Inspired Design… Every brand aspires to blend creative designs with the most innovative, market driving concepts. This objective and “true” brand foundation starts with inspiring your design team, and allowing the freedom to be creative beyond reality. Eventually, reality is brought to life in these designs, but it always starts with what is thought to be impossible.
From this foundational platform which allows designers to think beyond, “what currently is” to “what can be”, you will breed a creative force. It is the “what can be” that drives the creative engine, and allows for the most innovative product driven platform. Inspiring the design team is a process driven not by looking at what is in the marketplace, but rather what is not being done, and what can be “adapted” to ensure the brand will drive innovation for the next century. As I have mentioned previously, you do need to look at your competitive set as this will always be part of the process, not for what they have done, but rather for what they are not doing. The best designers do not want to drive in the rear view mirror, but always want to be driving the Lambo down the open road, while letting reality take a backseat.
” The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts, but how the get the old ones out…” Dee Hock
Inspire the design team, both graphic and industrial, with free-flowing, brand driven, creative briefs and you will be rewarded with the most innovative, market driving concepts, which then are brought into real world. You will find this process will create concepts/ideas ahead of their time, and some will be uncomfortable with this direction. But isn’t that the goal…?
Enjoy the Ride..!
Bryan Smeltzer
“Product Innovation & Marketing Success..”
LiquidMind
The author
Bryan Smeltzer is a successful consumer products business executive and entrepreneur. He has held executive-level roles in business development, product, and marketing with some of the world's most prestigious brands, including; Oakley, TaylorMade, Adidas, K-Swiss, Schutt Sports, among other international brands. In addition, Mr. Smeltzer founded an apparel brand, successfully running a profitable business for ten years, eventually selling to a VC firm. He currently oversees LiquidMind Inc., a global brand strategy firm that partners with both start-ups and established brands to empower their businesses to think different, be different, drive a passionate culture, and execute relentlessly.