Otherwise collaborated with Chicago Artists' Coalition in a Brand Development process to strategically position product and service offerings while also rebranding the organization around its newly-clarified vision to build sustainable creative marketplaces for entrepreneurial artists.

Otherwise is proud of our rebranding work with Chicago Artists’ Coalition. I had the opportunity to speak with their Executive Director, Carolina Jayaram, about our process and collaboration:

EN: What inspired CAC to pursue a rebranding? What do you hope to achieve through the process?

CJ: I took over as Executive Director of Chicago Artists’ Coalition three years ago, and even though the organization is 39 years old, we have a new location, new staff and all new programs. This rebirth called for a fresh visual identity. Our brand was not cohesive, there was no rhyme or reason, and as a growing organization it was a problem. We needed to convey the message of who we are now compared to who we were then. With our recent acquisition of the Chicago Artists Resource (CAR) website, we knew we wanted to be a national organization. This was the push that we needed for a rebranding.

Otherwise created an identity guide along with creative assets to solidify Chicago Artists' Coalition brand identity and positioning.

EN: What did you see in Otherwise that resonated with your vision and led you to seek our partnership?

CJ: With Nancy Lerner and David Frej at the helm, Otherwise has so much experience in the art world, as avid collectors and strong supporters of the arts. You understood, at a deep level, the importance of supporting artists. Looking through Otherwise’s portfolio, I felt aesthetically connected to the work. Otherwise taught us that nonprofits don’t do a good job of owning their work, and that we need to be proud of what we do. It installed a sense of confidence in our work.

EN: How would you describe the experience of working with Otherwise? What have you learned from Otherwise through the process? 

CJ: I learned how visual identity works and what I like in it. I learned that marks become boring over time, and it is more interesting to use words as a mark. Otherwise pushed us to reimagine our organization five to ten years from now and what we want to represent. We thought about how to scale our programs in the future. Otherwise challenged us and informed us.

In the process of visual identity, we were shown so many logos and I chose one that I never would have expected to choose. It was irritating in a good way and I kept going back to it. I learned that a good logo needs to capture your attention and make you think. Too often logos are dumbed down so that people don’t have to work for it. We wanted to challenge people and assume they are smart, and our new logo allows people to be clever.

EN: What role do you expect the rebranding will play in fostering growth and success for CAC?      

CJ: Our rebranding is absolutely at the core of the next phase of Chicago Artists’ Coalition. Our new tagline, “building a creative marketplace,” is the eye of the storm. A new visual identity, logo and tagline were so important to us because this rebranding allows us to introduce who we are now.

The development of creative assets are vital to sending important signals to the marketplace about the uniqueness of the brand and the experiences it provides.

Emmaline Niendorf is a Content Manager for Otherwise Incorporated.

This week on Simply Magnificent, we explored the many upcoming festivities one can see during the Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park. On Facebook, we took time to point out some of the interesting art exhibitions happening around Chicago, and highlighted previous posts as well.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

The Seen – Official blog for EXPO CHICAGO

This week on EXPO Chicago’s blog, The Seen, we took a look at SAIC’s Fashion 2013 event, which featured student designed work. We also visited the studio of Chicago printmakers Sonnenzimmer for an interview and a look at their latest exhibition.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week on Stay Gorgeous, the blog featured 8-time Oscar winning costume designer Edith Head and how she tuned into the stars’ personality and style to create individualized styles. Facebook and Twitter shared the best looks from the Cannes Film Festival red carpet and announced voting for CitySearch’s best haircut in Chicago.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

This week on Simply Magnificent, we looked at some of the stunning exhibitions happening in May in some of Chicago’s best galleries. On Facebook, we shared information about openings as well as some photos from the Joffrey Ballet’s performance of Shakespeare’s Othello.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

The Seen – Official blog for EXPO CHICAGO

This week on The Seen, we explored a light box installation at Detroit’s See Art + Design Gallery. The pieces, by Bryan Christopher Baker, explore texture, pattern, form by turning the tools used to create prints into visual pieces. We then stepped outside to view more pieces that focus on light: the outdoor Skyspace structures created by James Turrell. Turrell has created simple structures which contain seating for the viewers to look upwards at an aperture in the ceiling meant to focus on the ever-changing sky during dawn and dusk. Our latest post examines his different structures across the globe.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week, the Stay Gorgeous blog featured spring sunglass trends and perfect matching hairstyles. Facebook and Twitter celebrated the royal couple Will and Kate’s second anniversary, presented the braided updo trend and announced voting for NBC Mother’s Day Makeover.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

