Issue 6: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

OPINION / CREATIVITY

Design for everyone: radical accessibility creates enduring brands

💬Greg Hoffman

Hugo Deffner wasn’t an architect, but his activities in the 1950s made an indelible imprint on the built environment in the US. A wheelchair user from Oklahoma City, Deffner was appalled at how inaccessible public buildings were in his hometown. So, he started a campaign to make places more hospitable for those with disabilities. These efforts led to modifications at the local library, high school, YMCA and Methodist church. He also lobbied nationally for cities around the country to follow suit.

While Deffner was an early pioneer, it wasn’t until the 1990s that barrier-free design became a movement. Ramps enabled people to bypass stairwells. Door handles replaced knobs. Braille appeared on signs. Universally accessible design still doesn’t exist everywhere, but the world today is far more navigable than when Deffner was active. Now a similar shift is underway in the sphere of brands and businesses. Until recently, many communities and individuals did not have access to a brand’s full category of product solutions. That’s changing thanks to the emergence of radical accessibility – a shift where innovators are challenging conventional norms in a revolutionary way.

A flourishing culture of innovation starts with empathy. A team’s ability to look beyond their own life and deeply consider the conditions, environments, and experiences of others in the world. That means not only solving problems for their core consumers, but also striving to deliver to those that have faced barriers, or had not been offered an invitation to experience the benefits within a specific product category. I witnessed a breakthrough moment in 2015 when NIKE launched its FlyEase footwear solution. A fastening system innovation that meant a sneaker could be put on hands-free. Not only did it enable someone with a disability or mobility issue to wear them unassisted, but the design came with the same high level of style and personality of anything you’d see an elite athlete on the world stage wearing.

Recently, more innovation has followed across multiple sectors. Sony’s Project Leonardo game controller aims to help people with physical disabilities or motor issues play more easily. Mastercard’s Touch Card features notches on one side so that the blind or partially sighted can detect which card (debit, credit or prepaid) they are holding. The most exciting example I’ve seen is the AT&T 5G football helmet for players who are deaf or hard of hearing. It was pioneered for Gallaudet University, an academic institution for the hearing impaired. The helmet is designed to put players on an equal footing when they compete against other teams that are not hearing impaired. Plays are sent in from the sideline and displayed on a lens within the helmet, giving the athlete signals in real time.

Radical accessibility allows businesses to connect to new audiences. But it helps make better offerings for existing customers too. Notice how in the examples above, each product would be gladly used by someone who does not live with a disability. By innovating in this space, companies are creating something that addresses civic needs (or serves a community that has been left out of the innovation process). If it’s done right, the thing created becomes part of the business in totality. Brands such as Apple and Google have adopted accessibility design as a central tenet of their innovation agenda and process. And we all benefit from that.

Companies can’t deliver on this level of thinking without possessing a creative culture – one where empathy and imagination is leveraged to serve everyone. A strategy that serves everyone’s human potential is simply good for business. Above all, a brand’s job is to accelerate people towards their better future. This is a mission that Deffner would likely have approved of. And in the 2020s, it’s a cause well worth campaigning for.

Greg Hoffman is a global brand leader, former NIKE Chief Marketing Officer, and founder and principal of the brand advisory group Modern Arena.

THE AGENDA / FROM OUR BEST FRIENDS AND TO THE MOON

1.
The world’s biggest arts and antiques fair comes to Maastricht in Holland. The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) has a point to prove this year: in a digital landscape, where more work is viewed and bought online, physical shows are still where it’s at. We agree that’s the correct framing.
9th – 14th March

2.
Does the Moon change how we act and feel? Aristotle thought so. Although most scientists believe he was mistaken. You can make your own mind up this weekend as the second supermoon of 2024 looms closer than usual to our planet’s surface.
10th March

3.
Hopeful members of the film industry will descend on the 96th instalment of the Oscars. Is the silver screen still an accurate reflection of the zeitgeist? Given the seriousness of the films vying for best picture – themes include nuclear war (Oppenheimer), murder (Killers of the Flower Moon), and prejudice (American Fiction) – we think so. Barbie should provide some relief.
10th March

4.
Like the Olympics, but for dogs. Crufts is the biggest show for precocious pooches on the planet. All entrants (both four and two-legged) will be chasing the much-coveted moniker: Best in Show.
7th – 10th March

UK / POLITICS

Creative with a small ‘c’? 

