5 Principles of Good Design (via Shillington)

This is taken from the Shillington school of Design Theory, in New York, and we couldn't agree more. Great graphic design doesn't happen by accident. It needs architecture, structure, rigour, discipline. Then you must add a dash of creativity.
You can read more about Shillington and their courses here.

The Malaysia Design Archive

1920's luggage lable for E&O Hotel Penang
The British marketed Malaya as an exotic getaway, using the romance of the Far East with its colours, smells and beauty as an antidote to an increasingly urban and industrialized UK

The Malaysia Design Archive is a website that tracks the history of design in Malaysia, from Colonial times through Japanese Occupation, Independence and beyond. 

We fully support and encourage this site, it's great to see a small and passionate group of people who are devoted to the study and support of Malaysia's own design ethos. 

It's also a fascinating record of the diversity and change that Malaysia has undergone in the last 120 years, capturing visually and graphically the explosive growth and demographic changes in the country.

The below is just a small selection of the historic designs that are available on the site, to give you a feel for the breadth of social and cultural history that the site covers.

Ten dollar ‘Banana Money’ currency

Issued by the Japanese during their occupation of Malaya between 1942 and 1944. The front of this rare note features a tree bearing fruit, with the obverse featuring a depiction of a ship on the horizon.

Banana money is an informal term given to a type of currency issued by Imperial Japan during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak and Brunei, and was named as such because of the motifs of banana trees on 10 dollar banknotes.

Japanese War Leaflet, 1944

The leaflet above was dropped by the Japanese in both the Malay and Chinese languages. It addresses the Malayans as “brethren” and asks that they inform on the British and Americans, It offers rewards for worthwhile intelligence. Some of the text in Malaya and Japanese is:

The Japanese Army is your friend unlike the foreign British and Americans. We are all of a common ancestry and are Asian brethren. As such, we have a common enemy in the British and Americans.

If you see any British or Americans, please capture or report them to the Japanese Army and do not let them escape. If you can transport them to the Japanese Army then do so.

The Japanese Army will not harm you and you will be paid a reward.

Signed: Japanese Army Commander.

As a Brit in Malaysia, obviously this is spooky, imagining what this must have felt like for the British forces that were in Malaya at the time. 

Straits Times Annual, 1957
Featuring Datuk Maria Menado, apparently the most beautiful woman in Malaya at the time
http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/magazine-the-straits-times-annual-1957/

The Station Hotel, luggage tag 1950's
The Majestic Hotel KL, just opposite the station shown here, re-opened under YTL in 2013 after years of neglect, showing a trend for nostalgia and historic experiences that offer more than the modernised tower-block, cookie-cutter hotel.
Note the use of the oversized 'O' in the header to give the font a distinctive feel.
http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/emergency/

Malaysia-Singapore Airlines ad, 1969 promising the 'finest food aloft'
Proof that airlines always have been - and always will be - key media spenders. An interesting angle for a product or aircraft shot, not seen often these days. The rear 3/4 view, rather than showing a side-on or in-flight shot. Suggestive of immediate departure or travel. There is plenty still to learn from the ad-men of the past (this written having worked for 2 years on Malaysia Airlines here in KL).

http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/advertisement-the-707/

All images here courtesy of http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/

Please share this site widely and donate. Thanks to Ezrena Hussain for making us aware of this great resource.

More on what3words...

I had blogged previously about what3words before here - and great to see their new video, which explains very well what they're about and how they work. Love the concept. Scared by how complex it must have been to setup, but such a great simple idea. Here is a company that makes the world a better, easier place to be. Truly useful technology, that gives back - unlike so many apps and .coms out there...

Steve Jobs the Adman

This video is taken from an Apple internal meeting in 1997 (thanks Harinder Singh). Steve Jobs had only just returned to the company after his period of 'exile' at NeXT. It shows - in a most candid way - his instinctive grasp for branding and the central role he gives it in the turnaround plan for Apple. Jobs understood that despite all their technical ability, if Apple couldn't communicate simply and clearly their values, they would not be successful. It also shows, through his eloquent and powerful presentation, his ability as an adman himself - I doubt there are many in the industry today that could present this work as well. Clearly he was heavily invested in the production and success of the campaign. What a fascinating insight into one of the most famous campaigns of all time. And most astonishing....that all this was completed in 2 months' time. The result of this hard work? By 1998 Apple was back in profitability after almost going bankrupt.

