When Mark Hellendrung reclaimed Narragansett Beer for Rhode Island, he inherited a can that he said appealed to no one aside from “old-timers, hipsters and guys that drink fast.”
The 16-ounce gold can was the result of the brand’s having changed hands several times until its owners were hundreds of miles away from its birthplace, Hellendrung said at the fourth annual Success by Design Conference, held April 27 at the R.I. Convention Center.
For Leaders Who Don't Have Time to Get Sick
Top performers guard their calendars, delegate relentlessly and optimize every hour of the day. Health,…
Learn More
After buying the brand, Hellendrung relaunched Narragansett Beer in bottles with newly designed red labels and in matching cans. The idea was to remind old-timers of their favorite but also appeal to new audiences.
Design and its role in building brands and growing businesses was the focus of the conference, put on by the Center for Design and Business, a joint venture of Bryant University and the Rhode Island School of Design. As in previous years, the conference attracted local companies as well as global ones such as Procter & Gamble.
D.J. Stout, a partner in Austin, Texas-based Pentagram, a multi-disciplinary design firm, spoke of the importance of recognizable designs and logos to create a brand.
Those recognizable designs can be as simple as the trademarked Coca-Cola “curve,” Stout said, which appears on all of the company’s cans and bottles, or Gateway Computers’ cow-inspired packaging – a marketing approach so successful that the company ditched its previous logo and adopted the box as the official company symbol.
With examples like that in mind, Stout took an assignment for the design of Lands’ End, a 40-year-old clothing company that markets to sailors and sailing enthusiasts.
For the box design, Stout said he looked to create something so recognizable that a person didn’t have to guess what was in a package dropped off by UPS. The answer was navy-blue striped packaging tape, a nod to the company’s nautical roots. He has also used a striped lighthouse to create a logo.
Building off a company’s history is a strategy that Pentagram has used many times to establish or re-brand a product, Stout said. The approach has landed Stout and Pentagram jobs with global companies such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft.
Conference keynote speaker Karen Neuburger, creator of sleep and casual wear line KN Karen Neuburger, spoke about how she used design to build her own product line.
In 1996, the fashion buyer turned the stay-at-home mother came up with the idea to create sleepwear that was “meter man-friendly” – meaning that the wearer wouldn’t mind being seen in it. Over the years, Neuburger’s company has developed a successful line of casual clothing as well as themed lines, such as pajamas, to promote breast cancer awareness.
But it was one design early on that helped rocket Neuburger to success.
In the company’s infancy, Neuburger had sent Oprah Winfrey a set of her pajamas.
Several months later, the media mogul called to ask where she could buy some for her friends. Neuburger asked Oprah if she could model the clothing on her talk show.
While the question was initially met with a tepid response, Neuburger said, the show’s producer called her several months later and said Oprah was planning on building her “favorite things” show around KN Karen Neuburger.
The show opened with Oprah running on stage wearing the company’s red buffalo-check pajamas, a design that would become a strong seller for the company. The endorsement and the strength of marketing helped turn KN Karen Neuburger into a success.
“If you have to get into bed with anybody, I can’t think of a better person to do it with than Oprah,” Neuburger said.
