I’m in Cape Town for the Design Indaba, in my opinion, the best such festival in the world, not least for the design legends which take part.
I recently donned my Puma trainers and headed to a wildlife sanctuary just outside Dubai for the Creative Factory Workshop. Puma have partnered with Lumi, a start-up company who have developed a cool printing technique called Lumitype, which uses a combination of photosensitive paint and the sunlight. Where better to put it to test than the middle of the desert?
Lance Armstrong’s legacy is in question as many feel let down by his refusal to fight the doping allegations by USADA. The jury is out on whether or not Lance took performance-enhancing drugs. Through his refusal to challenge the verdict, Lance has pre-empted a formal charge and the release of evidence. One suspects we will never get to know the whole truth about the allegations. People will believe what they want to, with critics labeling him a cheat and diehard fans defending him as a victim.
Carl Jung once said, “He who looks outside, dreams; but he who looks inside, awakes”. This balance of looking out and dreaming and looking within is perhaps the most crucial tightrope for a brand to walk. The commercial implications of this balance are most visible when brands look to stretch across categories. Like all other aspects of business; brands are investments that need to deliver returns and the lure of making the brand work harder by stretching it across many categories is immense. Extension however is as much an art as it is a science.
Men haven’t had the easiest time figuring out what women want. Just as we were beginning to make headway by taking care of our cuticles or crying in the open; the recession has hurt us in more ways than one. Suddenly the World is a more dangerous place to survive in and men need to live up to their past role of providers. Primal -1, Sensitive -0.
