SPOTLIGHT: Housewares

Playful Graphics and Lively Icons Impart Myndology's Bold Message

Entrepreneur Jason Kinziger founded Mindbinders in 1998 on the principle of changing the way people study and learn. Starting small, Kinziger began selling flashcards to everyone from elementary schools to college bookstores to nationwide distributors.

Inspired by how Japanese students study while visiting Japan, Kinziger conceived the idea of ring-bound paper products that keep thoughts and ideas together while being able to transport pieces or change the sequence of notes to the user's preference. Over the last two years, Kinziger has expanded his business with new products and a new brand name, Myndology, all under the careful guidance of Minneapolis-based Duffy & Partners.

How to be bound yet free

Duffy & Partners signed on as a strategic partner with Kinziger to manage branding and product design in this pivotal time for Myndology. Kinziger knew the old Mindbinders identity no longer fit his company, but it was still difficult to let go of the name he helped build from the ground up. Tricia Davidson, managing partner at Duffy & Partners, helped convince Kinziger that it was time to start thinking of his old and new lines as a single brand. "We helped him articulate in a very focused way why he was doing what he was doing," Davidson says.

The goal was to unify and diversify the brand at the same time. Kinziger was impressed with Davidson and how she viewed the potential for the brand. She believed that it could expand far beyond the target student demographic, and she believed its strength was that it was a distinctly personal brand. That is, consumers had a specific relationship to the products that they used.

Duffy & Partners began by summarizing ideas that would hold the product lines together, such as name, function, portability, organization, and environmental cues. Myndology products promote environmental awareness because the products are made with durable covers and they are meant to be reused and refilled. Though the products are tools for better organization, Davidson and the Duffy & Partners staff kept returning to the idea of personal expression as a key one for the renewed brand.

The Muse line is the culmination of the complete rebranding effort that transformed Mindbinders into the more expandable Myndology identity.

The brainstorming for a new brand name followed a reaction to the negative connotations that "bind" had, and Duffy & Partners felt the new identity should be more "free" and open to expansion in a number of directions. "We knew that this brand had a lot of flexibility," explains Davidson. The Myndology name promised to be open enough both to make consumers comfortable and to cover all possible future product line extensions. Duffy & Partners also came up with an equally extendable signature tagline—"good thinking."

Duffy & Partners developed the sans-serif typeface for the logo and text to be accessible, age-neutral, and highly stylized. Relying more on icons and diagrams than on words, the designs strive to elicit memories or inspire creativity. Thought bubbles are a recurring theme in the notepads to encourage use, and some patterns even tell how to use the product, with commanding words such as "sketch it," "add to it," "re-arrange it," or "pull it out…put it back."

The Myndology brand message uses icons to suggest and educate consumers on how to get the most out of their product.

The signature Muse line

Kinziger felt it was important to retain the brand's "respect" for customer while expanding it, as his products are not sold in mass market retail. For the Muse line, Kinziger asked Duffy & Partners to develop the product from soup to nuts. They looked at recent cultural trends that could help the Muse line cross boundaries, such as the democratization of design, the idea of a perfect tool, having design match the importance of the product, and possible backlashes to technology. "Positioning concepts started even before any actual design," Davidson recalls.

The goal of the Muse line design was to instill confidence in the product and bring it out even more in consumers' personal lives. The muted colors of the Muse line were carefully chosen to be gender- and age-neutral. The many color revisions and precise persistence of Duffy & Partners tested Kinziger's patience, but he was ultimately delighted by the final color palette as well as the structural design and the inspirational patterns built on icons.

The Muse line is covered with a durable, translucent plastic sheath that clips securely closed in the back. The plastic is embossed with the Myndology logo in varying sizes and offers a uniquely pleasant tactile experience. Davidson believes that the cover also adds a sense of layering, where consumers are enticed to add their own thoughts and to be inspired. Kinziger finds the plastic cover conveys that the brand is "design aware" and sophisticated, in addition to being visually active.

Kinziger was very pleased with the relationship he had with Duffy & Partners, emphasizing the importance of clear communication. "It's amazing to see the difference that placing design first has made for my business," says Kinziger. Since the launch of the first redesign for back-to-school 2006, Myndology sales are up 25% and distribution outlets are up 30%.