STAGIS

The power of context

I red an article in the Australian journal 'Open Manifesto', written by a design professor who used to live in Denmark. The article is about one of the things he enjoyed in Denmark – our well designed post boxes!? Well, apparently post-boxes in New Zealand is long, narrow and they leak when it rains. And in Denmark it rains, it hails, the wind is blowing and still the professor got he’s mail dry.

As he moved back, he started to get annoyed when he received wet or folded artwork by mail. On a trip to Denmark, he brought back a Danish post box. Problem solved. At least he thought so. For some reason, the postman in New Zealand never really managed to put the post all the way through the A4 wide opening, or they misused the post box in another strange way. 

As a Dane, I think it's rather normal to assume that we receive our mail in a proper condition (actually we're not too impressed with our national post service at all). But what this article frames is, that there is no such thing as unconditionally good design. Its completely relative to context and cultural behaviour. Even a (for some) obvious object as a post box, is relative to culture and who is using it.

Less and more

The design ethos of Dieter Rams. The German industrial designer, closely associated with the consumer electronics manufacturer Braun, where he was lead designer 1955-1995. I recently visited London Designmuseum and the exhibition of Rams' landmark designs for Braun and furniture manufacturer Vitsæ. For over 40 years he influenced the product range of Braun, and when you experience the pieces side by side, its absolutely impressive how he managed to keep a strict design aesthetic, thats clearly linked in the approach and result throughout the many pieces. Beside from a very nice and well integrated exhibition design, I found it quite inspiring to discover his work again. Even though I know the pieces, they are a bit retro, but nice, I'ts rediscovered in a new point of view. I didn't have the energy to through the 'Brit insurance designs of the year 2010' on the floor below the Rams exhibition. It just seemed to busy and colorful for the state of mind you obtain by spending some time with Rams. And I really enjoy how design can bring this feeling forward. And I guess thats why many argue that Jonathan Ive is a lot ispired by Rams.

 
 Here's a few statements from the exhibition that i found interesting and typical for the experience i had.

  

Are you ever to cool for school?

 … no you are not!, Not even after many years of experience as a leader on the job market.

At the moment we are working on a project for Copenhagen Business School’s master programme “Master of Management Development (MMD)”. We want to inform potential candidates about their options of further schooling and aims to create awareness of the MMD programme. We want to spread the word – but how?

Our PR project for the MMD program has already showed great results. Two articles were featured in two of the Danish Daily Media: Politiken and Boerson. Both articles focus on the job swops between the MMD participants. Politiken wrote about the Principal from Skovshoved Skole who spends a week behind a desk in the National Board of Industrial Injuries, while Boersen wrote about the Captain from Danish Defense Personnel Organization who exchanged his job with a Partner from Deloitte. The whole idea of these swops is to give the participants an insight in other organizations and different leadership methods. MMD is doing well in the media, and other articles are in the making.

We have also produced four video pod casts with professors for MMD website. The professors explain the benfits of the programme, and what they see as good leadership. One of the pod casts is already now available on the website… here is a little preview.

 

Making bananas cool

So this is what happens when an authentic brand integrate their product label into contemporary ad campaigns...

Chiquita made this move with their iconic blue sticker featuring a fruit-carrying woman, which has been placed on every single product since 1963. In a collaboration with designer DJ neff, Chiquita created 25 different characters which instantly became a hit amongst end users. The ad campaign grew into an online 3D flash game, a micro site containing viral videos and a sticker generator. 

Check out more on design:related.

Going undercover

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation has launched a highly interesting new weekly documentary programme called “Undercover Chef” (meaning Undercover Boss in English). The show lets CEOs experience their own organization from a new point of view – that of their employees and costumers. The CEO plays the role of a new employee under a false name as his employees patiently introduce him to the work routines and daily life in his own organization.

Last week, the CEO of Danske Diakonhjem, which is an organization managing a chain of nursing homes, worked a few days as a health care worker. As the visibly emotional CEO was placed completely powerless in the stand-up lift that constitutes an indispensable part of many of the residents’ daily routines, it was clear that more was at stake than simple role play. This was a CEO achieving a deeper understanding of the emotional and social dynamics in the organization he manages, and he left the experience wiser and more aware of what matters most to his employees and costumers. 

