12 Sep 2013
Branding, Design, Social Media, Web No Comments Permalink

Grow your business? Luckily humans are hard-wired to connect

September 12, 2013 No Comments

Doing business is essentially about making connections in the real world, but making connections online is becoming even more important every day. And the good news for you, if you’re a business owner or marketing professional who wants to grow your business, is that humans are hard-wired to connect with each other and have evolved to value connections at a deep psychological level.

Of course demographic, social and cultural factors play a big part in how we connect with each other online as well as in the real world and, as I mentioned in my recent post, I recommend you read Nathalie Nahai’s book, Webs Of Influence – The Psychology Of Online Persuasion, for more detail on the cultural factors involved in the psychology of online decision-making.

From a branding perspective, it helps to understand that storytelling is hard-wired into our consciousness when it comes to communication and connecting with your users. Why do many billions of us read books, or iPads and watch TV if not to consume real or invented stories on a daily basis.

‘The story is one of the oldest and most powerful forms of communication known to man’ (See Nathalie Nahai as above page 109)

Think Arthurian tale in Le Mort d’Arthur, think the wanderings of Ulysses in The Odyssey, think overlapping narratives of Game of Thrones, or Mad Men, or the latest invented blockbuster myth. Humans connect with stories and it helps your brand and your online business communication if you understand the importance of storytelling and the benefits for you and your business when you get it right.

What is your brand story and how are you delivering it? That’s a question that business owners and marketers don’t get asked often enough.

‘We’ve long known that storytelling is an incredibly powerful, primal medium through which we connect as a species, but the extraordinary fact that our brains are hard-wired to understand each other in this way has huge implications for the manner in which we deliver information.’ (As above page 110)

What is your brand story and how are you delivering it? That’s a question that business owners and marketers don’t get asked often enough.

‘Our success as a species has depended on our ability to form and maintain social groups, so it is no surprise that we have evolved to value reciprocal exchanges at a very deep level.’

Then there’s the role interactivity and social media play in your online story and in connecting with your customers. If we’re all hard-wired to respond to connections then reciprocity – the give and take of online transactions – is an important part of doing business in the twenty-first century. Online transactions are becoming more of a social activity.

Social media too has been evolving. Social media is no longer social media it quite simply is the media and everything you in your business communication – your Twitter feed, your Facebook page, or your LinkedIn profile – plays an important part in your total brand and product experience. Simply put, social media is one of the primary ways users today experience you business and your brand.

‘Our success as a species has depended on our ability to form and maintain social groups, so it is no surprise that we have evolved to value reciprocal exchanges at a very deep level.’ (As above page 138)

The message is, no matter what your business or the sector and countries in which you operate, you ignore the interactive, social aspects of your brand communication at your peril, and leave the door open for your competitors to talk to your customers if you turn a deaf ear to what they’re saying. Social media should be part of your brand experience and an intrinsic part of your business activities.

Talk to your clients. Listen to what they have to say and you’ll soon find out what they’re looking for and maybe even begin to anticipate their needs. Easy to say, I know, but we can all get there if we stop broadcasting and listen between the silences.

The Holy Grail for any business is to be loved by your customers. And in this week of yet another iPhone launch, Apple gives us the perfect example.

Of course the Holy Grail for any business is to be loved by your customers. And in this week of yet another iPhone launch, Apple gives us the perfect example.

‘Areas of the brain that light up when believers look at religious imagery, also light up when Apple fans view their favourite brand’s logo and products.’ (As above page 208)

So if you want people to buy your products or your services, offer them something they’ll fall in love with. Easy isn’t it?

Eugene Burns

 

 

 

 

02 Sep 2013
Branding, Design, Digital Disruption, Marketing, Social Media, Transparent technology No Comments Permalink

Get what you want – the art of online persuasion

September 2, 2013 No Comments

It’s really quite simple. In business you get what you want by persuading people to do what you want them to do. There’s nothing easier, right? We all know that persuasion is hard at the best of times, but in the online world it’s an even harder task.

