Nikita Walia and Elliot Vredenburg of U.N.N.A.M.E.D. Studios took to the VISIONS stage at MoMA last year to enlighten a room of retail executives and brand marketers about the realities of worldbuilding. Their theory: a brand’s final form is decided by the public—and the strategist's job is to navigate that story, not control it. And they use Mercator, Buckminster Fuller, Guy Debord, free public Wi-Fi, and an acne sticker to back up their claims.

Mapping Meaning Isn’t About Being Right

Key takeaways:

Branding isn't worldbuilding because worldbuilding just imposes another set of rules
A three-hundred-page brand book is obsolete the day it ships, and rebrands every five to ten years are theater for stakeholders
The public decides a brand's final form, not the guidelines deck
Regenerative brands are always rebranding
[00:00:25] "Counter to what you've heard today, branding is not, in fact, worldbuilding." — Nikita Walia
[00:04:34] "This is sameness being sold to us as a form of consistency." — Nikita Walia
[00:15:45] "It's not about being right. It's about being useful, and useful in motion." — Elliot Vredenburg
[00:17:09] "A regenerative brand doesn't need to rebrand every five to ten years because it's always rebranding." — Elliot Vredenburg

In-Show Mentions:

The Mercator projection (1569) and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
Superstudio, The Continuous Monument
Guy Debord and psychogeography
LinkNYC
Burberry, Daniel Lee, Demna's Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli
Starface

Associated Links:

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Cartographies of Meaning

Future Commerce

Cartographies of Meaning