As an identity company, one of things we definitely don’t talk enough about on this blog is the importance of great design. It’s a HUGE part of creating identities - especially ones that have the potential to become movements.

Recently we had the honor of being included in a book published by HOW entitled Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication. And instead of trying to stumble my way in doing a review about it (since I am definitely not a designer), I asked Brains on Fire’s own Eric Whitlock, a former professor and international award-winning Design Wizard, to take a crack at it. Here’s what he had to say:

In Maggie Macnab’s new and wonderfully inspiring book Decoding Design, she deconstructs and illustrates how the fundamental elements and principles of design and their inherent symbolism as singular and/or pluralistic forms are inspired and derivative of primitive and universal signs and symbols of nature—the semiotics of nature—if you will. Maggie uses award winning works in detailed case studies to support the use the Golden Mean, Wholeness, Free-Form Life and a myriad of other reoccurring patterns and structures of design. But it doesn’t just stop there. She clearly articulates how science, mathematics, philosophy, physics and a host of multiple disciplines provide a foundation for holistic communications and design.

I highly recommend this “work of art” to academicians and professionals who wish to make a spiritual and meaningful connection to their work and effectively communicate in a more compelling manner.

In the next few weeks I’ll take a chapter-by-chapter expository style approach to summaries of key concepts.

Designers challenge: Grab a maple leaf, bloom or really any occurring image of nature in its original state and rediscover the beauty of design and its deep influence on modern or ancient works. Reconnect with your pencil and sketchbook—better yet, grab a copy of “Decoding Design” and we’ll share the journey together.

P.S. Check out page 75. Maggie has a wonderful case study of how the number two is fundamental to John Langdon’s ambigram for Steven Tyler, Aerosmith.

My brother Wilson, sent me the most amazing video this week and I shared it with the team in our 9am Friday Huddle. It is one of the most brilliant and beautiful examples of “reframing the conversation” I have ever seen. Enjoy.

So, we here at Brains on Fire have words that we have deemed unnecessary…or just out and out dumb.  From our Tequila Shots book: “There is nothing wrong in simple.  We don’t use a 10 dollar word when a 5 cent word will do.  We don’t make up fancy names for our work or processes in an effort to make it more unique.”  To that effort, asked a bunch of folks what their banned words are…via Twitter, here were some responses:

@slantsix -  “call to action”

@simonashton - “monetize & synergy”

@quickenloans - “priority”

@sketchbookb - “synergy & synergistically”

@amyharle - “ leverage, granularity, well-positioned, drill down, empower”

@FluentNetworks - “brainstorm, innovate, next generation, tipping point”

@thinkhammer - “Impactful” (amen, brother…the actual definition for the verb “impact” is gross and icky)

@rundle - “game-changing & at the end of the day”

@gravelpup - “rockstar & ninja”

See.  Lots of folks are passionate about this.  See, the old trend of business consulting books coming up with these fancy new processes is a little outdated.  Okay, it’s tired.  Just say what you mean.  We use the words identity, relationship, people, inspire…because those are the things we believe in.  We believe in sustaining relationships, not “humanizing the transaction”.  If we want to talk with a client or customer, we say we are communicating with them, not “harvesting feedback”.  You get the point.   What are some of the words you’re tired of hearing?  Go ahead, bring it on.

Scott, the nametag guy wrote a Spike Jones inspired post the other day. Check out his take on one of our 12 Brains on Fire beliefs.

Last week I had an interesting exchange with Cordell. And I was personally reminded how lucky I am that my work, my calling is one of my top ten passions. He and a small team are working on a project to help new people get quickly “immersed” in Brains on Fire’s culture. Our new immersion kit has suggestions like attend a Friday night Rage event, play a game of foosball, and hang out at Chicora on Thursday night. He and the immersion team are also collecting each person’s personal passion lists. It was a pretty cool assignment. I sent him my list with a short note about how great it felt to put my passions in writing and how excited I am to see everyone’s list. (Even though we are a pretty tight group, I am certain there will be a surprise or two.)

Anyway, here was Cordell’s very thoughtful response back to me:

“I hope everyone will take it seriously and not just throw something at it. It will be a good exercise in insight. If we can help people here unearth what drives them beneath the obvious, it will demonstrate the depth of understanding we seek to make a difference in the lives and success of our clients.”

So, what’s on your passion list? Or better yet — what’s on your employee’s or customer’s passion list?

I love you. I admit it. When I started working with your brand and was sent out to your North American factory, it started. To see the pride. The craftsmanship. The precision and attention to every little detail, I was hooked. And then to actually get behind the wheel of an Ultimate Driving Machine, well that was it.

But if I may, I have one tiny suggestion for you concerning the roundel that adorns each and every hood and trunk of your blessed machines. You see, over time, the logo fades or the paint may even chip off of the blue and white. And that’s understandable – it happens. But number one, I really do think you should go back to making them out of solid metal instead of the plastic that you use now. And number two, I truly think that you should give them away for free. Maybe have people send in their VIN number to make sure they are legit, but that roundel is the symbol for everything you stand for. There’s even a fascinating history behind it. So why not make sure that you’re being represented in the best way possible? Not only will it provide a deeper connection to your loyal fans, but it could also add to your legacy.

Just a thought.

CNN.com published an article about how bloggers are being given unprecedented access to the political conventions.  Over 120 were officially invited to the Democratic National Convention, and over 200 have passes to the Republican National Convention.  In addition, bloggers have found makeshift homes outside of the convention, with local entrepreneurs opening their doors and welcoming the business.

This is all great news.  Everyday Joe has a voice.  Some Joe’s have better voices than others.  Sure.  But more people get to give their opinions before the national media and cable services have filtered down the soundbites.  Yay.  Seriously.

But it all went awry with the last quote from the article….