There are several things that can help a business owner and her/his designer get what they want in terms of getting your user, your potential customer after all, to do what you want and help you grow your business.

In the online world getting what you want means knowing something about how the unconscious mind works. It comes down to an examination of free will.

In her recent book Webs Of Influence – The Psychology Of Online Persuasion, Nathalie Nahai outlines the most recent research in the psychology of human decision-making.

‘Our conscious experience of free will happens only after the neural events that caused it… put simply, your brain knows what you are going to do before you do.’

It turns out that most of our decision-making processes occur in parallel, without our conscious awareness.

Business owners, marketing professionals and interactive designers can learn a lot from a more than superficial study of the science of human psychological behaviour.

‘We are not rational beings, as classical economists would have you believe. In fact, the reality is that we are malleable, impressionable creatures, whose behaviours can be heavily influenced by our situations and surroundings, without us even being aware of it.’

Leaving aside the spiritual and philosophical implications of this view, it’s clear that business owners, marketing professionals and interactive designers can learn a lot from a more than superficial study of the science of human psychological behaviour.

It can tell us all a lot about how we can achieve what we want to achieve, and because we are essentially measuring online human behaviours, it gives us data that we can measure and act upon to fine-tune and re-target our approach.

‘Our emotions exert a great influence on our thoughts… beyond making us feel good or bad, emotions play a vital role in how we make decisions.

Emotions play a part as well as intellect when it comes to our on-line decision-making processes.

‘Our emotions exert a great influence on our thoughts… beyond making us feel good or bad, emotions play a vital role in how we make decisions.’

Here is where creativity, ideas and design intuition can play a major part in the online design process and help you to get want you want. Design and creativity, based on a solid grasp of recent psychological research, can help any online business get where it needs to go faster and more efficiently. This approach can integrate well with any off-line and related social media campaigns that you may want to run at the same time.

In the online world, creativity and good design thinking are not only scientific but also measurable in terns of the results and the targets they achieve.

If you know what your customers are trying to achieve, then it’s easier for you to help get them there.

So what do you want to achieve for yourself and for your business? And what approaches are you using to help get you there?

‘The ability to manufacture persuasion is a powerful one and its success hinges on the accuracy of your demographic data.’

In a later post I’ll go on to look at these demographic, social and cultural factors that help colour your approach to influencing your online customers. But to sum up, if you know what your customers are trying to achieve, then it’s easier for you to help get them there.

We know that our customers want us to help them achieve their goals through the intelligent use of technology, social media and design. We know that because we asked them. But what do your customers really want? Perhaps we can help you find out.

Eugene Burns

 

18 Aug 2013
Branding, Digital Disruption, Marketing, Social Media, Transparent technology, Web No Comments Permalink

Disruptive technology – how brands can win

August 18, 2013 No Comments

If you think about it, in the disruptive world of Amazon and Apple, pretty much everyone is your competitor no matter what sector you’re in. I was talking to a forward thinking business owner in the construction sector last week, who nevertheless was only dimly aware that Amazon were already in the industrial and business supply sector in the US with Amazon Supply and are already making plans to launch in Europe, bringing their anything, anywhere, anytime proposition with them.

But before you descend into paranoia and despair, there are many things you can do as a business owner, or marketing strategist, to make sure your brand still wins in the disruptive technology era.

You will already be aware of the companies that are innovating in your sector, and you know what they’re doing that’s different from you. You may even already be a market leader. But have you really thought about and researched the customer experience that your product or service offers, and really put yourself in your customer’s skin?

[blockquote]‘You must move from merely using technology to get the job done to disrupting yourself and your market by depending on, exploiting and pushing the boundaries of technology.’[/blockquote]

The question for a successful brand owner is not only what your clients want now, but also what they’ll want next and how will you can give it to them, even before they know they want it. Sounds difficult, I know, but it’s really a matter of continuously questioning your clients’ needs and being fast enough to anticipate them in ways that are practical and profitable for your business. Technology makes this process easier.

