On the heels of a successful online annual report, Baker launched a completely rebranded corporate website for Leap Wireless this month. Designed to provide deeper information and tell the Leap/Cricket story consistently to all audiences, the new website features enhanced content and functionality across four broad categories: Who We Are, Investors, Newsroom, and Careers. The site is powered by a content management system that enables quick and easy updates. And while it remains true to the corporate brand, the site design is cohesive with Leap’s newly revamped consumer brand Cricket, as seen on its website, mycricket.com, as well as other commercial, in-store and co-branded touchpoints on and off the web. Check it out here.

Baker and Leap have partnered on the following initiatives:
Six employee engagements videos
2011 annual review—online and print
Investor collateral
Corporate website

We’ve all heard it: crowdsourcing is the future. It seems to make sense, and for a capitalist like me the fundamental idea is sound… you need a service, and there are a lot of hungry people out there willing to provide it — let them fight it out, you just reap the reward. You spend the least amount possible and receive the maximum reward for that. We could have all kinds of warm, emotional conversations about the “right” or “wrong” of that, but the truth is that it’s really just a numbers game… everyone, whether they admit it or not, wants the maximum reward for the minimum expenditure.

But while the individual reward of such an approach certainly seems clear, from a macro perspective there are all kinds of things that are wrong with this approach. First of all, the truth is that cheaper and better rarely go hand-in-hand. There is a reason why things that are exceptional are rare… the best of anything is inevitably in a minority. And while there are certainly times where this approach is valuable — say for example when trying to find the best price on toothpaste, where we know for certain that the product we’re buying is exactly the same wherever we buy it — we rarely employ it on things that are important to us, and where the outcome is dependent on the effort of the individuals providing the service.

Additionally, the net effect of contributing to such a system is that you have manipulated market forces downword. And while that may not matter to you in the short term, in the long term it means that the service which you’ve effectively said, “has little value to me” will lose the efforts of those that are exceptional. What the system will be left with is everyone else… those with enough free time to do anything you want for the slim potential of “winning” your attention. And for those contributing to this ever-declining system that are good at what they do, have proven to be short sighted: for the opportunity of one, very small reward, they have driven the price of what they aspire to do for a living drastically down. Good luck trying to make a living doing that.

So the question is, are there situations where paying more is worthwhile? Absolutely. When you’re sick, you don’t put an ad out for a doctor and take the lowest bidder. And even when given the option of using a med student over a doctor with years of experience, people will generally choose the doctor with more experience. When choosing someone to take care of your kids, you wouldn’t think to ask hundreds to apply and then select the lowest bidder and the most superficially attractive option. When you hire a contractor, you don’t hire the one desperate for your work and willing to take many times less than any professional would. So what do these things have in common? That the amount you are willing to spend is directly proportional to how important it is to you.

So since we’re designers here, let’s cut right to the chase and talk about something near and dear to our hearts: branding. Why not crowdsource your brand? Or at the very least, your logo? We could have all kinds of discussions about how you just may get a great result from this process… hundreds of options to choose from for less than you spent at Starbucks last month, or on your new smartphone. Yes, it’s possible… you may be able to channel your inner brand savant and find the one logo that seems to capture exactly who you thought your company was, taking into account the story of who you were, are and want to be, current design trends and fads, the challenges of creating a logo that works in print, web and video, the multiple instances necessary for multiple color and b&w scenarios, the potential evolution of the mark and finally, of course, how it reinforces and informs your larger brand initiative. And if you don’t, what’s the big loss… you didn’t pay that much for it anyway.

But a brand is built from the moment it first appears in the world. From that singular moment, you are being judged… not just by your potential customers, but by everyone. Designers, reviewers, politicians, investors, and of course, your competition. And I assure you, what your 99designs logo says about you is that I do not care about my brand. I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on commercial-grade video equipment for my lobby, but I don’t care what you put on it. I’ve spent millions of dollars on advertising space in the Wall Street Journal, but it doesn’t matter what I say or show. And many people may agree with you, but the people that really matter won’t.

Think about the brands that stand out to you, the brands that are most successful. Apple, Nike, BMW, IBM. None of these brands were created through crowdsourcing. They were part of one very organized, very coordinated branding initiative, that was executed exceptionally well, across all media, over many, many years. And while someone may one day achieve such a thing through crowdsourcing (highly unlikely, unless the crowdsourcing of the components themselves was orchestrated by one very skilled individual or individuals), that magical case study will be the exception, not the rule.

