In 2004, Debbie Millman invited me to give a presentation for the Institute for International Research’s Brand Identity and Packaging conference she co-chairs every year in New York. I know nothing about packaging and having just wrapped up a first year of blogging that included the controversial (at the time) rebrandings of UPS and VH1 I knew one thing about branding: Rebrandings. Which I made the theme of my presentation. As I was developing it I remembered a brilliant piece by Tibor Kalman I had seen in his monograph (I am way too young to have seen the original in I.D. Magazine’s March/April issue back in 1987) titled “The M&Co. Handy Reference Guide to Corporate Identity”. I — either courageously or stupidly — decided to update Tibor’s piece for the presentation, hoping to end up with something that approached at least a small percentage of his critical poignancy and wit. I had forgotten about my chart until this summer’s Payless Shoesource rebranding. With a long weekend at hand I dusted it off, updated it to 2006 — except for the punchline — and I now humbly present it with all the respect and praise that Tibor demands.
“The M&Co. Handy Reference Guide to Corporate Identity”
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“The Handy Reference Guide to Corporate Identity — Revised.”
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I understand your lack of confidence in presenting this to the world (the original was by Tibor Kalman, after all), but I think it stands on its own. Of course, these days you could add another branch to the Time-Saving Techniques: make it Web 2.0!
On Sep.06.2006 at 10:09 AM