When Taylor Guitars decided to launch its first electric guitar, you could literally feel the excitement in the air. Of course, the stakes were high—the move into the electric market was risky for Taylor, a company synonymous with acoustic guitars—but there was no doubt that the guitar should go to market. It was a winner on all fronts: technical innovation, style and playability. As Taylor’s lead brand designer (my firm Mires has shepherded the Taylor Guitar brand for almost a decade), my assignment was to capture the essence of the new Thinline Five-Way (a.k.a. the “T5”).

Hatching a Plan: In typical Taylor and Mires fashion, the game plan for the T5 was hatched over a highly animated and collaborative lunch with Taylor’s director of marketing, Jonathan Forstot. The first order of business: Should the T5 be positioned as a brand extension or simply a new Taylor product? Because the introduction of the T5 signaled a larger strategic move for Taylor Guitars, we quickly decided the T5 should have a unique and more “electrified” identity and personality. Next came the launch strategy: To accommodate Taylor’s unorthodox schedule (the company planned to introduce the T5 at NAMM, the music industry’s largest national tradeshow, in January but the guitar would not ship to retailers until May), the key was building buzz.

To capture consumer interest, especially with a younger, “Rock n’ Roll” demographic, the Mires team developed a two-pronged approach: First, we would highlight early-adopters of the T5 (Taylor “seeded” the guitar with well-known musicians leading up to NAMM). Second, we would introduce a number of online product teasers and promotions—each one more compelling than the last.

Capturing the T5 in Action: In preparation for NAMM, Mires developed the T5 identity and a web-teaser proclaiming “The countdown begins,” but our creative tour de force began the weekend of the national music event. Artists as varied as Jason Mraz, Switchfoot, Story of the Year, Hanna-McEuen and La Ley were slated to play in the Taylor booth, and I saw this as a unique opportunity to capture the T5 in action. Eschewing NAMM’s bland tradeshow environment, we took the musicians “on the move,” snapping shots on the street, in freight elevators and hotel rooms, on rooftops. The photojournalistic nature of the shoot, with a small Mires team literally running from venue to venue, captured what I call the “Taylor psychographic”—the powerful connection musicians have with their guitar—with an authenticity that is wholly Taylor Guitars.

Using the Web to Build Buzz: With the NAMM photography as a visual cornerstone, Mires then turned our attention to the web. In an ideal world, each time a Taylor enthusiast visited the company’s website, I want them to be greeted by fresh imagery of the guitar, a new promotion or more detailed product information—ideally all three. Building on the momentum gained at NAMM, where “insiders” got their first real look at the T5, we launched a number of web-teasers to pique interest. Like any good “teaser,” these first introductions to the T5 showed glimpses of the guitar and hinted at its technical innovation and incredible sound. Over time, the teasers became more robust, culminating in full-blown online performances (a first for Taylor!) highlighting the guitar’s versatility in the hands of well-known artists. A series of web promotions—from electronic postcards featuring the T5 to a “refer a friend” contest to win a prototype of the guitar—continued to add to the momentum.

Now that the guitar has launched, we are in the midst of developing a full-blown web feature for the T5 (really, a mini website) packed with detailed product specifications and functionality that allows visitors to see a 360-degree view of each guitar. Of course, all of this is supplemented by offline materials—including a product brochure, point-of-purchase displays and promotional items—but our online efforts are really at the heart of the T5’s launch.

Flying Off the Shelves: Two months after hitting retailers, the T5 is the fastest selling guitar in the company’s 31-year history. Of course, that level of business success puts a smile on my face, but it is really anecdotal observations from the field that have me so excited. According to reports from Guitar Center, consumers were lined up outside stores the day the T5 was officially unveiled, with an unprecedented number of them purchasing the new guitar without playing it. As a brand designer, that’s the kind of success that really resonates with me.

Scott Mires is a nationally recognized designer and founding partner of Mires. Under his leadership, Mires has grown to become the largest brand design firm in San Diego and developed a client list that includes market leaders from Starbucks and Wal-Mart to Jabra and Qualcomm. An avid surfer and music fan, he stays up to date on cultural trends and has a particular interest in lifestyle marketing. Mires has received industry recognition from Communication Arts, Print and AIGA, to name a few. In addition, he has authored numerous articles on brand development and design and spoken at prominent industry conferences.

When The New Yorker carried only one advertiser in its August 22 issues—Target Stores—the advertising and media industry took notice. The big question: Was it a high-brow/low-brow mismatch or a triumph of brand innovation? I vote for the latter.

Target’s “ads” depict snapshots of life in New York. Created (and signed) by the same artists who typically—and editorially—adorn the pages of The New Yorker, they are eclectic, artistic and witty. Target’s advertising also incorporates a clever design element: The retailer’s well-known bull’s-eye appears in ads as a subway line marker, a boy’s lollipop, the cufflinks on a businessman’s suit.

