The Media Development Loan Fund, or MDLF, is a pioneering international nonprofit organization formed in 1995 by Sasa Vucinic and the late Stuart Auerbach with seed money from George Soros' Open Society Institute. The idea behind MDLF was to create a loan fund for the free press in fledgling democracies. Now celebrating 15 years and nearly 100 million dollars in loans, 200 projects in 24 countries around the globe, MDLF wanted to create a book to commemorate its achievements.
Much has been written and commented about the ongoing BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This story most certainly has a brand lesson. I wonder if the big companies and the agencies that market them are paying attention?
Arakawa Shusaku — July 6, 1936 - May 18, 2010.
It was 1991, and I was fresh from Japan, adrift in New York, and uncertain of my destiny. It was Madeline and Arakawa who found me (especially Madeline). They took me in, fed and nourished me with scraps of wisdom—and curry—from the kingdom of intellectual freedom in which they habitually dwelt.
They surrounded themselves with young minds. They fed us daily from a seemingly endless supply of insight and compassion ... and stories. They respected our thoughts and gave them room to grow.
People and relationships are critical in business to business transactions, and so a strong B2B brand should communicate a sense of personal connection. It should speak to who the key players are and what it will be like to work with them. Great people photography facilitates this tremendously.
In the pre-Gutenberg world, books needed to be written by hand. This meant that in Europe, they were written in Latin so as to be universal. Generally, you could not waste a book on just the German speakers, for example...To quote the famous first words transmitted over the telegraph: “What hath God wrought?” … “Have you any news?”
It has been about a year since we finished re-branding the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI). What is the brand impact of this work?
Last weekend I was reading the Sunday Times and snacking. I was looking at the paper and not my food, which was pecans from a glass jar. As I arrived at the bottom of the jar, I looked down and noticed little cobwebs all around the edges of the glass. Most of the remaining pecans had clearly been munched on already, and not by me.
I came to New York in 1991, arriving with a only one suitcase and a vague plan for an extended visit. After my many years in Japan, New York was a bit of a culture shock.
I make a habit of telling my clients that they only have 5 seconds to convey their keynote brand message. And we work very hard to achieve this so that the website communicates its essential truths immediately and with word and visual expression.
These ads were done back in 2000 for Pantone as they were first expanding into fashion and home.
