by Marty Neumeier

Your new client sends you a breathless email: “Our CBO is building an IMT to reorg the brand architecture from the bottom up. We’re deciding on a BHAG this week, and as soon as we refine our backstory, we’ll probably need an avatar. What do you think?‚Äù

You could respond in several ways: 1) “What’s an avatar?‚Äù 2) “I’m not really an architect.‚Äù 3) Could you please translate that into English? 4) “Don’t call me a beehag.‚Äù

None of these answers is likely to raise your client’s confidence in your brand savvitude, especially after you sold yourself as an expert. However, if there were a copy of *The Dictionary of Brand* on your shelf, you could look these terms up and give her a knowledgeable response.

The Dictionary of Brand is published by the AIGA Center for Brand Experience, and contains 211 terms currently in use by leading brand professionals. Some of the terms are fairly stable, such as *brand equity* and *primacy effect*, while others, such as *brand police* and *parallel thinking*, have sprung up like mushrooms and may well disappear overnight. (This dictionary is nothing if not fresh.)

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When I was in about fourth grade I loved to draw Ferraris and Lamborghinis that I found in car magazines and calendars. I had an arsenal of rulers, compasses, pencil sharpeners, erasers, and most importantly, several mechanical pencils. I would take apart and reassemble my drawing tools with the pride and precision reminiscent of that scene in the movies where the hero puts his gun together before a battle. I desperately wanted to create something as beautiful as those cars. As I drew more and more, my drawings began to look more and more like the photos I was drawing from. I developed shortcuts to measure and rescale the proportions from photo to drawing. I was proud of these drawings despite the fact that they were taken so blatantly from other people’s photographs. Click here to see a comparison of my drawing to the original.

As an adult looking back at that little boy I have a new perspective. I am filled with fear and concern because of the current climate of corporate greed where companies sue their customers. I think I am reasonably safe from a lawsuit by posting my plagiarized fourth grade drawing, but that’s not the point. The point isn’t about stealing music, either. I gave up Kazaa a long time ago. The nostalgia of my memories contrasts with the current environment that is very toxic to creativity. If I hadn’t drawn those cars for fear of being sued, or worse yet if I had been sued, I might not be a graphic designer today.

Fortunately I believe that the recent court ruling against file-sharing is a small loss in a much bigger war. The old regime of greed and lawyers will be defeated by the emerging open-source community. The battle will be won by and fought for young artists with deep arsenals of mechanical pencils and lead smeared wrists.