Problem Solver: Joe Duffy
A major component of a product’s or company’s success is strong branding. In the fight to create awareness for a product in a crowded consumer market, strong branding can be the bond that will create a relationship between the consumer and the product. Over the past two decades, Joe Duffy has been at the forefront of branding and design. The much-admired creative director has implemented brand strategies and revitalized corporate identities for BMW, Sony, International Trucks, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Sony. His design philosophies not only affect consumer attitudes about brands, but his design and branding campaigns have influenced fellow designers and how businesses view their branding initiatives. (1)
After a decade of partnering his company, Duffy Worldwide, with the Minneapolis advertising agency, Fallon Worldwide, Duffy spun his graphic design and branding company away from the Fallon marketing umbrella. His new company, Duffy & Partners is an independent company that will focus upon his strengths such as brand and corporate identity development, literature and packaging design, and creating integrative marketing communications programs. (2) An example of how he intertwines his designs with his communications programs are found in his work with the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism.
With the explosion of tourism in areas such as Mexico, Jamaica, and the Caribbean Islands, a major challenge for a country competing for tourism dollars is how to differentiate itself away from other travel destinations. Over the past two decades, the Bahamas was perceived as a “stereotypical paradise”. Tourism had a lot of sameness, and the sameness spread to each country’s marketing campaign, as Duffy explains.
“As you can imagine, in this category, there is a sea of sameness among all sand and sea destinations-tropical colors, water, sun, palm trees. With our client’s previous approach, you could have pulled the name ‘Bahamas’ and substituted ‘Jamaica’ or ‘Barbados’ and the identity would have worked just as well. It was not unique or grounded in any differentiated truth which the Bahamas a unique destination.”
The previous identity for Bahamians was murky. The tagline, “The Islands of the Bahamas: It Just Keeps Getting Better” did not set apart the identity of The Islands of the Bahamas from the rest of the conglomeration of tourist destinations. The identity’s design was not neither clear nor used in a consistent manner, and different logos and different typefaces were used through souvenir manufacturers, the tourism office, and many small businesses.
After a visual audit of the country, it became clear to the Duffy team that not only would all entities have to be able to work with the new design, but the design had to be appealing and flexible for all uses to develop the consistency that had been missing in the past. From the audit, Duffy determined the Bahamas did have one distinguishing factor. It is not one place.
The Bahamas is made up of 700 islands with 17 major tourist destinations. Each destination has it’s own activities, it’s own culture, and it’s own unique flora and fauna.. When Duffy’s team traveled to the Bahamas, they looked at it’s unique features and what made the Bahamas brand special. The team took in the turquoise waters, studied pink flamingos and the pastel sands, and they took hundreds of images of the people, sunshine, leaves, and hospitality. From those observations, the team determined that the best solution was to not just create a logo, but a more fluid brand expression of the actual geographical positioning of The Islands of the Bahamas on a map.
The solution that they derived at the end of the process was a stylized map that uses the manner and flavor of the shapes, colors, and visual clues the designers observed. Duffy explains. “An actual map of the islands does not look like this (logo). The stylization comes from what we saw- the birds and shells and flowers. Here we present each of the main island destinations, but in a abstract way. It is relatively a simple solution, but you can feel the flamingos, the turquoise water, and the pink sand represented in the colors and forms…This challenges perceptions and creates a new language for the brand.”
The new identity created a powerful image that set forth the brand language that is endlessly adaptable in all applications. Patterning for clothing, interiors, iconography, and other applications such as swimwear, T-shirts, fabrics, web wallpaper, towels, and other items all set forth an entire brand language that furthers the brand, which was what Duffy was targeting for with his branding concepts. Duffy explains.
“We branded the country, and people will actually end up wearing the brand. Every single element working together will contribute to differentiation and a stronger brand…Strong branding elegantly and simply captures what is unique, special and enduring about the product. We’re proud of this approach because we believe it represents the true character and diversity of the Bahamas and that will encourage visitors to return again and again. And it is presented with the flexibility that will stand the test of time.” (3)
Along with his Bahamas campaign, Duffy also showed that creating new brand designs may also be carried over to product design. His team helped Minute Maid manage a makeover of it’s famous orange juice package design, which created a new image for Minute Maid. The common thread through all of Duffy’s design emphasizes strong package design. He believes that product packaging design is “where the rubber meets the road.”