Jeremy Hunt MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Contributor: PjrNews / Alamy Stock Photo

Spring is usually time for optimism and renewal. In the UK political sphere, such things are in short supply as Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, prepares to unveil his seasonal budget. Support for the Conservative Party has fallen to its lowest ebb ever according to Ipsos, a pollster. Backbenchers think a slash in taxes would provide a sorely-needed boost. But there’s a problem: there isn’t much money to play with. Meanwhile, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows that voters care less about tax cuts, and more about things like fixing the NHS, and improving public services. The best creativity is borne from pressure and working within constraints. But don’t expect any flashes of brilliance this week.

Contributor: Clo’e Floirat

Creativity tip: Be kind to your ego. Creativity flows from having a clear sense of self. Just don’t let it turn into hubris.

GLOBAL / EQUALITY 

Make it fairer

International Women’s Day (IWD) has a sober intent. The holiday is about closing the gender pay gap, eradicating sexism, and making life safer for women around the world. Nevertheless, brands are prone to viewing it as an opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight, running marketing campaigns associated with such issues. Irrespective of how well-intentioned these are, the chance of backlash is perilously high. Companies have learned from past blunders – think Ann Summers’ re-branding to “WomAnn Summers” – and campaigns become more considered each year.

Beth Bentley, co-founder of Tomorrowism, a brand strategy consultancy, thinks that IWD should be an opportunity for businesses to hold themselves more accountable. “Brands use IWD as a chance to court consumers. It’s a B2C ‘content calendar’ moment that offers an opportunity to stand out. But does a lot of this feel hollow, repetitive, derivative? I’d argue yes,” she says. “A more creative approach would be a B2B reset. A time to hold your own business accountable and explain your position, plan or progress when it comes to gender split, pay gap, females in leadership.”

Revolutionary transparency that leads to consequential change? That’s a spirit much more aligned to IWD’s founding principles.

GLOBAL / GAMING

Gaming gets art-house 

Gaming used to be about shooting things, beating people up, or ‘crushing turts’. But in recent years, titles have become more cultivated. Games are borrowing conventions from art house cinema and giving players a fuller range of emotions. Consider last year’s release Alan Wake 2, a Stephen King-inspired survival horror affair. Or Omori, a 2020 role-playing game with a deliberately tear-jerking storyline. Can games be art? Dr. Tom Chatfield, author and philosopher of technology, thinks they can.

“If you’re talking about the intense, skilful expression of human talent and aesthetic sensibility for its own sake, countless games fit the bill,” he says. “Think of a game like The Last of Us: its realisation of a particular world, its story and acting, its cultural significance, the way it has crossed over into other media. Think of the joy Mario has brought to the world as an icon of play, exploration and control; the exquisite craft of Breath of the Wild; the unfettered creativity unleashed by tens of millions of people around Minecraft. And so on, and so on. Games aren’t just art, they’re also some of the most popular, immersive and transporting forms of art ever created.”

Contributor: SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

Dr. Tom Chatfield’s new book, Wise Animals explores the deep past and future of humanity’s relationship with technology.

AUSTIN / CONFERENCES

South by Southwest
Contributor: Marjorie Kamys Cotera/Bob Daemmrich Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

SXSW puts emphasis on leading women

South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin is considered to be the hipper, more creative alternative to the tech industry’s biggest US jamboree, The Consumer Electronics Show (CES). A big theme this year – as the event kicks off this Friday – will be how women are driving agendas when it comes to innovation, activism and media. The opening keynote announced on Sunday will be Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen and headlining will be Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. With the tech sector still lagging when it comes to gender equality, choosing to put such a topic at the top of the agenda is a welcome move.

I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned.

/Yayoi Kusama