Blog3-Design Trends

Patagonia
http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/home
The first brand that I have chosen to explore is Patagonia. Patagonia specializes in producing quality clothing and apparel for the outdoors. Patagonia has built a strong brand identity that resonates with its audience due not only to the quality of their products, but also their dedication to the environment.

One of the main reasons that I have chosen to take a closer look at Patagonia is because they have not only made the design of their products central to the ideals of the brand, but they have expanded upon that by creating and participating in programs to preserve wildlife and the surrounding environments in which they live. One particular program that Patagonia is involved in is the 1% for the Planet program. This program is a group of businesses that donate one percent of their earnings toward protecting the environment.
(http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/patagonia.go?assetid=1960&ln=32)

Patagonia has been a leader in the outdoor apparel industry for many years now, one of the reasons for this is the design driven quality of their products. These products are designed in order to endure the elements in which their audience enjoys. They have kept this idea close the the heart when designing new product that are central to the ideas and elements of the outdoors. Their ideals are central to that of "Responsibiz" that is discussed in the 5 new design trends reading.

Patagonia has done everything in its power in order to become completely transparent in terms of environmental design by creating what they call "The Footprint Chronicles". This allows the customer to trace any particular product from its initial design to the distribution stage using many different types of media such as video and photos. This allows the customer to see that the brand is doing everything in its power to create socially and environmentally responsible products that are crucial for a successful brand today.
http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/footprint/index.jsp

-Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. ~Patagonia

Google
www.google.com

It is hard to think about innovation in a brand and not mention Google. Google's simplistic design and ease of use caused this brand to become what seemed like and overnight sensation that captured the hearts of computer users all over the world.

In the beginning, Google's simple page layout confused its viewers. These users had become so used to the search engines that had pages filled with advertisements and other needless clutter that they thought the Google page would not fully load. This type of simplistic design is what Google has become known for, putting the functionality of the site before the form of it.

In addition to having one of the most innovative search engines on the web, Google has been on the front lines in the up and coming market of cloud computing with products such as Google Docs, Calendar, and Gmail. In the David Report it is discussed how important it is to innovate and break the rules in order to differentiate yourself from your competitors, and Google is doing just that by coming up with out of the box thinking that has provided us with these cloud computing services.
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

As far as advertising for the Google brand goes, they have done a great job of portraying their simplistic, to the point design. Take their recent Superbowl ad titled "Parisian Love"This ad exemplifies the simplicity of the brand , and shows exactly what their product is all about...searching the internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU

In addition to Google's innovation they have become a very sustainable brand as well. They have taken a lead in producing product that will help users monitor their home energy use right from their fingertips. The program called Google PowerMeter is designed not only to conserve energy, but also to help each user save some money. (http://www.google.org/powermeter/) Aside from this particular program, Google also has a "green" campus that is offered to all of their employees. This ranges from having an on campus garden that is used to feed employees to arranging rides to work on bio diesel powered employee shuttles. Google is truly doing all it can to improve quaility of life for both its users and its employees.
http://www.google.com/corporate/green/index.html


Nike
http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US/?

Nike has become an iconic brand in our society. This is in part because of the central role that design has played in producing all that Nike has to offer whether this be a new shoe line or and iPod accessory.

Nike is a brand that has developed new technologies and ideas that allow design to be put into the consumers hands with tools such as NikeID. This project gives the customer near full control of designing the style of their shoe. Programs such as NikeID have been extremely successful in that they have helped to reconnect the consumer back to the brand in a way that not many other brands have been able to do. By being able to design your own shoe you are able to immerse yourself in the Nike brand without feeling as if you are trapped by what the brand would like you to wear. People are beginning to understand that we as consumers have more control than we may think when it comes to what brands can sell us. Nike is a brand that has realized consumers want more control over the products that they buy, so that is exactly what they have given them.
http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/index.jsp?sitesrc=uslp

Another way in which Nike has broken down some boundaries as discussed in the 5 new design trends reading is that they have expanded upon just selling athletic shoes and apparel. Now you can find the Nike brand in places that many people never would have expected such as skateparks or even in the apple store. This type of expansion has allowed Nike to continuously reach new audiences that may have never accepted the Nike brand (i.e. skateboarders, snowboarders, action sports community) Nike has broken down these barriers by finding out what is important to these communities and providing those assets within their products.
http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nke6/en_US/?sitesrc=uslp
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/