Featured Student Work From Russia!

I love featuring student work from around the world! It shows me that creativity is not dead and that design is still a huge part of the world.

Design student Marina Volodina who attends Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry has designed a beautifully simple concept for LED lightbulbs. Her concept can be found on the website called Packaging of the World. You can see more of her work by clicking here.

Marina explains her concept "The range consists of E14 and E27 screw bases and 5 bulb shapes which are clearly visible through the transparent packaging that helps immediately understand what type of a LED bulb you need. The packages are coded with 3 colours depending on color temperature in Kelvin: white packaging colour is for natural light, yellow colour is for warm light and the blue one is for cold light. Also the typography on the front side of the packaging supports the idea of transparancy and includes the short main information about the LED bulbs: a LED type, color temperature, a screw base and watts. On the reverse side all the technical characteristics are written in detail."

John Miziolek, Sales Leader at Reset Branding says "This concept is a wonderful use of materials that really adds some visual interest to a commoditized category. It simplifies consumer choice and provides clarity for sku differentiation."

John is also the host of Design Masters Canada, an iTunes featured free podcast that focuses on the best design and branding talent across North America. John regularly features student work on his design website dedicated to the practice of design, called The Next Gen Designers.

Does a National Food Branding Strategy Make Sense for Canada?

John Miziolek is interviewed by the Globe and Mail about Canada's National Branding Strategy

John Miziolek, from Reset Branding and host of Design Masters Canada, was recently interviewed by the Globe and Mail regarding whether or not Canada could benefit from a national branding strategy for food production. 

Massive middle-class growth

“Every year the equivalent of a Canadian population [30 million] joins the middle class in China and when you look at … how much consumers on average in China would be spending on food, they are purchasing as much as 40 cents per additional dollar of income,” Mr. Gervais says. According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., foreign-branded food and beverages are favoured by 34 per cent of China’s upper-middle-class urbanites.

The federal government has implemented Canada Brand/La marque Canada, which has a maple leaf graphic and the tagline “Quality is in our nature” to help agribusinesses get recognition in global markets. But it is not a requirement for all growers and producers and it is unclear how many food exporters use it instead of their own in-house marketing.

So should more Canadian food exporters adopt a national branding strategy so they get noticed on China’s grocery shelves?

“If you ask me it is a good idea,” Mr. Gervais says. “I totally get some businesses may want to brand themselves differently than having to be under an umbrella, but I really do see the value because there is a lot of capital in that Canada brand right now … especially with the growth that’s coming in the marketplace over the next 10 years from Asia-Pacific.”

A big challenge

The challenge of developing a popular national brand strategy lies in the fact that Canada’s food products are diverse – everything from apples, to meat to dairy and grain. On top of that, the country’s growers range in size from small family-run growers to massive agribusinesses.

“What we would have to do is create an umbrella strategy that is flexible enough that it can be used regardless of the organization that is part of it,” says John Miziolek, from Oakville, Ont.-based Reset Branding, “because there’s no way you could create one singular brand and hope that it would fit everybody’s needs.”

The solution could be creating smaller brands for each of those diverse products and then to develop an umbrella strategy to encompass the smaller classes, he explains. But he emphasizes that making it mandatory would be the strategy’s death knell.

“Just from a branding and marketing perspective that’s a horrible way to start a brand,” says Mr. Miziolek, “forcing people to comply with rules that they’re not very excited about.”

With the caveat that it would have to be managed well to actually succeed, he says increased recognition in the global food market could lead to more stable and solid revenue for the companies that enroll in a national branding program.

“If done correctly, and all of the organizations and producers were managed properly, we could establish ourselves in the global market place as a high-quality exporter of various types of food products,” says Mr. Miziolek.

A 'lofty goal'

“But,” he adds, “it’s a pretty lofty goal, to be honest.”

To read the full article, click here.

John Miziolek Announces the Launch of Design Masters Canada Podcast

From internationally acclaimed branding expert John Miziolek, from Reset Branding and Design in Toronto, business listeners will discover a rousing conversation they won’t find anywhere else. Dynamic, often controversial—this new podcast covers the new, the outlandish, the need-to-know trends in Marketing, Branding and Design.

TORONTO, ON (April 16, 2015) — Presenting listeners the inside track into the tumultuous world of Marketing, Design Masters Canada will bring together today’s most influential leaders in marketing, branding and design into a no-holds-barred discussion with host John Miziolek.

Miziolek, who recently authored a best-selling book on the subject, says, “It’s all about the unexpected in this business and, of course, all in warp speed. I was eager to create an immediate, dynamic forum to bring this audience into the latest conversations—to help them get not just up to speed but even ahead of it. This podcast provides that forum."

Inaugural episodes of the Design Masters Canada podcast are tantalizingly called: “Designers & Their Ugly Babies,” and “A Russian Physicist and Pet Food Packaging?”

A notable line-up of business leaders are in the pipeline for upcoming shows.

Subscribe at iTunes or at www.designmasterscanada.ca

Professionals in the design industry are also invited to lend their voices to the conversation. If you have a point of view from your experience, your participation is welcomed on the show. Contact John Miziolek via email: john@designmasterscanada.ca

Design Professor John Miziolek Featured by Humber College

John Miziolek, Canadian branding expert, sales leader at Reset Branding, and Professor of Design at Humber College was recently featured by the school. John was featured for his teaching methods, accolades and experience in the branding and design industry. John has been teaching Design for 5 years and is consistently ranked amongst the top instructors in the design programs at Humber College.

In the video John talks about his new best-selling book "Breaking Through" and the reasons he enjoys teaching.

To learn more about John please visit:
johnmiziolek.com
resetbranding.com

John is also the host of Design Masters Canada, a national podcast dedicated to elevating the practice of design as a strategic business tool. You can learn more about DMC by visiting:

designmasterscanada.ca

Or follow him on Twitter:
twitter.com/resetbranding

The D Event 2015 in Naples Florida

John Miziolek from Reset Branding has just returned from Florida after another successful D Event. John co-founded the D Event 7 years ago with a mission to elevate the practice of design.

The estimated revenue of the companies that attended this year's D Event exceeds $370 billion.

Now in its 7th year, D is the one event that spotlights design as a strategic business tool. It’s the one event where the setting is completely free of suppliers, so the only focus is sharing and connecting with other senior-level corporate design and business leaders. And it’s the one event where attendees help shape the agenda—by letting us know your most important issues and challenges before we meet.

The D Event isn’t for just anyone. This exclusive roundtable summit was created specifically for visionary, consumer-facing brand owners and retailers.

John Miziolek from Reset Branding Organizes Student Design Competition

After almost 6 months of planning and 10 weeks in the classroom, the Humber Student Design Competition finally concluded on Friday, November 28th, 2014. The event was a huge success and the quality of work presented by the students was outstanding. Special thanks to our judges from Kraft, PepsiCo and Reckitt Benckiser for graciously donating their time and providing great feedback to the finalists.

The event was organized and sponsored by John Miziolek and Franca DiNardo. They believe strongly in giving back to the design community and mentoring the next group of talented young designers. Both John and Franca are part-time instructors at Humber College in the Package and Graphic Design Program. Over the course of the project John recorded a weekly video to keep the judges up to date, and the students excited (and awake).

To learn more about the competition please click here.