What we are thinking about, what we are reading, and what we have learned building brands that hold up.
Relationships & RevenueGood Design Reminder c/o Dieter Rams
Good design is a practice.
14 July 2022
DigitalWhat's obvious to you?
They showed me three things. One of the things they showed me was object-oriented programming.
14 July 2022
Strategic BrandingHow Brands Shape Taste Perception
The Coke and Pepsi challenge. We all remember it.
14 July 2022
TechnologyRise of the Bots: The Basics Of Automated Chat
A chatbot is a computer program that simulates a conversation with a human, usually through text exchanges and with the aim of answering queries.
4 July 2022
TechnologyAll You Need to Know About Chatbots for 2018
A world where robots communicate with people, help them solve their problems, and have vast amounts of knowledge might sound like the thing of science fiction movies.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationAll You Have is Marketing and Innovation. And Innovation Comes Second.
The difficulty with a term that has been used so broadly is the dilution of its meaning.
4 July 2022
TechnologyThe Future of Communication is All About Chit-Chat (Bots)
In this post, we’ll look at his take on innovation. Using the Google ngram viewer, we can see that the term still captures our interest.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingHow to Conduct Your Own Landing Page Audit
All business owners want to know how optimized their landing page is, but it's easy to get bogged down in detail.
4 July 2022
MarketingAll you have is marketing and innovation. In that order.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with what it takes to effectively run a company today.
4 July 2022
Relationships & RevenueArt Fry on the Inventing Mind
I recently attended the Independent Inventor’s Conference at the United States Patent Office located in Alexandria, just outside Washington, D.C.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingThe Personal Side of Naming, Part 1
Working with names and taglines is something we do relatively often with our clients.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingA Korean Genius on Branding
In addition to stopping at every used book table I can find to see what I might stumble upon, I’m also a big fan of old magazines.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationSuccessful Failure
I went to see Rick Valicenti speak the other earlier this month at the Corcoran. In addition, to putting out a show with the energy of a curiously gifted fifth grader, he talked about one thing that I don’t hear about so often – failure.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationWhen Data Drives Knowledge
eter Drucker once remarked that, "What gets measured gets managed". To that, Hans Rosling might reply, "What gets measured, and properly presented, gets managed."
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingThe Personal Side of Naming, Part 2
In the last part of this series, I looked at the question of whether names for products and services should refrain from being too personal...
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingA Korean Genius on Branding
In addition to stopping at every used book table I can find to see what I might stumble upon, I’m also a big fan of old magazines
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingQuick Guide to Business Plans
For a lot of smaller businesses, the business plan can be a source of angst and frustration.
4 July 2022
Relationships & RevenueInspired Times by Milton Glaser
It’s probably not polite to talk about what one gets for presents, but in this case I’m just going to go with the inspiration.
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsThe Business Failure Myth
There is still a generally accepted myth floating around in the entrepreneurial world that 9 out of 10 businesses fail after the first year.
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsDesigning a New Economy
With the GOP’s take over of the House, there has been a lot of talk about how to heal the divide.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingStarbucks: A Brand New Aroma
Poking through the Starbucks website the other day, I came across a link called The Future of Starbucks, which talked about the company's new rebranding campaign slated for release in Spring 2011.
4 July 2022
Relationships & RevenueBeauty, Symmetry & Logo Design
Working in a more visually oriented field, it’s hard not to hear the word “beautiful”.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationManagement as Creative
When talking about creative, especially working in the design field, it is usually pretty clear that most people are not talking about management.
4 July 2022
Relationships & RevenueWhat Do Your Details Look Like?
Having worked for over a decade as an entrepreneur and designer, I have become pretty adept at spotting opportunities for improvement.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingBranding Origins, Part 1
Branding is one of those words which has been bandied about in so many different ways that it often is lost in a kind of haze the covers everything.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingBranding Origins, Part 2
In the last post, we looked at understanding the origin of two terms: "brand" and "branding". In this post, we'll look quickly at how these terms relate to ownership and differentiation.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingWhat is Strategic Design?
