Café Swiss and the ‘upside down’ triangle.
In Asia, be mindful – Fortune Tellers can be the one trick you miss.
The managing director of a chain of coffee shops came to our agency to ask for a complete rebrand. This rebrand was to be part of the client’s expansion plans for the business in Bangkok in the early 1990’s.
I was put on the case and set about coming up with a range of designs. These were presented and the client focussed in on one option that involved an ‘upside down’ triangle and immediately fell in love with it.
So we were given approval to proceed with a large range of design and artwork for everything from packaging, stationery and merchandise, to shop design, signage and launch campaign advertising. This was a big financial investment and we spent around five months working continuously to produce all the materials required.
All the printed and merchandise components of the rebrand had been completed and we were in the middle of designing the shop exteriors, when suddenly one morning, my boss came in to my office looking ashen-faced. She had just received a call out of the blue, from the the client. Both female, the client and my boss had been friends for many years. She said the client had been sobbing uncontrollably on the phone and had just told her all the work had to be stopped immediately.
Then explained why…
… The client’s father was the majority shareholder in the business and while he pretty much gave her free rein to run it as she pleased, he hadn’t paid much attention to the rebrand until a few days before. He liked it. But as was his wont (unknown to us), he had brought the logo visuals to his personal fortune teller to get her view of it. He had a habit of consulting this person for every major business decision he made.
The fortune teller told him that the logo would be a disaster for the business. It was an ‘upside down’ triangle, balancing on its apex. This meant that it would not be long until his business ‘fell over’. Unfortunately, that was all the father needed to hear. He ordered his daughter to abandon the project immediately. He was spooked. She was devastated.
“It was an ‘upside down’ triangle, balancing on its apex.
This meant that it would not be long until his business ‘fell over’.”
Luckily, we were paid for all the work we had put in. But we were as shell-shocked as the client and there wasn’t really anything we could do to help or to salvage the situation. Her father’s orders were very clear – ‘Abandon the project entirely’. And he was willing to lose all the finance associated with it rather than lose a bigger sum later. As he saw it.
The only foreigner in what was a small local agency, I wondered if there was anything in my initial design and exploration process that could have avoided the outcome. But when I thought about it, I realised I’d been surrounded by locals every stage, all liking, approving and facilitating what was being done. Nobody spotting any possible ‘feng shui’ transgressions.
One client service colleague even told me over a drink a few months later, that her boyfriend had just left her over something similar. I asked her what she meant by ‘something similar’.
She said her boyfriend’s mother had consulted a fortune teller about her. The teller (using only a photo the mother had brought), told her that her son’s girlfriend’s nose was too big. This apparently meant that the girlfriend was sly and mean and that her son would eventually lose out on many things. So that was it. It was over. They weren’t allowed to see each other again.
The effect that fortune tellers have on everyday life in Asia is as sporadic and unpredictable for the locals as it is for outsiders. Of course there are fortune tellers in western countries but these are more of an entertainment side show.
The difference is that often in Asia, people act on fortune teller advice.
So if someday, you find yourself scratching your head over some decision in the region that seems totally illogical to you, there may of course, be a perfectly rational explanation.
But then again, you never know.
NB. The brand name and logo used here are similar but not identical to the original. And both the café company and the agency involved, no longer exist.
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