Blog III

Blog 3 by Jeremy Pape

Scion

Target

Red Bull

In one of the David Reports that we read, it quoted Dieter Rams quite a bit. The ten examples of what design is really stuck out in my mind, and I tried to find different brands that are conquering the market place. After reading that, what I took from my overall research is that good design will not be a trend, that will determine what brands fail and what brands have the sustainability factor. As a result the route I took to decipher this blog response was, finding three brands that I feel use strong design to capitalize on sustainability and the five key design trends as listed in the David Report issue 10, October 2008.

The first brand that I voted upon was Target. It started my train of thought and the idea was influenced by the David Report readings. Upon arriving at the home page there are two main links that pop right out at you, almost capturing the essance to what Targets design is so great. The first link (http://dailydeals.target.com/?ref=sc_iw_ss_1), is a daily deals page. However, the design and aesthetic of the page does not feel cheap or second class at all. It goes after the intangibles of what we as consumers may want and puts them on one simple page for us. The daily deals page almost feels as if it was created for us because of the updated nature of it as well as the text to go along with the items. The innovative development of this idea is just one reason why Target’s clean, and thoughtful design, attracts us at such a personal level. The second link is promoting their new “fashion” line (http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_iw_ss/?node=1294293011). I say “fashion” because even thought Target would not be considered high fashion by any stretch, the way in which the market and their attention to detail within design gives the illusion that your are buying high fashion at remarkable low costs. To me this is an example of breaking the boundaries, because it used to be that you must pay a high price to feel like your were wearing something worth while. However, Target’s design appeal is that you feel like you are buying something much higher class, and all the emotion joys that go along with it, at a bargain price. I believe that much of the reason Target can be a smidgen more pricey than Wal-Mart, but still have just as much profit is due to the fact, that when your buy something from Target, you are also getting the emotional feeling of simple joy.

The second brand that popped up when thinking about design and its longevity was Red Bull. The design the Red Bull has developed is one that is authentic to the demographic that it is directed towards. The emerging twenty something culture that likes to live life on the edge, whether it is through, sports, music or what have you, Red Bull stays true to those people and what interests them (http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Red-Bull-Home/HolyShit/011242746208542). Just the focus of pushing life to the edge in everything that we do comes out in Red Bull’s design. The color scheme or red and yellow is more warm, high energy colors that also relates back to the main message. You could most definitely describe Red Bull as “cooltural”. It really takes the aspects of a certain “tribe” or demographic and capitalizes upon that through design, and really allows the people of the tribe to build upon what makes Red Bull for them (http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/What-is-Art-of-Can--021242750654338?p=1242751088355).

The final company that has design at the forefront of their branding is the automobile company Scion (http://www.scion.com/). Scion really captures the value of engaging the customer. So often when looking for a car you must settle for what is out there. Scion takes their great design and puts it in your hands (http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_iw_ss/?node=1294293011). You can create and customize your own car, allowing you to feel like this car was built just for you, and it was. The fact the many other companies i.e. NikeID or even Hallmark Greeting Cards are also understanding that, we as consumers like to feel as if we are the one and onlys. This product was tailored to us and we had a hand in crafting it. This gives Scion the credibility and authenticity needed for us to trust it and its design, there in turn delivering sustainability.