Ken Peters asked:


A brand is more than just a ubiquitous logo and a catchy slogan. The most successful brands don’t merely denote people, places or things, they create an experience. The quality of the experience people have interacting with your company, products and services is the most influential factor in determining whether or not they’ll be repeat customers and recommend you to others.  

Design gives form, function and character to that brand experience. According to author and business management guru, Tom Peters, ”The dumbest mistake is viewing design as something you do at the end of the process as opposed to understanding it’s a day-one issue and part of everything.” Why? Because design is inherent in all facets of business. Design is the common denominator that shapes the physical space of your office or retail environment as well as establishes the dependability of your products and services. Design takes form in the pleasing tactile sensation of a marketing brochure or the thoughtful functionality of a user-friendly web site interface. Design is the tangible appearance of attractive packaging and the intangible ease of filling out a logically formatted order form. Design is the impetus of the branded experience, and no detail should be overlooked.  

You’re Never Too Small To Think Big

On the surface, Starbucks coffee and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles may seem far removed from your business. Their stories are relevant to entrepreneurs because though each started small, both leveraged the power of design to create unique consumer experiences that have become indelibly branded into our culture.

Starbucks: Brewing A Brand

Not long ago coffee was simple; 99¢ in any diner or café could buy a bottomless cup - straight black or cream and sugar. Today it’s a $5 Venti, foamy, ristretto, doppio expresso con panna cappuccino in the cozy confines of the neighborhood Starbucks. Suddenly a mundane everyday item is hip and new again. So, how did this modest start-up from Seattle grow to become North America’s leading retail coffee purveyor? By making design a part of everything - from the shapes, colors, and textures of their stores, to the presentation of their products and employees. Starbucks isn’t simply coffee, it’s a carefully designed coffee experience. 

“Retail is detail,” says chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. “All our design, whether it’s a packaged food or a new mug, needs to make sense and tell what we’re about.” And, what Starbucks is about is coffee, community, and quality. Starbucks realized long before their imitators that design plays a decisive role in creating experiences for consumers seeking to identify themselves via brands. Across the board, the experience at Starbucks is in the design. All consumer touchpoints from coffee labels, shopping bags, product displays, gift cards, and shareholder communications, to retail lighting, seating, fixtures, building materials, and even the ordering process, are thoughtfully designed to convey casual, artsy comfort with an approachable sophistication.

Recent setbacks brought about by overly-aggressive expansion during a turbulent global economy have slowed Starbucks quest for world domination. But through it all the company’s ability to leverage the power of design has kept consumer communications focused and brand equity robust. 

Harley-Davidson: Living The Brand 

As one of the most revered American icons of the 20th century, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles are the rumbling, ground-shaking epitome of branded experience.

Founded in Milwaukee, in 1901, Harley-Davidson rode a wave of innovation and success to become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world by 1920. But, by the mid 1980s the company was suffering from the lowest product quality rating in the industry, corporate disarray, and an outlaw biker stigma that didn’t appeal to mainstream consumers. That’s when a group of marketing-savvy investors came on board and revved up to reinvent the brand.

This pragmatic team understood that just as when engineering a motorcycle you must consider the rider, when designing a brand you must consider the consumer. So, they put the rubber to the road, so to speak, and attended rallies where they took photos, listened to stories, and began to develop a full-dimensional picture of the brand heritage as articulated directly by the consumers. Immediately, a new premium was placed on design. From the time-honored bikes themselves to internal corporate communications, to advertising, and the plethora of merchandising spin-offs, everything was re-designed to emphasize the rugged individualism and free-spiritedness that now defines the Harley mystique.

In the ensuing years the company has successfully rebranded the Harely experience for everyone, including middle-aged, white-collar professionals looking to get in touch with their inner “easy rider.” These RUBs, or Rich Urban Bikers, (and you know who you are), are buying into the (weekend) lifestyle and buying everything from motorcycles to branded infant MotorClothesTM. Owning a Harley has always meant being part of a brotherhood, but no longer the once perceived fraternal order of beer drinkers and hell raisers. Joining the Harley Owners Group (otherwise known as becoming a H.O.G.) is less about buying a bike and more about embracing a unique reality. Consumers continue to play an important part in shaping that reality and evolving the brand by perpetuating and redefining the experience. Few brands evoke such passion and loyalty - or have resulted in so many logo tattoos. Focusing on design – in both product and branding – and directly connecting and evolving with their consumer are how the Harley brand has endured for more than 100 years.

