Cartographies of Meaning

Nikita Walia and Elliot Vredenburg of U.N.N.A.M.E.D. Studios took to the VISIONS stage at MoMA last year to enlighten a room of retail executives and brand marketers about the realities of worldbuilding. Their theory: a brand’s final form is decided by the public—and the strategist's job is to navigate that story, not control it. And they use Mercator, Buckminster Fuller, Guy Debord, free public Wi-Fi, and an acne sticker to back up their claims.

Mapping Meaning Isn’t About Being RightKey takeaways:

• Branding isn't worldbuilding because worldbuilding just imposes another set of rules
• A three-hundred-page brand book is obsolete the day it ships, and rebrands every five to ten years are theater for stakeholders
• The public decides a brand's final form, not the guidelines deck
• Regenerative brands are always rebranding
• [00:00:25] "Counter to what you've heard today, branding is not, in fact, worldbuilding." — Nikita Walia
• [00:04:34] "This is sameness being sold to us as a form of consistency." — Nikita Walia
• [00:15:45] "It's not about being right. It's about being useful, and useful in motion." — Elliot Vredenburg
• [00:17:09] "A regenerative brand doesn't need to rebrand every five to ten years because it's always rebranding." — Elliot Vredenburg

In-Show Mentions:

• The Mercator projection (1569) and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
• Superstudio, The Continuous Monument
• Guy Debord and psychogeography
• LinkNYC
• Burberry, Daniel Lee, Demna's Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli
• Starface

Associated Links:

• Read Alicia Esposito's companion essay, The New Meaning of Brand Building: Cartographies of Meaning
• Watch the original session at VISIONS Summit: Cartographies of Meaning
• Hear Dami Lee's VISIONS session, The Stories Behind Our Spaces
• Listen to Building Culturally Intelligent Brands with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel
• Revisit The Anti-Blands, Existential Brands, and the New Dadaism
• Read Surface Culture: When Brands Mistake Wallpaper for Authenticity
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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