This week, Simply Magnificent explored two exciting events happening in Chicago: Othello as performed by the Joffrey Ballet and the International Antiques Fair. We had the chance to speak with Academy Award winning composer Elliot Goldenthal about his work on Othello and his greater body of work as a composer for film and the stage. We also wrote about our visit to the Joffrey Ballet studio to watch a rehearsal as the dancers prepared for Othello‘s opening. As a preview for the International Antiques Fair, held each year at the Merchandise Mart, we interviewed Allan Hare of Hares Antiques. Hare is a seasoned and long-established dealer located in the heart of the Cotswolds in the UK.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

The Seen – Official blog for EXPO CHICAGO

This week on The Seen, we saw a performance by Tony Orrico, an artist who creates stunning large scale, geometric drawings through performances which span hours and multiple days. We also has the opportunity to take a behind the scenes look at the installation of Amalia Pica’s solo exhibition at the MCA Chicago.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week, Salon Buzz celebrated Client Appreciation Week, and Facebook and Twitter announced sample giveaways and complimentary services for each day.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

This week on The Seen, we shared the news of EXPO Chicago’s renewed partnership with Artspace.com, we visited the MCA for Goshka Macuga’s exhibition, and the Guggenheim to see work created by Zarina Hashmi.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Simply Magnificent – Official blog for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago 

This week on Simply Magnificent, we looked at some of the best open-air dining locations in Chicago, enjoyed an interview with David Stern of the Stern Pissarro Gallery who will be at the International Antiques Fair, and visited the rehearsal studio of the Joffery Ballet for a preview of their upcoming adaptation of Othello. Look forward to more feature posts in the coming week on Othello and the International Antiques Fair on Simply Magnificent.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

 Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week on Stay Gorgeous, the blog featured Diane von Furstenberg as a style icon and inspirational figure. Facebook and Twitter announced Salon Buzz’s upcoming Client Appreciation Week and the release of a documentary on photographer Bert Stern.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

The Seen – Official blog for EXPO CHICAGO

This week on The Seen, we visited Hauser Gallery in Chicago for an exhibition of upcoming artists. In New York, we reviewed the Armory Show and the ADAA Show.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Simply Magnificent – Official blog for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago 

This week on Simply Magnificent, we explored the very best in Chicago’s Open-Air Dining Spots and, we shared exciting art openings and great coffee shops to use as an an escape from this week’s poor weather.

Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week on Stay Gorgeous, the blog featured spring’s green fashion trend, coupling runway looks with hairstyles that showed personality. Facebook and Twitter shared Salon Buzz’s NBC segment on spring nail art and color trends, celebrated Marc Jacobs’s birthday and featured a quote on beauty by Jean Paul Gaultier.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

This week on The Seen, we visited an exhibition focused on pattern at the Broad Museum of Art, explored a retrospective of the Japanese Gutai art collective at the Guggenheim, and saw exhibitions from La Casa Encendida and La Caixa Forum in Spain.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Simply Magnificent – Official blog for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago 

This week on Simply Magnificent, we visited Dollop Coffee, a locally owned cafe in Streeterville. After that, we looked at some of the best art exhibitions happening at galleries and museums around Chicago.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

 Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week, the Stay Gorgeous blog post featured a post on the many shades of Emma Stone, highlighting the different her different choice in hair color and the various personalities they conveyed. Facebook shared different pixie hairstyles, celebrated Marlo Brando’s birthday and featured a quote by Anna Wintour. On Twitter, Andreas live tweeted photos from his taping of the Mother’s Day makeover segment at the Steve Harvey Show studio.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous

I will admit that the very notion of “brand building” is daunting. It carries with it the heavy expectation that the outcome must be grand and game-changing. Which, by inference, means your endeavor/enterprise/business must also be grand and game-changing. After spending lots of time with entrepreneurs and business founders, I have come to believe that their greatest fear isn’t just that they will fail, but that their babies are ugly. Their ideas trivial. Their accomplishments unremarkable.

I’m here to assure you that just as every picture tells a story (thank you, Rod Stewart for that lovely idea), every brand has a story to tell, as well. Brand building is a visionary, evolving process that involves the courage to invest both head and heart into understanding — and ultimately illuminating — what is unique and ownable about your brand. And once you have a bead on the essence of your brand, it takes discipline and tenacity to nurture it.

OK. Now how do you do that?

Start with creating a narrative that tells your brand story. It will establish your connection to your brand, which will then enable others to do the same. Give your stakeholders – staff, customers, partners, etc. – a reason to see you more than simply a product or a service, but as a relatable, familiar and trusted partner. And once you have a narrative that feels right, you have the ability to implement consistent messaging across all communication channels, including your website, collateral, advertising, and social media.

There are an infinite number of ways to approach creating a brand narrative, but if this is unchartered territory, it’s best to keep it simple…Think about by answering the most fundamental questions…

Who are we?
What do we do?
How do we do what we do?
Why does it matter?

If it feels like your narrative is a cliché, then it probably is. Push harder to discover an insight into your brand that is uniquely yours, and compelling enough to engage others. Stretch and take chances. And don’t settle.

