brand makers from silicon valley
TRANSCRIPT
BRAND MAKERS FROM SILICON VALLEY.
A NEW GENERATION OF BUSINESS LEADERS IS SHAKING THINGS UP.
They’re building cultures of passion, agility, and purpose.
They’re inventing things no one’s ever heard of.
They’re growing new economies and changing the world.
These are our clients. And they are why we exist.
WE’RE LIQUID AGENCY.
Liquid defines what your brand stands for and creates brand experiences that connect to your customers’ hearts and minds. We do this with the passion and inventiveness that Silicon Valley is famous for.
And we’d love to do this for you.
A CONNECTEDEXPERIENCE.
People today aren’t just buying your products or services. They’re also buying the experience your brand delivers. They’re looking for meaning. They’re looking for values. They’re looking for the truth behind your brand. Because customers today aren’t just customers, they’re co-believers.
So it is vital that your customer experiences your brand as intentionally and consistently as possible so that they know what your brand is going to deliver each and every time.
PRODUCT ONLINE
SERVICE
SOCIALSTORE
COMMS
PEOPLE
CALL CENTER
BRAND
BRAND LAUNCH
REBRAND
BRAND EXPERIENCE ALIGNMENT PRE-IPO BRANDING
BRAND CULTURE
DIGITAL FIRST
Introducing a new product or service, an entirely new company, or extending an existing brand? Liquid can help you plan and design a comprehensive approach to introducing a new brand to current or new customers while delivering a memorable and compelling brand experience.
Integrating after a merger or acquisition? Repositioning to stay competitive? There are many reasons to consider rebranding to stay relevant. Liquid’s strategic approach ensures that the creative expression will reverberate throughout your business, inspiring employees, customers, and shareholders for years to come.
Challenged in creating a coherent brand experience for your customers across the ever increasing touchpoints? Liquid can align your brand strategy and touchpoints, so that you can strengthen the bond between your brand and customers.
Are you an early- or late-stage company that can benefit from an investment in brand building? That’s w hy we developed Liquid Express specifically to address the needs of emerging companies to leverage brand experience to build differentiation, and late-stage companies looking to maximize their IPO event.
Do your employees understand and embrace the importance of your brand and how it translates to them individually and collectively? Liquid designs strategies and engagement programs so that employees can deliver on a brand’s promise and create an authentic experience for your customers.
Is the primary way people interact with your business through a digital experience? Liquid can help you design your digital first experience to ensure that you are creating an authentic and differentiated brand that will create fans out of your customers.
BRAND-BASEDSOLUTIONS.
OURSERVICES.
BRAND STRATEGY
BRAND DESIGN EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Research, trends & insights
Brand definition
Brand architecture & nomenclature
Messaging & story
DIGITAL
Websites & mobile
Content strategy
User experience design
Video & motion graphics
Naming
Brand identity
Visual style
Guidelines
RETAIL
Shopper marketing
Retail environments
Interactive demos
Packaging & out-of-box experience
CULTURE
Organization & cultural alignment
Employee communications
Employee engagement
Brand & business integration
Experience benchmarking
Customer journey design
Touchpoint design
Brand experience prototyping & testing
Regardless of what we’re doing for our clients, we approach our work with the goal of creating a connected brand experience. Because that’s how you build an authentic brand that people believe in.
LIQUIDOFFICES. PORTLAND
NEW YORK
SILICON VALLEYest. 2000
We got our start in a place widely considered the
epicenter of innovation, and have grown from there.
OUR APPROACHTO SOLVING PROBLEMS.
While our approach is rooted in design thinking, it is inspired by our experience working with some of the most innovative companies on the planet. In the process, we’ve learned how to embrace collaboration, challenge conventions, and invent new ways of doing things. We call this Silicon Valley Thinking.
Collaboration extends beyond the confines of our offices and staff.
Our clients are crucial collaborators and co-creators. We prefer to share ideas and shape solutions together instead of presenting concepts and seeking approval. We’ve structured our staffing model and our process to encourage the kind of relationships that bridge the client/agency divide.
1INFORM
23
4HYPOTHESIZE VALIDATE
PROTOTYPE
COMPLETE?
N Y
A NEW SETOF TOOLS. We’ve crafted a new set of tools and processes designed to make Silicon Valley Thinking more than a concept, but an actionable plan.
ACTIVE INTEGRATION
Organize our agency across specific practice areas supported by multidisciplinary teams, all of whom work in a truly integrated manner.
AGILE STRATEGY
Develop strategic frameworks with the flexibility to adjust on the go— while exploring creative execution in parallel mode.
