One of our favorite events of the year is the annual Brand New Conference by UnderConsideration. This conference is a two-day event focused on corporate and brand identity. Each year it’s in a different location and brings together designers and communication consultants from all across the country for a time of learning and idea sharing. The 2022 Brand New Conference was held in Austin, Texas, October 3-4, and took its design identity from the city’s slogan—”keep Austin weird.”
Alex Center of Brooklyn, New York, is the founder and creative director of the branding company CENTER.
One of the fun things about the 2022 Brand New Conference was seeing the faces behind some of the country’s most well-known brands. You might not realize it, but you know Alex’s work with VitaminWater, Powerade, Smartwater, and New Balance…but some of our favorite brands he’s done are United Sodas of America, Chassie, and Infatuation, a website dedicated to food recommendations for cities across the country. Check them out if you need some inspiration from fantastic brands!
Alex’s big idea was that brands and labels tell you why the product matters—or for the nonprofit and small biz world, our application was that the brand exists to tell your audience why your organization matters. Thus, “every brand touchpoint is a chance to introduce yourself.” Your brand should always bring charm, warmth, friendliness, and romance to your audience’s interactions with your organization.
Alex also explored the idea that branding is a team sport—No great brand is ever built by one person. We love this, because we also work as a team at Amenable. Even though we currently have one designer, our entire team is involved in the creative process of building a brand. Our goal is always (as Alex also mentioned) to reflect your organization’s culture in the brand we build.
Two major takeaways for us here: first, your brand is more than a stagnant design. Treat it like a chance to connect with your audience. Second, great work comes out of great relationships. We want to have great relationships with the organizations we partner with, and we want you to have great relationships with your audience because your brand connects.
Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz & Michu Benaim S. own an agency called In-House International in Austin, Texas, and Barcelona, Spain. Because they are totally focused on developing their clients’ brands, part of the philosophy they shared at the 2022 Brand New Conference is not to have a house brand for their agency…at least not one that can be summarized in a design.
Meta (Facebook), BBC, Indeed, TED.com.
Success doesn’t always look like success—and the invisible shows up in branding. In other words, the In-House International brand is the experience of working with the team, which really stands out in a world where everyone is “supposed” to have their own individual brand. What is unique about In-House is the way they guide their clients and manage projects—in other words, it’s more about their process and heart than a graphic identity.
We’re not suggesting you throw away your logo, but this gets at such an important concept for nonprofits and small businesses—learning to think like your audience. Learn to filter your decision making through the lens of “what would we do if we were in our audience’s seat?” Which leads us to our favorite quote…two important reflection questions for us all.“How do you measure what matters? How does your set up support your goals?”
If you’ve seen a Burger King ad recently, you know Lisa Smith’s work. Currently she is on the team at the Jones Knowles Ritchie agency and she shared about a few of her well-known recent projects at the 2022 Brand New Conference.
Burger King, Chobani, The Met
Define your tone of voice.
The organizations we partner with often comment on how we sound like them…and we love that because it’s always our goal! Our job at Amenable is to make our partner’s voices louder. It’s also an important thing to think about when you are a nonprofit or small business. How do you develop a voice that sounds like your audience so they can relate to you?
Russell and his wife Elizabeth own Studio Dzo in Austin, Texas, which mainly focuses on way-finding and architectural signage.
Indeed, Whole Foods Market, RetailMeNot
Creating boundaries and limits allows us to find opportunities within a box.
Brand standards! Your brand guide is not intended to stifle creativity. It’s a tool to assist you in creating a consistent experience for your audience every time they interact with you. Working within your brand guide for all communications actually creates freedom because it limits your options and curbs overthinking.
Paul Worthington owns branding firm Invencion, which is headquartered in New York and mainly focused on working with executive leadership teams to hone strategy and vision.
Citi Banking group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft
Small organizations need to brand themselves to be special.
We focus a lot on algorithms these days, because that’s how digital marketing works. And our brands now revolve around getting the attention of the algorithms. But algorithms have no heart or ethics. And if you’re a small organization with limited resources, you need a different approach. You need to show that you’re special.
Paul wrapped up his talk with the idea that, as designers, clients can’t follow us into taking risks until there’s a foundation of trust—until they see the imaginative future that we’re heading toward together. At Amenable, we want our partners to do brave things, which is why we focus on building trust first. And it’s an important thing for small businesses and nonprofits to hear, too. Your audience needs to trust you before they will join you on your mission.
That’s a wrap on the 2022 Brand New Conference. Did this post get your creative juices flowing? We’d love to hear what you’re thinking about! Reach out and let us know how we can help you reach your brand goals.
