Concept Code - How to Create Meaningful Concepts

CONCEPT CODE

18 CONTEXT

Figure 1.1 Cocentric Circels Model

Source: Work Foundation (2007)

with an added value that respond to the experience of consumers. These solutions also have the objective of making an increasingly more significant contribution to the greater social challenges we face globally. In 2001, the creative economy gained attention through the British writer and media manager John Howkins.

He made a distinction between various domains and labelled selected domains ‘creative’ that had never before been considered part of the creative industry.

That immediately brings us to the next term: culture industry.

Since the eighties, the core of the cultural industry has been characterised by a symbolic or expressive element.

In those days, the heart of the cultural industry was globally represented by UNESCO, the UN organisation for education, science, culture and communication.

This encompassed a wide range of domains, such as music, art, fashion, design, media, film, television, and radio, etc. All these fields are characterised by a significant economic value, but also by a social and cultural significance. The term ‘creative industry’ was coined for much broader productive manifestations.

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The origin of the discussion on the creative industry can be traced back to the United Kingdom, where the Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) developed the following definition: ‘Those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.’ (DCMS, 1998) In the model (figure 1.1) of The Work Foundation you can see how these terms relate to each other. The model is based on the concentric circles model by Throsby (2001). The model differentiates between the cultural and the creative industry, but they are both placed within the perspective of the overall economy.

This model demonstrates that the heart of the activities within the creative economy is based on expressive values. It represents the purely creative content. This content is created by an author, painter, dancer, or for instance filmmaker. The commercialisation of these purely expressive values takes place in the cultural industry. For example with music, television, and radio.

The next circle represents the creative industry, which in addition to expressive values also adds a functional value. The model demonstrates that the creative industry builds on that which results from the cultural industry. The activities of the creative industry are directly meant for end users.

Statistics Netherlands – the central Dutch governmental institution responsible for gathering, processing, and publishing statistics for the benefit of government, science, and business – applies the following subdivision in their limited definition of the creative industry:

1. MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT Typical components of this subsector are the radio and television industry, the film industry, the music industry, the book publishing sector, and the gaming industry.

2. ARTS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE This subsector is primarily concerned with aesthetic expression. This category of arts applies to practitioners of the performing arts, but also institutions such as theatres, concert venues, and museums.

3. CREATIVE BUSINESS SERVICES This concerns creative services for business clients.

Belonging to this category are e.g. advertisements, communication, and various forms of design.

The foregoing subdivision demonstrates that the creative industry is chopped into pieces. The question that follows is then where the boundaries are exactly. Does the advertising agency that creates a new campaign for a museum belong in the category of arts and cultural heritage or creative business services? In some countries the advertising agency would in this case not even be considered part of the creative industry, but rather the cultural industry. This is due to the distinction that is made between creative business sectors directly focused on end users (creative industry) and creative business sectors supplying to other companies (cultural industry). In other words: is it the end user, the designer/the activity, or the business division that provides the starting point for determining

CONCEPT CODE

44 VISION, VALUES AND CONCEPT

CONNECTING THE NETHERLANDS The Schiphol Group is an airport enterprise with an important social role. The airports of the group, in particular Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, create value for the society and the economy in- and outside the Netherlands.

Connecting the Netherlands is meaningful from multiple perspectives, both from an economic and human standpoint. First and foremost, connections lead to sustainable growth. The more direct connections the Netherlands has with important centres in the world, the easier it is for Dutch companies to trade internationally or attract high-quality information. Connections also contribute to our prosperity. They increase the appeal of Dutch cities as business locations for foreign companies and offices or head quarters; a great good in a globalising world in which economic activities are concentrated in a limited number of metropolitan areas. This is what Schiphol Group calls ‘connecting to compete’. And that leaves the human perspective: ‘connecting to complete’. After all, connections make it possible for people from various countries to meet each other and build social networks. As such, connections contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and societies all over the world.

The network of connections forms the heart of the company. Schiphol has a great number of airlines in its client base. The connections network is carried by their home carrier KLM, both for passengers and cargo.