Do you have other suggestions on how to build a strong brand narrative? Voice your opinions in our comments.

Illustration Credit: Luca Pontarelli, Graphic Design Intern at Otherwise Incorporated

The campaign takes a clever stab at a consumer niche predicated on one simple condition: an intense love for music. With this idea in mind, the ads depict memorable and contemporary encounters with music through the lens of multiple music aficionados — including a “festie” crowd surfer, a Gen X-er longing for his distant love and a wacky foot-stomping hipster — and capture how music is deeply engrained in our everyday experiences. You can take a look at the videos here.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In addition to a launch that featured the first spot, “For Music”, on NBC’s The Voice and generated approximately 13.4 million total viewers, the ad campaign is a buzzing topic within the online community, with features in tech hubs like Mashable and Fast Company, and has great online viewership potential since 100 million Americans are increasingly watching more video per day, up 43% since 2010. Statistics now show that video is a powerful tool for any overall marketing strategy, as video content can dramatically increase your website traffic and is becoming a preferred method in communicating your value offerings. While Spotify’s strategy involves additional social media and still ad tactics, the commercials themselves can stand alone as compelling pieces of online video content in their own right. The ads have mastered an image that is culturally relevant and hard-hitting, making them difficult to ignore and well worth our time.

Looking to Spotify’s ad campaigns as an example on how best to engage online viewers with your videos, read through these tips to guide you through creating powerful video content.  

1. Your video needs to connect with your audience.

• Know specifically whom you are engaging with.
• Ensure that your audience can directly relate to your content.
• Ground your story in truth and facts.
• Tap into emotional frameworks.

For Spotify, this meant appealing to a diversified group of ravers, head-bangers and even gentle listeners through their line-up of ad protagonists who embody commonplace characters amongst both Millennial and Gen X age groups. Having access to rich data can help, but all video content strategies begin with research, planning and active fieldwork. Grounding your narrative in these realistic truths and findings is what gives your content a human touch; when done right, strong and believable narratives will lead to promising and long-life video content.

2. Maintain consistency throughout all video content.

• Regulate your narrative tone to inter-connect all of your video.
• Be formulaic when writing your video content.
• Develop consistent methods for branding your video.

Videos should never stand alone; develop themes that relate to your website and correlate with your static content. In all of its videos, Spotify clearly sees music as “something worth fighting for;” and if you ask why, their landing page offers a great answer: “Because [it’s] for music.”

You can also maintain a consistent feel in your videos by creating repeatable templates for animated logos and other video content to strengthen your brand image and ease your video making process.

3. Pay close attention to your visual message.

• Take advantage of special effects to enhance your main argument.
• Choose a medium that can best tell your story (animation versus real-life footage).

Video content has the power to educate, inspire and influence viewers and evoke powerful emotional responses. In slowing down video speed, Spotify was spot-on, as the ads captured and crystallized euphoric moments based on real-life music experiences. While video effects can enhance your content in tasteful ways, it’s important to not go overboard.   In a recent project with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Otherwise developed an animated video that illuminates how communities thrive when they come together for children — the theme for the foundation’s 2012 Annual Report.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Using the power of illustration to tell a story, the video literally brings the WKKF narrative to life. The video’s color palette and charming animations are both distinctive in their own right, while aligning with the print version of the annual report.

Read more from Otherwise Incorporated on content creation:

Five Tips for Creating Strong Blog Content 

Salon Buzz: Adding Dimension to the Brand Identity

Image credit: Spotify

Video credit: YouTube, Spotify, Droga5

Theo Skolnik is a Integrated Marketing Associate for Otherwise Incorporated.

This week on The Seen, we explored current exhibitions at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain.

We also had an exciting conversation with Chicago-artist, Professor and Chair of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and recently named a curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial – Michelle Grabner. Grabner will bring her experience as a painter, exhibition organizer, and educator to the Biennial which opens March 2014.

Follow EXPO CHICAGO on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates on the fair and for all things contemporary art.

ᔥ The Seen

Simply Magnificent – Official blog for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago

This week on Simply Magnificent, we had the opportunity to speak with Chicago-born fashion designer and tailor George Zaharoff. We spoke about his recently opened flagship retail store, Zaharoff, and what goes into creating beautiful clothing.

Follow The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago on Facebook for updates on The Residences and to stay connected to the world of luxury living in Chicago.

ᔥ Simply Magnificent

Stay Gorgeous – Official blog for Salon Buzz

This week on Stay Gorgeous, the blog featured a post on earrings as a fashion statement to complement the side part. Facebook and Twitter featured a quote on beauty by Ralph Waldo Emerson and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s new haircut.

To stay up to date with the latest from Salon Buzz, visit their blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

ᔥ Stay Gorgeous