Art and Design of Marketing

Kanye West’s lastest album is one of the best rap albums this year. The songs are tight and extremely well produced. You can always expect Wes’s best when he drops his music. What’s not expected for me was his colaboration with Takashi Murakami for the album’s art. It’s not the first time we see collaborations between artiste and artist but I really digh Murakami’s “superflat” art. Superflat is a style he pioneered which basically very non-dimensional. Even top brands like LV count as one of Murakami’s clients - check this out

Joshua Davis is yet another prolific artist who frequently collaborates with brands like BMW and Motorola. His work is distinct and inspired by the likes of Jackson Pollock. The best way I can describe it is “controlled chaos”. I had the opportunity to attend his talk early this year in KL and was really impressed with his work ethic and story.

It’s amazing how “design” is now taking a more critical role in marketing – it’s moving esthetics and being embraced as part of the consumers’ experience. Take Apple’s iPod for example, when we think about it at its lowest common denominator, it’s still and just an mp3 players. It’s hard to quantify but who can doubt the impact of design on Apple products?

Better designs allow for better mragins through better pricing. The tricky part however is to figure out what better design means to customers and if they would ultimately pay for it.

If you have a problem struggling with the design thing for your products, just do what most of them did: commission artists to the job for you – but don’t just use any artist, must have “khang-Tau” one lar otherwise no one gives a damn leh…