I remember several years ago talking with the managing director of the major saké producer in Japan to help him create a strategy to make the saké market in Europe more differentiated – more focused on brand and quality. It’s no accident that, if you ask for saké in a restaurant like Wagamama today, you’ll get something more than a lukewarm generic alcoholic drink.

Today I would have used technology and social media to drive that process, but the use of technology is crucial for all brands now, as your customers are all already online and looking for new and better buying experiences. But just using technology is already not enough if you want to be a winning brand.

‘You must move from merely using technology to get the job done to disrupting yourself and your market by depending on, exploiting and pushing the boundaries of technology.’ (Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation, by James McQuivey, page 139).

Brands win in the disruptive technology world by using digital tools as a means of production, rather than as a means of consumption, and this applies to all territories and virtually all sectors.

[blockquote]Our clients know that people buy experiences rather than simply buy products.[/blockquote]

Our clients know that people buy experiences rather than simply buy products, and that everything that surrounds their product or service is an important part of the experience. People buy and seek out experiences, not just products, and the brand that wins offers a total product experience that benefits more people who buy it.

‘Digital disruption will no longer be a phenomenon to analyze, it will just be the way we live.’ (James McQuivey, as above, page 149).

Brands that succeed in the digital age understand that people want to use technology as it makes their lives and their jobs a lot easier, and for the B2B sector that includes other business people too. Technology can transform your life and your business and it can also make your brand succeed in a disruptive technology world.

If you want your brand to win we’re always ready to help you find the experience your customers are searching for. Let’s talk.

Eugene Burns

 

Have a look at our video THE FUTURE IS NOW

 

 

14 Aug 2013
Branding, Design, Digital Disruption, Marketing, Transparent technology No Comments Permalink

Digital disruption – let the future find you

August 14, 2013 No Comments

If you’re like me you probably spend quite a lot of your time not simply running a business, but finding new ways to grow and in developing new products and partnerships. I also spend a lot of time working with other business owners to help them use new delivery channels more effectively, helping them find new markets through design and transparent technology.

I’ve written before on how major companies like Amazon and Apple use digital disruption and incisive thinking to create new territories where none existed before and develop new markets that their technology made available to them where others feared to tread.

So what does this mean for you and me? I’ve long stopped being a traditional designer/creative director who designs projects for others and goes away again. Brandlogik operates as a virtual agency, technology-driven, that not only works for clients but also develops and builds our own customer-facing projects with new spin-off brands and services.

We cannot predict the future for our business or our product, but ‘we start with the next possible thing our customer needs and let the future find us.’

In the same way that Google revolutionised the advertising industry with Google AdSense, a new breed of design agencies are changing how they work and are finding new ways of doing business powered by technology. There’s a lot in this digitally disruptive approach for you to apply to your own business, no matter where you are, or what markets you operate in.

It helps to start with an attitude where you are open to new thinking and this is not as easy as it sounds if your business has lots of stakeholders who may justifiably have cautious viewpoints. But you do need a different mindset if you want to be part of the new business evolution. You have to be ready to keep asking questions such as who are my customers, what do they need now that I can offer them that I’m not already, and what are they likely to need in the future that I can start giving them now?

If you want to see this evolution in action have a look at jawbone.com – a company that started out making premium Bluetooth headsets, then developed their range into mobile audio devices and have now entered the health and lifestyle market with an integrated wristband and app system called UP. ‘What Jawbone does – and what you need to do – is to innovate the adjacent possible.’ (See Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation by James McQuivey).

For Jawbone and other innovative brands, business really is an evolutionary process: ‘today birds can fly and (humans) can see because nature invented the adjacent possible.’ (Digital Disruption as above, page 76).

This means that we cannot predict the future for our business or our product, but ‘we start with the next possible thing our customer needs and let the future find us.’

