At fusionbureau we aim to help our clients with the one stop shop service they have come to expect from us. Although we cover a wide range of services, it might be good to summarize our specialties: 
INTERACTIVE CREATIVE AGENCY
web + graphics + more
The 26th edition of Tokyo Designers Week opened on November 1st and runs until the 6th of November. Despite the name, it's more of a single location event - all the other design events on at this time of year are not actually under the TDW umbrella.
My expectations on arrival were not that high. On my last visit to the event a few years ago there was a lot of interesting furniture but nothing that really left an impression. This time the event was a slightly different experience - there seemed to be much more of a contemporary art focus with a lot of installation type design as well as a lot more of an academic presence with numerous art and technical universities sponsoring and running booths. As a sign of the times, interactive technology also had a strong presence with DoCoMo building an interesting smart phone manipulated environment and Fujitsu creating a sensor based interactive video and music experience. While there was a lot of innovative Japanese design on show, design from neighbouring countries South Korea and Taiwan also stood out. The Red Dot Design Award winning Korean designed silicone iPhone stand was particularly popular. Overall TDW 2011 offered a wide range of interesting and innovative creative design. If you miss the last day of the event tomorrow, keep an eye out for the event when it comes around again in 2012.
On Monday this week, an email was sent to LinkedIn users located in Japan announcing the launch of the Japanese version of the business networking site.
Coming more than eight years after the launch, this has to be one of the slowest localisations of a popular site ever. Digital Garage (the company behind the successful localisation and launch of Twitter in Japan) originally planned to help produce a Japanese version in 2007, although that never came to fruition. There was a new announcement in May this year that Digital Garage was back on the case but there hasn't been any mention of DG in this latest development so it's unclear if that's the reason why we're finally seeing a Japanese version. With the delay in launching a dedicated business 'SNS' in Japan, a number of companies attempted to launch Japanese equivalents but without the international brand recognition of a site like LinkedIn, they were unable to gain a critical mass. Much more than in western societies, Japanese are reluctant to share personal information in a public forum so the small locally produced sites were never able to gain the necessary trust to get people to sign on. In the absence of a real business social network, facebook has actually become the standard for business social networking in Japan. With the huge brand recognition and hundreds of thousands of users in Japan already using the English site (a real rarity in Japan) it shouldn't take LinkedIn long to usurp facebook as the leading business networking site in Japan. However, having played around a bit with the Japanese interface it's quite clear that the site is still a real work in progress. Despite having a Japanese version of my profile it continues to show me the English one when I click on 'profile'. Also, despite putting in my central Tokyo postal code, it's telling me that I'm in Tokyo outside the 23 wards rather than inside. These are just small things, but they're the difference between a smooth user experience and one in which the user has to make an extra effort to use it. Now that they LinkedIn are putting an effort into the Japanese version these kinks will be quickly ironed out. The question will be whether business people in Japan will be willing to share 'personal' info such as companies they have worked for and schools they have attended.
Please check out the new fusionbureau web site. If you have any feedback for us, we'd be happy to hear from you.
http://fusionbureau.com
Just to make this clear from the outset, 'Corporate Identity' is about a lot more than a logo. A logo can be a unifier that ties everything together, but CI is about everything that your customers (or staff) are likely to come into contact with. It includes the name of your company, slogans, symbols, colours, the clothes that employees wear to client meetings and in the office, business cards, presentations, the way you answer the phone, the tone and speed of email responses and even your customers.
It's usually the more authentic, organic aspects of a business that shape the visual elements of a business's corporate identity rather than the other way around. For example, if you're an expensive, discreet, trustworthy legal firm you're probably not going to want an electric pink colour theme with comic sans as your primary font. Within a domestic context, it's possible to get a pretty good handle on all this and project a consistent image. However, when an international aspect is added to a business there are suddenly diverse cultural and linguistic considerations that mean that you may have to rethink your entire visual system. So here are a few things to think about when you start on developing the visual aspects of your international corporate identity. 1. Challenge your AssumptionsSomething that has meaning in one culture may mean something completely different in another. You may think a colour, font or mascot communicates one thing but in another culture it may have a completely different significance. Visuals including animals, traditional symbols and gestures are particularly susceptible to this. 2. Local scriptsIn the Americas, Africa or Western Europe, it's not usually necessary to change the script in which the name of your company is written. However, in some countries, a version of the name written in local script is required by law. In others, locals may not even be able to read Latin script - especially for words containing non phonetic spelling. Also don't assume that because countries share a similar script that the same will apply in each country. For example, in Japan it is very unusual for an international company to use Chinese characters to write the company name but in China, this is the norm. 3. Changing your nameIdeally, an international company wants to leverage its international brand when entering a new market so that brand building doesn't have to start from zero. However, sometimes it makes sense to go for a different name or a variation on the name. The illustration above is a good example - McDonalds decided that the 's' was superfluous for Japan so the localised name (written in Katakana script) is just 'McDonald' (or more precisely 'makkudonarudo'). The case of McDonalds Japan highlights another issue with an international brand - local trademarks. McDonald's were beaten by a day to registration of their own trademark in Japan resulting in a legal battle lasting 16 years. Another example of a company that tweaked its brand in Japan was ice cream shop Baskin Robbins. In Japan it is commonly known as '31' from its original slogan of '31 flavours'. Presumably the thinking was that '31' would be easier for Japanese speakers to pronounce and remember. 4. A one size fits all approach or an adaptable visual systemThe approach of international marketers over the last twenty years or so has been to build consistent 'global' brands. Often there is a strong push of strategy and creative from head office to international offices. German multinational DHL maintains a strict consistency by keeping all logos and tag lines in English irrespective of the location. The other approach is to allow for flexibility in the corporate identity. This could include prescribing standard ways in which the logo can be adapted - for example a localised version of the name could be included above, below or to the right of the global logo. This could also include specifying equivalent fonts in local character sets (as McDonalds has done in the image above) or an alternative colour palette. 5. Go the whole hog Corporate Identity is often the reflection of many years of accumulated culture. When developing an international corporate identity it can be easy to forget the aspects that are separate from typical elements such as logos, web sites, business cards and stationery. This is sometimes seen in tech startups who open offices overseas. Whereas the head office is a fun, creative, relaxed environment the office in Tokyo is just like that of every other company. Adjusting a corporate identity for an international market doesn't mean you need to make your working environment the same as every other company in the market. This is where disconnects can occur - corporate identity becomes a facade rather than a genuine expression of the company 6. Go with your gutWhen going into any new market, there are always a plethora of agencies and consultants ready to give you an opinion on your brand and your CI. They typically get paid for the amount of work they do so of course they're going to come up with a long list of 'problems' that need to be solved - whether they are genuine risks or not. The key is having someone on your side with intimate local knowledge who can balance the unique aspects of your corporate identity with the needs of the market and to a certain extent just trusting your intuition.
In mid to late autumn of each year there is a flurry of interesting art, design and media related events in Tokyo. Here are a few that we'll be either attending or keeping an eye on.
Digital Content Expo 2011 Thursday, the 20th of October to Saturday, the 22nd of OctoberThis is what it says. The best of Japanese CG and 3D art and animation will be on display. There will also be a wide range of hi-tech companies showing off such things as interactive tables, thermal drawing devices and the latest in 3D cameras and display technology. http://dcexpo.jp/en/access/
refreshing summer greetings from fusionbureau http://www.fusionbureau.com
fusionbureau recently completed an international site for Coram Japan.
http://en.coram.co.jp/
