citizenbay

Distinctive beer, not a distinctive brand logo

Organic beer in Copenhagen, originally uploaded by citizenbay1.

In Copenhagen, my old friend Helene Venge took me for a walk along the wonderful waterfront. We grabbed a beer and a sit down after a while. The beer, a local organic one called Thy Pilsner was pretty good. But here is my problem. Just look at the logo. In a market of Carlsberg and Tuborg and others, why would a beer that has something contemporary (organic) to offer, go for such an ordinary visual design? Wasn't this eer crying out for a fresh approach to visual branding? A missed opportunity.

Copenhagen Design ethic.

Enjoyed my trip to Copenhagen this week. Managed to find some time to catch up with old friends and new, along with a chance to see some of the city. One thing that struck me was the complete commitment to design detail. Even the drains are intriguing...

 

I headed through the old meat-packing district and came across the wonderful inco logo and buildings.

Walking along Pilestraede there was just shop after shop with clean distinctive logos. 

Norr typeface , originally uploaded by citizenbay1.
Any students of font or visual design just have to walk down this street in Copenhagen to be inspired...

Also a lesson for brands who wish to be brave in the face of competitors who copy others all the time.

more photos from the copenhagen trip here

Data is the new Oil (by Gerd leonhard futurist)

Data is the new Oil (by Gerd leonhard futurist)
Originally uploaded by gleonhard

Came across this on Gerd Leonhard's flickr page...

He says:

Having access to information on what people do, what they like, who they are, where they are, where they go to, what they buy, the click streams, the digital bread crums, the digital exhaust... that's the new oil!

Cool point. My little contribution to this would be that Oil has value only when it is used to fuel a car, a plane.

Data similarly is of value when it is a Fuel for other things.

Data is presently flooding the market. In the world of data, OPEC could not survive with their cartel methods of price control.

So data is abundant. And data is not expensive. Yet, data is not an end in itself.

Data is Fuel for other things, like Insight. And I mean real business insight, not the kind of stuff I see passed off for insight.

While everyone rushes for the data, they are not dealing with the issue of what they will do with the New Oil.

What business engines are being built right now?

The excitement for me is in the construction of Ideas and Insight from the Data Fuel. The challenge for companies is the default reaction to see data as the end to itself (e.g. immense fortunes spent on CRM systems that go nowhere).