Posts Tagged ‘drummer Lars Ulrich’
“Never let a piece of work go out that you’re Not proud of”
Bruce Duckworth, who was asked to redesign Coca-Cola logo, said in the interview with Debbie Millman: “Mary Lewis of Lewis Mobely, an art director, taught me to Never let a piece of work go out that you’re Not proud of. The motto is “Let no bad work goes to market. And I am proud of every single piece of work in the drawers of my study…”
“I wanted to do advertising, and I am a real sucker: If a brand tells me this spread lower the cholesterol level, I believe it… I couldn’t see how I could run my own advertising agency. I could envision how to run a design company. Package design at the time left a lot of room for improvement…”
Branding is an experience: It leads to an ownership, one that has a touchy-feely aspect to it. Advertising is mainly a temptation and is more distant in nature: It offers a promise, but it doesn’t give you the product.
“When Coca-Cola gave me that Spencerian script logo, I couldn’t stop smiling: Coca-Cola is the most famous logo in the world, and Coca-Cola wanted to simplify the logo. The logo was to eliminate all generic elements that other brands could use in their designs. Why the bubbles? Who in the world doesn’t know that Coca-Cola is a bubbly drink?”
It is the influence of the client (who knows the product better than anyone) that makes the brand design more believable, better, and more real. Afterall, we are in the business of selling more, and not getting award-winning honors.
Wit is absolutely the key in designing a brand: It provides depth and soul. Wit is halfway between “serious” and “funny”: It includes a little touch of warmth and emotion. First we want the message out, after that we want people to go through the process of discovering the logo, one step at a time…
In this age of mass production, brand design is the closest you’re going to get to meeting the people who made the product…
Note: Bruce Duckworth is partner with his brother Turner Duckworth. Bruce designed the CD “Death Magnetic” for the band Metallica at the instigation of drummer Lars Ulrich, and packaging for Motorola, and the redesign of the Amazon logo
Adonis Diaries 