BRAIN SWARMING
A method for attacking a problem from a number of angles at once, by tapping the talents of a wide range of disciplines, unleashing the power of simultaneous collaboration.
IMMERSIVE COLLABORATION
Work side-by-side with our clients to explore possibilities, develop and evaluating ideas, and solving challenges together.
RAPID PROTOTYPING
Build quick models, allowing us to test hypotheses, evaluate ideas, and make better decisions through an iterative process.
OUR CLIENT EXPERIENCE.
OUR WORK.
HP SPROUT
Liquid was asked to help HP introduce their most innovative product in years—the HP Sprout. The challenge included getting people excited about a computing category they had never seen satisfying needs they’d never before considered. We designed an omnichannel retail strategy and crafted a cohesive retail brand experience that integrates the online and offline customer journey.
RETAIL CAMPAIGN
our retail strategists developed a consumer journey map—taking into consideration an omni-channel approach that included a wide variety of online and offline touch points. All of this informed the design direction we would apply to all of the retail materials influencing purchase behaviors.
We began with a deep dive into the product demos and an audience definition exercise, from which we learned that this product would cut across traditional demographic models and appeal to a segment that blurred the lines between a prosumer, a DYI persona, and a tech enthusiast. In parallel,
Naming a product is a difficult task. But, if you start with the brand, it makes it a little easier. In this case we focused on a name that suggested “fixing” the negative effects of alcohol through a cocktail fortifier that adds healthy ingredients to familiar cocktails. And that’s how we landed on Ficks. Once we made sure that we could register the name, we started developing the brand identity. Liquid explored a variety of alternative directions, and settled on a style inspired by the apothecary tradition of the turn of the century, since it connected teh brand with the artisanal cocktail movement.
The retail merchandising system needed to take into account a variety of retail environments, including a scalable solution for Best Buy stores and stand-alone kiosks for airports and malls. We carefully incorporated the colorful patterns created by 180LA onto the reclaimed aesthetic of the merchandising fixtures, and arrived at a solution that is earthy and organic, as well as modern and dynamic. Suggestive of workbenches, the fixtures are an eclectic mix of modern and earthy, while the legs were inspired by the HP Sprout industrial design, and feature HP’s signature blue color.
A key element of the communications strategy involved developing a series of videos enabling consumers to better understand the benefits of the new technology. The attract loop featured 6 different usage models that showcased the HP Sprout being used by a variety of creative professionals; in educational scenarios; and in home settings. And by simply touching the product anywhere, the consumer is invited to engage in a demo session which allowed them to design something, to save, and keep or share.
We designed a mobile retail experience used at venues across the country including, music events, sports games, conferences and tradeshows, and for special retail events. We also created a set of colorful paper butterflies using the patterns from the visual style to be used at retail demos. The wings could be bent at different angles, making the butterflies look as if they were flying. The experience made it easy for people to share their creation through social media which extends and amplifies the impact of the experience, introducing the HP Sprout to audiences outside of the retail environment.
Due to the production lead time and the supply chain requirements, one of the very first items we needed to produce was the packaging. Given the size of the product and the number of components, the HP Sprout box is fairly large, so we used the front and back as “billboards”, showcasing the unique touch mat technology and the ability to scan and manipulate physical objects. We also worked on the unboxing experience, focusing our efforts on creating customer delight by making it simple, friendly and interesting.
Besides all of the physical retail touch points, Liquid was also asked to deliver a website experience. Starting with a “mobile first” philosophy, we created a fully adaptive solution that works just as well on phones, tablets or desktops. Of course the website includes the requisite specs and pics—but it also features video testimonials from people who use the technology in a variety of professional, creative, educational or domestic applications. The website experience was successful beyond expectations, surprising most of us in terms of the amount of traffic and the number of sales it generated.
ARUBA NETWORKS
Aruba Networks built a global reputation providing smart, powerful mobile networks with a customer-centered approach. But by the fall of 2013, the company’s brand no longer fully reflected its business proposition. More than hardware-based networks, Aruba offers integrated, software-enabled solutions to optimize mobile network capability. For end users—from doctors accessing electronic health records for patients in distress, to football fans using smartphones to find the shortest line for hot dogs—that meant more seamless mobile experiences with optimal efficiency, security, and control. To articulate this story internally and share it with the world, Aruba turned to Liquid to guide a comprehensive company rebrand and new messaging strategy.
