WE CREATE AND NURTURE BRANDS

ÖZLEM TUSKANFounder, BrandSeers

Another year has passed and it’s time for us to publish our now rather iconic and popular Little Book of Inspirations.

This year has been one of technological magnitude. As disciplines converge, big data is better understood, boundaries fudged, rules broken, new horizons are born. It has been a year of change, of asking deeper, more serving questions and innovating, changing habits in order to answer them.

A recent global study highlights this; “Most CEOs want to improve their company’s ability to innovate: Almost 1 in 2 CEOs say their organisation is focusing on developing a better innovations ecosystem which supports growth, as a priority over the next three years.” *

Innovation is process as much as it is a state of mind. With this book we aim to feed your mind, allowing you to make connections between ideas where none previously perhaps existed, to think the unthinkable, to hold light to what the future may just hold. With it we hope to ignite imaginations, and trigger creativity; essentially the ability to generate innovative ideas, both in thinking and in realisation.

As the great quote from Einstein goes, “Logic may get you from A to B but imagination will take you everywhere.”

We wish you a colourful journey of the imagination in 2015.

* http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/

When we watched McFly fly on his hovercraft in Back to the Future some 30 years ago, we never thought the day would actually come. The hacker community HENDO have invented the Whitebox, a developer kit that contains a scaled down set of hover engines. With speak of an optimal ride height, effortless guide and high performance design, could a life of painstaking traffic soon be behind us?

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” – Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, Back to the Future

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Welcome to 2015. 1.

Aiming to eliminate wasteful packaging from food production, WikiPearl skins are a new vision of packaging inspired by the way nature packages fruit and vegetables. “We use the rules of nature to wrap food and beverage in edible skins, like grape skins or the white endoderm of a coconut.” Professor David Edwards, Harvard University, Founder Wikifoods Inc.

With benefits on health, no waste, no environmental footprint and unbelievable taste, this appears to be a win-win solution.

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A Future of No Food and Beverage Packaging?

2.

Portuguese designer Susana Soares has developed a device for detecting cancer and other serious diseases using trained bees.

Scientists have found that honey bees – Apis mellifera – have an extraordinary sense of smell that is more acute than that of a sniffer dog and can detect chemical odours, including the biomarkers associated with diseases such as tuberculosis, lung, skin and pancreatic cancers.

Perhaps nature really does have the remedy?

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Honey Bees Detecting Cancer

3.

In the conversation film Nature is Speaking, famous actors become the voice of nature.

“I am water, I am most of this planet, I shaped it, every stream, every cloud, every raindrop, it all comes back to me, one way or another every living being needs me. I am the source. Humans are not different, I don’t owe them anything, I give, they take, but I can always take back. I covered this entire planet once and I can cover it again.” – Harrison Ford, the Ocean

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I am the Ocean4.

If we don’t realise we need to take care of nature, this is a bleak look into what the future can hold.

In their previous exhibition Postcards from the Future, visionary artists Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones presented views of the city reimagined under irrevocable environmental change with images that thrive on the juxtaposition of forms and settings. This year, they continued their interest in exploring issues of sustainability and the possible effects of man-made climate change with their image Parliament Water Crisis. The scenario indicates that there may be no tipping point; instead a bumpy slope down to a future world we would fear to be a part of.

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A Future Not Too Far Off5.

As Brazillian protestors drew attention to the huge costs involved in hosting the global football championship and deepening disparities, Brazil experienced a painful defeat. The national sport was experiencing the same kind of collective break-down that many Brazilians were seeing in society around them. Brazil’s shocking loss taught us that there are no short cuts, and despite how successful you are you still need to work harder and strive to think smarter.

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The Lessons of Defeat6.

This year the Soma fire took a reported 301 lives making it the deadliest mining disaster in Turkish history. As companies are increasingly driven by profitability, employee safety standards are being dangerously overlooked. Nothing should come at the price of human life. A line should be drawn and not just the one at the bottom of a spreadsheet.

