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Previously on...
Hello,
Last time I spoke about how innovation might feel strange at first and even drive rejection. Sometimes it is so much more comfortable to do what everyone is expecting.
Like now, what is everyone expecting? A Happy Holidays card? A gift? Maybe a Christmas basket?
Why do we do this? To check a box? Because our minds are tired and incapable of imagining something new?
A year ago, I was pondering those questions with the team.
This is not the whole story.
Brand and Comms team talking, circa Oct 2019. Went something like this:
- What are we going to do for Chrismas?
- Christmas is politically incorrect. It’s non-inclusive. Jews, Muslims and many others don’t celebrate Christmas.
- Sure. What are we going to do for “Happy Holidays” season then?
- “Happy Holidays” is boring, predictable and crowded. Do we really want to do this?
- I coulnd’t agree more. But I already can see what’s coming - “Aren’t we going to send something to our customers? A post-card? A gift?” “No! It’s too cliché, we don’t do that!” “So we’re not doing anyting?” “That’s right, don’t worry, in 1 month noone is going to talk about it anymore.”
- So the challenge is: “What are we going to do, that’s interesting, differenciated, and remarkable?”
- Remarkable? Maybe we send an actual Purple cow!
- Why don’t we ditch “Happy Holidays”, but not the gift? Why don’t we instead celebrate the new year and the beggining of new decade!
This led us to imagine a special magazine with original content about the future. A futuristic magazine to celebrate a new decade and the future it entailed. To position the brand as part of the future, innovative and eclectic.
“Future Perfect” is a print magazine of literature, visual art, and social commentary published by Unbabel, the AI startup that’s building the world’s translation layer. The magazine offers a complex portrait of language as it evolves alongside society.
The content, the design, and production - all worked together to bring this futuristic look. You can read more about the design from Ana Resende in this article for “It’s Nice That”.
The dream and the fallout
Doing something like this is not for the faint-hearted. The whole piece was so out of the ordinary. Polarizing. I felt discomfort when I first saw the initial designs.
I’m really proud that we could do something so ambitious. Take the risk. Be on the edge where you feel the discomfort.
2020 would soon turn out to be quite different. When the magazine finally came out, we were living in a different world — of uncertainty, disorientation, and fear.
But that’s what taking risks is all about. Sometimes things don’t turn out quite the way you expected for many reasons, with or without pandemics.
Maybe it was ahead of its time, too strange, avant-garde perhaps - like the best ideas are. Maybe it was genius. Maybe it was hubris or just plain silly.
Maybe we would be better off with a Christmas basket.
Thanks for reading,
Hugo
PS: If you feel generous, just hit ♥️ bellow.