Cézanne Revisited

I had the wonderful privilege of going through Philadelphia yesterday and having the chance to actually view the show Cézanne and Beyond. It’s just curatorial genius!

As mentioned in an earlier post, the show not only contains more than 50 classic Cézanne works but juxtaposes them against over 100 works of other artists as diverse as Picasso, Kelly, Johns, Marden, and Wall.

This got me thinking that it might be interesting to contrast classic packages and demonstrate their influence on design work that came later. So look for this as a new regular feature of this blog.

We often tend to misunderstand, or at least minimize, the direct influences of previous generations of package design and designers. My feeling though, is that the creative influences of earlier generations of designers is as strong as the influence of Cézanne’s, so ably demonstrated by this exhibition.

Again, go see this show! 

Acknowlegments

All images are from the PMA show, except the Marden which is very close to the one shown in Philly. The left image contrasts Cézanne and Marden, the right image Cézanne and Wall.

Community Supported Design

There is a growing movement, Community Supported Agriculture, to help the locally grown farming industry. How about a grassroots movement to support the local and regional design industry.

This is an image, taken by Keith Lanpher, of the bottled water at the place I am staying. The photograph is great, the water is fine, the label is  .  .  . well. This is more typical of the kinds of amenities packaging you get “off the shelf”  for small local inns and B&Bs.

I wonder if someone could provide a way for small places like this, and it is a wonderful inn/plantation in Virginia, to get access to better “local” design.

The place is very proud of supporting local farmers, serving locally caught fish, locally butchered beef and lamb, locally produced cheeses, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a mechanism like localharvest.org, that could link them to great local design talent.

Just type in your zip code, like the localharvest.org site allows, and you are linked to local design talent. What a concept.

Hotel Amenities

I am staying in a great historic inn and plantation home in Locust Dale Virginia for a few days, so the posts will be a bit spotty. The only packaging for miles are the little soap and shampoo bottles in the bath. It got me wondering about hotel amenities. When you go out you can’t avoid them, some done well and some not, but they have become ubiquitous.

A quick search turned up one interesting article from the LA Times that mentions products like, Davi Skin, from Carlo Mondavi and partner Josh LeVine, that have been featured in Peninsula Hotels. As you might expect these products are made from byproducts of  “the sacred winemaking process.” 

When I have a bit more time this area of packaging looks like fertile ground for more investigating.

Dust to Dust

Now isn’t that a beautiful package on the left!

When USA Today features an article about environmental initiatives for consumer product packaging on the cover of their business section, you know we may be headed in the right direction. Or at least that the issues have gotten some traction in the everyday business press.

What got my attention in the article today is that it features some of our larger companies. Frito Lay for instance is planning on introducing a compostable SunChips bag by Earth Day 2010, shown at left. A gimmick of timing perhaps, but I certainly give them credit for the effort.

It also mentions a number of weight/materials reduction efforts by brands like Aquafina and Oscar Mayer. This movement reflects a number of other green programs I have begun to see with our clients as well. When the largest brands in every category are talking about 20%, 30%, or even 40% reductions in plastics used in their packaging, as virtually all companies are trying to do, we are talking about a lot of plastic. Imagine Detroit talking seriously about that kind of increase in vehicle mileage.

The cynics out there would say that this movement is not making a real difference yet or that the pace is too slow, and they are right, but the folks in the conference rooms I visit do take this seriously.

Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart, is even beginning to be a major mover in this area. They have a tool, introduced almost 3 years ago, called the “Packaging Scorecard” that ranks the environmental responsiveness of every product sold in the store based on its full life cycle. Their buyers are making purchase and stocking decisions based on this scorecard.

I know I can hear people saying that walking into Wal-Mart is a far cry from walking into an Aveeda store, and again they are right. But making a small change at the world’s largest retailer will have a much bigger impact. As evidence of this initiative I recently received an invite from the Packaging Association of Canada to attend the third Wal-Mart Sustainable Packaging Conference. When they begin to insist that their suppliers change, they do.

My instinct, based on 30 years of listening to clients, suggests that we aren’t going back.  I know we are still in a transition stage, and it is probably a bit like the auto industry relying on hybrids while they figure out economical plugin electric vehicles or fuel cell solutions. But let’s get started! 

Time to increase your spending on brands

The New Yorker magazine has an interesting piece this week about corporate spending on brand advertising and promotional activity during tough economic times, like now. Read it and perhaps you will agree that now is the time to increase, not cut back on, your brand building activities.

