Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

The name of this shop is Transit Culture R.A.A. Can you guess what it is? What it does? I called it a shop because it looks like a 19th century artist's studio, but it's actually a firm. If I read their material correctly, they are a design and branding management firm.

They have a couple of things in common with Peeq (from Wednesday night): they both have mystifying store fronts and they're both involved in branding. If I read their material correctly, Peeq is or was a print shop that has gone digitally into the 21st century and now markets itself as experienced in "helping agencies and marketers develop brands." Plus, they break down barriers. "The barriers between technology, design and production."

I know everyone is either involved in branding or should be – you do know that you should have a personal brand, don't you? I know the Republicans lost the election because they didn't have a brand. But when did all this start? I found The Blake Project, a branding strategy blog, to tell me why ad agencies are no longer the chief brand builders for their clients. For one thing, brand architecture is one of the most important brand issues and yet most ad agencies would have trouble even defining the concept.

Brand architecture. Along with the ad agencies, I have a lot to learn. And given the time, I could learn; there're blogs aplenty out there.

See map.