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What is Our True Bottom Line?

7.

Philip Seymour HoffmanJuly 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014

Berkin ElvanJanuary 5, 1999 – March 11, 2014

Wally OlinsDecember 19, 1930 – April 14, 2014

Gabriel García MárquezMarch 6, 1927 – April 17, 2014

Selim Sesler1957 – May 12, 2014

Massimo VignelliJanuary 10, 1931 – May 27, 2014

Maya AngelouApril 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014

Çolpan İlhanAugust 8, 1936 – July 25, 2014

Robin WilliamsJuly 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014

Lauren BacallSeptember 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014

Süleyman SebaApril 5, 1926 – August 13, 2014

Joan RiversJune 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014

Heroes Lost8.

“We live in an era of globalisation and the era of the woman. Never in the history of the world have women been more in control of their destiny.” – Oscar de la Renta

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RIP, Oscar de la Renta9.

Classics never die but always inspire.

A graduate student of fashion history Lilah Ramzi has created the blog Part Nouveau to highlight how much of the creative material produced and designed today has its roots in a previous incarnation or is essentially “part nouveau”.

“The blog seeks to aid our contemporary eyes, so used to being presented with the newest and latest within the creative world, to recognise and give credit to what has come before.” – Lilah Ramzi

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Original Inspiration?10.

Is our perception of the value of goods changing?

Have brands lost their meaning?

Is there a growing obsession with the ordinary?

Do everyday commodities and everyday brands need to do something extraordinary?

Or is it just a case of continual innovation?

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The Extraordinary Ordinary 11.

This year a collaboration between the UK’s leading trend forecasting consultancy The Future Laboratory, design studio Campaign and French perfume house Givaudan saw an experimental bespoke retail experience that created products for customers tailored to their preferences, their memories, and a rather engaging form of psychometric profiling.

“It helps you to discover the essence of yourself and imagine how your personality, your mind-set, your preferences, your behaviour could be distilled into a scent.” – Chris Sanderson, CEO, The Future Laboratory

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Selfridges Fragrance Lab – A Model for Future Retail?

12.

Brands are beginning to take trolling head-on to demonstrate what it really takes to drown out all the voices of the Internet.

The online comments are projected behind the supermodel Gisele Bündchen in a new advert for Under Armour to illustrate that even the most celebrated women receive criticism and a strong reaction to everything they do.

“We want women everywhere to block out the negativity and focus on their goals and aspirations regardless of these coward keyboard warriors.” – Under Armour

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Gisele Takes Aim at Internet Trolls

13.

Artists and hackers came together to use any form of data to create art – looking for order in randomness.

40 different projects were created, using Ai Weiwei’s data and other datasets ranging from deforestation statistics to Facebook profiles. The projects ranged from the political to the bizarre.

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Tate Modern Transforms into a Hackers Space

14.

The Unseen is an exploration house that blends biological and chemical matter into materials; focused on seeing the unseen by combining science with art, design and performance. It is a house sensitive to both technology and design aiming to offer luxury that enhances the unseen.

“When worn, the headpiece becomes a reflection of inner thought. The gemstone becomes compatible with the human, absorbing energy loss from the head.” – Lauren Bowker, Founder, The Unseen

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The Unseen Seen15.

How can you dig deeper into the truth of your data?

How can you be more accurate with your customers’ true needs and real existence?

British Airways’ new test blanket, features technology that measures how you’re feeling, then displays it, via colour, onto the blanket. It uses fibre-optic LED technology and connects to a brainwave measuring headband. It’s blue when you’re content, and red when you’re stressed out.

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The Mood Blanket16.

Sometimes you just need to bring a little joy to everyday actions to ignite human change. As part of their #WhatAreYouFor viral campaign this year, Smart launched For a Safe City, a unique traffic light system for pedestrians wanting to cross a busy road in Lisbon, Portugal. Just as people are getting bored waiting for the light to turn green the red figure starts to dance. The traffic light has encouraged 81% more people to stop and wait before crossing.

