Place branding: South Orange, New Jersey

If you would have asked me in the late nineties what I thought about New Jersey, the answer would have been: "I don't". I was living in New York at the time, and New Jersey was a black hole. Crossing the Hudson river was something you did only when homesickness struck and you took the free bus to Ikea, to eat Swedish meatballs and watch the Scandinavian Airlines planes lift and land at Newark Airport.

Manhattan was the place to be. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was slowly starting to wake up and attract artist souls, like my my photographer friends, but walking there at night was still an adventure. My base was the Spanish Harlem, which also made New Yorkers frown and ask how on earth I could live there, and if it wasn't really dangerous. 105th between 5th avenue and Lexington still left a lot to wish for, but you couldn't beat the location right next to one of the nicest little parks in the Park (Central Park that is).

But New Jersey (or New Joycey as it was sometimes referred to)… Later on it became Soprano land, but then all we thought about in connection to it was house wifes and conservatives.

Yesterday I arrived in Newark airport. Luckily, I might add, considering the volcano ash adventure. I took a cab to South Orange, NJ. My friends from back in the nineties live there today. So much has changed. New Jersey still sports the image of a lesser brother to New York, but there are parts, like South Orange, with a completely modified brand image.

In South Orange you find the New Yorkers who wanted to continue their free minded New York lives and still start a family. The people caring for community gardens and organic food. People of mixed backgrounds, still working on Manhattan.

I've only just arrived but I'm looking forward to find out more and add some pics. For now, see the link.

Puma's clever little bag.

Puma is taking a step in the sustainable direction as they introduce a new shoe box, which is more like a shoe bag: Clever little bag, designed by Yves Behar. The thinking behind it goes along with the Puma vision: Fair, honest, positive, creative.

The brand aims to save 8 500 tons of paper, 20 million megajoules of electricity and 1 million liters of water, and to reduce carbon dioxide by 10 000 tons. Their goal is to change the industry and eventually the world.

I'd like more of this. How about for tooth paste? Or the fast food meal?

Winds of change.

I mentioned a while ago that I'm searching for a new name for my company. I'm also, as we speak, working on my new website. It will be launched in August/September if everything goes according to plan. In the meantime I am going to start using this space to show a little bit of what I do. For a quick look at a project I have been very involved with, look at GLC:s website.

GLC is short for Göteborgs Lastbilcentral (quick translation: Gothenburg Truck Central), and the transport and logistics company has been central to Western Sweden's business life since 1935. I'll tell you more about the change management process they went through as their new CEO entered the scene (from DHL), and the brand workshops, seminars, brand platform and communications work (where the website is but one small but important part) I did together with advertising agency InTime more thoroughly another time.

The 60's is back.

The good old days is an expression used in all kinds of situations, usually referring to some nostalgic notion that today's world is harsher, colder, more stressful, less happy, you name it. Since Mad Men entered our lives the good old days seem to be here again, at least if you are to believe the less than subtle signs around you.

So here are just some: Which advertising agency today does not want to be compared to the Mad Men team? Any interior design magazine with any sense of self respect is reporting about the new 60's trends in interior and product design.

 Another example is the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Malmö, which opened up a few months ago in the old center for electricity building, which was rebuilt into a 60's pop colour shock in orange and bright yellow (both interior and exterior!) by Tham & Videgård arkitekter. They museum opened up with an exhibition called Spectacular Times, which showcases the museum's collection of art pieces from the 60's (there is also a part of the exhibition called Pierre Leguillion features – Dianne Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971).

I wonder which of these 60's brand markers we'll see more of this summer: Swedes skinny dipping in cold lakes at night, house wives cooking dinner with one hand and cigarette in the other… Finally an ad in the paper last weekend, and an article from the latest issue of Elle Interiör (Swedish Elle Decoration).

How to not buy another gadget.

I've got a small sailboat. It sleeps four but you can't stand upright in it (it's a 24 feet Misil II from 1976 in 1970's yellow, for those of you who might be interested). It's the same type I sort of grew up in, and my dad built, so it's a lot of nostalgia for me. So far all I've used for navigation is the sea chart and the compass. But this year I started thinking about finally getting myselt some sort of GPS plotter (reluctantly, I might add).

After investigating brands like Garmin, Lowrance, Eagle and Humminbird I was still not convinced I should buy yet another gadget. What about my iPhone? Wasn't there some clever application I could buy, that would work not on the 3G network (not very reliable on the ocean) but on satellite?

A few days ago my dad told me he had read about a new app, 88 sea, made by a Gothenburg based company. And it's a fraction of the price of a small, handheld GPS plotter for boating. If it's good I've saved myself another gadget, which is good both for my bank account and for the environment. Perfect!