BRAND IDENTITY SYSTEM
Our process started with getting to know Aruba—the business as well as the people we were working with. We heard from key company stakeholders, and interviewed customers and industry analysts to understand the company’s core strengths and the unique position it could own in the market. What we found is that Aruba helps people access and share information—which, in today’s mobile, information-based economy and culture, means giving them power to do just about anything. Even more specifically, Aruba excels at providing integrated, customized technology that lets users get the information they need easily and seamlessly, on virtually any platform or device. And it gives companies opportunities to save time and money on a primary and ever-expanding cost center, IT.
“ Aruba has a small company mentality so it has always been easy to get access to the brightest minds when I need them. As they continue to grow, they need to keep this small company feel. There’s a strong aspect of humanness to how they engage with their customers.” Customer
“ Our positioning should be something like, the company that cared – that reached out… our promise has to be around innovation for engineers.” Internal
One of the most appealing attributes of Aruba’s technology is that, to the end user, its presence is imperceptible. Martha Bowman, Director of Brand Strategy at Liquid, defined Aruba’s brand position as “the ‘hidden ingredient’ in a better mobile network experience.” So, our challenge lay in how to express a brand that stands for something that is, in its essence, at once boundless and ineffable. Ultimately we landed on the the idea of intelligent mobility and active human possibility, as represented in the tagline: “People Move. Networks Must Follow.” At the center of this vast web of mobile connections—or more accurately, at infinite points of convergence—is Aruba. Positioning the brand as “the nexus of intelligent mobility,” we created awareness both of Aruba’s status as a thought leader in the enterprise mobility industry, and to the company’s history as an early pioneer in the mobile network space.
In keeping with our Silicon Valley Thinking philosophy, Liquid developed initial concepts for visual identity and messaging in tandem with developing the brand platform—an approach that helped us meet an aggressive six-month timeline, driven by the launch of Aruba’s Mobile Generation of products at the Atmosphere conference in March 2014. Building on the themes of interconnectedness and mobility, we created a new logotype for Aruba in which the five letters in the brand name suggest a series of links in a chain. The flowing lowercase letter-forms evoke Aruba’s newly defined brand expression attributes: liberating, intelligent, and empathetic.
THE LOGO / BEFORE AND AFTER
Another essential element of Aruba’s new visual style is a graphic element, nicknamed “Mobility Rules,” which consists of a simple, variable pattern of converging lines. Rendered in colors from Aruba’s new palette (orange, gray, and seven secondary hues), the Mobility Rules are used to connect images to imaginary points outside the frame, expressing a sense of limitless movement and connectivity.
We also developed a robust set of tools and guidelines to enable Aruba’s marketing teams to implement the new brand identity in any context. A 70-page Aruba Brand Guide provides specifications for using color, type, graphics, and photography, and is accompanied with templates for business cards, letterhead, and print collateral. Our work even extended to solving some some nitty-gritty implementation challenges. For instance, we devised custom digital photo filters that enable Aruba’s creative staff to give stock photographs a look consistent with the company’s new visual identity.
Foreshadowing a complete website redesign we’ll carry out later this year, we refreshed the look of key pages of Aruba’s existing website, and created a flexible content elements (FCE) template for Aruba’s internal web designer to use in refreshing the rest of the site. We also created a series of “Arubicons,” graphic icons representing Aruba’s core services, formatted as characters in a web font to enable easier input and quicker page load time, as compared to standard PNGs or GIFs.
The first phase of our work with Aruba focused on developing a new brand identity and associated deliverables to support the internal and external launch of the rebrand in Spring 2014. With this phase completed, Liquid is continuing to work with Aruba on the website overhaul and a global launch of the new brand. As to the prospects ahead, we couldn’t agree more with Aruba Chief Marketing Officer Ben Gibson, our new favorite client, who recently wrote to us, “The best part is, we’re just getting started!”
“ Liquid provided the perfect blend of creativity, partnership, flexibility and fun. Just what we needed to think big and hit the right note.”
Ben Gibson CEO of Aruba Networks
PAYPAL
PayPal revolutionized the nascent world of e-commerce in the early 2000s. Through different phases in its evolution—changes in leadership, ownership, technology, and the competitive landscape—PayPal has continued to revolutionize financial transactions. Focusing on mobile payment and point of sale business solutions, PayPal asked Liquid to co-create a clean, elegant, and informative microsite for its PayPal Here app and services—making millions of small business owners very happy.
