For most of us this is a quiet time . . . a time for reflection between the hectic holidays and the anticipation of a new year to come. A quiet time we cherish because of its relaxed and restful contrast to the hectic pace we know will resume next week.

In the cinema it is a moment of silence, in mathematics it is the zero, in music it is a rest, in sports it is the time out, in design it is white space . . . those quiet seemingly empty things that help us appreciate all the more the voice track, the numbers, the notes, the rest of the game, or simply the other elements on the front panel of a package. A movie, equation, symphony, basketball game, or package design would all be a very different experience without that sense of contrast.

Yet we are losing this sense quiet in our lives, as is pointed out in a Maureen Dowd column earlier this month, with our intense pace and increasing connectedness. As she says, “The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery, privacy and paying attention to one thing — or one person — at a time.”

And Virginia Woolf seemed to understand this rift in the modern world when she wrote, in the early years of the 20th century, about a time similar to ours. “On or about December 1910, human character changed.”

Yet for us . . . in the early years of the 21st century . . . things may be changing in ways unexpected. On many shelves of the retail store, the level of simplicity, calmness and yes even white space is on the rise. There is less shouting going on, even in the traditionally high decibel product categories like detergent or pain relievers.

Perhaps, for once, package designers have sensed this change ahead of most. Perhaps we together with our clients are beginning to recognize the value of this time out, and how this moment of quiet is being used in so many other areas of our life to heighten the appreciation for the whole experience.

As Michel Hazanavicius, Director of the new silent film “The Artist”, says about the lack of sound in his movie, “I compare it to the zero in mathematics. People think it’s nothing, but actually it’s not. It can be very powerful.”

Virginia Woolf describes these experiences as “Moments of being”, and my hope for the New Year is that our lives will be filled with more of them.

Acknowledgments
This portrait of Virginia Woolf, taken in 1902, is by George Charles Beresford

We hear their voices as we wander around the busy aisles of Stop & Shop or the hushed showrooms at Saks.

Some yelling free offers, some singing free range, some promising free radicals, and some whispering sugar free . . . they speak to us with a barrage of messages for beauty, convenience, comfort, flavor . . . all with one goal. Take me home.

And once home most continue to yell, and sing, and promise, and whisper from behind our pantry walls and vanity doors with the same level of intensity that they did in the retail environment. I have long thought it would be great if all packages could magically transform themselves into well-behaved family members when they get home, but that’s the subject of another post.

This post is about conversations, and conversations require both listening and talking. As we know packages, and the retail environments they occupy, are not great at listening . . . at least not yet.

My strong sense is that this is about to change, and change big time in the next couple years, and probably in two steps. Let me explain each of these and how they might occur.

Step One
The first step in the conversation will take place with your mobile device.

Apple just launched their iPhone 4s this week. And in David Pogue’s NY Times review he speaks passionately about Siri, the phone’s voice recognizing personal assistant by saying the following;

“You can say, “Wake me up at 7:35,” or “Change my 7:35 alarm to 8.” You can say, “What’s Gary’s work number?” Or, “How do I get to the airport?” Or, “Any good Thai restaurants around here?” Or, “Make a note to rent ‘Ishtar’ this weekend.” Or, “How many days until Valentine’s Day?” Or, “Play some Beatles.” Or, “When was Abraham Lincoln born?”

In each case, Siri thinks for a few seconds, displays a beautifully formatted response and speaks in a calm female voice. It’s mind-blowing how inexact your utterances can be. Siri understands everything from, “What’s the weather going to be like in Tucson this weekend?” to “Will I need an umbrella tonight?”

Now imagine if you could walk around a store and ask your phone questions like, “Do these chips have too much salt for me?”, or “What’s the best price for this camera?”, or “Will this cleanser scratch my granite counters?”.

We know that shoppers are increasingly using their mobile device while shopping, and research already suggests that people are pretty serious when they do. Today 70% of mobile queries turn into sales within an hour. So surely the same intelligence that Siri exhibits on an iPhone 4s will lead to more intelligent conversations about products and packages with your mobile device at retail, and very soon. Probably in the next year.

Step Two
The second step will bring this listening technology to individual products and packages.

As we know, retailers and brands like to control the conversation, or these days at least try and influence it. So once Step One is in place, these retailers and products will quickly want to influence the in-store conversation by both listening and talking. And they will do this by activating their stores and products, with the same “Siri like” intelligent ability to interact and answer our questions as we wander through the aisles.

I am not a technologist, so don’t ask me exactly what form this may take. But I can imagine kiosks at retail, or shipper displays, or even individual packages with built in technology that answer questions just the way Siri now does on an iPhone 4s.

And that’s a conversation that will happen sooner than you think!

