Applied Poetics

Brand, culture, design, voice–Applied Poetics is about finding clarity and meaning in our organizations.

Category Archives: Design

Betrayed by the brand: How Moleskine made enemies of the people who loved it most

Leave a Comment Posted by jonathanopp on October 25, 2011

These days, passionate brand advocates are hard won and easily lost. One of my favorite brands is learning this lesson right now. For writers, designers, or anyone in a creative field, notebooks are your place to record inspiration and craft ideas. I’m rarely without one. My notebook collecting has bordered on the obsessive—and many of [...]

Brand, Design AIGA, contest, crowdsourcing, Design, logo, Moleskine

Time to chase a new kind of dream

2 Comments Posted by jonathanopp on February 1, 2011

Last week the time had come for me to say goodbye to Red Hat. I joined the company on the third day of the year 2000. Red Hat was 350 people then. Today the company is over 3500 and is the largest and most recognized open source company in the world. I may have left [...]

Brand, Culture, Design, Voice Chris Grams, community catalyst, David Burney, Mark Twain, Matthew Muñoz, New Kind, Red Hat

When it’s time for change: Recycling and Redesigning Logos

Leave a Comment Posted by jonathanopp on December 19, 2010

Branding is about articulating the clearest, truest expression of who you are. For most brands, that expression is summed up in the logo identity. If you’re a new company, a new logo is a chance to introduce yourself to the world and make a good first impression. But when your logo and brand are already [...]

Brand, Design, Voice Brand, brand personality, Design, logo identity, Michael Hodgson, Recycling & Redesigning Logos, Voice

5 reasons why rapid prototyping works for creative projects

Leave a Comment Posted by jonathanopp on December 2, 2010

The open source community has a phrase for the principle of rapid prototyping: “Release early, release often.” The theory is sound: Don’t wait until a project is perfect to share it. Instead, keep producing work so more people can experience it, react to it, find bugs, and improve it.

Culture, Design best ideas win, community, creativity, meritocracy, open source, Paul Arden, rapid prototyping, release early release often, Robert Sutton, sharing, Tom Peters

Sharing the story of Red Hat’s brand and culture

6 Comments Posted by jonathanopp on November 28, 2010

Last week I was asked to speak about brand and culture to a group of visiting MBA students from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary. They came to Red Hat to learn more about the company, and I gave a talk on how brand and culture align at Red [...]

Brand, Culture, Design, Voice Brand, communities, culture, Mason School of Business, Red Hat, storytelling, United breaks guitars, William & Mary

Upgrading the motivational operating system: A conversation with Daniel Pink

1 Comment Posted by jonathanopp on April 9, 2010

The world of work has changed, but in many ways the model of motivation hasn’t. Are the traditional rewards of today’s organizations up to the challenge of motivating people to complete creative, complex tasks in creative ways? And can the open source way offer inspiration? Daniel Pink is a bestselling author and one of the [...]

Culture, Design A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink, Drive, Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, motivation, open source

Meeting our business challenges with creativity

Leave a Comment Posted by jonathanopp on February 14, 2010

A tide is turning for the state of business. We have come to realize the old ways of innovating and competing are no longer moving fast enough. We’re looking for new answers, and more importantly, new ways of finding them. This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 25th annual Emerging Issues Forum [...]

Culture, Design A Whole New Mind, creativity, Daniel Pink, Drive, Emerging Issues Forum, New Kind, North Carolina, open source, Red Hat, Roger Martin, Tom Kelley

Lessons from my favorite brands: Be more than a brand. Be a philosophy. – MUJI

1 Comment Posted by jonathanopp on December 6, 2009

Essential products. Minimalist sensibility. Restrained beauty and effortless simplicity. MUJI may just be the world’s most poetic brand. And it’s not a brand at all. Or at least they reject all of the traditional definitions. MUJI is a Japanese company whose name means “no brand quality goods.” For MUJI, it’s not about being a brand, [...]

Brand, Design, Voice applied poetics, Brand, minimalist, MUJI, philosophy, poetry

Change By Design–How to put design thinking to work

4 Comments Posted by jonathanopp on November 17, 2009

Design is too powerful to be used by designers alone. This is the essential idea behind the theory of design thinking–applying the principles and techniques of design to help organizations innovate, solve problems, and create positive change. Tim Brown, CEO and President of IDEO, should know. His new book, Change By Design, is about how [...]

Design collaboration, community, creative process, David Burney, design thinking, IDEO, Matthew Muñoz, open source, Red Hat, Tim Brown

Where design thinking and open source community collaboration meet

2 Comments Posted by jonathanopp on October 16, 2009

I’m currently reading the new book on design thinking from IDEO’s Tim Brown called Change By Design. (Full review coming soon.) The design thinking philosophy was first introduced to me, and to Red Hat throughout the company, by David Burney. In comparing traits associated with design thinking collaboration and collaboration in the open source community, [...]

Design collaboration, creative process, David Burney, design thinking, idea, open source, Red Hat, Tim Brown

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Applied Poetics

Category Archives: Design

Betrayed by the brand: How Moleskine made enemies of the people who loved it most

Time to chase a new kind of dream

When it’s time for change: Recycling and Redesigning Logos

Sharing the story of Red Hat’s brand and culture

Upgrading the motivational operating system: A conversation with Daniel Pink

Meeting our business challenges with creativity

Lessons from my favorite brands: Be more than a brand. Be a philosophy. – MUJI

Change By Design–How to put design thinking to work

Where design thinking and open source community collaboration meet

Applied poetics is a theory about changing how we build brands and communities. I believe organizations today can speak poetically—whether through written voice, visual brand, or the culture and passion of their people.

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