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2025-07-07 15:49:29| Fast Company

Abdulrazak al-Jenan swept the dust off his solar panel on his apartment roof overlooking Damascus. Syria’s largest city was mostly pitch-black, the few speckles of light coming from the other households able to afford solar panels, batteries, or private generators.Al-Jenan went thousands of dollars in debt to buy his solar panel in 2019. It was an expensive coping mechanism at the time, but without it, he couldn’t charge his phone and run the refrigerator.Syria has not had more than four hours of state electricity per day for years, as a result of the nearly 14-year civil war that ended with the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December.Syria’s new leaders are hoping renewable energy will now become more than a patchwork solution. Investment is beginning to return to the country with the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and major energy projects are planned, including an industrial-scale solar farm that would secure about a tenth of the country’s energy needs.“The solution to the problem isn’t putting solar panels on roofs,” Syria’s interim Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir told The Associated Press. “It’s securing enough power for the families through our networks in Syria. This is what we’re trying to do.” Restoring the existing energy infrastructure Some of the efforts focus on simply repairing infrastructure destroyed in the war. The World Bank recently announced a $146 million grant to help Syria repair damaged transmission lines and transformer substations. Al-Bashir said Syria’s infrastructure that has been repaired can provide 5,000 megawatts, about half the country’s needs, but fuel and gas shortages have hampered generation. With the sanctions lifted, that supply could come in soon.More significantly, Syria recently signed a $7 billion energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish, and American companies. The program over the next three and a half years would develop four combined-cycle gas turbines with a total generating capacity estimated at approximately 4,000 megawatts and a 1,000-megawatt solar farm. This would “broadly secure the needs” of Syrians, said Al-Bashir.While Syria is initially focusing on fixing its existing fossil fuel infrastructure to improve quality of life, help make businesses functional again, and entice investors, the U.N. Development Program said in May that a renewable energy plan will be developed in the next year for the country.The plan will look at Syria’s projected energy demand and determine how much of it can come from renewable sources.“Given the critical role of energy in Syria’s recovery, we have to rapidly address energy poverty and progressively accelerate the access to renewable energy,” Sudipto Mukerjee, UNDP’s resident representative in Syria, said in a statement announcing the plan. Sanctions crippled the power grid While the war caused significant damage to Syria’s infrastructure, crippling Washington-led sanctions imposed during the Assad dynasty’s decades of draconian rule made it impossible for Syria to secure fuel and spare parts to generate power.“Many companies over the past period would tell us the sanctions impact matters like imports, implementing projects, transferring funds and so on,” al-Bashir said.During a visit to Turkey in May, the minister said Syria could only secure about 1700 megawatts, a little less than 20%, of its energy needs.A series of executive orders by U.S. President Donald Trump lifted many sanctions on Syria, aiming to end the country’s isolation from the global banking system so that it can become viable again and rebuild itself.The United Nations estimates the civil war caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and economic losses across the country. Some 90% of Syrians live in poverty. Buying solar panels, private generators or other means of producing their own energy has been out of reach for most of the population.“Any kind of economic recovery needs a functional energy sector,” said Joseph Daher, Syrian-Swiss economist and researcher, who said that stop-gap measures like solar panels and private generators were luxuries only available to a few who could afford it. “There is also a need to diminish the cost of electricity in Syria, which is one of the most expensive in the region.”Prices for electricity in recent years surged as the country under its former rulers struggled with currency inflation and rolling back on subsidies. The new officials who inherited the situation say that lifting sanctions will help them rectify the country’s financial and economic woes, and provide sufficient and affordable electricity as soon as they can.