space to imajin

Fear is not a Growth Strategy.

So said Amy Cosper Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine. She went on to mention, “It’s bad enough that Detroit is wheezing, Rome is burning and all hell has broken lose, but what’s worse is that the situation is making normally rational people act like loonies. It’s fear. And it’s a real business issue these days. But fear is not a growth strategy. 

Fear makes us irrational – like thinking cutting and growing are the same thing. Cutting costs does not equal growing sales Never has, never will. 

As I look over the second half of the coming year I see it everywhere, wanton fear. The kind that paralyzes every nerve in front of the car that is speeding towards you at 70 miles an hour. That car, is the future and we are trembling between it’s headlights. 

There are few among us that are thinking above the tide. Few that realize that the tide is coming in, will continue to come in and must go back out….naturally. Few that believe they will survive these “tough times”. This few, this “remnant” are the ones that have been innovating all along not as the next cool business trend but those that innovate as a means to survive. They innovate not because some book on the NY Times best-sellers list said so. They innovate because it’s in their culture to do so. It’s at thier deoxyribonucleic acid level. It’s a kaizen mentality. It is this remnant that will be head and shoulders above the rest as the tide goes back to sea.

Although the financial capital markets have dried up to a trickle, the creative capital market that exists between our ears has the potential not only to help us survive but to catapult us ahead of the curve once we get around the bend. While everyone else is idling in traffic, project your business, organization or government ministry beyond this stagnant mess. But remember, fear can kill this. 

As I look forward in my own business I am seeing how difficult it will be to drive business, I see how tough it will be to increase the bottom line. Innovation as a culture and not a fad is the only way forward. Innovation is not about creative cost cutting it’s about adding value for your clients/customers and extracting value for yourself at every step of your business process from soil to dining table, from camera to screen, from pencil to product, from thought to finish. 

So as a designer I must ask myself where can I innovate not only in the designs I produce but in my process, how can I move the state of the art to a place that lifts everyone. My clients, my colleagues, my community? 

These are the questions that I ask myself, Which ones do you ask? At the same time remember…

Never Doubt,
what you can do
with a little imaji nation.

stay tuned……

- Yorkali

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Pepsi’s New Branding

I can see why so many people dislike the new Pepsi logo. Yes, I too quivered when I first saw it. Yup they are famous for constantly changing their branding and all that but a lot of the argument I think needs to go deeper. Pepsico knew this backlash would happen. They knew the new design would not bode well with a wide swath of their drinkers but the “what” is not the question, it’s the why.

After taking a long hard look at the logo my guess for why they did it is this.

Yes there will be heavy online buzz (including this post) but this logo was not designed for the NOW, it was designed for the future. Current context is not it’s focus. This logo was designed for a future zeitgeist. A theme, a style, a mode of thinking…not yet popular. When a company of the size of Pepsico redesigns their branding as often as they do, they have come up with a design that is projected from their future to the now. it cannot be defined by not current tastes.

They do this not just for design longevity’s sake, but also packaging purposes. If this new branding is to carry them through the next 10, 15 or 20 years it allows them to project packaging costs much better. For a company the size of Pepsico these projections can make or break their bottom line.

Think about it.

If they design a logo that is more concurrent with today’s design language or thinking and it gets stale in 3 – 5 years, that is going to be millions of dollars lost for the company’s that produce their packaging, and in turn Pepsico, because it will represent a massive retooling for these guys because of the sheer volume of printing and production that goes into the packaging process. So for me, that is the why. The design will slowly grow on us and it will soon seem ahead of it’s time….. no I take that back. That’s probably what the Pepsico board is betting on.
via: Brand New: Pepsi, New Bottles.