The article mentions several examples of brands that have taken different routes, some expanding their spending, some cutting back. The author, James Surowiecki, notes that most brands that came out of hard times strongly, do so after holding or increasing their spending on brand building activities.

He starts with a Kellogg and Post example. During the 1930s Kellogg introduced new products like Rice Krispies, and doubled ad spending. Post cut back on expenses and advertising. The result was that Kellogg’s profits increased 30% by 1933 and became the dominant player in breakfast cereals, where they remain to this day.

Seems to me there is a lesson for everyone here. Anecdotally, I am beginning to hear about a real slowdown in some areas of marketing services, reflecting an overall retrenchment by marketers. I agree with James though. While it may be a tough call to increase your marketing activities while the sky seems to be falling, historically some of the best and most enduring brands have done exactly that.

 

Acknowledgements

The image above is a 1931 ad for Rice Krispies. 

 

The package, a movie on the shelf

A package is a series of sequential events, set in motion by the designer. 

The trick is that unlike the movie director who may have hours, we have to tell the story in only one, almost instantaneous, frame. A package is really one cell in the animated brand image, and is supported by other forms of media and memory that the brand has established.

It struck me while listening, last Thursday, to James Sanders talk about the making of movies in New York like Breakfast At Tiffany’s (see my previous post), that the job of a package designer is very much like that of a movie director. We both deal with a plot (product positioning), cast of characters (product functionality and/or benefits), the audience (the consumer), and of course the theater (the retail outlet).  

Perhaps the biggest difference is the respective heritage, or past life, of the movie and the brand, most movies (except sequels) have none, and most brands have plenty. The director’s job is to invent that heritage and build on it for 90 minutes. The package designer’s job is to build on 90 years of heritage and present it in a single instantaneous frame.

The director is also lucky because although their storyboard renderings are static, the actual movie presents many images over time. Our image is naturally static, and we rely on the emotional content of color, illustration, typography, structure, color, surface texture, etc. to elicit the response a director may build for the length of the movie. 

We deal with time over a much more extended period. Normally reinforcing the past, present and future of the brand we are designing. A movie has no past, although they do rely increasingly on the rich history of moviemaking. They construct the time, place and context of their environment from scratch.

Acknowledgements

The image is the famous movie poster from Breakfast At Tiffany’s at art.com. It was designed by Robert McGinnis. Randy Ludacer, of boxvox.com and Beach Packaging Design was nice enough to set me straight. Honestly the kind of thing I should have known.

AIGA, The corner of Creativity and Main Street

The intersection of fact and film was vividly described at the new AIGA Metro-North chapter launch event last Thursday evening in Stamford CT. It was a big hit and again reminded me of why this organization is so meaningful.

We hosted a talk by the architect James Sanders, who along with Ric Burns, created “New York: A Documentary Film” and who has written a wonderful book about how the city shapes filmmaking called “Celluloid Skyline”.

This AIGA chapter was founded to serve both the geographic needs of those in the northern suburbs of NYC, and perhaps more importantly to serve the wider brand design community, regardless of geographic location. As the invitation to the event said,

“Whether you are a seasoned creative director, experienced design- or brand-manager, up-and-coming practitioner or CEO—we believe you‘ll gain valuable insights through our chapter‘s programming and events. Some (like this first event) will feature visionaries to open up new vistas. Some will tap into design and branding masters for applied insight. Still others will challenge what you may think about brands and how they impact culture and commerce. Through all its content and events, AIGA Metro-North will engage you in ways that will transform how you think about and work with brands.” 

For those who may not be familiar with the mission of the AIGA, it is stated on their wbsite as the following,

“AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool, and vital cultural force. AIGA, the professional association for design, is the premier place for design—to discover it, discuss it, understand it, appreciate it, be inspired by it. It is the place designers turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis, and research and advance education and ethical practices. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts.”

In my view it is the premier organization in which to have the conversation about how the streets of Creativity and Main intersect.

 

The Egg, an original package

The decorated egg tradition has apparently been around for over 2500 years. It seems to have begun with the Persian holiday of  Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the Spring equinox. 

My egg tradition doesn’t go back that far, but I still have fond memories of decorating incredibly complicated and beautiful eggs as a kid with my Polish neighbors, or Easter egg hunts when I was growing up that would seem to last hours and have us running all over the woods, or my grandmothers famous Easter Egg dessert, or the simple decorations we would create with my two kids as they grew up.