Benjamin Bratton, who calls himself a “sociological, media, and design theorist”, and who’s self proclaimed current interests include “the philosophical problematics of the interfaciality”, was interviewed on design and geopolitics.

His response to the austerity package question above was as follows;

“Certainly it is, but that is not an evaluation of its merits. The methodological shift to ‘design by subtraction’ away from the high-modern ‘design by addition into tabula rasa’ is important for the post-Anthropocene era. When the planet is full-and it is always full-then subtraction is the other half of the technical economy. In the case of the austerity package, it is painfully clear that the body politic is being dismembered for spare parts. This is a design strategy, yes, but like war is design strategy.”

Wow, I agree, I think?

At first his answer struck me as the intellectual equivalent of my first experience with pesto sauce . . . outside my realm of understanding, and is this supposed to be red (or read)?

But if you read it, or eat it, a few times they both begin to have a certain gastronomic and intellectual logic.

Last week there was a lot of press about Nice!, the new Walgreens private brand for grocery products. My take . . . really Nice! name, not so Nice! packaging. And here’s a story to explain why.

My first job was working for Lois/Chajet Design Group, a joint venture of George Lois the iconic advertising art director and Clive Chajet the iconic . . . well just iconic.

George was the first indoor hurricane I had ever met (an analogy that is easy to come by as we await the arrival, or not, of Irene). With his almost biblical power over ideas (he is an AIGA Medalist and in the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame) he blew around the office wreaking creative havoc, and his agencies managed to produce some of the most iconic conceptual advertising in the last 50 years. Clive was terribly good at managing the growth of design firms (he would later go on to rebuild Lippincott after the retirement of Walter Margulies) and managing the expectations of clients.

Although neither of these gents were designers in the classic sense, they both had a clear grasp for brands, and a very simple measure for a successful retail package design. Wandering around the studio they would growl “what’s the idea, yah gotta have an idea!” (Clive from Britain slurring his Rs, and George from the Bronx slurring everything).

But their point was clear  . . . its easy to make things pretty, but its much harder to make them smart.

And their definition of a smart idea was pretty simple, it had to be unique, memorable, and ownable (George would always say it had to have “balls” too, but that’s another story). The question in the office was always, “can the brand build a long-term equity with this design?” Seems simple right?

A few years later I was working for a fellow named Jack Blyth and being a Scot, his test for uniqueness was even simpler. If you could take the name off a package and still have the consumer recognize the brand, then it was a successful package architecture. Yes again simple, maybe even overly simplistic, but certainly clear.

By these measures the new Walgreens brand may be simple, but it isn’t Nice!

Looking at the image above containing Target’s up & up, Publix everyday, Walgreens’ Nice! and Walmart’s Great Value brands with their logos missing,  George and Clive would likely agree that Nice! isn’t unique, memorable, and ownable. And Jack would wince at these generic packages with their unrecognizable or nonexistent equity with the brand name is missing.

The shelves have been inundated in the last decade by brands with predominantly white packaging. And we have all weighed in on their issues. To introduce this new brand in 2005 is one thing, but to introduce it in 2011 is either naive or bereft.

Too bad, because its a really Nice! name.

The new packaging is more fun, more sophisticated and a much more sensitive link to the brand’s unique and historic character.

Two trends are evident with this new packaging. First, iconic brands are beginning to recognize and celebrate their heritage. Some brands have done it with simplistic solutions like “throwback” replicas of old packaging. Some like Coke, have begun to genuinely identify and distill the most basic visual foundations of their brand heritage, and reintroduce packaging that is historically sensitive but transformational.

Second, brand identities are getting simpler. In all categories, and with both branded and private label products, savvy marketers have begun to apply their heritage on the shelf with simpler, cleaner, and more compelling package design solutions.

Acknowledgments
Shown above is a photo of the new can, sent to me today, with the new look as it will be launched this Fall.

A twist of art, with a dash of commerce, has always been the recipe for cocktail magic at Absolut.

The bottle has been one of the most iconic examples of the possibilities inherent in strong linkages between package and brand. And TBWA/Chiat/Day has done it again by commissioning a number of contemporary artists with the tagline “It all starts with an Absolut blank.”

The video above shows the work in progress and this link will show you all of the marvelous imagery launched in the UK this week.

No need to say more, the work speaks for itself.

In the interest of full disclosure, this work would be successful even if Pernod Ricard were not a client, but fortunately they are.

Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

As the incomparable Dr. Seuss could appreciate, the inaugural year for the new Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts is over . . . and what a year it was!