“The executive order lifts most of the obstacles for political and economic investment with Syria,” said Qutaiba Idlibi, who leads the Americas section of the Foreign Ministry.Syria has been under Washington-led sanctions for decades, but designations intensified during the war that started in 2011. Even with some waivers for humanitarian programs, it was difficult to bring in resources and materials to fix Syria’s critical infrastructureespecially electricityfurther compounding the woes of the vast majority of Syrians, who live in poverty. The focus is economic recovery The removal of sanctions signals to U.S. businesses that Trump is serious in his support for Syria’s recovery, Idlibi said.“Right now, we have a partnership with the United States as any normal country would do,” he said.Meanwhile, Al-Jenan is able to turn on both his fans on a hot summer day while he watches the afternoon news on TV, as the temperature rises to 35 degrees Celsius (95 F). He doesn’t want to let go of his solar panel but hopes the lifting of sanctions will eventually bring sustainable state electricity across the country.“We can at least know what’s going on in the country and watch on TV,” he said. “We really were cut off from the entire world.” Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Ghaith Alsayed and Kareem Chehayeb, Associated Press


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-07-07 15:30:00| Fast Company

Today, Coca-Cola has one of the most iconic brand identities in the worldso iconic, in fact, that one 2010s study found that CocaCola is the secondmost widely understood term in the world after the word okay. But the brands modern global footprint might look entirely different if it werent for one major design overhaul in 1969 called Project Arden. [Photo: The Coca-Cola Company] That pivotal era of Coca-Colas history is the focus of the new book, Brand Identification Manuals for Coca-Cola, published by Standards Manual and designed by the firm Order Design. The book compiles seven brand manuals and dozens of additional materials, circa 1969 to 1979, from The Coca-Cola Company Archives. Perhaps most notable is its documentation of Project Arden, a design effort spearheaded by Walter Margulies, partner at the design firm Lippincott & Margulies. His teams directive from Coca-Cola was an intimidating one: to create a cohesive corporate brand system for the beverage company at a time when it was scaling up exponentially.  The overhaul was nicknamed Project Arden as a nod to the Elizabeth Arden beauty salon, best known at the time for its signature fire enginered front door. Project Ardens core visual system, the simple-yet-versatile Arden Square, would become one of the most influential branding assets of all time. [Photo: The Coca-Cola Company] How Project Arden paved the way for Cokes branding Margulies approach to Project Arden started not with how his team could change the brand, but how they could preserve its most important features. By 1969, the Coca-Cola serif logo was solidly engrained in consumers perception of the brand, alongside the brands bold red, which Margulies called highly motivational. In years prior, though, the logo was a bit tricker to pin down. It sometimes appeared in backgrounds depending on the application, from a red disc for advertising in the late 40s to a tag-like arciform shape for signage and vending machines in the 50s. As Coca-Cola set its sights on global expansion, the companys executives realized that a more cohesive branding approach would be key. Lippincott & Margulies aim, then, was to create an identity that would both elevate Coke and allow it to maintain brand familiarity, all while also devising a scalable look across packaging, product, and advertising. Their solution was to boil Cokes identity down to a few core design elements and lay out a clear set of guidelines for how they couldand could notbe used. According to Jesse Reed, a partner at Order Design who helped create Brand Identification Manuals for Coca-Cola, the final Project Arden system comprises less than a half dozen elements of design. [Photo: The Coca-Cola Company] The firms that [Coca-Cola] was working with at the time, like [Lippincott & Margulies], pulled from the Swiss school of thinking, with minimalism and the idea of reduction as the best path forward, Reed says. Project Arden maintained Cokes script logo and core red. However, it substituted the former circle background for a square, which could also be elongated into a rectangle; added Helvetica as the brands main typeface; and created a brand-new asset now known as the Dynamic Ribbon, a fluid white band that Reed describes as the connective tissue supporting the branding. All of these changes are best represented by the Arden Square, a red square that contains Coca-Colas serif logo, the Dynamic Ribbon, and the word Enjoy in Helvetica. Lippincott & Margulies system specified exactly which dimensions could be used to elongate the mark into a rectangle for product labels, advertising, packaging, and even signage for Coca-Colas fleet of vehicles. The brand standards also include examples of unacceptable uses of the Arden Square, like reversing the placement of its red and white accents or introducing a new color into the mix.  