The idea of letting the future find you may sound a little passive, a little laid back maybe, but it needs a positive and creative attitude and the constant questioning of what your customer wants, not just now but in the future, to really be successful. Good design, incisive thinking and an understanding of how to use transparent and nearly free technologies can help get you there.

Are you ready? It may be easier to let the future find you if you have someone who has been through the digital disruption process to chat to.

Eugene Burns

 

 

 

18 Jul 2013
Branding, Design, Social Media, Web, Work No Comments Permalink

Irish design has the opportunity to be reignited for the Big Data era

July 18, 2013 No Comments

In my previous post on the theme of An Irish Design I asked the question: is it time to put Ireland back at the centre of European design? The post received a very good response from clients and other designers. A simple answer to the question is – design has an important part to play in not only the future development of Irish technology companies, it has a part to play in the business growth of Irish companies of all kinds.

Irish design is not a monolith – there are as many approaches to delivering creative and successful design solutions as there are designers.

Irish design is not a monolith – there are as many approaches to delivering creative and successful design solutions as there are designers, and just because a designer comes from, or is based in, any part of Ireland doesn’t mean she or he has to employ a culturally conditioned pre-set series of solutions.

If Ireland as a country is open to external influences and part of the wider cultural landscape of Europe and beyond, then there’s room for lots of creative and cultural cross-fertilization that can only be an asset to designers and the clients they work with. My own influences are French, Swiss International, Japanese and Chinese culture and design as well as the Irish culture of my birth, enhanced with several years of being based in the open city of London where many different design and cultural identities thrive and develop.

The intention is to be aware of the history of Celtic design and to use the influences to develop a specifically Irish approach in a technologically driven and playful way.

The intention of An Irish Design is to be aware of the history of Celtic design in Ireland and to use some of the influences to play with and develop a specifically Irish approach in a technologically driven and playful way. The hope is to add something to the tradition, no matter how insignificant, while not being to overwhelmed by the long shadows cast by past achievements. Irish design has the opportunity to be reignited for the Big Data era.

I’ve produced a new video and brochure on the An Irish Design theme. You can download the An Irish Design brochure here. Each of these takes some Celtic/Irish design elements and seeks to develop and extend them in a small way. These include some re-workings of some classic book covers and some ‘hand-drawn-in-Photoshop’ designs based on motifs found in The Book Of Kells and elsewhere in Irish design history.

As always I would be interested to hear your views and comments and, of course, I’m always happy to talk to you about your specific business needs and future projects. Let’s talk.

Eugene Burns

11 Jul 2013
Branding, Design, Work No Comments Permalink

An Irish Design

July 11, 2013 No Comments

Is it time to put Ireland back at the centre of European design?

‘La Tène Culture lifts the Celts from being just another of the myriad European peoples. (It) establishes the Celts as a real ‘civilization’ and …bequeathed some of antiquity’s most gorgeous pieces of decorative art. Wildlife themes pushed into the realms of the abstract and fantastic. A tendril of a plant teased into itself, then spun upwards until it became pattern, a whorl, a whole inner world, leaping, coiling, dancing.’

Frank Delaney, The Celts

What we call Celtic design, the earliest form of Irish design, originates from Central Europe as did much later design movements such as the Bauhaus, the Swiss International Style and fonts such as Helvetica and Akzidenz.

The influence of Celtic La Tène culture dating from 450 BCE onwards is clear in The Book Of Kells, perhaps one of the great Irish works of graphic design, and one of the great European design projects of all time. At the time of the development of the monasteries, Ireland was a major philosophical and design influence on Western Europe and was rightly celebrated throughout the known world.

In the middle ages Ireland lost most of its former influence as it became subsumed in the English-speaking world where design was held in much less regard and there was less reverence for tradition, history and creative invention.

Glimpses of Irish creative brilliance resurfaced intermittently, in the Táin Bó Cúailnge and the writings of James Joyce that have inspired many artists and designers. Think of the transcendent brush drawings for the Thomas Kinsella translation of The Tain by Louis le Brocquy.