#WhatAreYouFor

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Dancing Traffic Light17.

The Turkish company Pugedon offers a clever innovation aimed at giving stray animals a brighter future, while also encouraging its users to get into a healthy recycling habit.

Pugedon is a vending machine that releases food for the city’s stray cats and dogs in exchange for recycled plastic bottles. Once someone deposits their bottle at the top, pet food is released at the bottom. A little kindness for a little more kindness.

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Pugedon18.

The smartphone has sparked an explosion in creativity. Sara Cwynar’s collage for Wired, which measured 45 inches by 60 inches and took a week to create, arranges cassette tapes, slides, calculators, floppy disks, books and other objects into a colour-coded display, putting across a very analog representation of all the things a smartphone can do.

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Rubbish Art?19.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke

This year we saw drones delivering books and we started exploring new uses of drones in the creative industries – theatre, dance and circus – as part of performance, as opposed to solely documenting it. Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios have partnered to develop a short film that depicts a beautiful interactive choreography between humans and drones.

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The Art of Drones20.

Following a four-month study in Izmir, designer Deniz Karaşahin created Osteoid to offer a new way of tackling the problems of a traditional cast; comfort and time taken to heal. This new technology is a custom-fitted, durable, 3D printed medical cast that doesn’t itch or smell, is lighter, slimmer, environmentally friendly and not affected by water. But what is most impressive is that the cast can also be combined with the low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) bone stimulator system, which when used daily, promises to reduce the healing process by up to 38% and increase the heal rate by up to 80% in non-union fractures.

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Healing Cast21.

Starwood, which runs chains such as St Regis and Le Meridien, is using sharply-dressed bots (robot butlers) in its Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, California. The butler is able to bring guests items such as towels and toothbrushes, freeing human staff for other activities and potentially better service quality. Can robots really be a replacement for top quality customer service in an era when people are increasingly in need of human interaction?

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Robot Butler22.

How much are you enabling learning?

How much are we really encouraged to learn?

Can we be entertained as we learn?

The New York Hall of Science is developing an app to help kids learn physics on the playground. It will leverage the way kids naturally play to create a social, engaging education platform that can fit in with Common Core principles for middle school physics.

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Tactile Learning23.

Google Loon continues to work on trying to provide Internet access to everyone on the planet by creating a ring of balloons that fly around the globe on the stratospheric winds. A world where we are all connected? As the project continues to gain progress we wonder what that will mean? Especially for our privacy...

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Loony Loon24.

A world fully connected? Where will we be?Hiding in the deep dark web?

Aphex Twin’s cryptic promotional campaign for the launch of his new album, Syro, included an announcement made available only on the Deep Web.

Is this the start of deeper online communications?

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In the Deep Dark Web?25.

We are individually wired to everyone and everything via our gadgets. Becoming invisible is increasingly being desired as we strive to protect our identities and privacy.

What happens when you remove data completely from the biosphere? What happens when your customer walks into a store and they are undetected, they are a black node? How do you relate to the client, the customer?

How do you manage your narrative?

The Affair has introduced stealth fabric technology: “A collection of streetwear that makes you invisible to Big Brother.”

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Building for a Post-Snowden Reality

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‘1984’ CAPSULEInspired by Orwell’s fiction

Built for the post-Snowden reality

When was the last time you thought about the future, and planned for the long-term?

Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos’ project to build a 10,000-year clock designed to be a symbol, an icon for long-term thinking, is nearly complete. This 42 million dollar project is a metaphor to teach people to look into the future in a different and optimistic way. The vision is to build a clock that will keep time for the next 10,000 years.

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The 10,000-Year Clock27.

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Like a Girl28.It is nowadays a prerequisite that brands contribute to society and real issues that affect our lives. People want brands to be role models, to change discourse, to bring better change to the world. By looking at sensitive life issues that affect one as a woman, adult, child, mother, and father, the Always Like a Girl campaign does just that.

