1966 Chevy Nova
2010 Chevy Spark
2011 Chevy HHR
Designer Christian Annyas (Maastricht Area, Netherlands) has created a great set of isolated speedometers from some iconic Chevy vehicles from the past 70 years. Brief in explanation, it’s a great visual analysis of how Chevy has changed over the years. He also has an intriguing collection of movie title stills, which you have to check out.
I generally don’t write posts about harsh critique, but after scrolling through my inbox on Sunday and reading a letter from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (which has since changed to a more polished version on the Netflix blog), I couldn’t resist digging a little deeper. Although an intriguing read, Hastings’ apology has gone over like a lead balloon for many Netflix loyalists. (see the email here.)
The gist: The streaming service will retain the Netflix branding while the DVD-by-mail service will be named Qwikster. Hastings said the split will better serve customers in the long run because each company will be able to better focus on one type of service. Also, Qwikster will maintain the color equity of red with a new logo/brand, and will also include games, which opens up a whole new avenue for the conglomerate. The backlash and the support is staggering, and many are already detailing alternatives.
From a brand perspective, it will be interesting to see how Qwikster develops: what it looks like, how it’s perceived, how well the brand delivers, and what it means for future technologies such as applications and various platforms. If their website is any indication, things will be evolving and changing very rapidly, as everyone’s watching.
Welp, yesterday Instagram rolled out version 2.0 of its popular (and growing) photo sharing app for the iPhone. Live filters, new filters, higher-resolution photos, etc. You can read more about that stuff here, but I want to focus on a relatively small but important update: the app icon. As a designer I’m often enamored by beautiful app icons, especially on the iPhone’s retina display. They are an important part of a product’s identity and although you have already been “sold” on the app since you’ve downloaded it, the icon is a detail not to be overlooked. It captures the essence of your product in all its square, little, rounded-corner glory. I think the Instagram 2.0 icon is a wonderful update. Just like the app, I liked the icon just fine before. Isn’t that the best kind of update though? Something you already like gets even better. Apple is great at this. The Instagram icon update is subtle and at first glance I couldn’t articulate what was different about it (more shadowing, more contrast, INST to Insta below the color stripes) but I knew it was different somehow. It feels better. Sometimes things don’t need an explanation, it’s just ok that they “feel” better. They certainly did not need to update the icon but I’m glad they did. This very high attention to the minor details is a characteristic of a “great” brand/product and something often overlooked by a “good” one.
(The layout of the Instagram icons above is a nod to one of our favorite and most visited blogs, Brand New.)
Brands have always leaned heavily on technology. One might even say that brands owe their very existence to technology. After all, television, radio and print are what created mass brands in the first place. In the early days, we didn’t need to know how these analog systems worked or how to get the most out of them. Much like the computer you’re reading this on now, it didn’t require a technical degree to use it.
Today, technology is infiltrating every corner of our lives and with it has come an explosion of new interaction points with consumers. Clearly, our understanding of how technology works and how to use it as marketers must evolve. And in a dramatic way.
No longer can we get by without understanding the inner workings of these interrelated systems. We need to know how to customize and manipulate the many diverse parts to best fit our unique consumers and our unique brands. To be successful, we have to think more like programmers and less like users. Traditional media, social media, mobile media, web media, websites, blogs, CRM, SEO, SEM and everything new and exciting lurking around the corner must be mastered and programmed in order to see its true potential. And we haven’t even scratched the surface.
Every technology has a precise purpose and a particular effect. Each touch-point influences and appeals to very different groups of consumers. We now have the ability to program and optimize this vast network of technologies and media in our favor. To test out and prove what truly impacts sales, awareness, loyalty and short and long term growth. To eliminate waste and redundancy and track how every penny we spend drives consumer action.
To succeed in this increasingly complex, technology-laden world, we must be world-class hackers, manipulating data and technology to our own benefit.
Take advantage of this immense power and use it wisely to the peril of your competition.