In the twenty-first century Ireland is becoming celebrated again and internationally respected for its technology and contributions in the areas of Big Data and web innovation. But is Celtic/Irish design ready to play a part in communicating and expressing new technological innovations? Will the book of Big Data be the new Book Of Kells?

Irish typography doesn’t need to be uncials to be authentic. Irish design is open to all types of typographic influences and is as inventive as a Neville Brody font, or as playful and thought-provoking as a Sagmeister witticism. Ampersands are a favourite of Celtic script – they take up a whole section in Aidan Meehan’s Celtic Design – Illuminated Letters, and still have a part to play in any approach to design that’s typographically inventive.

The swirls and knotwork of Celtic design are the interconnected data of twenty-first century communication.

In the area of colour there’s more to Ireland than green. Gold is prominent in the Book Of Kells and the reds and oranges of the multiplicity of Irish traditions bring a vibrant majesty to all types of design solutions. If Ireland is open to internal and external influences of all kinds then Irish design should have an openness to colours too.

The great advantage Irish design has in the twenty-first century is the ability to embrace all types and styles of imagery thanks to technical innovations. Users are open to the thrill and excitement of secular imagery. With the X-rated Game Of Thrones series being made in Northern Ireland there’s little need for outmoded monastic influences or rigorous self-censorship by local designers.

So we can say Irish design has always been at the centre of Europe as that’s where it originally come from. The knotted intricacy of Celtic design has echoes in contemporary Irish design and thinking. There’s a Celtic self-reflection about James Joyce’s Ulysses and the cubism of Joyce’s approach has the same origins as that of Braque and Picasso.

Ireland aspires to be at the bleeding edge of technology. Ireland is big in Big Data and disruptive web solutions. Dropbox, Twitter and many other innovative companies call Ireland their European home.

Irish design is perfectly placed to be part of a technological resurgence and design itself is changing and evolving with the technology. If you haven’t been there lately Dublin, for example, is in some ways more open to other cultures and influences than London.

The swirls and knotwork of Celtic design are the interconnected data of twenty-first century communication. Irish design has the opportunity to be reignited for the internet era. A knotwork of connectedness and a network of Celtic form and expression.

Eugene Burns

 

01 Jul 2013
Advertising, Branding, Design, Marketing, Work No Comments Permalink

The democracy of design

July 1, 2013 No Comments

Fictitious Mad Men account director Pete Campbell was unceremoniously removed from the Chevy account when the clients found out he couldn’t drive a car with a stick. As a non-driver I however thrived for several years on the Peugeot account in Ireland, as I was still able to design great creative ideas and express the key elements of the brand without needing to be a petrolhead.

Cars are designed for everyone and there is a unique democracy about car design that appeals to the enlightened designer. In the first part of the twenty-first century a well-designed car is available to almost everyone that can afford one. That’s why I’ve been watching with interest the re-engineering of the Volkswagen Beetle for the new era. The third iteration of the classic Beetle – the most recent being the 1998 curvaceous ‘flower vase’ model – the new version is both more masculine and a better engineered homage to the classic of over seventy years before.

The German design of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle says Porsche curves rather than city run-about, and yet it’s a similar price range as the same company’s Golf, or a Mini Cooper. The VW Beetle seems better designed, better thought-through, better contoured and therefore potentially a better more enduring brand of car than others in its class. It’s unique shape turns heads on the road.

There are clearly creative ideas at play that influence and shape the form of the finished VW Beetle 2012, and these are echoed inside with optional extras such as a Fender-branded sound system that oozes credibility. Mass production doesn’t have to mean inferior products as long as the ideas that drive the car’s production are practical and design led and each buyer has the bespoke options that make the brand more personal.

Cars are designed for everyone and there is a unique democracy about car design that appeals to the enlightened designer.