The show airs tuesday nights on DR1 and is available for streaming here (in Denmark only)

Stagis Highlights: Bi-monthly newsletter to clients, colleagues and friends

  
What are the latest highlights? With a growing network of clients, colleagues, business-partners, students and friends it can be difficult to keep up with what's going on. Today we're sending out the first issue of a newsletter that we've named "Stagis Highlights". About six times a year we'll send out an email with stories about our projects, concepts, ideas, people, events and everything in between. I'll post some of the latest stories about authentic corporate identities around the Globe such as Hästens, Noma, Lego, BMW, Alessi and Ducati and we'll share new projects with you.

We'll make a version in Danish and one in English. If you are on the mailinglist you'll be able of sharing the content with your colleagues, friends or - even better - your boss.

Sign up for Stagis Highlights in Danish here:

Email:

Or submit to the Highlights in English:

Email:

17 fascinating minutes at the BMW Museum

"Fascinating!" I thought to myself the other day, as I looked at an art installation. Over the past two months, I've been studying BMW in Munich as part of my ongoing work on a book on authentic organizational identity, which I am planning to finish this spring. The time had come to visit one of the greatest brand museums ever. Back in 2004 the BMW Group decided to spend some 80 million Euro on the renovation and expansion of their corporate museum, initially built in the 1970's. Located in front of the tall BMW headquarters and across the street from the architecturally fascinating BMW World, the Museum looks like a giant tea-cup and would serve well as an iconic entrance to a museum of modern art in any metropolis. Here, however, it's not paintings that are on show, but cars and motorcycles. At least, that was my expectation.

Authentic BMW
The architecture of the Museum itself is a piece of art. The building is listed, protected by the German Government. I soon found myself happily surprised at the first installation. What seemed like a thousand silver pearls were floating in the air, changing from arbitrary swarm to orderly sculptures depicting the forms of old and new cars. When the BMW started the revamp of the Museum, they hired Joachim Sauter, a specialist in new and innovative media. "He told us 'Be authentic!'," says Dr. Andreas Braun, who is in charge of the communication of the 5.000 m2 museum and was deeply involved in the development of the museum throughout the 2000s. 

Entering the authentic organizational identity as 'translator'

Last year the Corporate Governance Agency of the Danish Ministry of Culture changed it's purpose and name. From being an "Administration Center" it was now going to leave behind some of the daily routine operations within IT and finance and focus on delivering advice and support the cultural institutions in Denmark.

”I would like to be able to see myself in my work and everything my workplace stands for. That’s what motivates me when I go to work. That you belong and know that the rest of the world sees your workplace the way you see it yourself,” says Pinar Tilif. She is one of the employees at the Governance Agency, who has experienced the shift from one organizational identity to a new one. A process that included the discovery of the organization's authentic strengths and finding new ways of growing those particular abilities. Now, the primary role of the organization is to be the 'translator' between the Danish Ministry of Culture and each cultural institution.

Pinar Tilif tells about her experiences through the identity process in the article "My personality comes along when I visit the customers". Read the full article in English or hele artiklen på dansk (PDF). 

The visual identity will go public on the agency's website during February 2010. The mapping of the authentic organizational identity as well as the development of the identity essence and the visual identity was conducted by Stagis.

Politiken article: From idea to final concept

 

This Sunday, Danish newspaper Politiken featured an interview with Nikolaj Stagis. In the article, Nikolaj tells the story of our company and talks about the Busdrivers with Character campaign mentioned in the post below. Nikolaj explains how the idea of transforming the experience of the bus ride for both drivers and passengers emerged in his head while watching the news one night, and how the idea developed into the final concept that you meet in busses today.

You can read the article here: Jagten på firmaets autentiske identitet (in Danish only - "The hunt for the authentic identity of the firm")

Small nice moments from the bus ride

Last summer we did a campaign as part of the project 'Busdrivers with character'. The idea of the project was to make passengers notice small but nice moments from their bus ride. The passengers could send the 'moment' by sms or mms to the website www.buschauffor.dk, where busdrivers and everyone else followed passenger experiences on the bus. The busdrivers got a lot of nice messages from their costomers and you can still read them on the website. (Everything in danish though). This is the material we developed to encourage passengers to compliment their driver. 

The material was hanging all over the bus, for instance this sticker was hanging on the busdrivers door, to meet the customers when they entered the bus

 

Hanging in the window:

 

Hanging on the backside of the digital sign:

 

Hanging by flyers and informations signs: