 | | | | |  | | | Alfred Kahn, who has written recently for Red Herring about the real meaning of corporate identity,
and how to communicate it, was trained in marketing at the University of Florida and studied design at Art
Center College of Design and at UCLA. Kahn worked with leading advertising agency N.W. Ayer, and has served
clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to national nonprofit organizations. He has taught at Parsons
School of Design and the Vancouver School of Art in British Columbia. Before founding the national design and
marketing communications firm Brainworks some 20 years ago, he broke new ground as a cover designer for
Time, Newsweek, Psychology Today and Business Week magazines, as well as publishers Random House and
McGraw-Hill. The conversation began with the notion of Emotional Response CommunicationsTM,
a technique that has defined Kahn's work. | | | | | |  | | Some sources say you pioneered emotional response communications. | | | |  | | | Well, perhaps in the realm of mar-com for higher education institutions and technology companies - but the most effective communications have always produced a powerful emotional response, one that precedes and hopefully paves the way for a powerful intellectual response. Great novels, extraordinary speeches, timeless art, all of these things make the viewer/reader feel first and then think. |
| | | | | | | How does this play out in your work? | | | | | | | | We strive to simplify ideas as much as possible so that the audience - the busy, distracted, overwhelmed-by-too-many-messages audience - can react and relate to those ideas. People no longer have time to sift through images. We create a sense of immediacy. Our work is on a very instinctual level. We touch people by the use of colors and form, shape and voice, and at the same time solve problems for our clients. We look at our work as though there is a problem to be solved - the problem of bringing simplicity to complexity. |
| | | | | | | How is this different from "dumbing down" the message? | | | | | | | | Our goal is never to ignore or hide complexity, it is to connect quickly and powerfully with people in order to guide them to want to know more, learn more, go deeper into understanding. Our clients often have complex messages and provide multifaceted, complex products: higher education, medical care and research, new technology, science. In these areas especially it is vital to connect before you can explain, before you can sell. |
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| | | | | | | Why is that? | | | | | | | These are areas that are ripe for tunnel vision and lingo and what I call "self-
selling." There are many reasons why. Good colleges and universities, for example, all tend to look alike to prospects, but their administrators always believe they are completely unique. In many ways they are, but it is usually on a more emotional level of how the school "feels" rather than what programs the school offers. In medicine, a hospital or a physician looks at, say, cardiovascular surgery one way, the prospective patient looks at it very differently. An engineer understands nanotech-nology at a deep level, but usually the market only wants to understand what nanotech means to their life and their business. They want to understand the results, not the molecular structure. |
| | | | | | | So is there a place for emotional response communications in technology and science? | | | | | | | | Certainly. To have a successful conversation with the marketplace, whether you run a hospital or a software firm or a research lab, that conversation must begin with feeling rather than lingo, with connection rather than distance. Connection is the key to understanding, especially in technical areas that are poorly or incompletely understood by the mass market. And that connection must happen quickly, at a visceral level. At Brainworks, we are more than translators of information. We are matchmakers between an idea and an understanding of that idea. Leaders in technology, science and health care should know that an emotional connection is at least as important - and, in my view, even more important - in communicating their products and services as it is in any other, supposedly "softer" marketplace. |
| | | | | | | What do you consider the most important thing you do? | | | | | | | | Touch people. The ability to effectively and powerfully communicate with people on a deeper level with the images and voice we create, and to feel that my work is innovative in nature - that's a rewarding experience. To put it all together, to convert a commercial project into a graphic art form that also does its job of selling, that's where we live. |
| | | | | | | And finally, what is your most memorable assignment? | | | | | | | | The last one. I always feel that the work we do is on the level it is because we treat each job as though it's the first one we've ever done. We maintain a sense of wonder and interest and excitement. To make that really happen, you have to be selective about your clients, and only work with people who demand quality, who make you stretch and who are willing to stretch in return. I know that this is a business, but for me it is vital to think of myself as an artist first, and not be afraid to express what I believe is truly important. That's the role of the artist in society, and it should always be the role of the creative professional in business. We are all about connection, inspiration and true communication. You might say the best way to be cool is to create heat. |
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alfred kahn
November 2009 
Albert
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