D3P1.1 - NANA BOONORM

"Brand Genetics"

GUCCI

As a high-end fashion house, Gucci aims to deliver clothing and accessories of top-level quality and luxury. Their keywords, "Eclectic, Romantic, and Contemporary" form their unique 'image' which I literally translated into a photo montage along with motifs common in their products. Out of those motifs, I found the three stripes, green-red-green, as the most powerful as this mere combination of two colors on any product is capable of identifying it as Gucci. Furthermore, the brand's equestrian roots and heritage were present in this simple gesture. As such, I picked this iconic motif as the material of Gucci.

WME-IMG

WME-IMG started out as an agency representing actors from Charlie Chaplin to Marilyn Monroe. As time went on and they gathered even more famous stars such as Matt Damon, WME also started buying other agencies or businesses with human resources, and marketing firms such as Droga 5. With these investments, WME's resources branched out into other industries such as fashion, modeling, bull fighting, martial arts, music, and much more. Once they had an abundance of resources under them, WME started to search for possible overlaps and connections between each industry which later presented itself in the form of hybrid-events: bull fighting champions as models, musicians collaborating with fashion brands, or even celebrities holding shares in the UFC. WME's material are these connections they aim to bridge, as their business moves on  from merely 'representing,' to 'owning.'

ANDELA

Andela is a tech outsourcer, which means they train tech developers to be hired in other businesses who are in need of a tech department. However, what sets Andela apart from the others is their main 'source' - Africa. In a time where tech developers were becoming a harder to find resource, Andela saw opportunity in Africa. Many people receive decent education in the technology department, but not many had the same opportunities other countries had. Thus, Andela "auditioned" tech graduates, put them through an intense training program, and released them to be hired by international businesses. And as Andela saw in Africa, I saw opportunity as their "material." This opportunity wasn't one sided either - just as many Africans were receiving an opportunity to be hired outside their country, these businesses also received an opportunity to 'tap' into this new resource along with new mindsets, cultures, and identities. The African side wasn't just about business opportunities either, but also opportunities to reach out from the overpowering government, via this 'borderless' world of technology.

In the end, what drove all these businesses were 'connections.' For WME, it was the variety of connections between industries. For Andela, it was a connection between Africa and the World, both physically and technologically. For Gucci, it was a connection to their roots which remained through time, even when trends came and go.