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
In our increasingly wireless society, business owners and merchants need to accept payments anywhere—not just online or in-store, but at special events, meetings, and on the street. And while cash can still be useful, we make most of our day-to-day transactions with credit cards, debit cards, checks, and digital payments (think PayPal and online banking). Thanks to pioneers like PayPal, businesses rely on evolving technologies to fulfill banking needs, manage information, and collect payment easily. But a successful transaction can provide far more efficiency and ease. It’s an essential touchpoint in a brand’s relationship with customers.
“ PayPal’s head start (in the field of online commerce) has enabled it to create a greater variety of payment options than other companies offer,” writes Jeff Himmelman in the New York Times. It doesn’t just link to a credit card. It’s set up more like a bank: through it, you can make payments with any of your credit cards or a debit card, have the amount withdrawn directly from your checking account or even finance the purchase through a line of credit with PayPal itself. And for up to a week after you’ve made a purchase, you can choose how you want to pay for it.”
Jeff HimmelmanNew York Times
We designed a best-in-class, modern microsite for PayPal Here, the new financial management and mobile payment app. Liquid worked closely with PayPal on brand development and created an online presence that has led to millions of app downloads. The site’s user interface is as smooth and seamless as the Yves Béhar-designed hardware accessory used by PayPal Here for credit card swiping. Business owners and consumers are treated to an environment that feels fast and clutter-free—while clearly being offered a variety of choices for their needs.
At Liquid, we are very interested in what happens at the intersection of retail, brands, technology, and customers—an important nexus of brand experience. So we are excited to work with PayPal on the PayPal Here initiatives. Companies are using this technology to positively enhance the transaction experience for both customer and retailer—not only increasing their relevance and competitiveness in the marketplace, but also building deeper relationships between brand and consumer. Ultimately we believe that deeper relationships lead to loyalty and preference over time and that translates into more sales.
MYND
Over 5,000 calendaring-related apps crowd the App Store. Alminder knew that their underlying concepts and engineering abilities were top notch, but they needed to stand out from the crowd. The management team at Alminder invited Liquid to collaborate on more engaging and effective brand experience. Together, we worked across a variety of critical touchpoints—from identity to user interface and beyond. Together, we developed an app and a brand that quickly garnered praise from Fast Company, C|Net, and Wired. Together, we created MYND.
MOBILE BRAND EXPERIENCE
Liquid didn’t just apply a visual style update over Alminder’s prototype. Instead, the agency worked with the developer on all levels, “starting from the ground up,” says Max Wheeler, Alminder’s CEO. The client looked to Liquid for “a whole solution that included the brand, our position within a market, and a very attractive, well thought out UI and interaction model that actually worked. That’s where the varied skills within Liquid came into play. Liquid was able to give us everything, building on the brand and identity with every level of the UI and the UX. It made a cohesive whole.”
Liquid did a deep dive on the competitive landscape, leveraging the aggressive nature of the space to the brand’s advantage. The value proposition for the brand, we concluded, was to empower the customer in their entire experience rather than one, single feature. Together with Alminder, we agreed on a set of key features that would make the app revolutionary. We also agreed that when you first encounter the brand it should immediately come across as different from other calendars. MYND’s unique, soothing color scheme emerged from these concepts—along with an innovative “home screen.” Right from the start, the app engages the user in an informative yet emotional way not seen in other productivity software.
Applying our agile Silicon Valley Thinking process, we shared knowledge and ideas every step of the way. Product prototyping helped define the brand experience, and we shared app names early on, while still shaping the brand strategy. The collaboration took on its own energy and initiative, Max observes. “The interaction got faster and faster and the productivity was really quite impressive…we were all on that same team and had the same goals, and it shows in the product. It really does.”
The final product has impressed users and reviewers alike. “The home screen completely re-imagines what a calendar can look like,” Fast Company enthuses. C|Net calls MYND “an intelligent time portal.” With the headline “Four Design Lessons From MYND, a Slick New Calendar App and Virtual Assistant,” Wired praises the app’s inventive approach to planning your day and understanding how you use your time. Users have reacted passionately to the launch as well, enthusiastically jumping into discussions with accolades and ideas.
“Mynd does more than any calendar before it.”Joseph FlahertyWriter, Wired
“Mynd does more than any calendar before it.”Joseph FlahertyWriter, Wired
“Mynd does more than any calendar before it.”Joseph FlahertyWriter, Wired
“Mynd does more than any calendar before it.”Joseph FlahertyWriter, Wired
“Mynd does more than any calendar before it.”Joseph FlahertyWriter, Wired “Mynd re-imagines
what a calendar can look like."
Mark WilsonWriter, Fast Company
“Mynd is an intelligent time portal”Dan FarberEditor in Chief, CNET
“ We would love to continue partnering with Liquid on the visuals, the UI/UX, and exploring new areas of innovation. It’s been a very successful partnership.”
