Before: Motorola’s engineering culture excelled at technical innovation with functional stories. Fashion “didn’t compute” until Nokia and other design leaders began to steal market share.

One of the world’s great trademarks was almost scrapped in a rush to contemporize the brand. Instead, Brian Collins’ team electrified Motorola’s famous symbol logo with a color system that made it the center of everything.

Like pieces of a mosaic, Motorola’s new packages make a larger statement when they’re put together. Impact wasn’t the only goal. In small stores, lack of storage space had kept volume low. The new global packaging system transformed back-room inventory into vivid window displays that increased sales and visual energy in each store.

Global youth culture inspired the design team, and vice versa. In Japan, the team heard kids calling their phones “Motos” – a bit of brand serendipity that advertising quickly took around the world.

How do you turn an everyday object into a design icon? For Motorola, the designers created a worldwide guidebook that spelled out the recipe for unexpected images of boldness and simplicity.

The CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, is the communications industry Olympics. Motorola’s challenge here was stark: Prove it’s connected to the future, not the past.

A pot of flowers brings an unexpected human touch to an industrial expo. One of many tools the team used to make the future big and exciting – and personal – at the same time.

It’s not an exhibit; it’s a story. The Motorola installation at CeBIT introduced thousands of visitors to a future where technology is an extension of the individual’s personality and life.

Motorola’s presence went on to win “Trade Show Booth of the Year” beating its global competitors and signaling to the world that Motorola had committed to the future of technology.