Big in China?

Illustration by Daniel Mitchell http://www.daniel-mitchell.co.uk/

Sometimes you just have to say ‘yes’ and worry about the consequences later…an email arrives saying we, G.A, have been invited by one of our biggest clients to speak at the Asia-Pacific Hotel Design Association’s 4^th annual conference in Dalian, and am I free to do this?

The first thought is: what would I say? The second thought is: I have so much going on. The third thought is: where on earth is Dalian? The third thought, after a quick bit of Google mapping, tipped the decision in favour of a ‘yes’.

Dalian is pretty close to North Korea, a “2^nd tier” city (‘only’ 6 million inhabitants – about the size of greater Kuala Lumpur - and everyone in Dalian refers to how ‘small’ the city is). It has an interesting history, having been founded by Russians, invaded and taken over by the Japanese, Russian again after WW2 then ‘gifted’ back to China as a sign of friendship between the two Communist countries.

I had never been to a “2^nd tier” Chinese city before, and was interested to see a new part of this giant country. The conference, coming hot on the heels of our G.A rebranding and the opening of our Shanghai office would also be great exposure for the company. So it was a ‘yes’ then and let’s worry about the rest when it happens – necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

It was later I discovered there were no direct flights to Dalian from KL. This meant flying China Southern airlines from KL to Guangzhou (4 hours), then transferring on a domestic flight across from Guangzhou to Dalian (3 hours)*. 

'View' of Guangzhou coming into land. I have been there twice. Whenever I have been there it was covered in this soul-destroying pollution. For more thoughts on that, see Why we should be thankful for the haze

After a near-miss at customs in Guangzhou, I arrived at Dalian at night. I was greeted with a full bouquet of flowers and whisked off to Starwood’s 300-key Castle Hotel, part of its Luxury Collection, designed by HBA and only opened 1 month ago – the venue for the APHDA conference. The hotel was a reinterpretation of a French chateau, replete with marble flooring, chandeliers, grand staircases and reproduction furniture – a style very popular in China to denote ‘luxury’ and ‘success’, but distinctly odd and a bit Disney-esque to my British eyes. I can understand, however, why this kind of design is so popular in a country that has laboured under grim public/civic-minded architecture for so many years.

The Castle Hotel, Dalian

I was immediately impressed by the scale of the event, about 1,300 delegates were in the audience – and the way it had been set-up to include the biggest names in the industry, from across China, Hong Kong, Singapore. Previous guest speakers had included Tony Chi, Peter Remedios and Jean-Michel Gathy – so no pressure then.  And I was one of only a handful of Westerners in the room.

View from Dalian's main square (the biggest in Asia). The world's biggest and flattest half-pipe skatepark. And a giant unfinished bridge mid-construction in the background. Smog wasn't as bad here, but still noticeable.

The theme of the event was “Future Hotels”.  I am a fan of future-gazing, like most people, so this theme attracted me and I wrote a speech focused on what the hotel design of the future would be like. I won’t go into it here, but if you are interested I will post a separate link to the video of my speech when I have it.

The speech went down well, mainly because of G.A’s reputation in the region thanks to our great work on projects like W Taipei. For that I can only say again what great (and hard) work our team is doing around the world.

It also went down well because of the student-based audience – I suspect that not many event speeches in China encourage the audience to think and participate in a dialogue. I was nervous about doing this, given my experience in Asia in general is that people are very reticent about asking questions in a public forum. However, on the advice of Susan, my brilliant translator, we decided to go ahead and open up the discussion.

It was only after the speech, that I started to get a sense that ideas like ‘crowd-sourcing’ and group participation, discussion are considered more radical perhaps in China than elsewhere, especially amongst a large group of students (and to the back-drop of the student civil disobedience in Hong Kong).

I sensed there was a formula which they had been expecting – design firm principals turn-up and show their portfolio, talk about the past, how they ‘made it’ and got to their current position etc. Given that I am not a designer, I was reluctant to do that, so focused more on a group session trying to define the future of hotel design, using ideas harvested from the G.A global family and examples of our current work as stimulus.

