Friday, June 20, 2008
nice blogsite
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
making better use of email
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Email is a very poor communication mechanism. A lot of time is spent chasing up a full response to emails because often only part of information requested ever gets supplied. One idea would be to add two lines to the start of every email.
Time to prepare:
Expected response:
Is this rude?
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Friday, May 30, 2008
the future of the internet?
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Phase one of the internet - land grab, be first, own the space
Phase two - develop something that people use... new tech, social network, video download etc. etc.
Phase three - integrate.
Integration, integration, integration... everything works with everything - Facebook + Google + Wikipedia + Lastminute + Amazon + Youtube + Hotels + Google Maps + Picasa = internet 3.0
The old adage used to be that you were only 1 click away from the competition... now consumers expect a successful website to include all of their favourite services
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
weakest link in the chain
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is it just me being arrogant or is it true that sometimes the client is the weakest link in the chain? How many times have we presented design work that is bang on, or an advertising campaign that is edgy and delivers on the brief, only to have it rejected and then 6 months later realise we were right?
Perhaps the most delicate, nuanced, and difficult part of the design process is gaining buy-in. Anyone have any thoughts on how to achieve this?
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Instant Gratification
I met a guy at a dinner dance on Saturday.
"I work in surveying" says he.
"We do work for Churston Heard", say I.
"Retail Intelligence!!", he exclaims. "Those are the people that do all that wacky advertising".
Yes, that's all our initiative", I choke...
Instant gratification... How good does it feel when stuff works!?
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Thursday, April 10, 2008
the most nervous marketeers right now?
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I would have thought anyone who's paid gazillions of pounds to sponsor the olympics will be having the odd sleepless night as it teeters on the bring of a PR disaster. Just wait until Tibetan monks start invading the field during the hammer throwing...
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Friday, March 28, 2008
A designers Responsibility
Hello everyone,
I would love to hear designers opinions on the following issues for my design investigation project.
In your industry, do you feel that you should be governed by ethical and moral guidelines?
Are you aware of a moral code of practice in your industry?
Do you work towards your own moral code?
Do you feel as a designer that your skills should be used for positive use? If yes, why is this so important? If not, what are your reasons for not doing so?
My deadline is next tuesday so it would be great to hear from as many people as possible!
Thanks very much,
Louise
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
double or quits
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Our clients are finding that the cusp of the transition from old media to new media requires a year of double portion marketing. To put in place the new processes of search engine optimisation, google maps, email marketing, blogging, and all of the wonderful new content options available to companies looking to harness the internet's targetting and connectivity, is not cheap: especially if the 'old-media' budgets are still in place.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Is there time to blog?
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For an internet based tool, the 'blog' is quite untypical. Taking time out to reflect on something, sharing creative ideas in a written form, it feels like a bit of good old fashioned correspondance, except you're not sure who you're writing to, or if you'll ever get a response. Is there time to blog?
Surely we must make time! Or are you going to tell me otherwise and prove yourself wrong?!
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
favourite copyline from an advert
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
To While Away a Lunch Hour
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Spitting distance from Brick Lane, at the Stolen Space Gallery is the exhibition DRAW. Showing, in their words, "original drawings from over 300 vanguard artists in the urban, tattoo, design, illustration, skateboard and music worlds."
Tiny, talented and inspiring.
Well worth a visit.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Why are dusters Yellow?
The ability of colour to provide instant communication and recognition plays a major part in branding and whilst researching the colour yellow for a company identity, my thought process led to dusters... Why are they yellow?
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Having had a stab at an explanation, I appeared to be drowning at sea. Apparently they are not just yellow so you can see them in the dark, there is a more logical and interesting explanation. An article from the Guardian states:
"...one of the duster's great attributes is its use for polishing. In the past, before the advent of pressurised canisters and the dreaded CFCs, this was done with beeswax. The manufacturers of such may have decided to make and sell its necessary accompaniment dusters. Wishing to keep an identification with their main product they would naturally have dyed them yellow. Early dusters were not the bright ones of today, but a more ochre colour - indeed, some were pastel green.
Alternatively: an enterprising marketing director of yesteryear may have attempted to corner the market by using most people's association of the colour yellow with springtime, through an increase in sunshine and daylight hours. He would have realised that sales of dusters would be increased enormously by using the appropriate colour especially during the annual spring cleaning season."
View the complete Why Dusters Are Yellow? article here
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10 best ways to kill an internal project
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1) Compare it to the best thing in the world
2) Don't set a deadline
3) Don't give it to anyone as a job
4) Review it at the end of a meeting
5) Debate its purpose publicly
6) Forget about it for long periods of time
7) Fail to show open support from senior management
8) Complain about the cost
9) Get busy doing other things
10) Neglect it
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Friday, March 07, 2008
a bag full of questions
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This bag epitomises everything that I'm finding weird about the world at the moment. Here is an Indian newspaper recycled bag. Now i can understand the obvious rationale - poor people making bags out of newspaper. So you can feel good about feeding the poor without damaging the environment. But then i think to myself, 'are we really helping the world, what's the NET benefit? Am i really spreading an ecological message? How did this bag get here? What happens if the world suddenly upped its requirement? ' so many questions from one small bag |
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
another wave of stuff
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Just when you think you're actually quite quiet, a whole load of things come along at once. So many of our Monday morning meetings consist of discussing how to generate more business, and then by the end of the week we're overloaded with work. It's a mystery where it all comes from.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
from design to technology
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In these days of digital interactivity, everything overlaps. It's no longer the case that you might have one designer for digital and one for print. We have ended up taking more and more responsiobility for things like websites, email marketing, and hosting. Not the obvious sort of thing you might think of when you brief a design agency.
Truth be told we don't exactly love providing these services, in fact it makes our hair stand on end, particularly Christian who hates the flaky intangibility of all things web. However, we're actually pretty good at it. Perhaps its Christian's lack of confidence and fear of failure, combined with Scott's gung-ho enthusiasm.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
overcomplicated
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Sometimes it feels that, to get the right design, you need to spend hours eliminating what seems like potentially better but impossible alternatives. Then, you wonder how you managed to spend 8 hours just adding a bit of text to an existing advertisement.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Time for a check-up?
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A visit to the design agency clearly feels, for some of our clients, like a visit to the dentist. They strap themselves in and wince painfully as we drill holes in their logo. Anyone who feels reluctanct about handing over their business card, and squirms uneasily when sending out letterhead, should probably get in touch for a regular design check-up.
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Wednesday, December 05, 2007
One Font
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I started a debate at Crumpled Dog Design about the over-use of quirky fonts and the constant desire to find better and more interesting ones. My view is that a good designer could limit themself to one font family only, and with interesting and appropriate application of weights, sizes and colours, could build a great portfolio of stunning and unique designs.
The use of typography, imagery and layout should be enough to set a design or concept apart from another. There's no reason why the same font couldn't work as well in a design for an industrial-based project as it could for a beauty-based one for example. If there were only one font available to us, what would happen to typography and good design? Maybe it would improve, by encouraging designers to engage more with the task in hand, rather than trawling through a million and one fonts to find the right one for the job.
If you could only choose one font family, what would it be? I choose Helvetica.
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