Author Archive
The Square Holes Story
Posted by Jason Dunstone on August 13th, 2009 at 1:37pm
This is a reflective time in my life. Square Holes will be ‘5’ at the end of 2009 and I head towards the end of my 30-somethings. At a time like this it’s hard to avoid thinking about how far we have come, challenges faced and lessons learnt.
[Note: After much questioning about where Square Holes came from, I sat down last Sunday night with a glass or two of red and brain dumped the following. It’s longer than a typical Think! blog post, but I was keen to share as is]
Posted in Uncategorized
Brands with heart & soul
Posted by Jason Dunstone on August 7th, 2009 at 3:45pm
Are you driven by your head or your heart? Be honest… Are you really that rational? Think about it. Your food, wine, clothes, car or favourite cafe. Think about your bad habits. Drinking, smoking, eating or how you drive your car. If you are anything like me, I’m sure your heart and the emotions within it have the upper hand over your good meaning head. Just like your good and bad conscience, do you really have that much control?
Posted in Advertising, Branding
Why is there a cow in the office?
Posted by Jason Dunstone on August 3rd, 2009 at 10:19pm
A week or so ago a client visiting our building asked “why do you have a cow in the office?” It’s clearly a fair question. Luckily the answer is quite simple – “to increase the intelligence of our office”.
We have a team of highly experienced staff with impressive academic records, many to Masters degree. Even with such pedigree, the cow is a key to our intelligence, as are the ducks. Also important are the talking dinosaur, Mr Potato Head and Continue reading…
Posted in Uncategorized
Brand ‘Melbourne’
Posted by Jason Dunstone on July 31st, 2009 at 5:45pm
There is some controversy surrounding Melbourne’s new city logo to a non-local.
The comments I posted on B&T follow:
“Just a quick one, and I don’t know the in’s and out’s of this issue. While the discussion of brand Melbourne is interesting, I think that a degree of level-headedness is required when thinking about involving a non-local design agency. Yes, there are many great Melbourne designers, yet sometimes when it comes to location [city / state] branding locals cannot see the wood for the trees so to speak. Over recent years I’ve managed a few location branding research projects – make the move to X or how to position Y. We’ve seen some real clangers from local creative agencies way too close to be neutral in the branding. They can be patronising or even blind. Totally agree with Peter Singline that a brand should build on existing core values. However, sometimes a fresh set of eyes, ears and brains are what’s necessary to rejuvenate. No matter where, when a piece of ad or design work for a local icon leaves the State anger surfaces. But, take a chill-pill guys, you can always look to brand Sydney, Brisbane etc. My two cents for what they are worth …”
http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/34/0C062C34.asp#comment-13733912
http://www.landor.com/index.cfm?bhcp=1
Posted in Branding
Man tears
Posted by Jason Dunstone on July 30th, 2009 at 11:27am
I am writing this with man tears in my eyes. Thinking of a man, 15 years ago, bravely entering a career in an industry he longed to  be a part, yet amongst the jeering of friends and family – “why” and “sounds boring”. A profession that even his early workmates warned him to “run away”, as for them it was too late. They had lost all hope.
The man was ‘me’ and the profession is ‘research’. These memories surfaced when reading the recent article in B&T in which Campaign Palance Chief Executive Jacques Burger pointed his finger at research saying the Australian ad industry has “become fixated on research in a bad way.†As I noted in my response to Burger on www.bandt.com.au the danger in such a public opinion is the unreasonable link that poor advertising is because of research.
Posted in Advertising