They can only facilitate the connections if they offer the airlines and their passengers excellent infrastructural

facilities and offer sufficient capacity. The accessibility of their airports through public transport and by car contributes to their connectivity, both for passengers and for people that work there. The same applies to cargo: a good connection to the railway and road network is essential.

Schiphol Group considers it their task to maintain Schiphol Airport and further develop it as a ‘mainport’.

The regional airports that collaborate with Schiphol Group – Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport – fulfil a crucial role in this. They connect the region with Europe and provide an important complement to the network of Schiphol Airport, both in the field of holiday flights and of business travel. Lelystad Airport will in the future offer space for further development of the mainport function of Schiphol.

Moreover, their international participation also contributes to strengthening the mainport.

To Schiphol Group connecting is more than facilitating passengers departing, arriving, and changing planes.

They not only develop their airports as points of departure and arrival on a trip, but also as inspiring loca-​ tions to stay, operate a business, and work. In all their actions they consider their environment. They are highly aware of the impact of the aviation activities on for instance the environment or the spatial consequences.

Schiphol takes its responsibility and seeks a healthy balance between the positive and negative effects of its activities. They constantly strive for a conscious consideration of People, Planet and Profit, for instance in their investment decisions, tenders, and other activities.

Source: Schiphol Group, 2015

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>>VISION IS A PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD, MY VIEW, I SEE THIS.<< Jeroen van Erp, Fabrique VISION IN HUMANS Theme park Efteling believes that people should be able to escape their everyday life from time to time.

Diesel believes that people determine their own style by mixing and matching their clothes in their own way.

Nike believes that if you have a body, you are an athlete.

Toys “R” Us believes in putting joy in kids’ hearts and a smile on parents’ faces.

VISION ON THE WORLD Starmen feels that you need to do things extraordinarily.

If you are not extraordinary, you will not get noticed.

Schiphol believes in Connecting to compete and complete.

TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and – ultimately – the world.

SNASK strives to challenge the industry by doing things differently. They worship unconventional ideas, charming smiles, and real emotions. They see the old conservative world as extremely tedious and as their biggest enemy.

Airbnb is creating a world where you can belong anywhere and where people can live in a place, instead of just travelling to it.

2.6.1 WHY A VISION? Perhaps you know the story of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions: ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

Alice asks. ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ says the cat. ‘I don’t much care where,’ says Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,’ the cat answers (Lewis, 1865).

A concept cannot exist without vision: concept and vision are like brother and sister. In the previous chapter we saw that the consumer is looking for the meaning behind a product or service. He or she not only purchases the product due to the product’s properties, but due to the ‘why’ behind the product or the service.

The ‘why’ is your vision. With a vision you thus answer the ‘why’ behind the product. It is your raison d’etre.

Each concept has its own vision. Without vision it rather constitutes product innovation. We would then consider this the concept carrier of a concept. A vision offers a meaningful framework to the organisation and indicates how it views reality. That framework indicates what an organisation considers important and what it wishes to direct its attention to. It has consciously been compiled and recorded or discussed. In addition, vision provides connection: it connects people by means of common values.

>>WE BELIEVE IN THE NEXT LIFE OF THINGS.<<

CONCEPT CODE

72 CONCEPT THINKING

CONCEPT THINKING = THE DEVELOPMENT+ THE FRAMING + THE ACTIVATION OF THE SYMBOLIC VALUE

BY MEANS OF CREATIVE MEANINGFUL CONTENT AND DESIGN.

meaning. Concept thinking is a way of thinking in which you continually try to complete the puzzle. You look for the constant fit of all three stages. If somewhere in one of the stages something changes, this has consequences for the other stages. In addition, you carry the previous stages with you in making new choices.

In chapter 2 you could read that a concept consists of three stages: dormant, awakening, and living. The stages of a concept are interlinked; they need each other. They meet in the middle and that is where meaning emerges. A living concept has no body without an awakening and dormant part. Even before you start with the development of the first stage, the dormant

concept, you need to know what your starting point is.

