The brand strategy book “Rockets and Rebels” by Scandinavian Design Group won Gold in the new Textbook category of the Grafill’s “The Year’s Most Beautiful Books” annual competition. The book represents “a strategy for executives and others who want to build brands people care about”.
“When we started working on Rockets and Rebels, we envisioned something between a business book and a coffee table book”, said Monna Nordhagen, one of the authors. “We are super proud, but from a branding point of view, the interesting thing was in the jury’s description of the book as “A good mix of a textbook and an office table book”. Why didn’t we think of that? Aren’t we supposed to be the branding experts?
The jury found the illustrations and infographics appealing, and the color palette and icons on the pages very functional. The special colors and details make it even more enjoyable to browse.
The SDG team shared some thoughts on what the office table books should deliver to be considered different from all the other business books:
– It should be a business book in its own right, therefore the content stays the most important.
– It should be possible to read it “bite-sized” portions, i.e. consumed from the beginning, the end or the middle.
– It should contain “eye candy”. As a coffee table book, the browsing experience should be an experience in its own right.
– Maybe an office table book should also have some extra material that celebrates the content as well as the visuals? Like coffee table books have posters, fold-outs etc. It could be a variety of canvasses, visually appealing check-lists, infographics etc.
“We never thought about any of this, we had no experience in writing, designing or producing books. Rockets and Rebels found its form through trial and error, and some kind karma. Cool though, first time lucky, and now with a shiny new category to belong to,” concluded Monna.
The Scandinavian Design Group team behind the book:
Writers: Monna Nordhagen, Kirsti Rogne
Illustrators: Vegard Aspelund, Oliver Riches, Truong Vu Pham