There are certainly valuable things about the crowdsourcing model. Let’s say you’re a small business, just starting out and leveraging your credit cards to make ends meet while you wait for that “one big break.” Crowdsourcing is perfect for you. What if you’re starting a new career — maybe you’re a consultant or you’ve just started your own contracting business, and you feel like a logo will help you feel committed to your project, give you something to rally behind. Great, do it! This is a perfect use of this new, inexpensive resource. Use the model and the system.

But when you succeed, then pay someone appropriately to help you intelligently develop your brand. There is an expertise required to fully realize a brand that very few have. And the efforts of those few are valuable, as they should be. Your brand, from the moment it is created, is a living thing… it does not rest, it does not sleep, it is a constant in a sea of change, even as it changes the world around it. It is who you are, and who you aspire to be… and that my friends, is not a responsibility that belongs with the lowest possible bidder.

Well, first of all, there are a lot of reasons.  But let’s just focus on a couple of them here.

We talk a lot about being communicators, storytellers.  Part of the reason we place our focus there is that it’s a characterization that exists beyond the medium we use to communicate — a story is a story, an audience is an audience.  We choose our delivery method from a broad palette of the most relevant media available to deliver that story, that message.  As such, an important part of our job is keeping our eyes on the horizon — when a new delivery medium becomes available, we have to know what it means to us (as a communicative tool) and to the world-at-large (as an experiential tool).

Enter the iPad, a brand new game-changing device.  Up until now, the “netbook” has filled an unusual market space: it’s a tool meant for the user that wants to carry a computer with them but primarily wants it for less processor-intensive tasks… web browsing, email, watching movies, etc.  Computer manufacturers answered this need in the most simplistic way possible; they provided hobbled machines, built in smaller cases with smaller screens and lighter materials — like less-capable laptops.  What Apple has done, is analyze the underlying needs of that user segment and create a device that caters exceptionally well to those needs.  If i might make a fairly obvious prediction, this is going to be the next “must have” piece of mobile technology — it’s going to be the device to have if you’re a college student, a frequent traveller, a commuter, an artist, a reader, a movie fanatic… the list goes on and on.  Only a month after it’s announcement, it’s relevance online in articles, searches, blog entries, etc., has proven the impact it’s already made, and it hasn’t even shipped yet.

One of the most exciting aspects of this device though, is what it means in the “printed page”/digital media arena.  Last month’s New York Magazine commented that the iPad was looking to bring “old fashioned printed page graphic design into the digital era.”  This is an exciting thing to watch.  For years, designers have been frustrated by the limitations of designing for the web.  In many ways, designing for print is far superior to designing for the web… we create a design that is confined to a target we choose, and once printed is “baked” that way.  From that point forward, the experience is (hopefully) exactly what we intended for it to be.  With the advent of web design, however, all of the limitations of the printed page were suddenly done away with –both the good and the bad — but along with that blank slate came the challenges of wrestling with variable page widths and lengths, different target resolutions, different color depths, different browser requirements, etc., etc.  We would never again be sure that two experiences of the content created would ever be the same, and experience is critical.

All it takes is one look at the demonstration of how a book behaves on the iPad, and suddenly the possibilities become clear… all the welcome boundaries, physics and behaviors of a real printed page, but with the additional capability of including video, motion graphics, links, etc.  A fixed display resolution, beautiful color depth and multi-touch interactivity.  And most importantly, everyone that has one will see your content in exactly the same way.  And that is a very powerful thing. A critical part of delivering a message is knowing that it will be seen as intended… the iPad provides us with a platform where we have that security.  It is going to be the go-to device for college students, early adopters, alpha consumers, frequent travelers, readers, movie watchers, web browsers — and most importantly for us, people that are empowered to be brand champions.

I don’t know about you, but mine’s already on pre-order.

Storytellers: Gary Baker discusses a brand as a story. Storytellers

Santa Monica, CA (March 31, 2009) — Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading specialty pharmaceutical company, and Baker | Brand Communications have teamed to launch the company’s refreshed brand.

In 2007 Watson’s founder turned over the reins of the company to a new leader to take Watson to its next level of achievement. New leadership turned to Baker earlier this year to help articulate and express “the new Watson,” a company confident about its future and anticipating tremendous growth and opportunity. Baker refined the company’s brand platform, messages and look-and-feel, also creating a corporate overview brochure and employee culture guide.

Beginning March 31, Paul Bisaro, Watson’s President and Chief Executive Officer, will conduct a series of town hall meetings in the company’s major U.S. facilities to share the revitalized brand vision, mission and values. As part of the launch, employees will receive the culture guide as an invitation to align behind — and build — the new Watson culture.

Learn more about how Baker was able to capture the shifting culture and spirit of a company in rapid transition and poised for growth in the case study.