What would happen if all local small businesses invested in branding? What hope would it bring them? What further success would it bring their business and the broader economy at large? Wajha, an Amman-based project, has been established to freshen up small businesses, to give them hope and better chances of standing out through effective use of branding. This creative philanthropy aims to improve communities on a “hyper-local” scale.

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New Hope Through Branding

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Using a growing and innovative method of storytelling, Honda’s recent campaign gives viewers the ability to switch between a dual narrative, brilliantly communicating Honda’s character; from the “wild child” alter-ego (the legacy in racing and innovation) to the reliable civic hatchback (the reputation of engineering excellence and safety), all the while introducing them to the new Honda Civic Type R. A seamless product and brand campaign; who ever said the two had to be different?

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Honda Civic – The Other Side

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The strongest industries are emerging from a fusion of previously separate fields; fashion and technology, media and retail, gaming and art, theatre and hospitality.

Schwartz’s Sound of Taste is a great example of immersive experience captured with a convergence of different sensual experiences to tell a story. I6 different herbs and spices have been translated into musical chords and the conductive inks on the poster enable you to explore the sounds with your fingers, bringing taste dynamically alive.

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Touch the Flavour – an App Made of Paper

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Art or advertising? Art or fashion?A random moment or an inspiration?A jacket or a signature icon?

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The World32.

With a talking tree, a bad-mouthing raccoon and just pure craziness going on through the movie, we see the genre of sci-fi turned on its head – an irreverence and story complexity that made Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy different from every other superhero film and the standard blockbuster boilerplate. As the highest-grossing box office hit this year, it just shows that it can pay dividends to break the mould and admit that even superheroes have flaws.

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Dancing Groot33.

The joy on the face of our little actress Arin Aktekin and her co-star when they heard that their first movie had won a Felis award.

This year we won the Felis Achievement Award for “Environment and Sustainability” with our Aygaz Otogaz – www.gelecegeyolal.com brand communications platform, which sparked a new and increasingly important debate on climate change.

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Felis Award34.

It’s been another nutty year, but how you feel about it really depends on how you look back on it.

For BrandSeers it has been a monumental one. Thank you to all of our clients for a great year full of enriching endeavours – it has been a delight!

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Our New Recruits35.

1. Hendo Hover2. Wikipearl, Wikifoods Inc.3. Susana Soares4. Conservation International5. © Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones6. sadbrazilians.tumblr.com; Joedson Alves / Reuters7. Bülent Kılıç / AFP8. Philip Seymour Hoffman, unknown; Berkin Elvan, Getty Images; Wally Olins, Saffron Brand Consultants; Gabriel García Márquez, unknown; Selim Sesler, Ayhan Şahin; Massimo Vignelli, www.vignelli.com; Maya Angelou by Chester Higgins Jr; Çolpan İlhan, unknown; Robin Williams, Brigitte Lacombe; Lauren Bacall, unknown; Süleyman Seba, unknown; Joan Rivers by Charles William Bush 9. Getty Images10. www.partnouveau.com, Lilah Ramzi11. Moschino; Anya Hindmarch12. The Future Laboratory

Image Sources

13. Under Armour14. Tate Modern15. The Unseen16. British Airways17. Smart18. Pugedon19. Sara Cwynar, Wired Magazine20. Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, Verity Studios21. Deniz Karaşahin22. Justin Solomon / CNBC23. Celine Grouard for Fast Company24. Project Loon, Google25. Aphex Twin26. The Affair27. Jim Merithew / Wired.com; Rolfe Horn / The Long Now Foundation28. Lauren Greenfield / Always29. wajha.tumblr.com30. Honda31. Billie Jean with Grey London32. Chanel33. Unknown34. Elif Ergür35. Funda Çevik

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Burçak Önen Aras

burcak@brandseers.com

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