Ideo: Not a case of shoemaker's children syndrome

The global design and brand consultancy, Ideo, recently turned its brand- and business-building attention on itself. A recent post at fastcodesign.com looks at the rebranding process the firm used to focus on "intent, not just presence":  "The brief the [Ideo] designers received that morning didn't just ask them to come up with a new identity system for Ideo. It asked them to come up wit a new way of thinking about corporate identity altogether."

The process set up by Ideo is interesting for at least two attributes. First, it started out with an acknowledgement that it's almost too easy, with the digital technologies available today to designers, to express variation and contextual change -- but harder to articulate an enduring, yet "responsive identity." Second, the one-day, multi-office kick-off project for the rebranding was a kind of selective crowdsourcing; results of this phase will be subjected to a smaller, perhaps more conventional review and decision-making.

The Ideo rebranding process is also profiled at core77.