He’s the blood-spitting shock rocker who claims to have slept with almost 5,000 groupies.

But Kiss frontman Gene Simmons is also a canny businessman who understands the power of brand loyalty. Simmons has built a $1 billion merchandise operation that includes everything from condoms to coffins, coffee shops to comics. This week he’s sharing the secrets of his success during a lecture to the next generation of business leaders at London Business School.

Can this monster of rock with the seven-inch tongue be a role model for a successful business?

He’s not the first musician to understand the power of the band as a brand…

Those popular purveyors of 1960s ‘space rock’ The Grateful Dead were pioneers of best practice in customer care – and their model is being belatedly embraced by the corporate world.

The Dead adopted a visionary ‘customer-first’ approach to their loyal fans – who charmingly called themselves ‘Deadheads’.

The band set up a telephone hotline alerting Deadheads of tour dates before details were released to the public, reserved some of the best seats for them, capped the price of tickets and even distributed them through their own mail order house.

Treating customers well may sound like common sense, but it represented a break from the top-down ethos of many organisations in the 1960s and 70s. It was about nurturing the long-term loyalty of the most perfervid purchasers of their records, concert tickets and t-shirts – in essence their core customer base.

We share that same ‘customer-first’ philosophy and, like Jerry Garcia and his gang, it’s about taking the long view.

Our business should not just be about transaction, but retention – consistently delivering the right kind of service and support that delights our clients to ensure we remain a partner over the long term.

So, The Grateful Dead are playing our song. As long as it’s not one from their 1977 album Terrapin Station.

I know this argument is well documented, but I can’t help getting wound up every time we see another ‘classic’ album re-released on some anniversary or another. Okay, Nirvana’s Nevermind is a seminal album – a classic in most people’s books, and it’s even a nice round 20 years old. But wasn’t it the burden of fame, success and ultimately this kind of ’selling out’ that led to Kurt Cobain’s early departure in the first place? Ironically, maybe it was Cobain’s suicide that elevated the album to such status in the first place?… Maybe he saw it all coming.

Purely from a design point of view (being a design-related blog and all that), the released pictures don’t suggest this is anything special at all, and certainly not worth the $135 price tag. And wasn’t In Utero a better album anyway?

That said, the publicity this has created has encouraged me to go back and listen to my Nirvana back catalogue today – and maybe it will introduce their music to a new audience?

Here’s a question – Which album do you think is genuinely worth a re-release, and how would you do it?

Illustrator Andrew Kolb has created this lovely children’s book based on David Bowie’s classic track ‘Space Oddity’. Some songs are just oozing with lyrical imagery, and this is no exception – Kolb has really captured the childlike simplicity of the melodies and the words, and the illustrations really come into their own, I feel, when the story takes a slightly darker turn towards the end: “Tell my wife I love her very much”… “SHE KNOWS!”. If I had kids, this is what they’d be reading!

More visuals can be found on Andrew Kolb’s website

It’s Better In The Wind – 2011 Trailer 2 from Scott Toepfer on Vimeo.

It’s Better In The Wind is a photography, film and book project by Scott Toepfer which sets out across the west of America on’vehicles without windows to restrict the scenery’, reflecting on past and future journeys. There’s some beautiful photography, and some wonderfully evocative and stylish film trailers for the forthcoming movie.

More pictures at ItsBetterInTheWind.com

See the movie trailers at ItsBetterInTheWind.com

Shangri’La Projections, Glastonbury Festival 2011 from Darkroom Motion Graphics on Vimeo.

Artists and performers are working ever more closely with architectural designers to extend their installations and performances across entire environments. ‘Projection Mapping’ brings surfaces and structures to life, using the environment as an integral part of the experience. This projection-mapped panoramic structure was built by Darkroom Motion Graphics for the Glastonbury Festival, creating a glowing, pulsing skyline. It seems the canvas as we know it has become truly infinite!

More examples of Projection Mapping can be found at TheCreatorsProject.com.

On Friday 29th January, the Creative Forum became a Pecha Kucha event where five presenters from around the business talked about a (very) wide variety of subjects. Pecha Kucha is a new way of presenting, as an antidote to dull Powerpoint presentations. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

After a brief intro, the presentations began, varying from the reality behind being in a touring band to a lesson on how nuclear weapons work (!) Once every presentation finished there was a period of time to discuss and ask questions and at the end of the entire Forum, we spoke about how it all went and where we could use it in the future. A big thanks to everyone who came and especially those who volunteered to present – we plan to post the presentations online soon so watch this space.

Syn Emergence from RICH BEVAN on Vimeo.

I love to see these ‘explorations’ How do i get to make abstract things for our clients? Does anyone out there want to let me make such crazy beautiful things? one day…!

anyway – first post! yay!