Kinouchi

SomeOne at 4 Designers- “Logos are dead”

After a heavily Northern influence with Monday’s talks, it was SomeOne’s turn to return things back to the capital’s heavy influence with this London-based studio who command respect, with clients such as O2, London 2012 and the Royal Opera House. Theirs was most probably the most controversial of all the talks at the conference, declaring that “Logos are dead”. I happen to agree with this statement and SomeOne’s reasons for this proclamation are listed below. What I have been unable to do, up until now, was define what logos have been replaced with. SomeOne coins it as ‘brand worlds’. No longer are logos replicated and regurgitated on every piece of corporate merchandise and stationary. A ‘brand world’ such as O2’s recognisable bubbles and colour, offer a much more immersive experience, portraying the ethos of a company in a superior manner than a singular, static image.

This is what Simon Manchipp, Gary Holt and David Law of SomeOne had to say:

Google say don’t be evil. We say don’t be boring.

The Engineers Project Triangle:

Clients will say ‘we want a D&AD winner. We need it tomorrow and we don’t have any money.’ A client can pick any two of the items in the triangle they want in their design work. They can’t have all three.

Tips

1. Upside down processes. Try to have more time with the client at the initial stages. Usually, the client filters the brief through various administrative levels, thereby diluting the ability to ascertain what is actually required.

2. Branding is a business. Know that business and do your homework which is never wasted. Know the competitors. Know what keeps the CEO up at night.

3. Be creative everywhere. Sometimes a client won’t have money until after they start up. You can still make some sort of agreement with them with a fee, equity or exchange.

SomeOne was also involved in the set up of ‘Planetary Skin‘, which can be thought of as a nervous system, covering the entire planet and providing a research and development platform for open collaboration between the public, private, academic and NGO sectors. It will collect data from space, airborne, maritime, terrestrial and people-based sensor networks and other sources of structured and unstructured data. It will model, predict, analyse and report in a standardised usable format over an open and adaptable cloud platform that is governed as a global public-good. This has practical applications such as Cisco and NASA providing live updates, showing feeds of deforestation and melting ice caps.

Logos are dead

The public hate them
The press hate them
The staff hate them
Businesses hate them
The internet hates them

‘Brand worlds‘ are more interesting.

If you face adversity in convincing your clients about this, speak to them in business terms (the language they understand), talking about the benefits of ‘brand worlds’ eg. cheaper printing costs.