“Consumer choice often comes down to brand personality, creating an identity that strikes an emotional chord with the target audience…The people who produce the vast majority of food brands tend to give packaging the back of their hand. They pay attention to other things and don’t realize that packaging is an expression of the brand personality…The packaging is the brand in the consumer’s hands. No matter how good the advertising or the actual product, if you can’t get the product into the consumer’s hands and convince them at that physical point of contact, they aren’t going to try it. Winning in the marketplace is the end game when it comes to branding. If it doesn’t ring the cash register, it’s not successful.” (4)
Duffy has cashed in at the register with his branding company and with his work in design. However, cashing in for profits at the expense of developing solid design for the craft’s sake has led other designers like Tibor Kalman to take shots at his choices of using the business world as a medium to display his design work. An example occurred in 1989 at the AIGA Conference in San Antonio, Texas, where many designers point to this incident as a pivot point in the relationship between the design profession and the forces of corporate commercialism.
In 1989, Duffy sold his firm to the then high-flying publicly-traded British design firm to The Michael Peters Group. In the wake of the sale, the merged entity took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal proclaiming it’s services and making a claim for the value of design to business. The Duffy ad became the talk of the ’89 conference, and Duffy became a target of scorn for people who believed that art should not be interjected into commerce. Kalman took up the fight with his belief that designers were not taking risks in their work because they were complying to their client’s needs and whims. By stating “We’re not here to help clients eradicate everything of visual interest from the face of the earth. We’re here to make them think about what’s dangerous and unpredictable”, Kalman thought that many designers had become business types and were selling out when it wasn’t necessary to do so.
Duffy responded to the challenge by writing on the whiteboard at the conference’s entrance, “TIBOR: YOU AND ME. TODAY. 5:15. BREAKOUT ROOM G. JOE.” (5)
What resulted from Duffy’s challenge was a debate that was referred to often over the next few years when discussing whether or not designers are “selling out” when they enter the marketing world. During the debate Kalman focused on the argument that designers should contribute substantive ideas rather than surface gloss. Yet, Duffy responded by proclaiming that “good design was it’s own reward and it’s virtuous for society.” (6)
The debate extolled the dilemmas of how design is toeing the line between profit and meaning, and many attendees of the event believe that Duffy’s compelling arguments about how good design can be communicated through the marketing world actually edged out the arguments set forth by Kalman, and Duffy has influenced a number of designers, who have crossed over to the business world for profit.
As John C. Jay, Co- Executive Director of Wieden + Kennedy in Tokyo, explains. Duffy is more than just a designer. He is a problem-solver. “Duffy’s design has withstood the winds of fashion, the elitism of the design industry, the economic recession and the consolidation of what was an industry of individulality.” (7)
Looking at Duffy as a problem-solver could sway cynics away from stating that he is selling out the design world. Perhaps, a design critic should judge Duffy’s work not as design but as a marketing tool to help businesses bring products into the future.
BD
1. American Institute of
Graphic Arts. 2004. AIGA 12 October 2004 <http://aiga.org/content.cfm?contentalias=JoeDuffy
2. Geiger, Bob. “Fallon spins off Duffy Worldwide graphic design
unit.” Finance and Commerce. 10 March 2004. 27 Sept. 2004 <http://www.finance-commerce.com/recent_articles/0403110b.htm
3,LogoLounge.com.
“Duffy in the Bahamas.” LogoLounge.com 12 October 2004.
27 September 2004 <http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=119
4.Corporate
Design Foundation. “Minute Maid Goes for the Orange.” Corporate
Design Foundation 21 June 2000. 27 September 2004 <http://cdf.org/cdf/atissue/vol4_1/Minute_Maid/minute_maid.html
5.Bierut, Michael “1989 Roots of Revolution.” DesignObserver.com
6 March 2004. 27 September 2004 <http://www.designobserver.com/archives/00110.html
6. O’Neill, Dainel “1989 Roots of Revolution” DesignObserver.com
7 March 2004. 27 September. 2004 <http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000110.html
7. American Institute of Graphic Arts. 2004. AIGA 12
October 2004 <http://aiga.org/content.cfm?contentalias=JoeDuffy American
Institute of Graphic Arts. 2004. AIGA 12 October 2004 <http://aiga.org/content.cfm?contentalias=JoeDuffy