"I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.”
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingGraphic Design vs. Branding
Graphic design is a form of visual problem solving that uses color, layout, typography (fonts), illustration and photography to convey information for a client to meet a specific communications objective.
4 July 2022
- Strategic Branding
Decision Making
Often during design projects, we will find out that more “buy in” is needed more for certain pieces than others.
4 July 2022
Strategic BrandingBuilding Brand Value
This past September, I finally got to check off one of my big goals – complete a full ironman...
4 July 2022
- Strategic Branding
How Brands Start
Today’s most compelling brands didn’t start out that way.
4 July 2022
- Innovation & Insights
Jobs OS
I stopped reading the daily news a while ago, so it’s no surprise that I heard about Jobs’ passing from someone else.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationJobs OS II
I recently came across an insightful piece while flipping through the 1980’s book In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr.
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsRethinking How You See
As someone who has been wearing glasses for the better part of his adult life, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a new company called Warby Parker...
4 July 2022
Relationships & RevenueStarbucks: Onward (Review)
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to take a small local coffee chain of 11 stores and expand it to over 17,000 stores...
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsSpace For Inspiration
Last month, we celebrated a unique milestone in the opening of the world’s first commercial space terminal - yes, a place for spaceships.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationDangers of Intuition
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, he writes about “thin-slicing”, which he describes as an ability to make very quick “snap” decisions without a lot of detailed information.
4 July 2022
Organizational TransformationPatagonia Saying Less
I And saying it pretty well. Patagonia, the quirky and well-loved company founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1972...
4 July 2022
DigitalThis is Off The Shelf
I recently came across these two packages for a new line of chocolate by Trader Joe’s and before I knew it both of them ended up in my basket.
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsPractically Radical (Review)
Bill Taylor's book Practically Radical offers insights into how organizations tick.
4 July 2022
Innovation & InsightsDesigning History
Came across this great infographic video on the the history of the iPhone on CNET UK.
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsYour Organization's Long Now
I saw Brian Eno on the Colbert the other day and it got me thinking again of The Long Now Foundation (actually named by Brian Eno) and its main project these days the 10,000 Year Clock.
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsDesigned to Play
In coming across these images (Skate, Slide), the first thing I did was smile.
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingLogo Evolution
Since we had the pleasure of doing the logo and branding work for the RFK Stadium 50th Anniversary campaign, we all have been looking a lot more at what’s been happening in sports branding.
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsThe Real Power of Innovation
I came across a 2004 article (need login to read full) by Michael Schrage in Technology Review and it’s a nice reconfirmation of the real power of innovation...
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsAmazon, Space and the Long Now
A great article by Wired on Jeff Bezos' sometimes counter-intuitive approach at Amazon, his passion for making space travel accessible, and his belief that we'd approach the world a lot differently if we expanded our time frames.
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationCreating Trust
I came across this UK program called the Creators Trust via It’s Nice That and I really like the idea of a large collaborative where people...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationIf I Had 10,000 Hours
If I Had 10,000 Hours. While I don’t think the Barenaked Ladies will be remaking their classic sing-along hit “If I had a million dollars” song anytime soon...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationThe Power of Great Photography
I came across some really wonderful photography of the LeMan's Classic 2010 by Laurent Nivallewho has been the artistic director...
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhat is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is certainly a part of what we do at Diligent Rocket. This quick video from the UK Design Council helps gives some clarification about an area of work many people don’t really understand in its full meaning...
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingProblem with Passive Design
I’ve been reading Philip Ball’s Critical Mass, which is a fascinating read on the bridging of physics and sociology into a kind of social physics...
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsEntrepreneurial Obscurity
I came across an interesting article on PSFKquoting Peter Rojas, the co-founder of gdgt.comand the creator of Engadget, Gizmodo, Joystiq, and RCRD LBL...