For Target, it’s the latest in a series of marketing coups that reinforce the company’s commitment to brand innovation through design. The ads are a visual tour de force, and by pairing with The New Yorker, a first for the venerable publication, Target continues to surprise consumers and underscore its positioning as an “upscale discounter.” The media uproar over the advertising partnership only magnifies the positive impact on the Target brand.

Good design continues to pay off for Target. Resisting toe-to-toe competition with Wal-Mart and other discount retailers, Target has differentiated itself by partnering with designers—from well-known architect Michael Graves to fashion icon Isaac Mizhari—to make stylish products accessible to the mass market. This design-driven strategy is applied across all elements of the company’s retail experience, from well-lit, well-organized stores to details such as pharmacy labels that set a new standard for legibility and usability.

Target has long understood that design is about fulfilling the needs of end-users. When applied correctly, you create consumer desire. When applied consistently, you create a brand. And, when you do it with passion, year-after-year, you become part of people’s lives, sometimes even part of the culture. Think about the few brands that have achieved the ability to stand solely on symbol: Nike, Apple Computer. Like Target, they wield design as a powerful tool.

But Target has taken its design-driven strategy farther. The retailer openly markets the value of design to consumers. Under the tagline, “Design for All,” Target’s advertising highlights the individual designers behind its marquee product lines, and in its most recent campaign, the retailer uses stylized imagery and language to underscore how design improves our everyday lives.

Companies that make design work for them share a common trait: They focus on the details. Our client Taylor Guitars provides an excellent example. Beginning with the quality and appearance of its guitars, no touch-point with the public escapes notice. Even often-overlooked items such as price lists, pins and warranty cards are designed to enhance the customer experience—and communicate the craftsmanship at the heart of the Taylor brand. And it works: Musicians welcome Taylor into their lives.

But it’s not all in the details. Just as importantly, companies need to be consistent. A few years ago, Wal-Mart commissioned our firm to re-brand “No Boundaries,” the retail giant’s house brand for teens and young adults. The underlying assignment: Up its design-quotient to attract style-conscious consumers. We shortened the brand name to NoBo—like SoHo—and created a clean, high-energy visual design for more than 900 products from lava lamps to bikinis. Although the immediate results were great, Wal-Mart did not have a uniform commitment to design, so the overall impact on consumers was minimal. Today, the company is adding higher prices and more upscale brands to its product line-up, a reenergized attempt to combat Target’s strategy.

As for The New Yorker, the publication is hardly standing still and rejects being constrained by its heritage. The visual style of the magazine is so strong that it inspired Target’s advertising. And its partnership with Target further signals that it offers a vital, desirable medium for reaching intelligent readers. I am renewing my subscription.

Founded in 1985, Mires is one of the largest independently owned brand design firms in Southern California. A trusted partner of leading national and global brands, Mires creates market differentiation by bringing together two powerful ideas—lifestyle and innovation. Mires’ expertise lies in developing and implementing fully integrated marketing campaigns, encompassing positioning, identity development, messaging and print, package, tradeshow environment and web design. For more information about Mires, visit www.miresbrands.com.

Cell phone accessories designer Rivet International is going after a growing market for fashionable gadget gear, a product line traditionally associated with tech geeks in company golf shirts and Dockers.

The San Diego-based company recently undertook a massive rebranding effort to lure female and young technology users to the accessories market with fashion-conscious designs that expand gadget wear beyond cell phones to accommodate wildly popular iPods and other MP3 players as well as small digital cameras.

Company President and Chief Executive Raleigh Wilson believes the market is wide open for expansion, estimating that consumers already buy hundreds of millions of tech accessories each year. “I think we can demonstrate to women and younger adults that you’re not going to be embarrassed to be attached to your phone,” says Wilson.

He’s got stiff competition from women’s fashion designers including Prada, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade and Dior, which sell high-end MP3 and cell phone accessories ranging in price from $45 to upwards of $300. And Seattle-based Tsaya.com recently began selling a patent leather cell phone thigh holster for $79.

Rivet turned to San Diego-based branding firm Mires, which is designing the logo for the 2010 U.S. Open, to rebrand and expand its product line. The result is Mobile Wear, Music Wear and Pix Wear, packaged with simple 1-2-3 instructions and catchy, active brand names like “Trek,” “Flip,” and “Grab.”

