Kimberly-Clark Corporation "Faces and Fortunes"

Transcript (Download)

You have a faith, everyone has.

Would you be recognized in a crowd? You may see yourself like this, but others may see you like this.

And some people are two -faced.

Anyway, they look different at different times.

In fact, some people have so many faces that only their most intimate friends know them all the time.

People have been interested in how they look since they discovered how they look affects how people react to them, and distinguishes them from all other people.

But there was a time in history, before men had learned to live in lasting peace with each other, when a man had no face, and he became anonymous.

In battle, he looked just like the enemy.

To identify himself, he devised a graphic mark which decorated his weapons in a good remnant of war.

The glory of the battle and the glory of the weapon became the glory of the mark.

At the time, the mark was embellished to symbolize special achievement, valor, conquest, and noble rewards accorded heroes and victims.

The identity mark came to be called the coat of arms.

Merging aristocratic families were depicted by impalement of the coat of arms.

It was proudly preserved and handed down to progeny.

It became the graphic record of the proud events in the history of the family tree, and was pompously displayed, commanding respect and awe.

The mark declared ownership and conveyed stature to possessions and documents.

Tournaments blazed with pageantry, and proud colors were carried across the sky.

With a passage of time and social orders, the identity symbol has been used in many ways by churches, tribes and empires, monarchies and republics, cities and states, trade guilds and professions, banks and hospitals, clubs and political parties, universities and corporations.

Artisans marked their work with the identity symbol to denote true authorship, pride in quality and craftsmanship.

It protected consumers from imitators.

Today, the identity symbol is widely used in modern industrial communication.

It provides the instant frame of recognition, distinguishes one company from all others.

But the corporate faith is more than its identity mark.

It is all the visual impressions a company makes upon the public.

A look that is appealing, appropriate, distinctive, makes the company stand out in the corporate crown.

But when the company look is not measured for 20th century ways of seeing, it results in a vast confusion.

Unlike the illiterate medieval man, the modern consumer can read, but his world moves swiftly, complexly.

The sign must compete for his eye and his time.

The consumer reinforces his awareness of a corporation and the meaning it has for him.

Every time, every way, every place, he sees an expression of the corporate look.

Because buyer and seller are separated by the limited personal contact between the company and the public, a company must depend upon the modern day heraldry of corporate identification to attract interest to itself and its product.

The evidences of corporate heraldry surrounds the consumer everywhere.

They can attract, repel, or go unnoticed.

The look of a corporation is what people see.

Plant facilities, offices, vehicles, packages, exhibits, uniforms, products, stationery.

If these are to project the face of a specific company, they should each deliver a consistent impression.

The corporate look is a signal, a potent opinion maker, and a sales determinant.

To be effective, it must work for the company.

It must register, be remembered, and recalled at the time of purchase.

The corporate face comes to focus through the identity symbol.

The faces of different kinds of corporations should have different looks.

A face can say strong, gay, flexible, sophisticated, traditional, offbeat, worldwide, research.

But the face a company shows should be determined by the company of another kind.

The other part of a company is its personality, characterized not by what is seen, but by what is experienced through contact.

By consumers, by employees, stockholders, suppliers, governors.

The corporate face, the corporate personality, together make the corporate image.

Every company has an image of some sort.

The unplanned look stands a good chance of being diffused, misleading, ineffective.

And in today's competitive market, diffusion is hard to sell.

The consumer is confronted by a growing number of products on the market.

He sees fewer differences in the product.

He does much of his buying in self -service markets.

His attention is directed to those products which beam themselves to his eye by arresting visual design, leaving an indelible afterimage.

A consumer does not really know the merits of a product before he tries it.

His initial purchase is often triggered by something else.

A provoking ad or mailing piece, an attractive package, or the appearance of quality and good taste in the product itself.

The customer buys on the strength of anticipation, but along with the product, he buys the convincing symbol of a familiar and respected company which is his guarantee of quality, assures his pleasure and satisfaction.

The prestige of this symbol influences his purchase of other products which carry the same mark.

A company must know itself before it can make itself known to others.

Once its nature, objectives, policies are defined, graphic artists, product designers, printers, architects, coordinated by imaginative administration, collaborate to project an integrated company look that is consistent with its overall character, directed to its market needs and designed to reinforce an affirmative appeal.

The corporate face can be its fortune or misfortune, an asset or a liability, create goodwill or badwill, public interest or indifferent.

One face can launch a thousand ships.

Another can turn men to stone.

Know yourself, make yourself known to others.

Put your best face forward.

Your face may be your

Identifier

F.2010-01-0094

Date Of Production

1959

Abstract

This sponsored film from Chicago’s Goldsholl Design & Film Associates captures the lively world of pre-1960s advertising through animation and collage techniques. As a filmic treatise on corporate identity, Faces and Fortunes explores the legacy and importance of “personality” achieved through the branding practices of industries, organizations and companies. The film was sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, produced & directed by Morton Goldsholl, conceived by Millie Goldsholl and executed by Wayne Boyer, Larry Janiak and Millie. Preserved by Chicago Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Run Time

0:12:48

Format

16mm

Extent

490 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Preservation answer print

Genre

Sponsored
Business and Financial

Form

Short

Subject

Business
Design
Communication

Related Collections

SERIES I: Goldsholl Design & Film Associates Films

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Sponsor/client

Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Main Credits

Goldsholl, Morton (is director)

Goldsholl, Morton (is producer)

Additional Credits

Goldsholl, Millie (is writer)

Boyer, Wayne (is contributor)

Janiak, Larry (is contributor)

Marx, Dick (music)

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