Simple Wins
Our world will always be complex and connected in ways we don’t fully understand. A great brand is the opposite.
At its heart, a great brand is a simple concept. It makes sense out of the complex. It is the set of visual and verbal cues through which people connect with you.
Yet so few do this well. Everything from products to public spaces to personalities has a brand, a logo, an experience. Most are instantly forgettable. They look, sound and feel the same as everything else. They’re built on flimsy, easy, obvious thinking. They follow trends instead of forging them.
And herein lies our opportunity. While we can’t change the world, we can change our little piece of it. While others struggle in their sea of sameness, we can stand out.
We do it by defining and designing a simple idea that directs everything, everywhere, all the time. And to do that we must be generous and be bold.
Simple is generous.
Creating such a simple idea is a deeply generous act.
A simple idea is generous because it is instinctively understood by your customers, employees, communities, it is easy to use, it actively helps them. It is designed for them to win.
It is especially generous if it is created not only for them but with them − if their involvement and collaboration is encouraged.
Likewise, a simple idea is as generous inside your company as it is out. From the CEO on down, if each member of your team feels invested in the process of developing your brand and in agreement about its core meanings and ideals, this pays massive dividends later.
Simple ideas therefore spring from reality – because they are designed directly for and with those you care about. There is always thought and reason and strategy. There is no ‘just because’ in a simple idea.
Simple makes bold possible.
In our fast-changing world being bold is not the risky move. The riskiest choice is to be timid. The timid get left behind. Some see this. Most don’t.
Once we have our simple idea, we give ourselves the rare opportunity to do what the vast majority never do: to ‘take-off’. To escape the predictable and unoriginal all around us. To make ‘bold’ a natural way of being.
Being bold means having the confidence to take action without second-guessing. The ability to surprise and delight in ways that ‘just fit’. Being bold means maintaining total respect for the idea, while avoiding trends and the easiest options. It’s removing the irrelevant and revealing the essential. And trusting that, sometimes, the idea right in front of you is the right idea.
Simple provides direction.
Creating an iconic, successful brand is a challenging, never-ending endeavour − one that requires us to be adaptable and nimble. The simple idea, therefore, is not a static, set thing. It provides us not with a destination, but a direction.
The simple idea informs thousands of day-to-day context-driven gestures and touchpoints; the moments, large and small, that every brand is built on. In this way, people get to know you and your brand, not just by what you say but by what you do, creating and strengthening the bonds that will stand the test of time.
This is our mission: For those who see it and who are ready to take the opportunity in front of them, we make simple, generous, bold brands.
Then those you care about win. And then we all win.