Leaving the luxury market aside, you really don’t have to pay that much more for a well designed car. If design is important to you, if it’s part of the brand that speaks to you and engages your mind as well as your heart, then you’ll invest in a car, or any product or service, that’s well designed and durable. If a car is something more than a vehicle that gets you to work in the morning, it’s worth applying that thinking to other design choices in your life.

VW_Beetle_red2

Why waste money and resource on poor choices and indifferent thinking? Why chose something that’s mass produced just because everyone else is has it, when you can enjoy something that’s bespoke, is the result of better creative thinking and is designed to be right for you?

Democracy is good for design. Let’s not forget Steve Jobs’ Bauhaus inspired aesthetic ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ If simple, classic design is available to all in the shape of a well designed car, it’s all the more important for your business that you realise great design is not necessarily more expensive or harder to achieve than indifferent design. It’s worth looking for the right design supplier when it comes to your business and your brand. Great design is your democratic right after all. Let’s talk.

Eugene Burns

 

 

17 Jun 2013
Advertising, Branding, Design, Marketing, Video and TV, Work No Comments Permalink

The era of Game Of Thrones style agencies is over

June 17, 2013 No Comments

If you work in marketing or buy creative services of any kind you’ve probably met some wag who has told you about the bad old days, when all agencies were like Mad Men where the drink and more flowed day and night and egos ruled the castle.

Having worked for McCann-Erickson in my youth – one of the best known of the Madison Avenue agencies that covered the globe – my stories of past misdeeds and behaviour from colleagues and competitors are more like Game Of Thrones than Mad Men. Creative agencies were once fiefdoms of influence and closely guarded secrets where account warriors fought tooth and nail for patronage and territory; often to the creative detriment of the clients they served.

But those dragon-infested days are on the wane I’m glad to say, and apart from a few isolated and dying outposts, those types of agency encampments are either dead or dying.

[blockquote]Now collaboration between client and creative agency is the watchword.[/blockquote]

Infighting and the incestuous drive for power that so often was the driving force behind agency monoliths are now outmoded ways of working. Put simply, the atmosphere that sometimes became poisoned in advertising agencies in particular was rarely a good breeding ground for creative thinking and fresh design ideas. Technology has disrupted the creative industries and that has largely been for the general good of clients and creative designers too.

There were agencies that banned creatives from ever meeting clients and other agencies that earned their revenues from hefty production and media mark-ups and practically gave the design away for free. Some dinosaurs still operate in this business model but thankfully this Game Of Thrones era has largely disappeared.

Daenerys and dragonTechnology means that design and creativity and the inventive ideas they engender are now more valued and lauded than ever before. Creativity is king and the big agency account execs that used to infest any creative project are now largely extinct.

As a client you want to deal directly with creative people who know you, your business and your brand. More valuable than someone with a gold Amex card who buys you lunch, is a creative professional who has insights and a solid grasp of your business and can play a big role in helping you grow your brand and your products – who has empathy and understanding of your story, your history and your future.

Design and technology are more powerful weapons than scripted processes and tired ideas. Creative teams and projects can be as small or as big as they need to be to get the work done and the objectives achieved without the intervention of too many egos. Now collaboration between client and creative agency is the watchword.

Clients should spend their money and resource on design and creativity rather than on layers of client service. That’s why I made Brandlogik a flexible, virtual team that puts the client and the client’s customers at the centre of our business.

We believe in the power of branding, design and technology to transform your life and your business and anything that gets in the way of delivering the best results is best eliminated, like those Game Of Thrones style feudal barons. Let’s talk.

Eugene Burns

 

 

17 May 2013
Branding, Design, Marketing, Transparent technology No Comments Permalink

New design thinking – getting even better results for our clients

May 17, 2013 No Comments

As a new breed of design agency we’re always looking at new ways of improving our service and our skills so we can help our clients exceed their targets even faster.

We have our own moments of insight about our own business in the same way that we help provide insights for our clients. Amazon, for example, really started to gain momentum when the strategy of the company moved from trying to provide customer enjoyment to focusing on customer ecstasy.

