Designing Brand Identity 6th edition
By Alina Wheeler & Rob Meyerson
Wiley
Now in its 6th iteration, this is the updated, go-to source for brand identity goodness. This visually stunning volume is equal parts eye candy for design nerds, a comprehensive guide to the world of marketing and branding fundamentals for students, and an influential source of inspiration for experienced professionals. This groundbreaking book was the brainchild of educator, strategist and consultant Alina Wheeler who died in 2023. To join her as a co-author and steward of the book going forward, she tapped trusted brand consultant Rob Meyerson whose insights she incorporated into the new edition. Divided into three sections: Basics, Process and Best Practices, the authors encourage readers to use the book in multiple ways—as a guide to brand initiatives, a way to educate clients and staff, a source of inspiring case studies, and as a launchpad from which to build a better brand.
Features over 50 new case studies, including brands like AC Milan, Airbnb China, Campbell, Chobani, Deloitte, DuPont, GSK, Kia, LEGO, Lucid Motors, Spotify, and the US Open, among others. This edition also includes new content on artificial intelligence, virtual reality, social justice, and evidence-based marketing, reflecting the evolving landscape of branding.
The Quantified Worker: Law and Technology in the Modern Workplace
By Ifeoma Ajunwa
Cambridge University Press
Bossware. Wellness trackers. GPS monitors. Automated hiring platforms and other AI technologies. Keystroke logging software and omnipresent data collection. Welcome to the world of scientific management on steroids, made possible by rapidly-evolving technologies that enable corporate surveillance to operate on a disturbingly granular level. Add to this the kinds of automated decision-making tools which delegate certain Human Resource hiring processes to automated “mechanical managers and algorithmic gatekeepers,” and you have a situation where employees (and also the pool of potential employees) are becoming “quantified” to a such a degree that Ajunwa argues that it’s incumbent upon us to examine the ethical and legal implications of a data-driven restructuring of the workplace.
Hiring tool algorithms still aren’t sophisticated enough to replace human discernment, and they don’t grasp the concept of nuance which is context-dependent. Without proper safeguards, the unchecked expansion of workplace surveillance and algorithmic decision-making threatens to erode worker autonomy, reinforce biases, and reshape the very nature of employment in ways that demand urgent ethical and legal scrutiny. An absorbing and scholarly read.