Experiencing The Rewards

Starbucks and Harley Davidson each started out as small, local businesses and have grown into globally recognized cultural icons. Take a cue from them and some of the other most successful brands in the world who have made design an integral part of their core business model. Use design to connect with consumers and provide them with a rewarding brand experience, and they’ll reward you in return.



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Jonathan Scott asked:


It seems that tattoos only gain in popularity with each new generation. And in fact, the average age of first tattoos is also getting younger and younger. Unfortunately, this means there are more people getting tattoos who come to regret them later in life. The good news is that there are a few ways to get rid of the unwanted tat.

Salabrasion is the oldest method of removing ink from within your skin, and has gained a solid reputation for itself for several decades. However, keep in mind that this is a process that no rank amateur should try. Just as you only want a qualfied surgeon removing your appendix or tonsils, only a professional, with a solid reputation should practice salabrasion. This is because of the risk of infection. Salabrasion involves first numbing the skin with a local anesthetic, then abrasively removing the skin and ink with a salt-water compound. If done correctly, this will noticeably remove the ink, but since it also removes all of the skin in the area, there is the chance of foreign material getting in the area, causing infection. A trained tattoo-remover knows the precautions to take to prevent this from happening.

Dermabrasion is only somewhat similar. There are two ways for approaching this method. One is to numb or freeze the area. Numbing prevents the patient from feeling the pain, freezing gives the remover a block of frozen skin to carve a reductive sculpture with. This reductive sculpture is basically sanding down the skin with a professional tool until all of the ink saturated areas are removed. The second method involves applying a chemical to your skin that loosens it from your body much the way paint stripper does. The affected skin is then peeled off, also like paint. As with salabrasion, it’s important that you employ only a trained professional with a good reputation to perform dermabrasion, so that he will be sure to take the necessary steps to prevent infection.

Excision is another way that many choose for having a tattoo removed. This process is much the same as removing a tumor, in that the inked skin is simply cut out of the body with a scalpel or similar tool, and the surrounding, healthy skin sewn together. If the tattoo is of a significant size, then several small patches may be removed separately, leaving your skin severely scarred. This method has minimal health risks when done properly, but is recommended for smaller tattoos due to the almost unquestionable chance of leaving scars.

Laser or IPL(Intense Pulsed Light) procedures are generally safe ways to remove ink from within your skin.

A laser or light is aimed at the tattoo, penetrating the skin all the way to the ink itself. This breaks the bonds in the ink, loosening it up. This can be somewhat expensive though. And it burns, so if you’re expecting a painless procedure, this is not it.

One other method that’s gaining in popularity because it is inexpensive and effective are home-removal formulas like Nuviderm. This is a TCA solution that’s applied to the tattoo every 4 - 6 weeks and gradually fades away the ink.



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Barry Lycka asked:


Tattooing, which is defined as the permanent insertion of ink or other pigments below the skin using a sharp instrument, has been used for cosmetic and ritual purposes since the Neolithic era. It has been used to identify criminals, invoke magical powers and, most recently, to adorn the skin with colorful designs in what has become a major trend.

Indeed, a recent telephone survey done by the American Academy of Dermatology reports that 36 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 are tattooed, and 24 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 50 have been inked. This represents a 16 percent increase over a similar survey done in 2003!

But what happens when that tattoo you thought was so cool 20 years ago just isn’t cool anymore?

Yes, tattooing has been around a long time, and something that has always gone along with tattoos since the very beginning is the desire to remove them. Whether the desire to remove the tattoo is a result of social, cultural, or physical reasons, people go to great lengths to get the job done.

Early techniques for removing tattoos included painful and scarring procedures such as sanding, cutting, and burning the skin. Unless you were willing to go to these lengths, tattoos were seen as permanent and irreversible. However, thanks to medical advances in the field of dermatology, surgeons are now able to remove tattoos safely and effectively.

Methods for tattoo removal today include dermabrasion, surgical excision, salabrasion, chemical peels, and laser surgery. Let’s examine how tattoos are removed with each of these methods.