Under Armour Maryland Pride Video from NewMedia on Vimeo.
I couldn’t help but fall in love with Maryland’s new football ensemble, while flipping through ESPN the other night. I personally love the design. Not because it’s any better than Penn State’s classic old-school cool, or Oregon’s flashy neon from Nike. I love it because it made me stop dead in my tracks and say “what the hell is that?” I love it because it got my attention. It made Maryland football relevant. And it got people talking. That is great design.
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Earlier this summer The History Channel and Popular Mechanics joined forces and created a list of 101 Gadgets That Changed the World. Throughout the list there are great examples of innovation like how a lake buoy became the first Weber Grill and how a surgeon created the chainsaw that now contributes to over $350,000,000 in hospital bills a year. At the top of the list reigns the Mobile/Smartphone. It seems easy to come to this conclusion in today’s world since mobile apps and marketing are all the rage, but think about the other gadgets that it beat out: radio, television, telephone, dry cell batteries and even the light bulb. Mobile users consist of 75% of the world’s population and the technology only dates back to the 70′s. It’s amazing how fast and how much impact on the world mobile phones have had in such a small period of time. Here is a great infographic that traces back through those 40 years with the highlights of evolution of the smartphone.
Focusing on our goal of creating an interface to encourage people to explore new places, events and areas of Cincinnati, we began brainstorming user stories. Each of us thought of the possible desires a person might have for using the app and created narratives in the frame of, “As a { role }, I want { feature }, so that { benefit }.” For example, “As an indecisive person I want an app that helps me make decisions, so I can spend less time debating.” We had many great responses. There were differing scenarios across the spectrum, ranging from general to specific. Some user narratives overlapped in content, while others were unique.
To filter the stories, we will bucket the narratives and try to define the features and benefits we’ve suggested. Next we will have to determine which narratives are most relevant to our goals so we can focus our attention as we continue to develop our ideas.
Today’s meeting took us a few steps back from sketching/mapping out the app to reevaluate who and what the app is for. Some of this reappraisal arose from the weekend’s outings by a few Quakers, who came back with a few jotted notes and ideas about their adventures. In short, we began to see that heading down one path would lead to the creation of more of a “Suggestion” app instead of the “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” direction that had previously resounded among all of us. To stay on track, we need to remember our core goal:
“Create an interface to the city that encourages people to explore new places, events and areas of Cincinnati.”
With that in mind, our next step is to begin setting up some use-case scenarios from the perspectives of several potential users (e.g. Visitors to Cincy, Bored long-time Residents, New-to-the-town Users and Users taking out family or friends (Entertaining)). These scenarios will serve as guideposts for development, keeping us focused on our users and what they will potentially be doing with the app.
We are excited to announce that BirdBot won a silver ADDY in the Self-Promotion, Mixed Media Campaign category at the 2011 AAF National ADDY competition. With over 60,000 entries the ADDYs are the world’s largest advertising competition. Judges from renowned companies such as Weiden + Kennedy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Leo Burnett, BBDO, Digitas and many more had the difficult task of narrowing the entries. At the national level of the three tiered competition, 1,382 entries were received, resulting in 87 gold ADDY awards and 156 silver ADDY awards. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited that our little BirdBot was included in such an elite circle and we’d like to thank everyone that voted for him.
We’d also like to say congrats to the other five Cincinnati area companies, Landor, Openfield Creative, Possible Worldwide, Northlich and Lightborne who received AAF’s coveted Silver awards at the annual national awards ceremony held this year in San Diego, California. This is the largest single award year for Cincinnati winners at the AAF event. Go Cincy!
We made some breakthroughs as far as our process goes. We’ve come to an agreement about the hierarchy of our ideas and now it’s just going through and problem solving along the way. We have a pretty clear vision of how we want it to start and now it’s just making some decisions about filters and questions. We have some really awesome ideas about ways to expand the app, but for now, we’re just excited to be figuring out the basics.