And as a member of the founding faculty, one of my revelations has been the recognition that we; the cofounders Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, the diverse faculty, J’aime our Director, and the incredible students, have all played a vital role in the creation of a new intellectual community. This vital new community will continue to grow in its scope and influence as the program matures, and I believe will become an invaluable resource for both talent and ideas within the branding arena.

And the contributions have already begun. In addition to 23 newly minted Masters Degrees, this new community has written a book, Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing, and Sustaining Brands, to be published in 2012 by Rockport Publishers. As a Contributing Editor, I am thankful to play a role in the development of this new book, but even more gratified to be part of this new intellectual community.

Here is a link on the new Rockport blog “rockpaperink.com, describing the research for Chapter Six developed by two SVA students, Maxine Gurevich and Rebecca Etter.

And here is a link to the work done for Chapter Five by students Jada Britto, Chi Wai Lima, and Mo Saad on the Johnson & Johnson brand.

And here is a link to the work done by student Jessie McGuire on the Kleenex brand

Fast Company has a piece highlighting the development of this idea at MIT as part of their “appropriate technologies” initiative. And here is a link to a video that shows how this idea has begun to be adopted in the Philippines where as many as 10,000 of these bulbs are already shining.

Brightens my day just thinking about it!

I have three thoughts.
1. It’s about time!
2. You can still have an impact!
3. It might be too late!

Let me explain. First, the “its about time thing” is self explanatory. Everyone agrees that the existing nutrition facts box is a relic of the 1970s, and needs updating.

Second, you can have an impact, and right now, by voting for your favorite solution in the fascinating “Rethink The Food Label” program, where there is some very interesting work being done to reimagine the decades old nutrition facts box on all food products. The winners all seem richer and more informative than the existing box. As they say on the site,

“Rethink the Food Label is a project by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s News21 program and Good Magazine. We asked the public, food thinkers, nutritionists, and designers to redesign the Nutrition Facts Label to make it easier to read and more useful to people who want to consume healthier, more nutritious and wholesome food.

Designs could incorporate the nutrition label’s existing break down of fats, sugars, vitamins, calorie counts and percent daily values. Or, they could re-imagine the label to include geography, food quality, food justice, carbon footprint, or lesser-known chemosensory characteristics.

Above all, we asked for designs that were informative, instructive and memorable.”

Third, as I speculated in a recent post, all of this well-meaning thought on consumer interests and behavior and how to apply it to a package, may be too late. We are entering an increasingly connected world, with mobile devices at retail beginning to act as the authoritative place for information for most people. As mentioned in my previous post, two statistics from a Microsoft/IRI survey support this trend,
• 78% of smart phone users use their phone when they shop
• 73% of consumers prefer using their mobile device at retail for product information rather than relying on a salesperson for advice

In this newly connected world the package will remain 
an important vehicle for information, but shouldn’t we be spending just as much time imagining how to present rich and reliable information to consumers on mobile platforms.

Acknowledgments
Here is a link to a great piece in today’s NY Times about the UC Berkeley program.

And here is a link to a discussion on Fast Company design site.

We all sense that the growth and adoption of mobile technology is extraordinary. And at a fascinating seminar led by Andrew Hawn and David Luttenberger of Iconoculture at the FIT campus in New York yesterday, some facts were presented about retail usage of mobile devices that certainly seemed to confirm this.

1. In the last year the time spent using a mobile device has increased from 43 to 81 minutes per day
2. 73% of consumers prefer using their mobile device at retail for product information rather than relying on a salesperson for advice
3. 78% of smart phone users use their phone when they shop
4. 70% of desktop product information queries lead to sales in a week, while 70% of mobile queries lead to sales in one hour

These statistics, and many others like them, support the explosion that is taking place in the adoption of mobile devices and demonstrate the excitement people are feeling about their usage at retail. But I was mostly NOT feeling really excited yesterday. Unfortunately most of the examples shown were decidedly boring and derivative, simply mundane examples of old-school promotion programs using QR codes for activation technology. Really boring, and I’ll call this Mobile 1.0 thinking.

But anyone who takes time to consider the potential of this technology knows it is capable of much much more. And this potential was demonstrated with what Tesco has launched in South Korea. This is a mobile activation idea so extraordinary that it could simply change the whole premise of retail.

As the video above demonstrates, their Home Plus stores have set up virtual retail shops in subway stations. These walls have no real products, just images of product packages with QR codes. Shoppers can select items for purchase by scanning the code on a simulated store shelf. The items are then soon delivered to the shopper’s home. Now imagine a virtual Stop & Shop in Grand Central Station, or a virtual Walgreen’s at O’Hare Airport!

While everyone else has been fooling around with Mobile 1.0 ideas, Tesco has shown us how exciting, and groundbreaking, Mobile 2.0 technology will be.