What I certainly didn’t expect was to be mobbed by students, suppliers and clients alike for the rest of the conference. One man approached me asking us to work on a boutique 60-room hotel project apparently attached to the Great Wall of China (!)

Seemingly everyone wanted pictures, signatures or to exchange business cards. After nearly an hour of this, it was frankly a bit overwhelming. I suppose everyone is due their 15 mins of fame, but it also got me thinking….is there something in Chinese culture where role-models are held in very high esteem, perhaps without the criticism or cynicism you would find in the UK? Or maybe our work was just that inspiring…I hope the latter. Either way, it seems that G.A is now ‘big in China’. For all those in our team that worked on these projects, I wish you could have been there to see it – I am sure it would go some way to make the long hours and effort worthwhile.

*A footnote about China Southern Airlines and an example of the general statistical craziness of China…. I learnt this during my days working with Malaysia Airlines on the launch of their own A380 services from KL to London. China Southern Airlines is, I am told, the only airline in the world to fly profitably Airbus A380s (the huge, double-decker ones). Why? Because China Southern flies their A380s converted almost entirely into economy-class seating, more than 500 people being flown this way in one plane. But here’s the killer – they fly them exclusively domestically. So whilst in the UK we may have invented the concept of the double-decker bus, in China, they created the double-decker plane. Literally bussing Chinese around their country from city to city.

Why we should be thankful for the haze

Pic credit: malaysiabreakingnews.blogspot.com

So we have been suffering from terrible haze in Malaysia this year, caused by forest fires originating in either Indonesia or Malaysia itself, depending on who you believe. The density of the haze on any given day has been less intense than the 'haze season' last year, but the spread of hazy days has been much wider. I can measure this from family coming to visit - in March, June and then October. On each of these occasions their visits were blighted by the haze. Normally the 'season' is most intense in June and then tapers away....not this year. 
Last week we also experienced the smog in Shanghai, which was truly terrible. Choking and accrid, I felt asthmatic. Throat and eyes hurting, very difficult to breathe, the only respite being indoors in air-conditioning.
There are some commonalities to this Malaysian haze and Shanghainese smog - namely both are the side-effects of a populous Asia, with growing economies (Malaysia's GDP growth in Q1 this year was 6.8%). These economies are consuming and manufacturing in ever greater numbers, whilst concurrently there is a less developed sense of the fragility of the natural environment. Chairman Mao said that nature was man's enemy, to be tamed and controlled, bent to man's will. This kind of thinking is still prevalent today in Asia.
The severity with which the haze and smog blight quality of life is extraordinary. Schools shut. Children unable to play outdoors. People restricted from exercising. Life curtailed and limited. Breathing, that very signature of being alive, difficult. It is so bad, that it is increasingly hard to hire expats in Beijing or Shanghai - they simply don't want the pollution in their lives.
But here's the thing - it's a wonderfully democratic blight - effecting the rich and poor equally. It's also something that's impossible to cover-up, a most real, tangible, indicator of the state of our planet and the price we pay for un-shepherded tapping of our natural resources. And for that we must thank the haze and the smog, because without them, no-one would notice. They are un-ignorable. They are undeniable. They are forcing the issue of the environment into the public domain on a continent learning the trade-offs that come with rapid economic growth. Without them, there would be less action and less (no?) debate. And for that, whilst we cough and splutter, we must also be thankful in a way.

what3words

This is brilliant. 

Ever wanted to meet someone - for example at an event - in the middle of a field? What3words has sliced the world (figuratively) into 57 trillion 3m x 3m parcels. Three words define each of these parcels. And if you want, you can buy a single word and tag it to your particular parcel. How brilliant is that? Here's how they describe their service:

Invaluable in the 75% of countries where poor addressing is rendering whole communities invisible, aid or maintenance agencies trying to map remote schools or fix solar panels. In developed countries couriers lose money by spending 28% of their time in the last mile & just a 1% improvement in the UK's addressing system would represents a saving of €25bn for the economy. 

These guys are really changing the way we navigate and are acknowledging that the current postal system and service is a. outdated b. inaccurate. So from now on, if you need to visit G.A Brand Design, you can find us at:

golf.football.jetted

Which is actually brilliantly useful, given we always have people getting lost trying to find our staircase entrance hidden as it is in the OneKL building.

