What a pain

Just off Charles Bridge in Praha is The Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments. Ouch!

Dead?

Michael Jackson dead? Why has there not been more in the media to tell us about it?

In between brands

The disappearance from the high street of the once proud Woolworth brand has left a gap in many UK towns where the retail sector is already struggling.

In Harrogate the store has already been taken by Boots.

The accidental interim brand, created by the removal of the Woolies letters and leaving the cables dangling looks better than many intentional signs.

What does it say? The shadows make new letters. Peer Poo? Now that's an idea for gardeners.

Eau de Rail Nord

When you need to freshen up after a hot day, Northern Rail has introduced its new cosmetics brand. Yorkshire's answer to Issey Miyake?

Dead end street?

Education Road is off Meanwood Road in Leeds.

I used to drive past this sign on my way to and from the University of Leeds each day and sometimes after a day of tutorials it made me wonder!

Brand stakeholders

Brand is a misunderstood term and is misused frequently. Some believe it's about a logo.

This photograph explains what brand is about.

It's about what was once nailed to this stake driven into a grass verge by an estate agent erecting a sale board.

It's about the lads who kicked it down.

It's about the council that mows the grass around the stake and has now used weedkiller to kill off the grass around its base to avoid sending out a man with a strimmer.

It's about the felled sign left in the garden now the house sale has been agreed. And the rusty nails protruding from the signpost. And the estate agent's logo still there gathering moss.

It's about how brands are nothing to do with a logo. It's about how brands' stakeholders muddy the pitch if they don't manage the totality of the process.

A brand is not a logo; a logo is not a brand. And, as Confucius said, 'what is said is not what was meant'.

Welcome to the ramblings of a man with his mind on the slipway to madness

I recall many years ago a friend and colleague proudly bringing his newly published book to the office for us to admire. One of our gathering read the blurb aloud, adding at the end 'these are the ramblings of a man with his mind on the slipway to madness'.

And that is how I introduced many of my lectures as an academic (the subsequent lectures beginning 'welcome to the further ramblings of a man with his mind on the slipway to madness').

I always liked that and it seems apt for my blog.