A great package, a great tradition, wonderful memories, and Happy Easter!

Crowdsourced Creativity, Is this any way to buy design

I am usually a huge fan of web technology, but call me old fashioned something about Genius Rocket disturbs me. I hesitate to even bring them up for fear of giving them more work, but thought it might lead to an interesting discussion. 

First, lets discuss the business decision.

Imagine you own a business and that your company is being threatened by a serious and complicated legal challenge, one that threatens the growth of your business. Or imagine for a moment that your business has run into a complex accounting issue with a new subsidiary. I have a feeling that you would not go on line and hire hungry lawyers or accountants, that you have never met, let alone follow their free advice.

What makes the creation, selection, and purchase of design services any different?

Second, lets discuss the ethics.

Would you let your company use unpaid labor, from all over the world, to create your products? Of course not, and yet this is what Genius Rocket seems to be doing. Employing thousands of creative people, to develop design concepts, for no fee. In the end only one individual per project gets what amounts to a nominal fee.

Third, lets discuss recommended best practices in the design industry.

I have been a proud member of the AIGA for most of my career, and am currently a member of the Board of Directors of the AIGA Metro-North Chapter. Founded in 1914, and now with over 23,000 members, it is THE professional organization of designers in North America. As such it is the voice for professional best practices in our industry.

The AIGA is adamantly against this type of exploitation. Here is what they have to say about work on spec,

“AIGA believes that doing speculative work—that is, work done without compensation, for the client’s speculation—seriously compromises the quality of work that clients are entitled to and also violates a tacit, long-standing ethical standard in the communication design profession worldwide. AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project. This is work on spec, pure and simple, and abusive to the talent, regardless of experience level or location.”

Now I can hear the critics saying,

– Yes but nobody has forced the designers to contribute their work or,

– Yes but $2,000 is a lot of money for a designer in India or,

– Yes but it is a great way for small clients to get quick access to a lot of creativity or,

– Yes but how is this any different from services like legalzoom.com

I watch with trepidation as the business models of the music industry, the newspaper industry, the software industry, and the publishing industry are upended in various ways by technology. I wonder whether this new business model, of free or extremely low cost delivery of services, will thrive in the design industry. If it does we’re toast.

Having said all of this, I am darn curious to see how this plays out. My suspicion is, even after the harsh criticism, that this business model will find a place in our industry. Just like legalzoom.com has within the legal profession. Upon reflection I think most clients, large or small, will see that you usually get what you pay for.

Patent problems, innovation, and indemnification clauses

There is an article in this week’s Innovation & Design section of Business Week online that got my notice. It discusses the fact that the Patent Office, and current trademark laws, may be stifling innovation. The article mentions two issues, the incredible cost of litigation and the backlog of the office itself. As the article points out  ‘The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is drowning in applications. If new filings were to stop today, it would take the agency’s 9,500 employees two years to clear the backlog.”

Because package design firms are in the business of creating unique, and protectable, intellectual property for our clients, this backlog concerns me. Here is why it should concern you too.

In the last decade design firms have been asked to sign contracts with increasingly complex indemnification clauses. Here is an example.

“Consultant shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless Client, its officers, directors, shareholders, employees and agents and their respective successors and assigns, from and against any and all claims, demands, liabilities, losses, expenses, costs, obligations, recoveries or damages of any nature whatsoever, whether accrued, absolute, contingent or otherwise, including without limitation court costs and attorneys’ fees (whether or not suit is brought), arising out of or resulting from or relating to any breach by Consultant of any of Consultant’s agreements or covenants contained in this Agreement, or by any acts or omissions of Consultant.  This indemnification obligation shall survive any termination of this Agreement.”

The only thing they have forgotten are the rights to my first born child. Would you sign that? Probably not, and many reasons may seem obvious. 

One of the less obvious reasons has to do with the patent and trademark application process itself. Naturally if you were being asked to guarantee that all work you develop is unique, and protectable, you would certainly need to know about all work already granted a trademark. But you would also need to know the appearance of the work that is in the application process, at the trademark office, but not yet granted. The problem is that this work of course is kept secret during the application process and is therefore unknowable. You can’t protect your firm, let alone your client, against something that is unknown.

The longer the application process extends the greater the risk to everyone. Apparently one solution getting bipartisan support in Congress is the recently introduced Patent Reform Act of 2009. Let’s hope it gets some support.

Acknowledgements

The image in this post is from the Business Week Online, Innovation & Design page