Valkyrie | Tom Cruise | Design
Motion picture design, identity and historical context: visual propaganda. I first met Mr. Cruise, working with him, and the Paramount Studio marketing leadership team -- with Jerry Bruckheimer -- for Top Gun. Then, after that, Days of Thunder, working more closely...
Fauchon | True Brands: Beautiful Authenticity | Truth in the telling (2nd in a series)
I’ve been looking for truth. I’m looking for truth in my self — what do I do, in practicing what I tell, preach, to others. And telling the truth in the reign of the firm — what we do, what we offer, and how we go about doing it, in finding the truth and the heart of...
Human Brands | Clint Eastwood
This is the third in a series on Human Brand | defining the inextricable link between people, founding vision and the brands that they produce. "Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt,...
What is cool? Hunting for the definition of cool.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Congratulates Barack Obama Exploring definition of trend, in action, in the pursuit of the new. "The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness." Joan Miro I've wondered about the concept of cool. What...
Brand patterning: creating patterned reflections of brand identity
Exploring integrative identity and developmental work on the House of Orange, Valentino, Bardessono and Harvey Nichols | Jakarta -- logo story in brandplace and other case studies. There's an implication in the current realm of testing behavorial study, that people...
Yves Saint Laurent | Marrakech, Morocco
Saying goodbye at the Majorelle Gardens. I did gesture to good bye, at his passing, along with, of course, millions of others -- June | 2008. And most of the designers of significance on the planet: http://www.wwd.com/au_revoir_yves And, that closing in Marrakech, a...
Primitive retail | stories at the heart of retelling — reselling the longer tail
Exploring the heart of the premise -- what promise told, in retelling retail in the ancient markets of the world? What story, better -- once spoken, twice told, thrice sold? I've been wandering the streets, the souks, the markets and the old sections of Marrakech,...
Quarter Pounder | Japan: new brand, no brand
Exploring unbranded brand storytelling There's a new concept that's been created by McDonald's, in Tokyo. No brand, yes brand -- scrap brand, new brand. "We want consumers to discover great taste and not care about who produced it." In this manner, the telling is...
Human Brands | Tom Ford and Tom Ford
This is the second in a series on Human Brand | defining the inextricable link between people, founding vision and the brands that they produce. "As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be...
Barack Obama + Franklin Delano Roosevelt: an alignment of times, a ligature of minds
Exploring the patterning of national crises and the outcomes in humanity -- the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barack Obama's positioning for renewal. 1936 WPA poster I'm hoping for that -- change, as adroitly put in Barack Obama's campaign programming....