Dermabrasion

With dermabrasion, the surface and middle layers of the skin are “sanded” away with a hand-held scraping or sanding tool. This process removes the pigmented skin and encourages the growth of new skin.

Dermabrasion is not for everyone. If the tattoo is old, or if the ink has been injected into the subcutaneous fat, dermabrasion may not work. Also, if the tattoo was done by an amateur and the ink is deposited at varying depths in the skin, complete removal may be difficult.

Side effects include skin discoloration, infection at the site of the tattoo, and scarring from repeated scraping and sanding. Complete removal of all the ink is not always possible.

Until laser surgery was introduced, dermabrasion was considered one of the most popular and effective ways of removing tattoos.

Surgical Excision

Surgical excision is performed under general anesthesia. During the process, the surgeon literally cuts the tattoo out of the skin, and closes the wound with sutures. This technique is more suitable for smaller tattoos.

This is one of the more invasive tattoo removal procedures, and complications include swelling, infection, and scarring.

Chemical Peel

A chemical peel, during which trichloracetic acid is usually used, progressively removes layers of skin, and eventually the tattoo.

Depending upon the age of the tattoo, and whether the ink is evenly distributed, it is not guaranteed that a chemical peel will completely remove a tattoo. Chemical peels can also cause permanent damage to the skin, such as lightening where the design used to be, or scarring.

Salibrasion

Salibrasion is perhaps one of the oldest methods of tattoo removal, and requires the skin to be “sanded” with salt. A local anesthetic is usually injected around the design, and the skin is aggressively rubbed with salt or a salt sanding block.

Complete tattoo removal can’t be guaranteed, and the procedure can leave the patient with raw, red, burned skin. Scarring is also a possibility with this method.

Laser Treatment

Laser treatment was introduced in the 1980s, and presented the best alternative to tattoo removal. The CO2 laser beam was used to vaporize the ink and the overlying skin, and was less painful, safer, and much easier than other techniques. However, the technique was not perfect. The healing process was long, there was considerable risk of scarring, and in almost all cases a faint image of the tattoo was left behind.

Q-Switched Lasers

Q-Switched Lasers were introduced about 10 years ago, and have been shown to be the most effective way to date to remove tattoos. Q-switched lasers emit light in very short but powerful flashes, which pass through the skin and break up the tattoo pigment.

Because the absorption of the laser light affects the energy’s ability to break up the pigment, different types of q-switched lasers are best used on different colors of pigment.

There are four different types of q-switched lasers:

1.Q-switched ruby lasers have a red light and are effective on most black, blue, and green pigments.

2. Q-switched alexandrite lasers emit a deep red light and are effective for most black, blue, and green pigments.

3. Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers emit an infrared light and are effective on most black and dark blue pigments.

4. Q-switched frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers emit a green light and are effective on most red, black, dark blue, and purple pigments.

While tattoo removal with q-switched lasers is completely safe, patients usually experience discomfort on the same scale as receiving the tattoo. A topical anesthetic can be applied one to three hours before treatment. The more treatments the patient has the less pain he or she will feel, as there will be less pigment to absorb the laser energy.

Antibiotic ointment and a light dressing are applied to the area after treatment and normal activity, including showering, can resume the next day. Light blistering or bleeding following the treatment is normal and should subside within a day or two.

All tattoos will require more than one treatment, the average being between five and 10 treatments depending upon the depth of the tattoo, the colors used, the location of the tattoo, and the health of the patient. Fading of the tattoo should be evident about two weeks after treatment, and another treatment can be done as soon as a month later.

While scarring will not occur as a result of q-switched lasers, mild skin texture changes can occur. Darker skinned patients may also experience some skin lightening, though this is usually temporary.

Is it guaranteed that the tattoo will completely disappear when treated with a q-switched laser? Well, because more than 100 tattoo inks are used today, and none of them are regulated by the FDA, it is impossible to predict how a particular ink will respond to laser treatment. However, in most cases the tattoo will completely disappear.

To find a physician board-certified in laser surgery who removes tattoos look in the yellow pages under Cosmetic or Laser Surgery, and/or Tattoo Removal. Or contact the Ethical Cosmetic Surgery Association to find a practitioner in your area.



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