28 June 2022
Poking Life
I watched Steve Jobs – One Last Thing last night (one of the newly found bonuses of being an Amazon Prime member is free streaming) and came across a quote I had never heard before...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationWhat Itō Jakuchū teaches us about creativity
I was fortunate to catch the Itō Jakuchū exhibit Colorful Realm of Living Beings at the National Gallery of Art the other day...
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingBranding in Action
I was recently in a well-known global clothing retailer the other week with family. I’d been in the shop countless of times before...
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsDeath by Perfection
I just finished Bill Buxton’s book Sketching User Experience: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationOrganizational transformation Of Organizations and Men
Seth Godin wrote an interesting piece yesterday called, Who let this guy in the building?” Using a couple of negative front-line consumer experiences as examples...
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhat's your brand accumulating?
On paper organizations can be easily segmented and compartmentalized into seemingly static groups of people, processes, systems, products and services...
28 June 2022
DigitalMaking Yahoo! Relevant
With ex-Google exec Marissa Mayer taking the helm at Yahoo!, it will be interesting to see what her five year $129 million dollar package brings...
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsWhy There Are So Few Apples
I caught an interesting video panel put on by Fortune Brainstorm Tech called “The Future of Apple”...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationBecoming a 250 Year Old Company
I noticed the founding year on the bottom of my Villeroy & Boch NewWave cup the other day and it got me thinking...
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsEntrepreneurship in DC
I spent a great evening with fellow entrepreneurs at yesterday’s Tech Cocktail event in DC...
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingOff the Book Logo Design
PBS, as part of its Off Book web-original series, posted a nice piece on the history of logo design and its impact on visual culture...
28 June 2022
Organizational Transformation10 Signs You're an Entrepreneur
There are a number of characteristics that define entrepreneurs.
28 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueWhen Marketing Doesn't Matter
I often hear a lot about how much marketing is needed for a project and the necessity of building a strong strategic communications...
28 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueOlympic User Experience
There was a lot of hype with this Olympics that more live content was going to be available online...
28 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueViral Design
Most of us have heard the term “going viral” when talking about something that has quickly spread from one person to another...
28 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueShould Great Service Include Nice?
I’ve been noticing an interesting trend recently. Service that appears to be better actually isn’t.
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhen Small is Big
Steve Heller put up a nice post on a beautiful little book by Dominik Imseng called Think Small...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationThree Startup Lessons from Curiosity
Aside from all that Curiosity will be able to teach us about the Red Planet during its two-year mission (and the fact that this gets us one step closer to a future of space travel!)
28 June 2022
Relationships & RevenuePixar on Lamps That Tell Stories
In 1986, John Lasseter wrote, directed, and produced (with Bill Reeves) Luxo Jr., a two-minute short film about two lamps and a ball...
28 June 2022
Organizational TransformationAn Awesome Tip
Would you leave a $500 tip for a pizza? Aaron would. And while I don’t know Aaron, I’m glad that NPR took a minute to tell me about him the other day.
28 June 2022
TechnologyProductivity-101
Amit Agarwal, the personal technology columnist at WSJ India, and author and founder of the how-to blog Digital Inspiration, put together a great list of of the 101 most useful websites.
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingCreating Brand Reach
The instructions say to use about 18 inches of floss each time. I was using about using about four feet.
28 June 2022
Strategic BrandingUnderstanding Brand Equity
B rand equity or “brand value” is the additional value ascribed to a company based on its ability to charge more based on positive brand perception by consumers.
28 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsLessons from the Cardboard Bicycle
Having bought and sold a number of bicycles over the last couple of years, I always wondered why there wasn’t a $100 bicycle.
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsIdeas Out of Thin Air
Riffing off yesterday’s post, I came across this article via Design Boom about a car that runs on compressed air instead of alternative fuels like compressed hydrogen or natural gas.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationHow to Know What You Don't Know
When you look at the things that didn’t go how you had hoped, it’s usually not because of the reason that you’d been planning for all along.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueArt, Architecture & Landscape
I visited the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland this past weekend and was treated to stimulating blend of what the museum calls its mix of art, architecture and landscape.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingBranding Honesty
National Honesty Index from National Honesty Index on Vimeo.
