Watch: Chobani's Leland Maschmeyer at Insights 2020

In his far-ranging Insights Design Lecture, Leland Maschmeyer lays out his vision for brand building as the practice of contemporary myth-making. Starting with humanity’s ability to create visual and conceptual meaning, Maschmeyer dives into a variety of primal “patterns”—the seven deadly sins, the redemption arc, Batman—illustrating how these patterns show up again and again throughout human history, each time activated through new forms and methods. The lecture concludes with two case studies in transformative rebrand projects—Naturalist and Chobani—which strive to tap into these core patterns and leave a lasting impact not just on the respective companies and industries, but on our shared imagination as a whole.

About the Speaker:

Leland Maschmeyer sometimes references a definition of design as “intentional change,” which is an elegant thought in its simplicity, but much of his work seems to defy that simplicity, instead illustrating a love for innovative typography, a responsibility towards aesthetic and cultural history, a respect for intuition in the face of over-rationalization. As co-founder of design agency Collins, Maschmeyer helped reimagine brands such as Spotify, Airbnb, and Facebook. He joined Chobani in 2016 to oversee the creation of its new in-house design team, which was named Ad Age’s 2019 In-house Agency of the Year. As the company’s Chief Creative and Strategy Officer, Maschmeyer invests the socially conscious yogurt brand with folklore magic, meticulous mistakes, and design-centric packaging. Maschmeyer has won practically every design award in the book and his relaunch of the Chobani brand earned about 10 billion media impressions and was universally lauded in both the business and design worlds. Between his leadership at branding agency Collins, which he co-founded, and his work with Chobani as their Chief Creative and Strategy Officer, his teams have earned honors like Design Agency of the Year, In-House Agency of the Year, An Agency Inventing the Future of Branding, An Agency Creatives Would Kill to Work At, Most Innovative Company, etc.

Part of the Insights 2020 Design Lecture Series

Copresented by the Walker Art Center and AIGA Minnesota.