A tag line—Attach your (device) to your life—promises to rid consumers of the odious spectacle of bulky plastic waistline accessories. Instead, flexible systems made of durable metals can be attached to belt loops, purses, backpacks and car dashboards for easy reaching. Wilson declined to say how much Rivet spent on the rebranding beyond “a lot.” The products cost between $19.99 and $29.99 and retail nationwide at Radio Shack and other retail outlets. The company has partnership deals with Apple for iPod Music Wear and Sprint and is going after the international accessories market with distributors in Europe, Dubai and Asia.

In about a year, when the Lux Art Institute has built a permanent home, the contemporary art museum will have three international awards to display there.

The American Association of Museums recently awarded the first-place prizes to the institute for its publicity materials. Lux was the only San Diego County winner in the international competition that drew 900 entries and awarded 24 first-place prizes.

Although the planned $8 million museum on El Camino Real remains unbuilt—officials blame a cumbersome permitting process for delays—Lux has commissioned sculptures and displays and runs a mobile art program for children.

The awards Lux received last month were for a fund-raising book, a newsletter and a party invitation.

John Ball, a founding member of the Lux board and creative director of the San Diego-based Mires design firm, oversaw the creation of the pieces as a freebie to the museum.

“It is a big challenge to get people to understand what we’re all about and what our vision is when we’re not built,” Ball said. “This was a way—in a dramatic, visual way—to put us on the map.”

Museum Plans: City planning maps show the Lux museum on 4.1 acres west of El Camino Real and just south of Tennis Club Drive.

The first phase of construction, a $2 million artists pavilion, is scheduled to begin in about four months and be finished eight months later, said Reesey Shaw, the museum’s director.

Meanwhile, Shaw and an assistant will continue to work from a trailer and a shipping container parked at the base of the sloping property that adjoins a wildlife preserve.

The trailer arrived last summer and so did workers, to build a driveway and install underground utility lines.

Construction was supposed to have started years ago. Shaw said at one point, she had planned to host exhibitions in 2000.

“I had no idea the permitting involved (for construction) on coastal property,” she said. A city planner last week said Lux has everything it needs to begin its project. Completing it, however, will require more fund raising.

A capital campaign has produced nearly $3 million in gifts and pledges so far, Lux officials state in their publicity materials.

Ramona Sahm of Rancho Santa Fe donated $1 million to buy the property. Philanthropist Francis White of Cardiff and Rancho Santa Fe residents Joanne Warren and Eileen and Carlton Appleby of Rancho Santa Fe have been consistent contributors.

An illustration shows what the gifts would pay for: A 15,000-square-foot museum complex that cascades down the face of a hill.

Designed by architect Renzo Zecchetto, the complex also would provide a home and workplace for invited artists to derive inspiration from their natural surroundings.

Lux hopes for visitors to experience the creative process and the artists’ ideas as they unfold, said Shaw, the former director of California Center for the Arts, Escondido, museum.

Since its incorporation as a nonprofit organization in 1998, Lux has been determined to build a museum in a place that is easily accessible but surrounded by native landscape.

Winning Pages: The cover of Lux’s spiral-bound fund-raising book shows a location that accomplishes that goal.

A photograph taken from a satellite fills the cover. A title appears in white lettering: “A unique arts destination for a changing world.” Above the title is an arrow that points to the Lux site.

Houses appear as specks, but the green and blue swath of San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve also appears clearly, as does the sparkling ocean.

The 10 pages of the book describe the unbuilt museum and the motivation behind it.

Los Angeles sculptor Jacci Den Hartog is Lux’s choice for the museum’s first artist in residence. Her commission is to create a fountain with water flowing from agave leaves.

Colorful pages highlight the mobile art program that Lux brings to schools, The Valise Project. More than 5,000 students in 50 schools have been exposed to the portable, three-dimensional artworks, of which Lux has commissioned seven.

One valise is “The Bird Hub Steamer Trunk.” Binoculars are mounted on a wing that extends from the trunk. Students can remove a stool contained in a drawer to peer through the lenses.

One display at the El Camino Real site commands a full page of the book titled “Environment.” Astrid Preston planted 15 Anna apple trees in a gravel-coated triangle and named the work “Garden of Apple Delights.”

The final page is not illustrated and asks supporters to “bring Lux to light.”

In addition to the book, a four-fold, two-sided mailer took the museum association’s first prize for newsletters.

Another award winner, in the invitation-to-events category, is an invitation to a Rancho Santa Fe party printed on red stock with gold glitter.

The invitation, R.S.V.P. card and envelope, and a note from Shaw—all on sparkly, red, card stock—are contained in a small paper sack with the letters LUX cut from the side of it.

Instructions on the invitation explain the sack can serve as a “Lux luminaria” by filling the bottom of it with sand and burning a candle inside of it.

Two of San Diego’s finest are making sweet music together. Taylor Guitars and Mires have struck a chord with Taylor’s new T5 hybrid electric and acoustic guitar.