27 June 2022
The Point of Retail
I was in a surf shop the other day to rent a board down in Virginia Beach. There were a number of shops, so I stopped in to the first one that I came across.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingPolicing Design
came across this website for the Milwaukee Police Department and thought it was a refreshing to see a design that so adequately reflected the value of a city service.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationSeeing is Not Vision
Very few organizations get started because the founders wanted to do something like the next guy.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingHow Brands Decline
I’ve been thinking a lot about Apple lately. Unfortunately, it’s not in the way I’m
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingInvisible Taglines
I was walking through my neighborhood the other day and came across a sign for a local construction company
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingFraming Projects Within Indisputable Vision
With the new year here, you probably have a whole hatful of ideas and projects that you think will help take your organization to the next level.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationBuilding Your Organization’s Roadmap
At the end of every year people talk about all the things they really wanted to do (but didn’t get done) and at the beginning of every year they talk about all the things they’re really going to do. Why the gap?
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingThe Art of Selling Buy-in
Regardless of whether you’re a VP with a new idea for improving your organization or a CEO with a new vision of how to take your company to the next level,
27 June 2022
Are You Worth Stealing?
I heard a story on NPR the other day about major thefts of laundry detergent.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationBuilding From a Culture of One
In talking with a number of people as we start the new year, it’s been interesting to hear them talk about the challenges they face at their organizations.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationWho's Your Explanation For?
At some point we have all thought this during the process of explaining something that we think is crystal clear
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsHow Wide is Your View?
It’s amazing the difference a bit of context makes when it comes to understanding where you really are and which way you want to go.
27 June 2022
TechnologyThe "Joe" Turing Test
I just finished up Ray Kurzweil’s How to Create a Mind (interesting talk at Google here), which is a fascinating journey into a future that is in many ways already here.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhat Societal Collapse Can Teach Us About Organizational Fitness
Jared Diamond's book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed focuses on understanding why certain civilizations collapse.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationElevator Courtesy and Decision Making
I was riding the elevator this morning ready to get out on my floor when the doors opened. But when I got there, I couldn’t.
27 June 2022
Organizational Transformation10 Lies That Hold Back Organizations
The problem with the tiny little individual lies that make their way around in organizations is that collectively over time they have the potential to create a culture that actually reinforces them.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingBest Creative Advice: Don't Think!
Watching an interesting documentary on Ray Bradbury, I noticed a small note that was posted on the wall directly across from where he sat and typed (gives you an idea of when the documentary was shot).
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueThe Three Must-Ask Customer Experience Questions
Forrester’s Customer Experience Index, 2013 lists those companies that provide the highest levels of experience for their customers.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueThe Age of Serendipity Accelerators
The smallest, unexpected and unplanned for things can make the biggest difference.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingBranding Lessons from LivingSocial
LivingSocial, one of DC’s locally grown startups, posted a $650 million dollar loss on on $536 million in revenue for 2012.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingRainer Rilke as Brand Poet
Thanks to Maria Popova over at Brain Pickings for turning me onto Bohemian-Austrian Rainer Maria Rilke and his Letters to a Young Poet.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueWhen 1997 Design is Still Good Enough
I was on the Berkshire Hathaway site the other day and was amazed out how simple - I mean really simple - the site was.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingBad Brands to Good People
Making things happen in today’s hyper-competitive, multi-channel marketplace means going non-stop in the direction you’re going.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueThree Days After. Three Ads Remembered.
Having watched the Super Bowl XLVII online, I didn’t get the full treatment of commercials, but I did take a peek the other day.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueAssets Aren't Experience
I probably don’t ride public transportation enough. But today I made up for it a bit with a bus and train ride.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationHow's Your Perception Training?
Discussions of perception usually revolve around the five senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
27 June 2022
Strategic Branding5 Ways to Design Like Apple
Apple is constantly used as a benchmark when it comes to design and branding and John Edson’s book Design Like Apple, presents some interesting insights and takeaways for organizations looking to better connect with their customers.