You need to understand where on the ladder the concept is located and what the impetus is that sets the process in motion.

Figure 3.1 demonstrates that the stages of the dormant, awakening, and living concept are interconnected. The connecting factors are content and design: together they create meaning. In the following sections these terms will be further explained.

Despite the dynamic character of concept thinking, it always starts with something you see and experience in context. You are triggered by a question, opportunity,

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possibility, change, development, or problem. With context we here refer to the organisation, the consumer, or the environment. This trigger moment results in an imbalance in one of the stages of the concept. With this ‘trigger’ the process of concept thinking starts.

You see something in the context, are triggered by a question/opportunity/possibility/problem or sitution within the organisation, for the consumer, in the environment, or in a combination of these. You determine where in the three stages of concept thinking this ‘trigger’ emerges and where on the concept ladder this situation is presenting itself. In order to answer this

Figure 3.1 Dynamic Concept Code Model

effectively, you check whether there is already a higher concept. If an organisation already has a concept, this means that you will be developing a new concept with an accompanying vision within the already existing vision and higher concept. If there is no higher concept yet, you need to create everything from start to finish.

To this end, you will be zooming in and out. This generally means that you will quickly end up at the dormant concept. By means of a number of examples, we will demonstrate this principle of zooming in and out.

BUTTS AND SHOULDERS We believe our design can change the world. We would rather aim high and miss our goal, than aim low and reach it. We embrace our own foolishness and naivety, because it brings us to places no one has ever been before. It is this unpaved road that keeps us going. Leather is our core business. We touch it, we smell it. We respect it. Only the best is good enough. And we do not settle for less. Not only the hides themselves are important, but the entire process. From the design to the shelf, every step is relevant. And no matter how crazy it may sound, we think the cow deserves it. We do not follow trends or conform to markets. Our own vision is key. We work together with companies who believe in us. And with them we want to go the extra mile. We want to surprise. Overwhelm. Take on new challenges and prove that it can be done. We do not see our customers as cash cows, but as friends. Friends with the same attitude towards the world. Bold people, who had the balls to make a decision for the better. They use our products to carry out our shared vision. And together with them we will make up our own future as a family.

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LEAD TO AN ADVANTAGE AND ALSO BE EXPERIENCED AS SUCH BY STAKEHOLDERS BE HARD TO IMITATE FOR COMPETITORS

BE APPLICABLE FOR MULTIPLE PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND MARKETS We will revisit the elaboration of the framework in section 5.2.1 with an example of the Dutch supermarket Jumbo, which clearly demonstrates the difference between core values and core qualities.

TONE OF VOICE The tone of voice is the style with which an organisation addresses its stakeholders. It is about the degree to which the character of your organisation is visible in the words you write and speak. It is not about what you say, but how you say it. What impression does it leave? What you say emerges from experiences and aspirations, and how you say it is shaped by your identity. If you separate ‘tone’ and ‘voice’, voice is literally the voice of the organisation. Your voice is inherent in your identity.

However, your tone is something you adjust to the conversation.

You apply tone of voice in texts and other forms of communication. This consistency in language ensures recognisability and partly determines the image of an organisation. You could consider the organisation as a person. This person has unique external features, behaves in their own manner, and communicates in their own manner. The person serves as a model for the identity of an organisation with its values, core qualities, and features. This way it is easier to make

your own employees conscious of the identity and thus the tone of voice of the organisation. In addition, organisations can better brief external parties with the use of a persona. Because the tone-of-voice is made visual by means of the use of a persona, it is easier for people to understand. Depending on the situation or the person you communicate with, you change your tone: your ‘voice’ remains the same.

A tone of voice can be informal or rather formal, serious or light, direct or indirect, commercial or informative. In sum, the tone of voice expresses itself in many different ways. It is important that the tone of voice is used consistently in all communications by the organisation.

