We have to own design

Didn't get time to file yesterday.

What a day Tuesday was!

It started with Debbie Millman, president, design of Sterling Brands. She has such a great way of talking.

"We must never be afraid to go too far, because success just lies just beyond" – Marcel Proust

Debbie spoke about the word "brand". It appears for the first time in 1010AD in the epic poem Beowulf. The literal translation is "destruction by fire". Seems appropriate when you think about cattle brands.

Malcolm Gladwell proved that a lot of research is a waste of time. Basically don't strive for the ultimate product, strive for the ultimate prducts. And, go on gut instinct. His talk was about the quest by Howard Moscowitz for the ultimate spaghetti sauce, but what came out was the ultimate spaghetti sauces.

People don't know what they want!

If you ask someone what they want, you'll hear what they think you want to hear, not what they actually think. The act of asking distorts the way people respond. It leads to the bland and mediocre. Observing is far better than asking. For example, he cited an experiment where a group of people were asked in and told to select a poster and take it home. Another group where then asked in and make a selection from exactly the same set of posters, but were told that before leaving they must tell the researcher why they chose that poster. A month later all the people were telephoned and asked did they still like their posters. Without fail, the first group all said the loved it – framed, on the wall, etc. The other group who had to explain why they chose it all hated the posters the selected – some were in storage or thrown out. By the way, the poster choices were between fine art prints and a cutesy kitten thing.

"If you want to make people happy, don't ask them first!"

During this was probably the worst presentation of the event. Some over-made up woman who naively went on about how great her organic brand was and how healthy and good for you it was. No doubt. But there was no evidence that any design consideration had been applied to the packaging. So much so, that when she showed some before and after shots of some baby food jars the "before" jars loked much better! A joke. I was speaking to some packaging designers and they couldn't believe their eyes. From a European perspective, these types of packaging just wouldn't work.

During all of this I was sitting at the same table as Milton Glaser. Normally I am not in awe of people, no matter who or what they are. But, I was in the presence of someone who I had studied while at college and whose work I had admired for a long time. Could I think of anything to say other than introduce myself? No. DOH!!

He was speaking next and had the audience in the palm of his hand for the next 45 minutes. He even showed us his new book – working title Drawing is Thinking – in pdf form on screen. WOW!

The interesting point he made is that tools affect the way you think. The human mind needs a fuzzy period before it comes to a conclusion. The computer cannot make you think better.

"Present a point of view, not iterations"

A couple of fairly ordinary sessions were followed by the highlight of the afternoon: Nasahn Sheppard and Tim Wallack from Smart Design. They spoke about a subject close to my heart. That is, at which point do you get the designer involved? Although other speakers suggested the answer, these guys were the only ones to say get the designer involved from the very beginning. Strategists and marketing people don't have the same way of looking at projects. Also, and this came up again and again, a job should be judged on is it meeting the brief and NOT "I don't like the colour/capital letters/font". Subjectivity should not come into the equation. Their presentation was excellent.

These subjects came up again at the end panel discussion by the Bad Girls of Brand Design hosted by Debbie Millman. The panel was: Carol-Jacqueline Nardi, Strategy Director, Design and Innovation, Kraft Foods; Darralyn Rieth, Director, Global Design, Campbell Soup Company; Lisa Rousseau, Group Manager, Packaging, Pepperidge Farm; Sharon Reiter Lindberg, Senior Design Manager, Unilever and Pamela DeCesare, Founder, Brand Muse. It was refreshing to hear that these people, even with their status, are experiencing exactly the same problems that the rest of us face. Mainly, rubbish design briefs and daft marketers.

The day didn't end there! A cocktail party was held at the cool Smart Design offices located on the 18th floor of the Starrett Lehigh building.

Really cool offices, but far too many PCs for my liking!

I had to leave early as I had a dinner invitation at Centovini in Houston Street. This was so cool as I had an apartment about two blocks away on Bleecker back in 2001. Fantastic food, lots of wine and good company made the evening fly by. Afterwards Mike, an ink rep from Sun Chemical, and I went to one of my favourite bars in New York, TerraBlues. We heard some fabulous music. Walking down the street we saw a film being shot. I wonder what that'll be.

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