Max Wheeler
CEO of Alminder
In the case of the HP Chromebook 11 we created a packaging solution that is elegant and innovative, and has won several important design awards—and the praise of critics for pushing the boundaries of low environmental impact practices. “When the HP Chromebook 11 arrived, I was immediately struck by the packaging,” reports Forbes.com. “There’s a story in it. This box isn’t just for shipping. It also begins a relationship.”
HP CHROMEBOOK 11 PACKAGING
The HP Chromebook 11 is an ultra-minimalist and super affordable laptop designed to give more people access to the internet. We were hired to craft the packaging design for this new product and develop a solution that supported the values of the Chromebook brand, while creating clear differentiation from the competitive landscape. After evaluating what some of the other brands are doing, we felt there was a clear opportunity to do things differently (and better) by focusing on simplicity and minimalism.
As our team started developing ideas, a lot of our thinking was aimed at developing packaging that had less components—simpler and more minimalist—with low environmental impact. We looked at a variety of eco-friendly materials, and we also considered approaches where the packaging was re-usable. Ultimately, the inspiration for the final package came from an everyday experience, when our Chief Creative Officer, Alfredo Muccino, was handed a a humble take–out box after dinner at a local restaurant. Struck by the functional design and the compostable material, Alfredo challenged the team to explore solutions based on the take-out box.
TAKE-OUT BOX
CHROMEBOOK BOX
Working closely with a team of structural packaging designers from Uneka, Liquid suggested that paper pulp could be used to make a material that was remarkably biodegradable yet sturdy enough to protect the laptop. This hypothesis led to a series of experiments that ultimately led to an innovative solution using a tree-free compostable pulp made from rapidly renewable plant fibers. These fibers consist of bamboo and bagasse (a by-product of sugar cane) interwoven together to create a strong pulp material that costs about the same as plastics or paper, yet is much better for the environment.
With its soft feel and rounded edges the packaging solution mirrors the simplicity and design of the product it protects, while he belly band creates a splash of color across the clean white background of the box, indicating the color of the Chromebook inside.
Just like the box exterior, the unboxing experience has been designed to be as simple as possible. The belly band peels off, and the lid lifts to reveal a clean view of the Chromebook, with the basic instructions needed to help people get started as quickly as possible.
JAMES BRUCE
MAKEUSEOF
Packaged in a
beautifully rounded
box with simple blue
ribbon that hints at the
Google partnership, it
certainly doesn’t feel
cheap. The box alone
begs to be fondled.
WINNER OF MULTIPLE AWARDS
FOR DESIGN EXCELLENCE
GRAPHIS DESIGN ANNUAL
AIGA JUSTIFIED
IDEA
ADDYS
THE HUB PRIZE
JEEP
Jeep needed a brand architecture encompassing all its brand extensions—one that could capture the diversity of its storied brand and guide product development from apparel to consumer electronics. Working closely with The Licensing Company, we identified four distinct sub-brands, each aimed at a different market segment. As the strategy evolved, we developed prototypes to better inform our decisions. This process helped us arrive at comprehensive visual styles, as well as templates for packaging systems, detailed guidelines, and inspiration books—all of which provided a clear vision for unique brand experiences.
BRAND EXTENSION
Brand architecture establishes sub-brand relationships within a single overarching brand. Developing this structure helps companies respond to competitive realities of the marketplace and use audience segmentation to advantage. We started by researching Jeep’s heritage and brand promise. We concluded that embedded in more than half a century of American culture, the Jeep brand is recognized the world as an important maker of all-terrain vehicles. Since 1941, the Jeep brand has symbolized freedom, adventure, and a passion for the great outdoors. From these insights we developed a brand aspect model and created sub-brands that are tightly connected to the master brand—yet relevant to a wide range of audiences.
The Jeep Basic brand leverages the current Jeep logo and introduces a new color palette based on the color yellow. Yellow was carefully selected as a complementary color to the traditional Jeep green. Yellow suggests industrial strength and functionality (which is an important association for Jeep), and it evokes the sunshine that comes with the great outdoors. The rest of the design language centers on the concept of simplicity and purposefulness, combined with imagery that captures the beauty andruggedness of outdoor adventures.
The Jeep Spirit sub-brand extension appeals to a younger audience that enjoys the outdoors, but may not necessarily seek the thrill of adventure. This audience is fashion-conscious and has a nostalgic connection with Jeep’s proudly American heritage. The broad portfolio of outdoor-inspired fashion apparel and accessories offers many marks, each of which carries a vintage feel, reminding us of Jeep’s rich heritage and authenticity.