The El Cajon—based guitar maker launched the T5 in May with the help of Mires, San Diego’s largest brand design firm. It was the single biggest launch in Taylor’s 31-year history, says Scott Mires, partner and creative director for the design firm.

“It’s unusual for people to buy a $3,000 guitar without even playing it first, but that’s what’s been happening in many stores,” says Taylor’s Andy Robinson. “T5s are sold out into next year.”

Among the musicians who use the T5 are Dave Matthews, Prince, Clint Black and local boy Jason Mraz. The T5, a thin-line hollow-body electric/acoustic, features Taylor’s proprietary electronics. “Because of its design, the T5 can live in either world,” Robinson says.

Scott Mires is a founding partner of Mires (http://www.miresbrands.com), a San Diego company helping clients create brand identities. He has worked with a range of national clients, including Taylor Guitars, Wal-Mart, Qualcomm and Intel. In addition, he has written articles on design’s role in brand development and has spoken at industry conferences around the country. The agency has been named one of Graphis’ “Top Ten Design Firms” and received industry recognition from Communications Arts, Print, the AIGA and others. Mires grew up in Coronado and is a graduate of San Diego State, with degrees in design and marketing.

 
Recommended Web Sites

Counter Counterfeit Commission, Mini Cooper
http://www.counterfeitmini.org

“A playful Web site that alerts consumers to ‘the proliferation of fake Mini Coopers.’ Not only is the site clever and well- orchestrated, it has a wonderful insider quality that deepens the already-strong lifestyle connection with the Mini Cooper brand.”

Taylor Guitars
http://www.taylorguitars.com

“We (Mires) manage the Taylor Guitars brand, including the company’s Web site. We recently developed a number of Web teasers and online promotions around Taylor’s launch of the T5, the company’s first electric guitar. For me, the work was particularly fun, and the response from Taylor fans has been tremendous.”

Surfline
http://www.surfline.com

“I am a regular on Surfline—in my view, the best resource for local surf conditions. I surf a few mornings a week and want to make sure the weather and waves will cooperate before I head to the beach.”

Shop Composition
http://www.shopcomposition.com

“The designer in me loves Shop Composition. Not only are the products fantastic, the site is visually engaging, and the user interface is crisp and easy to navigate—an all-around winner.”

For more than 10 years, El Cajon-based Taylor Guitars has looked to brand design firm Mires to help bring its products to the market.

The local guitar company, which is one of the most well-known manufacturers of high-end acoustic guitars, once again turned to the Little Italy-based firm to help create and sustain a brand identity for its newest venture, the T5, also known as the Taylor Guitar Thinline Five-Way.

Mires, which began working on the campaign in November, was hired to build buzz for the T5, Taylor’s first hybrid electric and acoustic guitar.

The company, which had only two months to come up with a plan, began to establish the guitar’s credibility by profiling popular musicians using the guitar, as well as using the Internet to tease the product’s upcoming launch.

Mires, which has 20 employees, built brand buzz for the T5 by taking photos of musicians using the guitar and incorporating that into the campaign.

“For us the key was to capture the visuality of these guys playing the guitar,” said President Scott Mires.

The pictures, which included shots of local singer-songwriter Jason Mraz and local band Switchfoot, were used in Web promotions, print material and point of purchase displays.

Mires, which designated six staff members to the project, also created 30-second video clips of artists using the product.

“The key is continuity,” Mires said. “Understanding how to best touch the audience and how to do it in the most consistent way.”

The company, which projects its revenue to reach $3.5 million to $4 million by the end of 2005, is in the process of launching an additional Web component to the campaign in the next several weeks, he said.

“The campaign has been a success, as the product has become the best selling guitar in Taylor’s 31-year history,” Mires said.

“According to Taylor Guitars, the T5 is expected to generate 100 times more sales than the cost of the entire campaign,” he said. Mires would not disclose the cost of the campaign.

The home of the Lux Art Institute in Encinitas may be a few months away from construction, but that hasn’t stopped the North County venue for contemporary art from earning an unusually high number of awards in the Annual American Association of Museums Design Competition. The Lux garnered first-place prizes in three categories for museums with budgets of less than $500,000: best newsletter, best event invitation (Lux After Dark) and best fund-raising/membership materials. All of the entries were designed by John Ball of Mires, a founding board member who does work for the museum pro bono.

“We are blessed to have his participation and vision,” said Lux Institute director Reesey Shaw, “in order to help people envision something that isn’t there yet.”

This year, the Lux was the only local winner from among 900 entries.

The Lux oversees an innovative education program it calls The Valise Project, for which commissioned noted artists create works in the form of a suitcase that become the basis of elementary school sessions. Once its home is completed in mid-2006, the Lux plans extended residencies for artists that will evolve into exhibitions.