Branding and the Maker Movement

Last year I had the amazing opportunity to be an intern as a graphic designer at a humble Private Label creative agency working in branding, brand strategy and packaging design. This experience sparked in me an interest in how brands can come to life through visual concepts and working together to truly communicate the nature of a product. I came to the conclusion that I have to always think critically about how a product is perceived as well as what I will do when I myself develop as a design professional.

This prompted me to do some research about some people in the design agency who work as the minds behind the bigger brands that we interact from day to day, yet never hear much about. One that caught my attention was a man named Gush Mundae.

Mundae was once a graphic design student who then went on to become the founder of Bulletproof Creative Agency. What differs their approach to marketing and design is the disciplines they use to eventually give the best face forward to the end-user. Bulletproof Creative Agency are known for using the latest ‘buzzword’ skills in the industry, using ‘shopper marketing skills’ in combination with great design ability and branding and packaging allow them the opportunity to work with clients such as GSK, Coca-Cola, Schweppes, Kenco, Heineken, Bacardi, Strongbow and Cadbury[1]. This sort of Participatory design[2] is what I aspire to waork with in the future and I am inspired by Mundae’s mindset in working together with clients and not for clients to create a product from conception.

An example of the work he has created in with Bulletproof is the challenge of creating the brand platform for “Cadbury Marvellous Creations” which could work globally across several different categories. A brief such as this is complicated as there is a tension formed by the need to disrupt the category conventions of chocolate while still maintaining the Cadbury brand values. This campaign can be considered a success as they played a part in helping Cadbury Marvellous creations become a £49.7M power brand in the UK alone within its first year. [3]

Parallel movements to this modern day age of consistently evolving brands and innovations is the Maker Movement.[4] During my experience working as an intern creating private-label brands or “Phantom Brands”, I was able to observe the process by which technology is used at first to conceptualise a project, working together with a client to reach the end product vision, and then analyse the vision on the end-user perspective based on consumer behaviour. Similarly to the maker movement, we worked to create 3D images which would be translated into real products. Furthermore, there was an element of remix and shared collaboration with other designers outside of the agency, and there was a consistent use of end-user feedback to create the final product.

 

 

[1] Source: http://www.wearebulletproof.com/

[2] Matthew Holt (2015) Transformation of the Aesthetic: Art as Participatory

Design, Design and Culture, 7:2, 143-165, DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2015.1051781

[3] Source: https://www.conveniencestore.co.uk/products/cadbury-conjures-up-three-new-marvellous-products-for-spring/355670.article

[4] Mark Richardson, Susie Elliott and Brad Haylock,(2013) “This home is a factory: Implications of the Maker movement on urban environments”. Vol 5, Craft + Design Enquiry

 

Political Street Art – Donald Trump

The predicament I find myself in writing in critique of the Design Tactics used within a political poster is that the veil of which my regular façade of indifference towards social and political issues is removed. I feel that it is important to outline this as somewhat of a disclaimer towards the content in which I am covering today in my post about persuasion through designerly means in relation to the American presidential election in 2016.

It is interesting to see the rise of Donald Trump in the American presidential election in regards to how the perception of him has evolved within the public in times of the presidential campaign. From my observation, the construction of publics through design has taken no other more aggressive means than when the topic of the American presidential election is at hand. Carl Di Salvo in his writing “Design and The Construction of Publics”[1] placed in reference to the philosophical ideas from the text “The Public and its Problems” by John Dewey[2] – Di Salvo gives interesting examples as to how we can analyse through design theory the ways in which the products and processes of design intersect with the public and how the question “How are publics made with things?” can be addressed as design becomes more and more politicised and used for political ends. In terms of design tactics, Projection and Tracing were two tactics outlined by Di Salvo that caught my attention which can be also used to analyse the political agenda outlined in the street art image below.

Image: pic.twitter.com/93H951MDic off Pegasus’ Twitter account

This piece by Pegasus which likens Trump to Hitler led the street artist to receive death threats from the public is an example of projection in the way that it directly specifies a predictive scenario – And tracing as it tries to illustrate the scenario visually through means which some elements resemble Russian constructivist propaganda.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If projection by definition of Di Salvo, is to use facts to present a predictive future – then this sort of image is one that does not display facts but merely represents trump as a figure which would prompt the audience to feel strong emotions of fear in association with a dictator leadership such as Hitler. The reasoning for the creation of this image is as a juxtaposition to the opponent in the presidential election, Hillary Clinton – and from the unfolding of the increasingly scandalous events leading to the election, it seems that the press and design of the image work together to try to paint the worst picture of each of the candidates as possible – denying facts but rather working on fear mongering in order persuade one group for a political movement. Tracing in this scenario, is used to illustrate Trump as one with his mouth blaringly wide open giving out as a tyrant, but this image is a farce and an extreme exaggeration of the current situation at hand. This sort of storytelling is dangerous in that it only portrays one’s view of Trump in a way that does not represent any fact but rather a hyperbole to incite fear of what is to come.

[1] – John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (Athens, OH: Swallow Press Books, Henry Holt & Company, 1927).

[2] Carl Di Salvo, Design and the Construction of Publics (2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Design Issues: Volume 25, Number 1 Winter 2009)