JKR

Lola is a brilliant example of exuberant design. Today’s Guardian tells us smiles are back in fashion and here is a design that delivers one. Against a general trend for stripping things back, I wonder what might happen if a few of our Superbrands chose, instead, to guild the lily.

Wandering the British Museums rooms showcasing European design of the past few hundred years is rather like eating slice after slice of rich gateau cake. Lovely, but filling. Opulent, intricate, bejewelled and complex objects, all with a high level of craftsmanship at every turn. One could truthfully say “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore”. Often because we can’t – industrial design has robbed us of the skills and process. But I wonder, in our ‘less is more’ current phase of design, might we be about to see this very different aesthetic making a return, with maximalism replacing minimalism. Please indulge me in this whimsical line of thought…

My rationale is pretty thin, but here’s why I think it might be possible. Firstly, the downturn is not going away. If we face a few more years of this, we will be crying out for a little more design opulence and glamour to offset our mood. ‘Stripped back and minimal’ is a great look in times of plenty, but those cabinets in the British Museum came from times of poverty, where design’s task was often to transcend the crude and everyday, and to dazzle. There is something going on when iPhone’s protective covers are embroidered, beaded or covered in Swarkovski crystals. We are already wanting a bit more bling.

In addition, craftsmanship takes time and time costs money. As society polarises into haves and have nots, nothing will say ‘I am in the top tier’ like sporting design which is handcrafted – time intensive production says ‘luxury’. Industrial design, particularly in the stripped back sense, is too much of a level playing field on which to stand out. The more intricate and complex the design, the better to display the artisan’s skill and the client’s deep pockets. And retailers like Anthropologie show this look can, in any case, be mass-produced…

One obstacle to such a swing would be global brands aiming for a broad global market, where the design minimalism is culturally bland enough to fit in anywhere (IKEA for example). Maximalist design will carry more cultural reference points and might travel less easily. But the more we start to look the same, the more I believe we will start striving to be different.

Of course maximalism is already here – I just wonder if it will become a more general approach rather than just the odd gold-plated Oligarch’s sports car or fancy perfume design. We’ll really know it is making a big comeback if we see a less minimalist design approach applied to a mainstream car design, or a can of budget price beans. As belts tighten further, we all might be left wanting a design tonic. And high craft carries the ultimate expression of premium. So, might we be entering into a golden age for the florid and the excessive in design? It’s kind of fun to think so…

Note – the images here are all from the British Museum website – well worth an explore…

Here is my image to encapsulate the trend I see in brand design for 2012. Of course, all trends are waves. They build up momentum and energy over a few years, peak, then crash on the beach…uh, I think that’s where the metaphor ends. But my point is this ‘trend’ is really nothing new, but I think 2012 will be a big year for it.

It’s all about being sticky, hence the chewing gum. That represents the glue that ‘brand visual identity’ is claiming to be, the stuff that makes brands have a pattern that holds together across all channels. My question is who is the chewing gum? I think for years the advertising agencies have held this role, with ‘top table’ client relationships. But increasingly it seems that design groups have more aptitude for applying iconography and developing brand ‘look and feel’, and it is becoming an ever growing part of our workload as an industry. This might sound a little self serving, but it is interesting that more and more we are encouraged to think of ‘the bigger picture’.

So that’s my perception: if design is the block of chewing gum, it’s being pressed on to make it wider and more influential. Not a very elegant image to conjure, but an exciting prospect for design agencies. Author Austin Howe in his book Designers Don’t Read describes designers as drummers, holding the beat for all the channels of comms and keeping things together. That’s probably an alternative and slightly sexier description of the same point.

What do you think? Is this more of the same? A growing reality? Or am I doing our advertising colleagues a disservice?

Sarcasm might be the lowest form of wit, but it is also one of the most challenging things to get across in type. Since emails began, the challenge has gone mainstream as folk have tried to ensure their gags are not taken seriously. So we have had LOL and and now another graphic design leap appears…

It has been suggested that backwards italics might be a slightly more elegant way to telegraph one’s bon mots. I think this misses the point but hits on one limitation that typography can’t transcend. While choice of font, emphasis and suchlike are all basic design elements that can compliment content and bring text to life, the whole point of sarcasm is that it works under false pretences. It is delivered straight to heighten the subversive nature of its content. So flagging it up just removes its wit, making it crass and the typographic equivalent of a bad comic’s ‘nudge nudge’ delivery.