So many new digital brands like what3words (founded by a school colleague incidentally) and for instance Uber, use technology to bring people closer together and provide a new, improved service that goes straight to a pressure-point or problem in people's lives. Often, you don't even realise how inadequate the previous service was (eg the postal service/Google maps) because you have lived with it and taken it for granted for many years. These start-up brands are essentially based on what they do, how they function. However, to be successful, they still all need a powerful idea or philosophy at their core - a thought or a point of view about how the world could be better with them.

The challenge for these brands is remaining relevant after the initial buzz of the launch (what3words recently appeared on CNN here http://cnn.it/ZcPMAt). How will what3words diversify and what other functions, features and products will it offer? 

From a branding perspective I would encourage them to consider their role beyond the 'core function' they currently provide. It is interesting to watch Google grappling with this 'brand identity' now - diversifying from their core search/AdWords function into technologies such as wearables (Google Glass) and home monitoring systems (Nest) and of course Uber itself. This is a long way from a search engine - but true to their brand ethos of "don't be evil"....from afar, it does seem like the company, in all its success, is struggling to define its next steps. Without a continual reappraisal and evolution, there is a danger, even for a giant brand like Google, that you lose relevance and diminish. In case you think this is totally mad, have a look at the failure of Google+ for instance - and the increasing movement of 'going dark' and removing your personal information from Google's all-seeing eye. The only thing that is permanent, in the world of brands, is change.

Whither Brand Britain?

On the 18^th September 2014, Scotland became an independent country. Later that day, as the votes were counted and when the “No” vote won the Scottish Referendum, Scotland returned to the 307 year old union with England, Northern Ireland and Wales. However, for a short period at least, it was independent.

I decided to write a little on this subject, because here in Asia this historic occasion perhaps didn’t receive full coverage – for reasons which I will let you speculate on privately. Very few people I have met in Malaysia were, for instance, aware of the process, the ramifications of the referendum and how it acted as a kind of bell-weather for many of the issues that we are grappling with globally as our societies become increasingly, paradoxically connected and disconnected.

For me, it was a fascinating process to watch, albeit from afar. Issues of identity, culture, devolution and globalization, along with of course history and nationalism, were played out on a grand scale, where the stakes couldn’t be higher. The question in the referendum was amazingly simple: “Should Scotland become an independent country?” The voters – resident Scots, were given a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to decide their own fate.

This already created an interesting linguistic dynamic to the campaign. I think it is harder to lobby for a negative – a “no” – than for a “yes”. You are turning something down, unsure of what you may be missing out on. So this infused the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns with a different sense of energy. The ‘yes’ campaign painted a picture of a liberated, autonomous Scotland, a kind of Scandinavian, nuclear-free liberal paradise. They were ‘selling’ if you will, a dream of something new and better. I would argue the ‘no’ camp had a much more difficult task: to persuade Scotland that the country was - in their campaign rhetoric -  “better together” in the Union. Through clever use of this phrase, plus framing their no vote as a vote for change as well (albeit less radical than a yes vote) the no campaign won out in the end. But it was close (54% to 46%).

Think about the ramifications if the ‘yes’ vote had won – of course a new country would have been born with all the fiscal and political issues this would have created. More trivial, but important on a symbolic level the Union Jack flag, the iconic symbol of Britishness (and amazing piece of design in its own right - http://www.know-britain.com/general/union_jack.html) would have been no more. Passports would have been redesigned. Truly a shocking thought for a Britain that a hundred years ago had an empire upon which “the sun never set”.

Having lived in Kuala Lumpur for the last 4 years, I have witnessed a level of energy and engagement with politics that I had never seen in the UK. As the various pressures and valves and gears in Malaysian politics grind forwards, movements like Bersih (the electoral reform movement) and the fact that the opposition won the popular vote in the last election have pulled in a sector of the urban young to take part in the political sphere. In the UK, the level of disengagement with the political class, their language and the sense that any meaningful change would actually happen, is significant.

