Ron Blog 3

TiVo

TiVo is a company whose brand and communication are founded on being well designed. The company is focused on heightening its customer's enjoyment of the TV-watching experience. TiVo is similar to Apple in the way the company exemplifies the "rationaissance" keywords, stylish, functional, and iconic. The brand prides itself on its intuitive, user-friendly interface, and well thought-out remote design (with ergonomic form). The brand achieves its goal of increased viewing pleasure by minimizing commercials, and maximizing availability of shows you actually want to watch.

TiVo is also "breaking barriers", in the way that the product the company sells allows its customers to avoid seeing most or all commercials that make watching TV possible (in this country). The idea of "no commercials" in this country is heresy. Such a radical feature of the product has caused much consternation in the advertising world, and proven to be a lucrative aspect of the company's business strategy. Companies now do business with TiVo in order for their commercials to be added to TiVo's customer's database of things to watch, as discussed in the article here.

Burt's Bees

Burt's Bees is another company who seems to have a bright future according to the David Report design trends. They obviously hit on the "responsibiz" category, being all natural, and focused on social responsibility, the environment, and its customer's well-being.

The company also fits in the "cooltural" category, as the brand is centered on the story of the founder, Burt, and his bees. The story includes Burt's hippy personality, which explains his passion for bee farming, and the idea of nature providing the product ingredients. Additionally, the company incorporates its humanitarian and environmental ideals to show how it provides functions that enrich nature, completing the cycle of nature to consumer and back to nature. This sustainable business model is marketed to have a local feel, as opposed to the global, corporate aspect of the competition's brands.

Smart Car

Another brand that exemplifies the design trends written about in the David Report is Smart Car. Smart Car is founded on a minimalist approach to automobile design. It takes part in the historical dialog of that industry, responding to recent concerns about oil dependence and pollution with a somewhat revolutionary idea--that cars don't need to be so big. The aspects of the brand that cause it to fit into the "rationaissance" category naturally lead to the brand fitting into the "responsibiz" category; a paired down, eco-friendly, minimal automobile design that customers can feel reduces their impact on the environment.

The Smart Car brand promotes the idea that being small, affordable, and eco-friendly is "smart". The company's website contains literature supporting the brand's touchpoints of safety and eco-friendliness.