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If this edition of inwords was forwarded to you subscribe to get your very own next month.
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archetypes and adventures in Brand Voice discovery from
Andrew, Sumit, Konos and Jerry at HOW TO BRAND YOU
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How to Find Your Archetype
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If you've taken the Brand Voice Quiz but can't remember your archetype, fear not!
Just start typing howtobrandyou in your browser's address bar until it suggests something that looks like:
howtobrandyou.com /report/your-brand-name
If that doesn't work, just reply to this email and I'll have a look for you.
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The Innocent Archetype is proactively honest, transparent and wonder-ful.
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Tortoise
"Once upon a time, there was a race to understand the world." And then along toddled Tortoise.
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Innocent Observation
"Zen is to have the heart of a little child."
— Takuan Sōhō
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The Everyperson Archetype is inclusive, individual and the salt of the earth.
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They can often be spotted wearing their striped socks inside out.
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FRWRD Skincare
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The lead paragraph on FRWRD Skincare's "Our Story" page reads, "Before you read this, take a minute to look out of the window. If you’re sitting outside, look up at a tree or at the sky. When we look a little closer, a sense of calm pervades us. Everything, from our past worries to our future concerns, suddenly seem much more manageable." If that's not enough, FRWRD is Canadian.
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Everyperson Errors
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"If you want to have a future, don't do anything with no future in it."
— Wú Chéng'ēn
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The Hero Archetype is as humble and vulnerable as it is valiant.
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VFC: Vegan Fried Chick*n
I sleep with the graven image of VFC's copywriter next to my roost. The company's mission is both rebellious (Outlaw) and heroic.
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The birds and I voted: there are more of them.
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Heroic Steps
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"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought."
— Matsuo Bashō
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As gutsy as The Hero Archetype, The Caregiver Archetype embraces compassion and empathy. The risk for this archetype is indifference in the face of hopelessness.
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Sea Shepherd
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Along with the other hundreds of millions of stupid things humans do, we're responsible for killing more than 100 million sharks every year. Vancouver-born Sea Shepherd has a Jolly Roger logo which is about as Outlaw as you can look.
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Looking like an Outlaw Brand while doing something selfless and honourable is about as Caregiver as you can get.
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Caregiver Observation
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"You cannot help people if you care too much about your reputation."
— Hong Zicheng
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Explorer Archetype thinking is synonymous with bucking mainstream mores and myopic thinking — like an albatross and not all that unlike the Outlaw Archetype.
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Untools
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Adam at Untools is a product designer from Brno. The fact that his city's namers were too freaking frugl to buy another vowel or two is not why we outfitted him in the Explorer this month.
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Explorer Directions
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"It is better to travel well than to arrive."
— Gautama Buddha
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Although The Outlaw Archetype is challenging, confronting and sometimes disruptive, it's inherently honourable.
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Death Wish Coffee
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I haven't tried Death Wish Coffee's joe, but their World's Strongest Coffee copywriting is downright Outlaw.
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Outlaw Thinking
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"If an action involves little profit but much righteousness, do it."
— Xunzi
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The Lover Archetype seeks union, is comfortable in surrender, is dedicated and powered by passion and tenderness.
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Little Green Pigeon
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Can you distinguish a love of pigeons from a passion for the planet, or is that even necessary?
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It's not you, it's me. Little Green Pigeon is a sanctuary in Staffordshire. Like me, they say "flock" a lot.
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a Lover Observation
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"The substance of heart is the substance of heaven."
— Hong Zicheng
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The Creator Archetype is imaginative, artistic and visionary.
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It loathes inactivity, occasionally to the point of workaholism.
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Health Icons
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Designer Daniel Burka needed a way to communicate medical concepts simply and without language barriers so he created 12 icons beginning with one illustrating someone vomiting. He may be a workaholic but to his credit, he realized that a dozen wasn't going to do it so he tweeted for help.
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Creator View
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"Let your eyes be what they see, not what others want you to see."
— Liezi
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The Ruler Archetype is challenged to temper ego with understanding, and to distinguish majesty from bravado.
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Bhutan
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Ruler Observation
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"A man is great not because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him."
— Confucius
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A Magician brand must strive to weave delight between the lines of its visionary and intuitive story.
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Center for Humane Technology
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In 2013, one of Google's design ethicists (if you're eating right now, swallow before trying to say that word out loud), Tristan Harris, imagined what a shift toward more humane technology might look like. No eyes of newts were ingredients in his mission that has engaged more than 100 million people.
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Dew Magic
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"The world of dew is the world of dew. And yet, and yet ..."
— Issa Kobayashi
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The Sage is forever seeking balance; it struggles with idealism and its inability to compromise. "Listen more attentively" is sage advice for this archetype.
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What3Words
If you dooo (it's ooot of the way) it's probably because you have the What3Words App on your fooon and you know their address is ///campus.armed.forgot.
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Sage Becoming
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"You will become what you continuously strive to become."
— Gadadhar Chattopadhyay
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The Jester Archetype lives for the experience; it is naturally compelling, entertaining and delightful, and is challenged by the tripartite trap of self-importance, disingenuity and indifference.
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Carrot Weather
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You'd think I was joking if I told you I was going to create a weather app that would win a 2021 Apple Design award but that's exactly what The Maker of Carrot Weather did, and did so exquisitely that you'll forget whether you opened it to check today's chances of nuclear fallout or whether you should make a blood oath with a Viking jarl.
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A Jester's Superpower
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"There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done."
— Yamamoto Tsunemoto
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Like 37,400 other species, Konos, our Pelican-in-Chief (a Dalmatian Pelican from Lake Prespa in Greece), and Jerry, our Chief Algorithm Officer (a Jerdon's Courser from Andhra Pradesh, India) are threatened with extinction and therefore difficult or impossible to find.
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That's not the case with our 🍊 unsubscribe button, because unlike Konos and Jerry it's not the end of the world.
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Read more about beautiful creatures like Konos and Jerry on the IUCN's Red List.
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