JXP is the brand for Jeep’s extreme performance products. This extension targets adventurous outdoor enthusiasts that aggressively seek out extreme outdoor challenges. JXP—or Jeep Extreme Performance—features high-performance products, including technically sophisticated equipment and apparel. The visual identity’s highly technical style blends the aesthetics of automotive marks with letterforms that express engineered precision and performance.
Targeting new moms, the J is for Jeep brand features products and clothing designed for children from newborns through toddlers. Inspired by the remarkable fact that Jeep is the only brand used in traditional alphabet books, J is for Jeep connects the love of the great outdoors with youthful stories—adventures where Jeep take fantastic trips across deserts and through jungles. The brand’s products feature playful illustrations of Jeep vehicles along with classic childhood imagery of animals and plants.
We created a set of detailed guidelines for each brand extension to ensure that the intent of the brand experience would be executed consistently across all of the new products.
TUNERFISH
Tunerfish is a new social media app that lets users share what they’re watching on TV with their friends, enabling people to discover new shows and see what’s popular on the tube. Comcast launched Tunerfish as a way to participate actively in the social conversation, and Liquid Agency was hired to develop the new company’s brand identity.
BRAND DEVELOPMENT
After discussing the concept with Tunerfish’s management we agreed that the concept would be best represented by an identity with lots of “personality”. The name lent itself to a brand identity based on a “fish” so we started sketching out a variety of fish-inspired logo designs. One of the things we liked about the “fish” concept is that fish travel in “schools”, and that the idea of a social community where people “follow” others as they navigate through TV programs seem to have some obvious parallels.
The name lent itself to a brand identity based on a “fish” so we started sketching out a variety of fish-inspired logo designs. After exploring many different variations, we finally settled on a design that is simple and clean, yet also friendly and playful. According to our client, the Tunerfish character is downright quirky—and that’s exactly what he had hoped for. However, the real breakthrough came when we decided to “dress up” the little “Tunerfish” in clothes that represented the types of shows that someone might be watching. The new identity accomplishes the client need to create a friendly brand but with attitude, but that especially showed its true personality.
Besides the way it looks, the quirky personality of the brand comes through Tunerfish’s use of language. For example, at the bottom of a web page, the Tunerfish logo will make cameo appearances in a variety of disguises, adding a humorous touch to the brand—such as the version that holds onto a martini glass while introducing himself by adapting a famous line from the 007 movies: “The name is Pond. James Pond”. We also love the way that the website proudly recognizes the Silicon Valley provenance of the brand by saying “Hatched in Mountain View, California”.
The name is Pond. James Pond.
The Tunerfish iPhone app extends the brand’s personality and visual style to mobile users. We are particularly fond of the award icons, and one of our favorites is the “Trubie” —which is an award that you receive for checking in while watching the premiere of True Blood.
When we designed the identity for this brand we treated it as a character from a TV show, and we enjoyed exploring the different ways that the identity could be executed on items that ranged from t-shirts to water bottles. However, our favorite application was the Tunerfish “plushie”. When our designers started working on this they imagined holding an oversized one while sitting in front of the TV watching one of their favorite shows. There aren’t many logos you’d want to cuddle with, but Tunerfish is definitely one of them.
We’re happy to report that we’re not the only ones that like the Tunerfish logo. In fact, the Tunerfish identity was awarded a Silver ADDY at the 2011 Bay Area regional competition, recognition from the 2011 HOW Logo Design Awards, and appeared in several publications like Designing Brand Identity and LogoLounge Book 7. The identity development was driven from our office in San Jose, but became the result of a collaborative effort with MagiaLiquid, our partner in Santiago, Chile—so we’d like to thank them for their contribution to this very successful branding assignment.
FICKS COCKTAIL FORTIFIER
We don’t usually take on college students as clients. But when our CEO, Scott Gardner got a call from three Santa Clara University undergrads wanting to bring a new beverage product to market, Gardner couldn’t refuse. We offered the students the opportunity to participate in Liquid Express, our streamlined brand development solution for start-ups. The result of the collaboration is Ficks, a first-in-its-category cocktail fortifier that’s hitting the shelves of bars, restaurants, and retailers across the US.
CATEGORY DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH FINDINGS:
CATEGORY:
COCKTAIL FORTIFIER
THE MIXER CATEGORY IS SATURATED.
WE’RE IN A COCKTAIL REVOLUTION.