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsCustomers vs. Stakeholders
Talk to any MBA and it’s bound to slip out - stakeholders.
27 June 2022
Doing what you don’t know you’re doing?
Riding home the other day on the Metro, there was a lady sitting in front of me reading some documents. At one of the stops a young African-American woman came in and sat right next to her.
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsWhat Can You Learn From a Futurist?
Wendell Bell is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Yale University and is known as one of the most respected members of futurist community.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingScaling the World as We Know It
He defines the term broadly as “an increase in scale” and see it more as a cluster of “more or less interrelated transitions.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueDishes, Virality and Social Media
My wife points out that I still haven’t learned to do the dishes the right way. She says I use too much water. Like most things, she’s right.
27 June 2022
Innovation & Insights10 Paradoxes of Creativity
The challenge with creativity is that it can be hard to pin down.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationChimps and the Guaranteed Great Leap Forward
In the Third Chimpanze, Jared Diamond calls it the Great Leap Forward (actually calls "them" great leaps as the earlier getting upright part was pretty big, but we'll focus on the later one).
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueCan you pass this DC Metro ad test?
On my daily walk out of the Metro station, I came across the ads below.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingHow to Spot New Markets
Part of seeing new markets is about being able to move between focal points. On one extreme, you need to take in all of the information you can.
27 June 2022
Relationships & RevenueDC Metro Ad Test Answers
Being important is not the same as conveying importance. When dealing with ads all organizations must operate under the same rules of human attention and interest as everyone else. Developing a clear and consistent history of experience can provide organizations certain benefits, almost rights, in the marketplace as they move forward.
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsThe Cognitive Science of Good Diagramming
There’s just something about well drawn diagrams.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationThe Problem With Experts
If we look at some of the most interesting work in any field, its usually being done by people who are directly familiar with a field, but are no longer working in it.
27 June 2022
Strategic BrandingPrinciples of Good (Brand) Management
In his autobiography Models of My Life (WorldCat), Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon talks about his experience with good management and tries to describe what makes it tick.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationJobs, Chez-Panisse and the 90% Disease
The 1995 documentary Steve Jobs The Lost Interviews has Jobs talking about the disease that he believed Jon Scully was inflicted with.
27 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsCaffeine Free Creativity Boost
Coffitivity is a new site that provides a free coffee shop vibe right in the middle of your own cubicle. They suggest to play your music just a hair about Coffitivity.
27 June 2022
Organizational TransformationInspiring Your Passion
Sometimes we need something or someone to remind us of the dreams and passions we have within us.
24 June 2022
Organizational TransformationGetting a New Perspective
In order to change something for the better, you have to know what the original state is.
24 June 2022
Organizational TransformationLarry Page's Simple Metric
In the book Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think,Peter Diamandis quotes Larry Page on his new metric.
24 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsIf Bell Labs Thinks It's Impossible...
And at this time, they really weren't. Most radio companies were really large pieces of furniture.
24 June 2022
Organizational TransformationDesigning Organizations for Dialogue
In an article in TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences titled “Why is conversation so easy?,” Simon Garrod and Martin J.
24 June 2022
Innovation & InsightsWhen Everything is Beautiful
Coming across the this commercial the other day, I was caught off guard.
24 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhere Change Management Meets Branding
The following is a guest post by Maja Frigelj, a Business Strategy Consultant with a major consulting firm in Washington, DC and fellow entrepreneur as Founder of DC Language Services.
24 June 2022
Marketing4 Things to Know about Human Centered Design
Everyone knows that the most important person in a business’ path to success is the customer.
24 June 2022
Strategic BrandingWhy Thinking About Success Leads to Failure
There is such a strong focus on success that it’s hard to not be influenced by it at some level.
24 June 2022
Strategic BrandingHow Small Companies Can Build a Culture of Innovation
Reading through Forbes’ list of the world’s most innovative companies might be discouraging to small business owners.
24 June 2022
Nothing filed under that yet.