Anyone who has ever step foot in our conference room has seen the rules we live by broken down into small digestible snippets of information. One of our personal favorites is “Saying very little, often speaks volumes.” Or in other words, simpler is sometimes better.

Part of what we do when starting a project is breaking it down to it’s most simplest form and begin there. Whether it’s the brand thinking behind a logo or the theme that underlies a corporate brochure, the ability to communicate a complicated message in a simple manner is a hallmark of a great designer. or illustrator. or actor. or quarterback. or pilot. or anyone, really.
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On Sunday May 23rd, at approximately 11:30 PM EST, the eye closed for the last time on a television show that has become ingrained into the culture here at Mlicki. A date many of us here were both anticipating and dreading all at the same time. On that fateful Sunday, after 6 Seasons on ABC, the series finale of LOST aired and the show took it’s final bow.

Yes, LOST was about a plane crash, a smoke monster, polar bears, time-travel, the Others, a seemingly random series of numbers, ancient Egyptian mythology and a mysterious island. Yes, LOST was complicated, went in loops, lived 24/7/365 in online dialogues, had countless podcasts, blogs and fan pages devoted to it. But more than that, LOST was about what the millions of crazed fans out there made it. Their brand experience with the show. (Yes, there were millions of us.)  And really,  isn’t that what every brand wants? A tremendously loyal and expanding fan-base?

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Not too long ago, consumers thought Old Spice was simply your father’s Aftershave. It came in a rather oddly iconic white glass bottle and anyone over 30 remembers seeing in their Father’s/Grandfather’s bathroom. It was cheap. It was potent. And supposedly, it was what “real men” smelled like. Strong, burly and handsome men. The kinds with hairy chests, that worked on ships and always got the girl. After all it was marketed, in all seriousness, as “The Mark of a Man.” But times change, the 80’s came and attitudes like that can only last for so long. The idea behind it became, for lack of a better word, cheesy, old and musky. And that will turn your hunky brand into a 90 lb weakling. So what does an irrelevant, stagnating brand do?

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