Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits

By: Debbie Millman

Narrated by: Nicole Vilencia

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Insights and provocations from world-renowned brand consultants, thought leaders, designers, and strategists.

We are now living in a world with over 100 brands of bottled water. The United States alone is home to over 45,000 shopping malls. And there are more than 19 million customized beverage choices a barista can whip up at your local Starbucks. Whether it’s good or bad, the real question is why we behave this way in the first place. Why do we telegraph our affiliations or our beliefs with symbols, signs, and codes?

Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits contains 20 interviews with the world’s leading designers and thinkers in branding. The interviews contain spirited views on how and why humans have branded the world around us, and the ideas, inventions, and insight inherent in the search.

©2011 Debbie Millman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

So many redundant moments

Contains so much bla bla moments. Could definitely be shorten to 3 hours instead of 8

Clever perspectives.

I wish they would have had multiple voices since it's Q and A - but I get the complications that would have come with that. At times, in the book it's difficult to remember who is talking (I'm commuting on 95 so think on and off ya know). BUT the opinions in here are great.

2 actors needed.

Needed 2 voice actors. Some good info. Fun format for audio. Surprising the original audio interviews don't exist.

Good job, hard work to do by herself.

Have used as cocktail knowledge.

Great overview of ideas about branding

This book is chock full of pearls about design thinking, branding and marketing. It's like an introductory mini course that really gets you thinking about how these ideas are part of everyday life. I wish the performance had included the voices of the actual people - the audio narrator tried to use different prosody but it was clearly a challenge. I laid her effort. Anyway this book was very worthwhile.

pretty good book about branding

I liked the insights the subjects had on branding.
I wish the narrator Nicole Vilencia wouldn’t change voice pitch for each character- it’s distracting.
She’s a narrator, not acting out the parts.
other than that strange choice she makes she does a pretty good job. Mispronounces words she doesn’t know here and there, but not too much.
Overall a good listen if you are interested in branding.

Production Value/Format could use improvement

The chapter titles should contain the interviewee name. Although I favor many of the guests featured, I found it difficult to engage with the material. Narrator did the best she could to portray the sentiment of each guest but having another person read for each interviewee would add significant value.

Interesting content, poor narration

The interviews are very interesting and there is a lot of insightful discussion about branding, but the narration is robotic and the lack of an additional narrator during the interviews makes it difficult to distinguish who is saying what. I couldn't finish because it was hard to listen to, but would consider reading the book.

The experts that were interviewed

I think it would have been more powerful if the experts were the ones actually talking than the other. Sometimes it was hard to distinguish between them.

Great book, I couldnt connect with the narrator

The people, the background, all the participants in the book are great, they come from different disciplines and really paint a relevant picture of the subject. But the narration, they audiobook is no good, i am sad i lost a credit with this, i am thinking on buying the book instead.

Unimportant/Unimpressive

I wanted to hear about design, not politics, or ideological views. Would not recommend purchasing.