For instance the website, flyers, and mailings. If you need to determine the tone of voice in the action plan for your developed (organisational) concept, you can ask yourself the following questions: How do values and core qualities influence that which you communicate as an organisation/concept? How can you bring expression to your core values and core qualities in the tone of voice? An example is the University of Leeds with their core value ‘friendliness’. They translate this value to their tone of voice by bringing warmth into their words and communicating from the idea that they have a connection with people ‘in a human way’.

We have just seen that you can make a vision tangible by specifying the core values, implementing the core qualities, and determining the tone of voice. You further expand the identity of the organisation. The second part of concretising your vision is more strategic in nature.

You are going to link your objectives to your vision and determine where you ‘want to be heading’ as an organisation. These objectives offer a prelude to the

CONCEPT CODE

124 FRAMING, THE AWAKENING CONCEPT

on the flat surface (for instance in a corporate style) and spatial (for instance in the physical environment).

When a person in a museum steps into a space with an organic sculpture at its centre, that provides an entirely different feeling than when that same space would contain a geometrical angular sculpture. This conveys a completely different story. This meaning of the shape within the story is also connected to the context of a space or world within the museum. Memory and recognition are important in this: we have associations with certain shapes. It is important to also show the visual language of a concept. This gives a clear direction for further implementation: it is expressed in your corporate style, but also in your concept carriers.

• In addition to colour, typography, visuals and shape, material also has a great influence on the atmosphere and appearance of your concept. Materials can carry out a message or evoke associations. If you want your concept to be aligned with the principle of circular economy, you will take this into account in your choice of materials. Cradle to cradle is a way to align with this.

The design of a product needs to be fully reusable. You then use sustainable materials for this. It is not always easy to pinpoint what makes a material sustainable and this depends on many factors. Examples of these factors are the establishment and production of the material and the economic life span. In some cases, materials are also the tellers of stories: sometimes they have more to tell than you would expect at first glance and that can make materials highly suitable as storytellers.

For instance, they carry a past with them. With the ‘from truck to bag’ concept of FREITAG, each bag tells its own story. They give the material a new destination with this, what they call ‘recontextualising’. Another

example of a good choice of material that suits the idea of the concept is the situation of Butts and Shoulders.

They only use truly authentic and natural, vegetally tanned leather. Their leather is one hundred per cent free from chemicals. This ensures that the leather stays alive and eventually wears and decolourises in a beautiful manner. In your choice of material you also take your dormant concept into account and accompanying core values. You will understand that for a core value as transparency the use of glass will be a more obvious choice than stone, or for flexibility you will rather opt for supple material than for rigid material. The choice of material can also contribute to the experience of a consumer. What feeling do you wish to trigger? The texture of the material contributes to this. After all, this allows the surface of the material to make a certain impression: the material feels a certain way to the touch and ensures a certain look. These are all important factors that contribute to the experience and appearance of the concept. In the awakening concept, you create a style palette that consists of colour, typography, shape and material. Again, realise that concept thinking is an iterative process: you test, adjust, and retest, until you have made the correct choices. The choices you make in this process, you will transfer to the living concept. In that stage, the choices made come together and the manifestations of your concept become perceptible to the senses. It could in fact mean that you will still make some adjustments in terms of colour and material at this stage: after all, it keeps going back and forth between the stages of a concept until it forms one aligned whole. In the coming chapter, we will dive deeper into this.

BUTTS AND SHOULDERS: THE NAME ‘The Butts and Shoulders are the best parts of a hide, which is what we create our products from. It was the rebelliousness that immediately appealed to us, it is something weird. I do not think many brands would have dared to call their brand Butts and Shoulders. It felt right immediately, everyone agreed on that. The logo as it were represents the butts and the shoulders: the upper parts of the Os are the shoulders and the bottom parts represent the butt. Perhaps you need for imagination for this, but we did not mind that. In addition, it also resembles a sort of stamp that cows or cattle receive.’

– Dirk Hens, Butts and Shoulders.

