Wendiez Neverland

Strategic Aesthetics Top Ten

Here are my picks for the best businesses using strategic aesthetics. Within their categories, these brands use aesthetic design in a unique, differentiated way that helps their business succeed. This list is continuously changing, so please weigh in with your opinions and feedback.

The veteran of strategic aesthetics, Apple’s appearance shouldn’t come as a surprise. So much has beenwritten about Apple design I don’t think it’s necessary to go into too much detail. (If you’re interested in my take on Apple, check out this post on the three keys to duplicating of their success.)

BMW

BMW boasts the ultimate driving machine, but it wasn’t until they unleashed Chris Bangle in 2001 that they had the ultimate in car styling to match. Author Stephen Bailey even compared Bangle’s disruptive, concave, “flame” surfacing to Picasso’s cubism. Although the design work is controversial and attention grabbing, the most important part of Bangle contribution was to BMW’s bottom line.

Crown

People may be surprised to find out how important design is to one leading fork lift manufacturer. Crown sets itself apart through good aesthetics and great ergonomics, giving their operators a reliable, comfortable, and efficient experience. To back it up, Crown wins IDEA awards seemingly every year.

IKEA

Like many of the businesses on this list, design isn’t the only reason IKEA is successful. But their low cost, high aesthetic furniture is the only reason people travel for miles to outfit their entire house with it.

Method

Any product can be a lifestyle product, even soap. While P&G and Unilever fought over the performance of their products, Method quietly entered the market with some naturally-based cleaners in really cool packages. They pulled consumers in with their shelf presence and followed through with authentic, humorous messaging. Now the big brands are starting to pay attention and Method will have to be better than ever at design to hold their small but significant position.

Muji

Muji challenges it’s own existence through the starkest, most anonymous home and office products in the world. Not many businesses would be bold enough to name themselves “No Brand.” Their company tries to be invisible but is oftentimes quite the opposite. They own an aesthetic that feels purposely essential and minimal.

Oakley

While most eyewear brands keep close tabs on what each other are doing, Oakley continues to feel comfortable just being itself. Their chosen aesthetic is one of the most polarizing examples of design, helping them grow from a company that makes sunglasses to a lifestyle brand that offers a full range of performance products.

Skull Candy

Skull Candy innovates by applying the rules of one category to the rules of another. They understand the value of self-expression through their experience with action sports, and they translate this sense of style into a line of products that clearly stands out from all the other audio brands on the market. Audiophiles may complain that the performance of Skull Candy’s headphones isn’t up to par, but we can’t hear them.

Target

While Wal-Mart maintains tight control over a low cost strategy, Target smartly offers an alternative that provides great design at mass retail. Since their early partnerships with Michael Graves and Philippe Starck, they’ve matured into a savvy company that understands licensing and managin an in-house design team.

Your Choice

As competition evolves, so will individual business strategies. This list isn’t set in stone, and I want to know your picks for the best brands who are differentiating through design. Let me know who you think is the best and if I agree I’ll put them on the list.

Repost from http://www.michaelroller.com/?page_id=385 by Michael Roller

SKIM MILK: REFURBISHMENT BY SFARO ARCHITECTS

Located in Tel-Aviv, Israel, this 40-square-meter refurbishment is the design of SFARO Architects. The bustling city has seen a sharp increase in housing prices within the past few years. As a result, people have been more inclined to renovate their homes instead of selling and buying bigger homes.

The owner of this home decided to transform a studio into a one-bedroom with storage units, a separate kitchen, and a decent-sized bedroom. The architects divided the space into four zones, and aggregated the storage units into the center of the home. Sliding doors were added to the storage cubes to further the multi-functionality of the space.

Read more at Design Milk: http://design-milk.com/skim-milk-refurbishment-by-sfaro-architects/#ixzz1gH4YEGSa

White wall and wood floor (color:English Chestnut?) perfectly matched together forming a modern but still home-like space.

以色列SAFRO建築設計所將一個工作室改造為單人專屬的小公寓。其中必須要有一個寬敞舒適的寢室以及足夠收藏物品的空間。

於是在12坪左右的長方形空間裡，坐於正中央儲藏室將周遭區隔出四個獨立空間：兩個長廊、寢室以及廚房。

設計師以獨特的配置營造出了空間延伸錯覺。當人在裡頭穿梭的時候會以為好像一個個房間是持續延伸的，但事實上卻是圍繞著同個中心點在繞圈子。

New arrangement for my tumblrs

For now on, I am going to separate my posts into three tumblrs:

1. Wendiez Neverland: Still the main tumblr where I collect interesting designs, fun stuffs, reblogged posts and some of my personal reflections on movies, books and etc.

2.Yuchi’s Life and Travel : album of photos taken by myself

3. Yuchi’s portfolio: an online collection of my own design works.

Sometimes I will reblog posts between these 3 tumblrs, but I will try to keep the content consistent.But since my interests lies in so many fields, it is hard to separate them clearly.

Also for the language issue: I will mostly post in English, but sometimes I will include Chinese texts as well. I am still not sure which language I should use, whether my mother-tongue or the “world langauge”….hmmm…