HANGOVER REMEDIES ARE GIMMICKS.
YOUR HEALTH IS IMPORTANT.
At the start, the students were simply looking for a better way to balance two basic aspects of college life: partying and studying. Eventually this lead them to invent a non-alcoholic cocktail mixer containing familiar flavorings plus a proprietary blend of health-enhancing nutrients that counteract the negative effects of alcohol. In order to evaluate the best strategic approach, we conducted some market research and our findings indicated that positioning the product as a “hangover remedy” would not be the smartest way to introduce the product. That’s when we suggested that disrupting the market by creating a new category would help break through the clutter and shine a light on the product.
NEW!
Naming a product is a difficult task. In this case we landed on Ficks because the name literally suggests “fixing” the negative effects of alcohol. Once we made sure that we could register the name, we started developing the brand identity. Liquid explored a variety of directions, settling on a style inspired by the apothecary traditions of the turn of the century, since it connected the brand with the artisanal cocktail movement that shares many of the same aesthetics.
Arriving at the final brand identity, included not just deep exploration of the logo, but a comprehensive approach that included evaluating a wide variety of bottles, ultimately selecting the distinctive amber bottles in which the product is currently packaged—a nod to the medicinal vessels prevalent in traditional apothecary shops.
Besides developing the brand strategy, the name, the brand identity and the packaging, Liquid also designed a site that enables bar owners and retailers to learn more about Ficks and request trial samples, while consumers can place orders for the products through Amazon.
The end result is a branding solution that has helped Ficks get plenty of attention and immediate credibility in the industry—as well as quite a few awards, including an ADDY for the logo and a number of packaging design awards. But, most importantly, the students are now budding entrepreneurs who have taken Ficks into full production mode. Bottles are starting to show up in bars and restaurants, through online retailers and in brick-and-mortar retailers across the country. Ficks is still a small company, but we’re happy to have helped this idea come to life and look forward to seeing what they will be doing next.
RON ALVARADO
CEO, FICKS
We are thrilled
Liquid took us under
their wing and
helped launch our
brand. We could
not have done this
without their help
and guidance.
VIVITI
The disk drive division of Hitachi decided to create a whole new brand to influence a younger and more tech savvy audience. The new brand was named Viviti, and Hitachi hired Liquid to play an integral role in helping evolve its visual language.
BRAND IDENTITY
VIVITI MAGENTA PMS 233 C12 M100 Y0 K0 R197 G0 B132 HEX c50084
WHITE C0 M0 Y0 K0 R255 G255 B255 HEX 000000
BLACK C0 M0 Y0 K100 R0 G0 B0 HEX ffffff
By the time Liquid got involved, Hitachi had already decided on a new logo and some graphic elements. The new logo incorporated a set of converging graphic lines, designed to suggest that Viviti was the destination for valuable digital content. The graphic element that had been designed prior to our involvement proved to be challenging to implement, so we simplified it but retained the energy of the original information. In an effort to evolve the visual system, Liquid proposed fresh new ways to incorporate the kinetic pulse graphic with photography in ways that allowed Viviti to leverage stock photos and create unique and differentiated branded images.
The original identity system was supposed to be in black and white, but that solution proved to lack visual impact, so Liquid suggested bright magenta as the primary color. This helped create a strong visual association for Viviti and reinforced the youthful energy of the brand.
In a world where many of the opportunities for communication happen in a digital platform, brands need to develop identities that take advantage of motion graphics. Liquid created a dynamic animated version of the logo that could be used in a variety of applications.
The visual language was extended to many different types of deliverables, including a packaging design system and the marketing literature used to promote the products.
To introduce the brand to employees and partners, Liquid created a short video that captured the essential qualities of the brand and helped position Viviti as young, fun and contemporary.
WINDOWS 8
Windows 8 was a huge step for Microsoft. It was by far the most significant evolution of the Windows operating system since 1995. After considering other firms, Microsoft selected Liquid Agency to manage the worldwide retail product launch—including the design and production of all the marketing and branding assets. We are happy to report that we pulled off this massive undertaking without a hitch. Yes, the schedules were crazy, but working with the Microsoft team was a total pleasure—all the way to the launch.
RETAIL BRANDING
A launch of this magnitude demands intimate knowledge of not only where the brand stands today, but also where it’s been and where it’s going. Fortunately, a few years earlier, our team had worked intimately with Microsoft’s Central Marketing Group to determine the new Microsoft brand personality traits and brand attributes. At the time, we felt strongly that the brand needed to become more human, and the CMG team agreed. In a series of collaborative working sessions we pinned ideas on walls together, ripped them down, and pinned up new ones until we identified the attributes and traits that have been driving the brand in new directions.
