Never enough hours in the day?

Take a browse through the profiles of designers on Twitter and one pattern starts to emerge. There are incredibly frequent mentions of caffeine: ‘Coffee addict’, ‘Will work for coffee’, ‘World’s biggest coffee drinker’. You get the picture.

Now, we’re not saying that caffeine addiction is only the preserve of the world’s design community but the simple fact is that something needs to be on hand to get a hardy designer through the long all-nighter. And there we have the root of the problem.

Speak to any designer from any corner of the globe and work/life balance has invariably reared its pretty head at some point in their careers. Whether you work for yourself from a desk at home or sit in the midst of a global agency network, it’s sometimes hard to power down and refrain from making that one final sketch, amend or client phone call.  

For all of us time has become one of life’s most precious commodities but it seems that designers more than any suffer from days in which 24 hours are simply never enough. But where does this come from?

Is it that designers are simply the ultimate perfectionists? Is it that they are incredibly bad at time management? Is it that work is their hobby? Or is it a dangerous combination of all of the above?

Whatever the real truth, the fact is that we can all achieve a work/life balance if we’re really disciplined with ourselves. Increasingly, we hear stories of those who work a four-day week or take a month off over the summer.  If that’s possible, then surely a nine-to-five existence is not beyond the reach of most us.

In a world where designers are constantly creating guidelines for how the fruits of their labours should be handled, maybe it’s time that some thought was also given to guidelines for how best to manage the time that has gone into crafting that precious fruit.

How have you managed to achieve a better work/life balance? We'd love to hear your stories in the comments below.

How soon is too soon?

Last week, PayPal revealed its new identity and it has received widespread coverage. In the world of financial brands, radical change is rarely instigated for fear of unnerving consumers and having them take their money elsewhere. And sure enough, despite the change of identity, PayPal today seems the same familiar, if somewhat more contemporary-looking, friend to whom we’ve been entrusting our money online for 15 years.

But some people have questioned why the change was needed. After all, PayPal’s last identity was introduced only 7 years ago. Was it really lacking something or has the world moved on so significantly since then?

To answer that question, we have to look at the pace of change in our lives at the moment. When the last identity was revealed, Facebook and Twitter were only just starting to gain momentum and the smartphone revolution was nascent. Our relationship to technology and its impact on our daily lives has changed so considerably since then, that it is no wonder that a brand which plays such an important part in the digital space would question how it presents itself to consumers after a period of such transition.  

But what does this mean for other brands? We’ve seen the likes of Johnson & Johnson and GE resolutely hang on to their identities for hundreds of years and still remain relevant and innovative. The simple fact is that change for change’s sake is never good. But when there are legitimate reasons both inside and outside an organisation to take a look at how a brand presents itself to the world, then it’s not the measure of time that is the deciding factor but the measure of an identity’s ability to contribute to the future success of the brand.

Did your identity wake up feeling dynamic this morning?

Every so often a new identity comes along which claims to be a radical departure from everything that has come before. Whilst it’s no doubt that PR spin has a lot to do with the claims made at the launch of such projects, as the world gets increasingly digital and identities have to work across so many more different platforms, is the logo as we know it being re-imagined?

This week, crowdfunding site Indiegogo unveiled its new identity. Indiegogo, and its largest rival Kickstarter, operate in a category that didn’t even exist a few years ago, disrupting the old ways in which projects go out into the world to raise money for themselves. The internet has made us more connected globally than ever before and that means the job has got easier when it comes to finding contributors to get your latest invention produced, film project made or charity initiative funded.

Born out of a disruptive spirit and operating in a digital rather than analogue world, it makes sense then that firms such as this might take an alternative approach when it comes to examining their identities.

The new Indiegogo identity has been designed by Push Offices in Los Angeles. Managing Partner Eric Boisvert was quoted in Design Week saying: ‘The new Indiegogo logo and identity system are fluid, evolving and dynamic. And this is a radical departure from both traditional identity systems and fixed logos of dominant global brands.’

The new identity relies strongly on photography, with the logo framing imagery drawn from Indiegogo’s thousands of projects. Images change each time a user loads the website and case studies feature across each employee’s business cards.

There have been other examples of adaptable and dynamic identities over the years but with marketing and branding teams dealing with so many factors to keep a brand on its toes, how realistic is it that a dynamic identity can remain as dynamic and nimble beyond the first flush of its youth?

Ultimately, it requires an equally dynamic team to understand the importance of a strong identity as part of keeping a brand fresh and relevant for both internal and external audiences. Because without that, what was once dynamic can quickly become idle.

What are your views on dynamic and adaptable identities? Innovative or overhyped? We’d love to hear your views in the comments below.  

The trials and tribulations of city branding

It goes without saying that any high-profile rebrand project has to fend off its detractors.  The mainstream media loves to bandy about lofty figures that show what a waste of money it was and happily quote derogatory comments from members of the general public in an attempt to rubbish the work: “My child could have done better!”, “That obviously took them about 5 minutes!”, “What a waste of money!”

Once the topic turns to city branding, things get even more emotional. And it’s clear why. People have such a close attachment to the place in which they live that any attempt to assign a visual identity to it immediately causes subjective emotions to rise to the surface.

In effect, it is easy to see all of a city’s inhabitants as stakeholders in its brand and so the challenge for a branding agency is not simply to achieve approval from a small group of marketing people but satisfy the interests of millions of citizens.

It’s a topic that has achieved a lot of coverage in recent weeks as Cape Town revealed its new visual identity to the world. And it quickly became an example of how sensitive a subject this is and how carefully managed it must be. Not only did the press leak the wrong version of the logo ahead of its launch but when the new logo was revealed, it came with accusations of corruption, criticism from the media and the ANC calling the whole project a waste of money.

So, is city branding needed at all? Is it really a waste of money? In a highly globalised world, where the best workers and investment capital move from country to country with ease, cities need to up their game to ensure that talent and money doesn’t high tail it to the competition at the first available opportunity. With more and more cities creating standalone organisations to maintain their profile on the world stage, it seems city branding will only continue to grow in importance.

But how does one satisfy those most critical of brand owners, namely a city’s inhabitants, who also happen to be its most dedicated global ambassadors?

Is it a question of not being able to please all of the people all of the time?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the best way to please all stakeholders in a city branding project in the comments below.