A good way to grow your business is to examine the processes that you use and see if they are possible to improve or streamline. So we’re asking questions such as what is it that makes clients fall in love with their creative agencies and the people they use to drive their design and brand development? If you’ve tried this in your own business you’ll know it’s a very rewarding exercise that helps you see your business in a more ‘big data,’ Cubist way.

[blockquote]Amazon really started to gain momentum when the strategy of the company moved from trying to provide customer enjoyment to focusing on customer ecstasy.[/blockquote]

So we’ve started by looking at the creative thinking process itself and how it can be improved and developed to better ensure that our clients reach and exceed their goals and love the creative work we do for them even more.

ThatBreathBeyond_Cover

We’ve kicked off the process with a new pdf brochure That Breath Beyond and a new section of the site where we feature some of our new breed of design thinking and insights. It’s a collaborative process of course and we can’t reveal too much about our current and future projects but it should be interesting for anyone wanting to learn more about the design process and ultimately grow their business and their brand.

Some excerpts from the brochure:

‘Don’t just build a business. Build a business and a brand that lasts.’

‘Design is not just words and imagery. Design is the creative use of interactive technologies of all kinds. It’s what you feel.’

‘The future is constantly being created today. Feel its breath on the back of your neck. Open your eyes to see what’s next.’

So That Breath Beyond is the first step in a new approach to design thinking that moves our approach from providing client enjoyment to client ecstasy, producing design solutions that get even better results for our clients. A very worthwhile journey for our new and existing clients too.

Eugene Burns

 

 

16 May 2013
Branding, Design, Marketing No Comments Permalink

Companies can still learn from the Apple design philosophy

May 16, 2013 No Comments

Companies can still learn a lot from Steve Jobs and the Apple design philosophy he infused into the company’s products and innovations. It’s revealing to read that, although he never met his birth father, the late CEO’s adopted father had a huge influence on the university drop out’s early thinking.

‘It was important, his father said, to craft the backs of cabinets and fences properly, even thought they were hidden. “He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.” (From ‘Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography’ by Walter Isaacson, 2011)

Especially after his return to Apple in 1997, Jobs followed what could be called a Bauhaus aesthetic: ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’ was the phrase he often repeated and Jobs developed a Zen-like understanding of how simple elements beautifully crafted had the power to captivate users when integrated with user-centric software.

The translucent iMac – a design innovation that perhaps only someone brought up to care about the unseen parts of cabinets and fences could drive through.

The first iMac produced in the late 1998 was translucent – you could see the internal workings of the machine. The translucency connected the inner engineering of the computer to the outer design. An appealing design innovation that perhaps only someone brought up to care about the unseen parts of cabinets and fences could drive through.

It’s the kind of thinking that changed the design of desktop computers, laptops, and of course mobile phones and tablets, with a methodology that could be applied even to televisions.

‘He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players and phones: make them simple and elegant. “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told me. “It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud.” (From ‘Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography’ as above.)

The Jobs television revolution could still happen, as thanks to Jonny Ives and others the design philosophy is still ingrained in the company. You can still see the Bauhaus aesthetic in the sleek, streamlined lines of the brand new 27-inch iMac that sits on my desktop. As Jobs said ‘Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers.’

So what can you learn from the Apple approach to doing business? You go into business to be successful and to do something that defines you and transforms your life. Have you got the courage and the insight to run your business like an Apple business?

Do you have the determination to develop products and services that can change and disrupt your sector and then market and promote them in new and inventive ways? Are you able to see the big picture and still focus on the smallest, but most important details?

To begin to be successful it helps to put the design of your products and services at the very centre of your business. That’s important if you want to something more than build a business. You can build a business and a brand that lasts.

‘You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last’ Steve Jobs

The lesson for all companies from the Apple design philosophy is when you build your business, build your brand and build insanely great products and services, the profits will, with good planning, take care of themselves.

Eugene Burns