Our retail strategists and designers created a model of the shopping experience and developed messaging and tools that provide the customer with the best possible experience every step along the way in their purchasing path.
It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the consumer decision making process—knowing what they are doing at each stage of their journey—and giving them what they need. The only way a consumer goes home with the PC, tablet, or phone that’s right for them is if the information system at retail is easily navigated and understood.
We started crafting the strategic messaging platform for the campaign while simultaneously exploring creative executions in a parallel process that allowed us to quickly evaluate potential directions with our client and make speedy decisions. This agile approach is based on our Silicon Valley Thinking philosophy, which advocates rapid prototyping of strategic ideas and a high degree of collaboration with our clients.
As we developed the creative approach for the launch materials we leveraged lifestyle photography that is approachable, warm, and authentic; a color palette that is bold and spirited; and copy that is confident, supportive and helpful. Just like the brand.
The revolutionary tile interface of Windows 8 is what sets it apart from any other operating system. So, we made it one of the centerpieces of the campaign, featuring it prominently in many of the marketing tools. From the moment the customer walks into the store, we guide them through the shopping experience with clear messages, bold colors, energetic imagery and a clean, modern style that is perfectly on brand.
Windows 8 is here.
Make it yours.Put the people and things that matter most right on your Start screen.
The assignment included the development of permanent merchandising solutions for a variety of retail environments, including stores that only featured phones and retailers where we could position Windows 8 as an ideal operating system across desktop, tablets and mobile devices.
As one of the final components, we developed a tool kit of marketing assets that could be used by retailers worldwide to create highly customized point of purchase merchandising assets with ease and flexibility—while also maintaining a thread of consistency that would protect the brand in geographies across the globe.
40MM+
We were happy to hear Microsoft report that 40 million Windows 8 licenses were sold during its first month of availability. It is gratifying to have played a role bringing such an innovative product to the world—and we wish Microsoft the best in its quest to improve the way that people use PCs, tablets and phones.
WALMART
Healthier employees are better employees. Not only are they more reliable and productive, they are happier. It’s wonderful for the employees and their families—and it increases the company’s bottom line. That’s why Walmart hired Liquid to create a cultural paradigm shift among its employees—known as “associates”—encouraging them to lead healthier and happier lives. Walmart’s workforce includes over 1.4 million associates, making the task both daunting and extremely exciting. We’re thrilled to help transform the world’s largest private workforce and to work with the Walmart team.
CULTURE CHANGING PROGRAMS
In the spirit of Silicon Valley Thinking, Liquid worked closely and collaboratively with Walmart’s executive leadership to quickly identify key challenges and opportunities. Through research, Liquid found that the science of wellbeing rests on a combination of five pillars: Physical, Financial, Emotional, Career, and Community. Liquid proposed a long-term strategy that leveraged the wellbeing model and anchored it to Walmart’s core purpose and brand. This would come to be known as “LiveBetter.”
Friendship.Spread the word!
Ride to work.
Park and walk.
From the very beginning we advocated that LiveBetter needed to be more than an internal marketing campaign—so we designed it as a movement. The LiveBetter movement is based on the fundamental principle that Walmart enables its associates to live better through its programs, tools, and resources. Walmart’s offerings empower associates to take ownership of their wellbeing. The associates themselves step forward to take advantage of these offerings and challenge others to make positive changes that lead to happier lives. And this is good for everyone. Happy associates equal happy customers.
To build awareness we created a simplewordmark, a tagline, a visual style, and a photographic library using real Walmart associates. And, we visited associates around the country, shooting video of associates that had already started living better, and we launched an internal campaign to invite others to do the same.
BUILD AWARENESS
Next we encouraged associates to be accountable for the quality of their lives. We accomplished this through a number of initiatives ranging from personalized communications to events designed to influence their behavior.
ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION
The narrative was focused on how one individual has the power to impacta large number of others. We featured associates’ stories on a dedicated website, a story-sharing mobile app, and at events. With each piece of content, we’re creating opportunities to also share through social media channels.
FACILITATE SHARING
Lastly, we’re developing strategies to introduce this concept to externalaudiences through the lens of the associates. We believe that with the LiveBetter program, Walmart has the potential to create a positive impactbeyond its associates.
IMPLEMENT EVERYWHERE
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WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.
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If you’re interested in learning more about Liquid and how we could help you create an amazing brand experience for your customer, please feel free to contact us [email protected]