Beforehand, you would have something that was almost like freestanding or free-floating, but the Arden Square allowed Coca Cola to really use it in a modular fashion, Reed says. The Arden Square was the core DNA that allowed that structural device to really play out. Its not scaled in an arbitrary manner: it gives order to what could have potentially been chaos. [Photo: The Coca-Cola Company] Why the Arden Square remains so iconic today Today, nearly 60 years after the introduction of the Arden Square, Coke is still using an almost identical branding system, with the exception of small tweaks like the introduction of a custom brand font in 2018. Reed believes that consistency is a direct result of establishing a brand that relies on certain unbending guidelines. They knew that consistency and repetition was going to be the most powerful device in introducing this new identity, it’s one of the simplest Gestalt principles, Reed says. This entire identity in and of itself is one of the best examples of it being pulled off beautifully. They don’t compromise; they don’t allow for variations to be very easily introduced. And that has paid off. The longevity of the Arden Square and its component parts have effectively baked each of those parts into the public consciousnessso much so that a certain hue of red is likely to instantly evoke the brand. That lends Coke an inherent advantage over competitors in the beverage space who have rebranded a dozen times, Reed says. [Coke] is one of very few companies at their size and scale that have stood strong in the identity that they introduced at the very beginning all the way up until today, Reed says.


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-07-07 15:16:21| Fast Company

Copyright lawsuits and ethical debates have led some to say the AI industry in its Napster era. Now, Napster itself is now reentering the chat with its own AI bet. Last month, the former dot-com darling launched a conversational AI platform with dozens of AI companions trained with topical expertise to help users learn, collaborate, create, and problem-solve. Napster also unveiled the View, a 2.1-inch display that attaches to a laptop as a second screen for two-way 3D holographic video chats. Unlike in the ’90s, the file-sharing pioneer is no longer a first mover. The nostalgia-laden brand joins an already crowded field of AI agents and competing devices from both giants and startups. Napsters platform used frontier AI models from OpenAI and Gemini to develop a new “large persona model” (LPM) trained on 30 psychometric characteristics mined from organizational psychology, says Napster chief technology officer Edo Segal. Each companion embodies some sort of profession as a topical expert, along with therapists, doctors, nutritionists are chefs, architects, engineers, and educators. Business-minded offerings help with everything from financial planning and tax strategy to legal issues and public policy. The goal is to allow users to explore endless customizable personalities, each with distinct voices, Segal tells Fast Company: We’ve made it possible to effectively explore building these endless universes of these personas.” Napsters platform is based on tech developed by Touchcast, a startup founded by Segal that Infinite Reality acquired for $500 million this spring. AI comparisons to Napster’s early woes aren’t lost on Napster execs. Segal says its an apt metaphor, adding that early clashes with the music industry echo more current debates about how tech giants control consumers content, data, and audiences. Decades later, Napster wants to be seen as an ethical alternative to Big Tech. One way it’s doing that: Promising users it won’t share, well, or wall off their data or audiences. There was a lot of controversy around what Napster did, but you cant argue it wasnt user-focused, Segal says. At a time like this, with AIs profound impact on society, its useful to have a brand with a north star that puts the user first. . . . That’s the important lesson to take. Obviously, we don’t want the outcome to be similar to the last time around.” Gartner expects 80% of enterprise software to be multimodal by 2030, up from less than 10% last year. However, analysts predict a third of AI video generation providers could fail by 2028 because of reputational, ethical, and legal issues. Napsters plan involves letting people create and customize new avatars or even make one in their own likeness. Its already working with London’s Imperial College, where professors can create avatars for students to talk with outside office hours that come with transcripts of interactions afterward. Another early adopter is the Portuguese soccer club Benfica, which created an immersive 3D version of its e-commerce site and a way for fans to chat with an AI Companion about the team, jerseys, and related topics.  “What makes people feel heard and seen?” Napster’s AI pivot is the latest in a series of attempts by various owners to ride its brand cachet during emerging tech waves. In March, it sold for $207 million to Infinite Reality, an immersive digital media and e-commerce company, which also rebranded as Napster last month. Since 2020, other owners have included a British VR music startup (to create VR concerts) and two crypto-focused companies that bought it to anchor a Web3 music platform. Napsters launch follows a growing number of attempts to drive AI adoption beyond smartphones and laptops. Startups like Humane, Rabbit, and Bee have either flopped or at least failed to gain much traction. Giants like Meta and Google are moving forward with their AI-enabled smart glasses. (And then there are other still secret projects like whatever OpenAIs making with former iPhone designer Jony Ive.) What makes Napster think it can succeed where others havent? Part of the strategy is charging people a low subscription fee starting at $19 per month or to bundle it with the Napster View for $199. The trick is moving Napster beyond its music legacy.  Some experts are skeptical if holographic avatars are even needed. Voice and text will see adoption much faster unless there’s a specific need for video, says Gabo Arora, founder and CEO of the immersive tech startup Lightshed. Thats the crucial thing, says Arora. You know its fake, but you dont want to feel too self-aware of this. The broader thing with all this is that we are now in the intimacy economy. What makes people feel heard and seen and connected? Despite its controversial origin story, Napster still was a really good brand known for being disruptive and innovative, says Napster president and chief marketing officer Karina Kogan. Infinite Reality had spent years buying companies related to AI, virtual reality, and other metaverse-related industries. After buying Napster, it seemed like a way to unite them all under a recognizable name. [Napsters brand] feels like an accelerant to getting us into the market versus trying to build a lot of equity into Infinite Reality, Kogan says. As a marketer, the challenge is which challenge would I rather take on: Is it harder to drive awareness or change perception? . . . How do we make people experience Napster as more than a music service or more than what it was like 20 years ago? “We have a massive product road map” While Napster is selling the idea of customizable AI avatars as helpful, the reality is more nuanced. While some researchers have found people resist the AI broader companion category for its lack of inauthenticity, other recent findings suggest AI companions can reduce loneliness.  Theres still growing concern that constant AI conversation could dull critical thinking, foster dependency, provide inaccuracies, and even lead to disturbing psychological effects. When asked about its plans for adding safeguards to protect users, execs say they have bans in place against certain types of harmful answers. Chats also come with a disclaimer that says “AI can make mistakes. Check important info.” Whether people even want an infinite array of options to choose from is a question. Companies tend to drive adoption of new tech by copying platforms that have worked in the past, says Samantha Wolfe, a professor at New York University who teaches a class on AI avatars. She thinks Napsters platform seems amost like an app storeinstead of merely creating AI avatars to chat with based on celebrities or other parasocial relationships.  It feels like theyre skinning AI applications, says Wolfe. Its nice having apps on your iPhone in a way that each has its own expertise. [Napsters AI Companions] are like theyre all individual people-apps.” Voice capabilities could strengthen interactions with AI companions, says marketing professor Stefano Puntoni, codirector of the Wharton Human-AI Research at the University of Pennsylvania. He also notes research suggests anthropomorphic cues can influence customer responses.  People often avoid adopting AI companions because they dont believe that these are ‘true’ relationships, says Puntoni, who studies the ways AI chatbots impact on areas like loneliness and consumer habits. The interesting thing is that at the same time, people do acknowledge that AI can fulfill many of the concrete aspects of relationships. Knowing if people want holographic AI experts could determine Napsters ability to find a niche through its new metaverse-minded home. Its also just one of Infinite Realitys many bets: In the past year, its spent at least $1 billion buying companies specializing in generative AI (Touchcast), avatars (Action Face), game development (LandVault) and spatial web experiences (Ethereal Engine). The challenge will be tying it all together. We’re putting products into the market and looking for feedback and signals, Kogan says. Sometimes the thing you think is going to hit isn’t the thing that hits . . . There’s obviously more strategy behind our decisions. We have a massive product road map.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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