Brand Thinking
If you could redesign covers of books you’ve read
As a personal project (unpublished) graphic designer Jenny Volvovski redesigned covers for books she has read. And if you want to see the covers of books she designed but did not read check out her design agency ALSO here.
12 early, mid, and late career lessons
Rishad Tobaccowala, author of “Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data” has the most subscribe-worthy blog that you should absolutely read now.
I suggest you start here with his thoughtful 12 Career Lessons.
All the way from “1. Find the least sucky job you can” to “4. Even the best jobs are only good seventy percent of the time” then “12. Build a portfolio career and start giving back aggressively” will serve as a roadmap and reality check. I promise.
Photo by Michael Yuan Irisojcwkam
Not every brand needs to be a lifestyle
I don’t care how much ‘tude you put in your voice when you say “a panini or crostini.” No child of mine is going to live the Miracle Whip lifestyle.
It’s a bland new day
According to Bloomber.com difference between a Brand and a Bland breaks down to this:
Claiming simultaneously to be unique in product, groundbreaking in purpose, and singular in delivery, while slavishly obeying an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice.
Think Hum vs Quip, Casper vs Tuft & Needle, Harry’s vs Dollar Shave Club. You get the idea.
The not-at-all-bland geniuses* at blandbook.com put it all together for you here. Want to learn how to build a Bland with the best of them? Follow these bland documents to always go unnoticed and be like every other bland!
*Bland is brought to you by the never bland brains of Vikki Ross and Paul Mellor.
Leaky roofs and broken promises
The leaky roof analogy by the brilliant Seth Godin
In many situations, a leaky roof is worse than no roof at all.
If there’s no roof, we’re not surprised or disappointed if we get hit with some raindrops. But a roof that leaks has raised expectations and then failed to meet them.
Promising us a roof and then breaking that promise might be worse than no roof at all.
Photo by Reza Shayestehpour on Unsplash
On seeking a category
Seth Godin on why competition is such a good thing:
A new ice-cream shop opened up downtown. Do you want to go?
Every word in that sentence is easy to understand. We know that a ‘new ice cream shop‘ is a bit like the other ice cream shops in our experience, except a little different and probably better.
And where know where downtown is.
That’s a different question than:
- Have you subscribed to Prodigy? (1989)
- Did you hear that podcast? (2004)
- Want to see my iPhone? (2008)
- Do you know how to program an Arduino? (2016)
When you ask a question about a new entry that’s also in a new category, you’re now trying to do two things:
1. Explain what the thing is. What it rhymes with. What it does. What the parameters are, whether it can be trusted to work, whether or not you’ll feel stupid doing it…
2. Ask whether your friend, now that she vaguely understands what the thing is, even wants it.
I’ve been living in this state of mystery for three decades. I’ve been asked by generous and interested folks, “what’s email?” as well as, “what’s a cd-rom?” and now, “what’s the altMBA?”
First you need to explain the category (which is never glib or easy) and then you can help people figure out whether they want to leap or not.
This is one reason why competition is such a gift. If you have competition, now you have others helping you explain the category. With competition, you can say things like, “We’re like Uber, but without the scandals.”