Basically, sarcasm (and irony) are forms of expression that cannot be aided by design. They rely on the quality of the writing and the intelligence of the audience. Is this why they are almost non-existent in branded design? Surely an opportunity for some brand who wants an audience engaged by being in the know and in on the joke?

However, the only day of the year brands seem to allow themselves a chance to be sarky is April 1st, letting the date do the excusing for them. The BMW images here all come from this particular day.

Of course, it’s not just in writing that sarcasm can be missed. Consider Jeremy Clarkson’s poker faced suggestion that striking public service employees should be shot. That got a few complaints.

On reflection, sarcasm might just be the nitroglycerine of branded copy, but diffusing it with a typographic convention would leave it utterly pointless.

Well, that was a brilliant insight, wasn’t it?

A recent exhibition in the U.S. discussed how current Japanese design is influenced by the country’s cultural history. I couldn’t really follow the examples given, but this pair of paper glasses by Azumi Mitsuboshi clearly owe a little to Japan’s penchant for folding and exploiting the properties of paper. They would not look out of place in Shoreditch. They work by making the viewer focus their vision through the tiny holes and cost about £7.

What inspiration might we take? That the past is a great thing to plunder. That simple ideas can look cool and cheap. That smart thinking has universal appeal – I imagine this design might have real benefit in developing countries from a cost perspective.

Final nerdy observation – I seem to recall that the space suits in the original Alien film were in part inspired by Samurai costumes. Makes sense as the hapless crew worked for The Weyland-Yutani corporation. Now that really is using the past to paint the future!

’tis the season to be promotional. And seasonal calendars are amongst the first examples of branded promotional marketing that we have. The earliest date back to the nineteenth century. They endure because they make a nice Christmas gift, are useful and, if appealing, they guarantee your advertising will be hanging in your prospective customer’s eye-line all year ’round. Of course, this basic principle has got a little less simple over time…

Being agnostic the calendar hangs on where other ‘Christmas gifts’ have been dropped out of sensitivity for multiple faith society. And the really big production numbers, Pirelli or Lavazza are unlikely to be hung anywhere. Their appeal lies in using famous photographers with huge budgets and tiny print runs to ensure highly collectable editions. So the calenders will be kept in their envelopes rather than making it to a wall. No matter, as all the really valuable publicity will be generated online. The calendar holding the images is merely the MacGuffin.

Lavazza have put up a great website showing their two decades of calendars. It’s fascinating to track their progress. In the nineties (above) it was all pretty generic (albeit shot by Helmut newton and suchlike) black and white sophisticated stuff: coffee =classy.

Then at the turn of the century (several years worth above), Lavazza  developed a sense of irony and enjoyed a purple patch of exuberant fantastical and colourful imagery. Although each year had a different photographer, the sensibility was coherent – the classic ‘how will they top last year?’ approach.

All good things must come to an end however. This year (above), to celebrate their 20th,they are getting past collaborators to shoot self-portraits. When a brand starts making its campaign the subject rather than focusing on the little universe it’s created, it feels like the beginning of the end. Self-referential marketing just seems a bit self-indulgent.

And the Lavazza style seems to be drawn on heavily for the new Campari calendar. Another surreal high production Italian number, but with Campari rather than caffeine in the (super) model’s hand. Perhaps it’s time for Lavazza to turn to a new page?

So, how to be original as a brand when surely every calendar approach has been tried? Stella Artois are doing things a bit differently, giving away a downloadable album that owes something to the spirit of Phil Spector’s ‘A Christmas gift for you’ but even more to the recent beautiful communication…

…from a beer originally brewed for Christmas. It’s a neat idea, a neat build, a neat brand fit and a neat new way of giving us something to remember the product by as the holidays roll around…

The Lavazza, Campari and Stella Artois work was all found on Popsop, a great place to follow global branding activity…