“(Mark) Brooks, a 51-year-old who describes himself as breaking the mold of what people might imagine as a typical blogger, making time to garden in the summer and spend time with his family. ‘I’m not blogging from my mother’s basement in my sweat pants eating Cheetos,’ he said.”

YOU WERE SO CLOSE!!  Why…WHY?!?!?  You just got CNN to write a whole long article about how respected bloggers are…and you drop the Cheetos-bomb?

Here’s a hint Mr. Atypical…when you’re a part of a movement, don’t stereotype other members of your movement!  This article is about the 1000+ bloggers who have unprecendented access to the most powerful political structures in the world…and with one single sentence, you brought your movement back down to the ground.

Maybe I’m overreacting.  Maybe the folks at Techcrunch really are blogging from their mom’s basements eating Cheetos.  Maybe Jake McKee is balancing his laptop on his knee while spending all day in the mall food-court.  Or perhaps these are the true identities of Scott and Billy.  I don’t know.

But I do know that blogging is changing the way we get information.  And there’s no need to disparage that.   The only purpose that serves is to make you look like your better than everyone else…which defeats the whole purpose of blogging.  Bloggers aren’t better than everyone else….THEY ARE EVERYONE ELSE!  That’s the point.  Yes they have more knowledge on certain topics, or have an intriguing writing style…but superiority should not be considered an attribute.  If we wanted to get information from someone who thought they were better than everyone else…well, let’s just say that cable TV has some options for us.   Got it?

I’ve had two conversations in the past two days that have revolved around two words: “Contact Us.” Two little words that just about everyone has on their website. And probably the most under utilized part of that website as well. We’re looking at our own clunky “contact us” option for the Brains on Fire website as well, so bear with me as I’m trying to wrap my head around it.

So I’ve been on a search around the interwebs, and found a number of sites that basically want you to contact them only if you have a problem. In other words, the only communication that you might have with them after you buy their product or service is going to be when you’re in a bad mood. And that can’t be a good exchange.

There are SO many tools these days to communicate on the internet. (Maybe even too much to choose from.) But before we go and start implementing the fancy, flavor-of-the-week ones, we need to hunker down and take a good hard look at the basics first. Even Brains on Fire. And believe me, I’m open to suggestions.

The Olympics are over. And there have been a lot of great stories told and many a great performance. Arguably, the best of these belongs to the appropriately named Usain Bolt who is the new owner of the “fastest man on earth” title with an astounding 9.69 second 100-meter dash.

An article this week in Wired points out that Bolt’s performance has defied the natural “curve” of what biostatisticians have predicted. In other words, they expected humans to get faster, but they didn’t predict Bolt’s time until around 2030.

And I tell you that to tell you this: Bolt is a game changer. Even his body type is unexpected for a sprinter. And nobody saw this coming. Everyone was just going on their merry way thinking about how things don’t change that much and BAM! 9.69 seconds.

The business world isn’t all that different. Sure, the technologies are constantly changing, but I think we’ve been lulled into a “natural curve” sort of thinking. Even with the rise of social media and word of mouth marketing, everyone is kinda getting used to the idea. And that’s usually when the next BAM! happens. It can be in the form of technology, but also in the form of a new business model. You know the ones I’m talking about. They are the Zappos of the world – which is a very exclusive group. It’s not improving on something already out there. It’s inventing something beyond expectation.

In other words, the point is no longer to simply beat the competition. It’s to completely change the game on them and leave them in the dust.

I just got back from a quick trip to South Africa…3 days on the ground and 2 days in the air. I really had reservations about this trip: the tight schedule, and to be honest, the crime news of late had me concerned a lot. But I felt obligated to go and I have friends there that always provide a jolt of creative culture.

First, the conference: I had the privilege of being the keynote again for the Customer Management World Africa Conference 2008. The conference was MC’d by SA underground celeb Justin Nurse (Laugh It Off) of Cape Town. Justin is a chaos guy. He made a name for himself making SA parody T-shirts. His most famous headline was getting sued by South African Breweries (Miller) for his “Black Labour” and “White Guilt” T-shirts. (He won the lawsuit.)

As far as my keynote goes, I think it went well. Lots of questions and thank God my topic was relevant. I really like the people of South Africa and the marketers are hard working folks trying to do the right thing. South Africa needs its brands and marketers to step up to the plate, because I’m not sure that the government can help the people.

Things I heard from the audience

Andrew Miller of Idea Engineers ROCKED. He shared with us some research archetypes as narrative videos from two groups of South Africans. The common thread from these videos was the set up to show that brands and marketers have to invest in South African society. Andrew’s line, “If our society is not sustainable, our business can’t be sustainable” was right on.

The example he discussed I witnessed first hand. Driving in JoBurg is a frantic, chaotic experience and I was in the passenger seat. A “Pointsman” in SA is basically a traffic cop. The problem is, they are never where you need them. Step in OUTsurance and their media partner, Talk Radio 702.

Basically OUTsurance has partnered with a media partner to make the roads safer for their insurance customers. The OUTsurance Pointsman ride motorcycles to specific intersections and help direct traffic (they go through training in the JoBurg traffic police academy). Then Talk Radio 702 gives live up-to-date traffic news from the Pointsman to help JoBurg citizens navigate brutal, and dangerous traffic. BRILLIANT. These Pointsman are heros and they make the brand the hero, too.

South African businesses have to invest in society or their business will not be sustainable. It was exciting to listen to this energy of businesses talking in this way.

It’s a Small World

During the first conference break I had a wonderful surprise. Jacyln Venter, Fiskateer #1287, stopped by to say hello and a little photo op. It was great to chat with an international Fiskateer and hear about scrapbooking in South Africa.

My next post I’ll recap my visit to Missing Link. Cheers.