A Scottish referendum turnout of 84.5% is testament to how giving people a say in the big decisions can re-engage them with the political process. It is something we would of course never see in Asia, sadly, this mass engagement in a truly democratic process -  at least in the near future, despite the changes and progress we see in places like Myanmar and here in KL.

Part of the problem with UK politics of old, is the language and connection with the people. Complex problems and processes are not subjected to the rigorous communications process that happens – for example – out of competitive necessity in the corporate world. Apple makes hugely complex machines, but it works just as hard to make them simple to use. The political world has rarely such pressure to communicate simply and clearly to a broad audience. The Scottish referendum, by its black and white nature, forced a different type of debate and dialogue that electrified the country, all for the better. I was proud to see British democracy leading and setting such an example.

So what has this to do with branding? Well on one level, ‘brand Britain’ has survived, just, from a close brush with death. It shows that even the most established brands must evolve and move with the times to remain relevant. I had always thought of “Britishness” to be a fixed concept – something set in concrete and “timeless” – like red double-decker buses, HP Sauce and Shakespeare. Of course it is not. And for a few months at least, many of us Brits had to consider what Britishness would consist of in a Disunited Kingdom. Certainly it will never be the same.

And so with brands. The biggest and strongest brands must adapt. New products, new audiences, old audiences buying new products. What is the core, the sense of self and how can this flex – ‘freedom in a brand framework’ – across the different areas and developments of the business. A truly great brand knows itself and is confident enough to do this successfully.

Look Up by Gary Turk. Are we a generation of Smart Phones and Dumb People?

The Rare Trumpeter Swan

Happy to say we found our 'rare bird'. Still the criteria for a great creative director. 

If you are working with an agency that doesn't have a 'Trumpeter Swan' leading its creative output, time to call us :)

Bill Hicks on Marketing

Ok this has been seen, shared, sent many times before, but hey, it's good not to take ourselves too seriously, right? I suppose the point is: without a purpose, without some meaning, something that defines WHAT you do, HOW you do and most importantly WHY [and the why needs to be more than just to sell the product] you won't create a brand that lasts, a brand that actually makes people's lives better. The thing is, it can be small things that sometimes make the biggest impact. WhatsApp simply made it their mission to have a better, quicker, easier messaging service (without ads) - actually quite a small thing - and Facebook now think that is worth USD19bn. So we challenge our potential clients out there - WHY are you launching that new product, creating that new campaign, embarking on that new sales push? If you don't know, we'd love to have a chat with you and help you find out. It might just save us from going to straight to hell with the rest of the industry :)

LOGO DESIGN 101

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!

A logo might look simple, but ironically
it's the most difficult thing to design.
I find this witty little infographic piece quite useful, as it is a shortcut to solving logo design problems.

For further details on this, Click here!

NOMADS by Graham Fink

Graham Fink is one of the most celebrated creative directors in adland. I met him several times after Ogilvy hired him as their ECD for China. He's a truly original thinker and one of the most original and brilliant voices in the advertising world. I remember having an interesting discussion with him about how saturated the communications/advertising/branding worlds have become and the lack of originality - it was Graham's opinion that we need to look in 'darker, scarier, weirder' places for inspiration. The well is running dry with the usual aspirational, life could be great type of work. I couldn't agree with him more.

It's with interest, then, to see him branch into the fine arts territory. And doubly interesting after our post "I see faces" to find that Graham too sees faces, everywhere and in everything. I suppose it's the human condition. This exhibition of his art is on display in London, called NOMADS at Riflemaker, it is a collection of images which Graham has put together over many years. Loosely speaking all the images reference faces made out of unique human or natural objects. We've posted some of the imagery here for you to look at. Also check out his site: http://www.grahamfink.com/

It's for you to decide what you think about his work. We find it fresh, interesting. But I am not sure entirely successful. It feels ad-like. It's got interest, but does it have the soul of fine art? Let us know what you think.

And just for fun, at the bottom of this post, we've included one of favourites from Graham's advertising back catalog.

Can you walk on water?

Can You Walk on Water ? Well, now you can! All you need is corn starch and water! Have a look at the video. Walking on Water Experiment - People run, jump and dance on a pool filled with 2,100 gallons of non-newtonian fluid (corn starch and water) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Really do not understand what this has anything to do with a bank. It is simply gimmick, but at least the science is fun.