How Kano Has Influenced The Past Decade of Technology

Our message was simple. Transparency. Demystifying. Challenging.

Our products have enabled us to commit to changing the technology industry. For too long, too many brands have built devices without their customers in mind. People need to understand how the computers they used everyday work. But not only understand the mechanisms but be able to customise and develop a deep love for building their own tech. We kept challenging the traditional and new tech brands that focus on closed devices. Over the past decade, we have started to see how our messaging and brand ethos has had an effect on our peers.

Today, we take a look at how Kano has influenced some of the biggest brands in the world:

Apple’s Orange iMac 24-inch (2021)

At the turn of the last decade, we started our mission to make an impact through technology. The first product we launched enabled anyone, anywhere the opportunity to build their own unique orange computer. Along with that, we provided professional branding assets for businesses. At the time, we were one of the first computer companies to focus on orange in our branding and product design.

Fast forward 8 years and over 1 million orange units sold, we can now see other brands embrace the colour across a vast array of devices.

Apple recently revealed a bright orange model as part of their redesigned iMac range. Other companies such as Samsung, Microsoft and Huawei have been adopting orange into their devices too.

A decade ago, nobody would’ve expected such a large range of colours, including orange, to be seen across so many different devices. Black is no longer the colour that is synonymous with computing. You can thank us for taking a leading role.

Our brand has become rooted in orange for the last 8 years, and the majority of our products, in some way or another, are dashed in orange.

For example, every single one of our keyboard devices since our first ever kit has been orange, and we have kept this tradition up with our recent accessory. A build your own mouse.

Microsoft’s Latest Brand Messaging

In the past few weeks, Microsoft has announced a slew of innovative product announcements, updates and even the controversial Internet Explorer discontinuation. In announcing Windows 11 at a recent virtual event, CEO Satya Nadella took some moments to address the audience with a reflection on how far Windows has come.

In the speech, he delivered new brand messaging for Windows. A way of seeing the company we hadn’t heard before:

Windows has always stood for sovereignty for creators and agency for consumers.
With Windows, you can consume apps and build apps. You can play games and design games. You can buy a PC and build a PC. You can join your community and create your community.

At Kano, we have been proud to promote a very similar message for the best part of a decade. Our uniqueness is based on build-it-yourself tech and we always strive to remove the barriers to programming, and design for the many, not just a few.

Windows recognizes that there is no personal computing without personal agency. Personal computing requires choice, and we need to nurture and grow our own agency over computing itself. We want to remove the barriers that too often exist today and provide real choice and connection.

To see one of the largest companies in the world delivering a message that mirrors our own, felt like a strong seal of approval. It showed the strength of such a message when we see a global tech giant raise a similar issue. Particularly in an industry currently dominated by a war on Big Tech. Kano isn’t alone in this mission, but we are the ones pushing it forward.

The New McDonalds Pixel Branding

Fast-food giant McDonalds dropped a few jaws recently with their brilliantly executed pixel art marketing campaign.

The campaign was used to convey the sheer recognisability of the McDonald's brand. Using a number of small multi-colored squares to instantly remind consumers of their products and brand, much like how QR codes have become ubiquitous in modern marketing.

We believe in the power that a single pixel can create, whether you learning to use it or learning how it works. At Kano, we’ve been proudly promoting the power of pixels for almost a decade through our engaging Pixel Kit and our Pixel Motion software from Kano World.

When one of the world’s food and drinks corporations embraces the power of pixels too, we understand that our software needs to be in the hands of more builders and makers.

The new ‘Nothing’ transparent headphones.

New technology brand “Nothing” began revealing their see-through earphones in recent weeks. With it, they have placed a significant emphasis on transparency, not only in their product’s design but also in their company vision.

In 2013, Kano was in the minority when we began to push an ethos unlocking doors in the technology industry through transparency, digital freedom and honesty.

Today, high impact startup brands like Nothing are pursuing the same mantra and helping to push a mainstream agenda on digital transparency.

At Kano, we are proud to have helped started an agenda on transparency, sovereignty and sustainability that has helped millions of users determine their own digital destiny.

With that, we are also esteemed to have helped lead the way for countless other brands and companies that believe in the same mission as us.

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