energizing!  This is true from both parties perspectives as well. The creative tools I brought were greatly appreciated by everyone, since it was a fresh way of working for them.  So, the door swings both ways.  I conducted a brainstorming/ideation session with the internal team only, and it was great to see everyone get excited by this “new” way of digging through ideas to discover the concept.  By the end, our brains hurt, we were a little sweaty and tired, so we went off to the bar to refresh our creative minds.  

Also, from a cultural standpoint it was interesting to see and understand the differences between what we have and do in the U.S. versus another culture.  Sometimes there are details that  seem insignificant to me (an American), but make all the difference when it comes to the experience to a Spaniard (ask me about my shrimp experience sometime).  But, being able to work through those details, with people who understand the culture, to reshape the idea to make it work, was awesome!

Finally, speaking as a creative person who is always looking for fresh ideas and inspiration, travel is always a good thing—excuse me, a GREAT thing!  I was able to work in a little sight seeing time both in the city of Madrid and in a small historical town outside the city named Segovia.  In both these places I was able to see some of Spain’s rich history, and experience the different brands and retailers that we don’t have in the states.

All in all, it,s an invaluable experience and I highly recommend it!

Stay ahead of rapid expansion
Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai are cutting edge markets and this means high expectations. Going into a project as a designer in these cities is intimidating. Shoppers live in aesthetic cultures where every imaginable design has been popularized. These cities are changing organically. It almost seems instantaneous. Within 3 months of being away from Singapore three new malls have opened. It’s all about knowing past/ present memes and looking toward ways of either (1) creating a new twist or (2) breaking the boundaries all together.

Stand out
In most cases Western design tends to fit in with its surroundings. Success in Asia is all about being bold. Whether it be a silly chewing gum commercial or neon signage that puts Times Square to shame, there is always something screaming for your attention. When you consider how busy people are in cities like Beijing and Tokyo, getting someone’s attention takes a strong effort. In my opinion, the solution to this is a simple design that allows for a detox from all the noise.

Design practical and durable
In South East Asia dirt is a big issue. Visual identity systems are often colorful with no white. In places like the Philippines, hot weather and dirty streets make the use of that modern pure white seem like a silly idea. From a culture perspective, the European black and grey palette, that we strive so hard to achieve, is irrelevant amongst cities like Bangkok where the taxis are hot pink and golden palaces litter the cityscape.  

Be Flexible
Living in a “Cultural Salad” means tackling different issues than when in a “Melting Pot.”  Building retail experiences that resonate amongst different segments and cultures means being able to truly understand the differences of the people that make up the cultures. The smart way to approach this is to design a system of parts that can live in any scenario rather then focusing on the actual shell of a location. A clever use of universal imagery and messaging proves very effective. Just look at Wegamama’s (Japanese for “selfish”) in the UK. Their iconic image of a boy eating from a bowl is genius. You understand right away what the image is saying and without a specific identity to the subject, the photo has the ability to be relevant in any region.

    
Respect superstition
Each culture has its own specific set of rules. Going into a meeting with a clear respect and understanding for these rules can mean life or death of a project. I have been in meetings where the general feeling of a downward slopping logo mark was interpreted as negative and almost was shot down. Feng Shui in Chinese culture plays a major role in the designing of brands. I have heard of projects that needed to be reworked after a Feng Shui master came in and commented on how the shape of the logo was sucking out the wealth and positive energy of the organization. Buildings in Singapore have been publicly exiled for being too sharp and therefore allowing the positive energy to flow out of the city into the ocean. The same mood and feelings towards a store plays toward shopper habits as well. Lots of these rules may appear silly but if you really investigate some of the findings do lead to great solutions. It’s like Chinese medicine, no one really knows what goes into them, but somehow it works.

Once. Twice. Yes, starting very soon, Apple will have done it for a third time: changed the way we buy and listen to music. Apple acquired digital music startup Lala in December and shut the site down in May, leading tech pundits to speculate on the coming of “an iTunes in the cloud,” once the streaming music service is incorporated into Apple’s business model.

Although Apple won’t comment on its plans, as a loyal Lala.com user and Apple fan, I’m fully expecting to enjoy a cloud-based iTunes experience in the near future, and I think it’s great that Apple continues to advance their retail strategy and break paradigms of the industry by sourcing great ideas, making them profitable and bringing them to a larger audience.

I look forward to having full access to my music library anywhere an Internet connection is available, as well as being able to add/purchase songs from any computer with the added benefit of instantaneous downloads to mobile equipment. I hope Apple is able to keep some of Lala’s unique features, such as letting customers listen to an entire piece of music for free before purchasing it. Also, I really appreciated being able to pay 10 cents for the rights to stream a song an unlimited number of times from the Web as opposed to downloading a song.  I think Apple’s genius lies in asking questions like: Why do I have to download music?

The “All-you-can-eat Buffet of Food for Thought.” IdeaFestival 2010 is what this statement is referring to.  I just received my ‘personal invitation’ to attend the yearly conference held in Louisville, KY, and I couldn’t be more excited. I feel more creative just thinking about it.

IdeaFestival is “a world-class event that attracts leading global innovators and thinkers to discuss and celebrate imagination, new perspectives and transformational ideas.  It explores the cross-cutting nature of innovation over a range of diverse disciplines.”  I should say so! As descriptive as that is, until you experience the event yourself it is very hard to get across just how great it is. 

At one year’s conference an Internet game designer talked about applying the brain power used on gaming everyday to help solve real world problems by designing those problems into the games.  I learned about the science and mystery of magic and learned how tricks are done. Knowing that makes watching it even more enjoyable because you are aware of the time involved in the trick’s invention, and the hours of practice needed to perfect it.  There was also a ninja, a philosopher, a neurosurgeon, an architect and many others that told how they innovate, generate ideas and collaborate.

This year I am looking forward to hearing from the co-founder of Twitter. Really— how do you come up with an idea like that?!?  There is a short film festival and a talk from one of the producers of Avatar. Now that was innovative!  I will get to hear about “life before life” and how third graders think and inspire their teacher. And that is just the beginning. What an inspiring, thought provoking event this is. 

I just can’t say enough. 

Go. 

Be inspired.

Be collaborative.

Be innovative.