On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at SVA’s Branding Studio, Lee Arters, Creative Director at Landor Associates, gave the AIGA/NY Breakfast Club: Visual Alignment talk to a full room of attendees.

Arters presented examples from major brands and explained how brand worlds are created, redefined, and maintained when a variety of other design teams and agencies are carrying out its message. Arters explained that Landor Associates gets involved early on in the process, which often begins with packaging and setting the overarching tone.

When creating, redefining or maintaining a brand, Arters shared the following ground rules about how to communicate with stakeholders and consumers:

Simplicity is key. The brand positioning should be simple enough to fit in a page or two, because regardless how much time designers and strategists spend on a product, consumers make decisions very quickly. This is also why it’s essential to root the brand positioning in a specific time and place. The brand can’t be all things to all people, and specificity is what makes the product ownable, allowing audiences to emotionally connect.

For example, when an emerging vodka company, Shanghai Noir, approached Landor Associates, the client provided a laundry list of words to define various aspects of their product. However, written communication can be inconsistently interpreted and slow to get a message across. After conducting research, Landor Associates decided to focus on romantic 1930′s Shanghai, which brings clear visuals to mind of a dark and decadent era. Instead of reading “exotic luxury” typed on a page or powerpoint, what the vodka stands for can be immediately understood by looking at a carefully compiled moodboard. Each image has a role to play in defining the brand, giving it dimension and depth.

In another case study, Arters showed how research helped guide a new white rum in a market overwhelmingly dominated by Bacardi. Despite the saturated competition, Landor Associates discovered that while consumers knew about Bacardi, they couldn’t speak to an emotional connection. Interviews conducted about rum in general, and what it means to consumers, produced a constellation of ideas that became the foundation for the new product: Naked Turtle. Casual beach scenes and tropical colors set the mood, as Arters reminded everyone that triggering an aspiration can be important, but that aspiration can simply be about having a good time.

Though packaging is where the journey begins, Arters also emphasized the importance of imagining the experience beyond the shelf and finding other activation points. The shelf at a liquor store is crowded territory, and the journey a bottle takes beyond that point can have a tremendous effect. With Shanghai Noir, the process involved designing elegant glassware. With Crown Royal, Landor Associates put together entire rooms with different themes to see how the brand could be expanded into new spaces and demographics.

Arters emphasized telling a story. For clients, pointing to specific qualitative research and numbers (depending on what the project involves) goes a long way in building support for a creative direction. He emphasized the importance of grounding the brands in a truth. Shanghai Noir is made in the world’s oldest distillery, for example, and much of the research conducted is to help find a point of authenticity that provides essential reinforcement for the message.

Following the presentation, the audience Q&A included questions directed at the nitty-gritty details of internal communication and workflow. There were nods of recognition when Arters mentioned the need to back up almost every design choice with research or practical reason. The timing from project brief to first presentation also seems to have shortened over the years, as clients now demand a pace that can be as little as two weeks to develop an idea. The number of directions shown, or the role mood boards play in warming up to a final direction are discussed in some detail as well. Arters answered questions, providing clarity and pragmatic guidance on brand worlds and the day to day work world alike.

Additional Information:
Landor Associates

Event Details:
AIGA/NY Breakfast Club: Visual Alignment

Event photos:
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Special thanks to guest contributing writer Mira Rojanasakul for the AIGA/NY Breakfast Club: Visual Alignment event recap and photos. Mira’s work can be found at rojanasakul.com, or follow her at @rjnskl.