Sunshocked

Having realized the power of branding, the public health folks have set their sights on taking all logos off of cigarette packaging. A creative solution. Too bad logos and branding are not the same thing.

Last month I surveyed several of the “green issues” from various magazines and determined Creative Review the winner. I also promised to do a follow-up, which brings us to this post.

When I first got into branding, I was surprised to learn that there were many, many steps before designing a cool logo necessary for creating a successful brand. The first of which must solve the age old problem of scarcity of resources.

Excuse me if it seems disingenuous to me to spend decades producing bland, cheaply made products and then complain that your corporate branding has been subverted by your customers to describe something bland and cheap.

My place of employment, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), recently launched a youth network. Here’s the step-by-step of how we came up with the logo.

I should be happy about people adapting their buying habits to incorporate solutions to the world’s problems. If you’re going to buy an iPod Nano, why shouldn’t you get the red one for the same price and help fight AIDS in Africa, right? Still, the whole thing puts a really bad taste in my mouth.

It was not poor planning, but rather mutual ignorance, that led to the simultaneous scheduling of the Commonwealth Club‘s lecture by Geoff Nunberg and the smartMeme reportback on the STORY project. Only because they offered such a chance to rub elbows with intelligent people did I break a sweat running through the streets in order to attend both. I’m glad I did. I don’t think anyone else noticed that the two were talking about exactly the same things.