Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits
By: Debbie Millman

Head: (4.5 of 5)
Heart: (4 of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4 of 5)

Debbie Millman has had lots of practice at conducting provocative interviews for her Internet radio program Design Matters, and in this compilation of 22 prominent thinkers on branding and design, it shows. As author and consumer behavior expert Rob Walker says in his foreword, “This book is no rote anthology of boilerplate lectures. It’s more like a buzzing dinner party” or salon held with a number of esteemed thinkers in and around the field of design.

Although it covers branding strategies from some of this country’s great companies, this is no rote how-to book on how to brand your products or services. Instead it is a big-thinker that delves into culture, anthropology, psychology, economics, politics, and the very essence of human nature. Ultimately it is about our drive for connection, affiliation, and why we buy into what we do.

Millman doesn’t let the interviewees stay too long in the lofty realm of abstraction, however. For example, in this interview with Dori Tunstall, a prominent design academic, Crandall says, “humans like to think of themselves as special and different from one another. Some people like to think of themselves not only as special and different but also as better than others.” Millman drills down with more questions until Tunstall is speaking concretely and eloquently about the logo and imagery for Obama’s presidential campaign and how people were able to riff on it, down to “Kids for Obama” and even “Pirates for Obama.”

Other interviewees include Wally Olins, Grant McCracken, Phil Duncan, Brian Collins, Virginia Postrel, Bruce Duckworth, David Butler, Stanley Hainsworth, Cheryl Swanson, Joe Duffy, Margaret Youngblood, Seth Godin, Dan Formosa, Bill Moggridge, Sean Adams, Daniel Pink, Deedee Gordon, Karim Rachid, Alex Bogusky, Tom Peters, and Malcom Gladwell. Buy it.