>>THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS CALLED SNASK.<<

CONCEPT CODE

158 INSPIRATION

STAGE: DORMANT CONCEPT ELEMENT: CONSUMER ANALYSIS AND ORGANISATION ANALYSIS SUGGESTION: MEANS-END CHAIN MODEL WHAT IS IT? The means-end chain is about determining one or multiple meaning structures. We also call this meaning structure analysis. In a meaning structure connections between values, meanings/consequences, and attributes are outlined. A meaning structure usually contains multiple values, meanings, and attributes. We often unconsciously classify these meanings into an existing structure. The underlying model for this is the meansend chain.

WHAT DOES IT ACHIEVE? Functional and symbolic values are not separate from each other. It is about the relationship between these values. The model that offers insight into this is the means-end chain model by Gutman (1982). In this model observed product features, the functional and

psychosocial consequences of those, and personal values are connected in order to provide an explanation for selection behaviour. In other words: from values to meaning, to that which can be perceived by the senses.

Once you have this insight, it can help you to link the right meaning (awakening concept) to the values of the dormant concept. Meaning analysis does not only work through reasoning from product features to ultimate values, but also vice versa. This meaning structure analysis allows you to determine how concrete characteristics of an organisation, service or product can be abstracted to values, and how these values are translated into concrete characteristics.

HOW DOES IT WORK? By making an inventory of personal values that play an important role within a category or target group, it is possible to translate those to symbolic values and product benefits that are instrumental for those. Those values can then in turn be translated into distinguishing characteristics in the living concept. A means-end chain is generally represented by a value map. In order to draw up a value map it is necessary to interview various stakeholders. The technique that has been developed for this is called laddering. Laddering is based on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;whyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; question. For example, a consumer is asked in an interview why he/she considers the answer given important, etc. In this manner you eventually abstract until you arrive at the ultimate values. For further explanation concerning laddering, we refer you to the techniques for laddering.

Also refer to: Rokeach value survey, and techniques for laddering.

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Figure 7.2 Means-end Chain Model

Source: Eurib (2013)

CONCEPT CODE

162 INSPIRATION

WHAT DOES IT ACHIEVE?

STAGE: DORMANT CONCEPT/ AWAKENING CONCEPT/ LIVING CONCEPT ELEMENT: OUTPUT DORMANT CONCEPT SUGGESTION: MOOD BOARD

A mood board is used to visualise the atmosphere or emotion. It provides an overall overview of what you wish to tell and is therefore also a powerful communication instrument. It demonstrates the visual tone of voice, or style. After all, an image sometimes conveys more than a thousand words. You can use a mood board within all stages of a concept, for instance to visualise your target group or organisation or in order to pitch your vision and the accompanying choices to your stakeholders. A visualisation depicts a feeling and directly ensures further dialogue with all stakeholders.

In addition, a mood board is a useful aid for a concept developer or designer because it provides direction and inspiration.

HOW DOES IT WORK? WHAT IS IT? A mood board is a visual overview of images, textures, and colours, possibly supplemented with text, that conveys a certain ‘mood’ or style. A mood board can be used either two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally with objects in a space.

In the Immersive world handbook by Lucas (2013), graphic designer Dave Gottwald provides the following definition of a mood board: “A mood board is a collage of images and other found material done in a large format, such as 24 x 36 inches. It often is flat, but I prefer to employ a more three-dimensional approach.

Mood boards are used primarily to gather research and inspiration early on in the creative process and present that material to clients or colleagues.”

Pose questions to yourself depending the goal of your mood board. What story do I wish to tell? Who is the target group? You can make a mood board on paper, on the computer, or spatially. You can take the images from anywhere: from the Internet, from magazines and of course the photographs you yourself have made. You select images that radiate a certain atmosphere. If you have chosen an atmosphere or multiple atmospheres, you can start with ranking the images and seeing how they fit together. For a three-dimensional mood board you place and rank your objects in relation to each other.

Also refer to: Scott A. Lukas. (2013), The immersive worlds handbook, designing theme parks and consumer spaces.

Burlington: Focal Press.

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