Does every business benefit from design? Think of your favorite hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint, or the local bakery down the block. Each time you go there, do you find yourself mentally re-designing their logo? Have you decided that the one thing keeping your favorite Thai food place from becoming a national chain is a new identity system and a modest media buy? (more…)

Google is currently building its new marketing unit, Google Creative Lab, which will promote the Google brand and products. The company is busy setting up offices in New York, San Francisco and London, with more to come in the future, probably. Since the Creative Lab is still in its developing stage it’s kind of hard to get a concrete explanation of what they’re all about. It’s only really possible to know what they want to become. Here’s a quick overview pulled from the company’s job listings: “The Google Creative Lab is a small team that strives to re-think marketing across every kind of media - currently existing or not, with Google as its sole client. Our job is to manage the Google brand, find new ways to communicate the company’s innovations, intentions and ideals, and do work of which we can all be immensely proud.” (more…)

First, an admission. I belong to a fraternity. A huge, national, button-down shirt, blue blazer, captains-of-industry kind of organization that celebrates all things left-brained and tangible. At one point, I was even president of my chapter. But that’s another story.

As the token creative in the group, my job was to “design” party t-shirts. Of these, one stands out in my memory. You’ve probably seen it — or one exactly like it. That’s because the “concept” was as follows:

1) Start with the logo for one of Bavaria’s… er… Germany’s most recognizable sports car brands
2) Cleverly add the fraternity’s Greek letters in place of the three initials in the existing logo mark
3) Alter the carmaker’s ubiquitous tagline by one word — replacing “driving” with “party”

This last step — the ingenious substitution of a single word in the tagline — sent a clear message: “Compared to other ‘machines’ engineered for the specific purpose of partying, we consider our fraternal organization (or ‘machine,’ if you will) to be the ultimate.” (more…)

Perhaps you’ve seen this story making the rounds: A Texas teenager is suing Virgin Mobile because it used her image without permission in a billboard campaign in Australia.

The girl appears in a photograph which was released under a Creative Commons license. The photographer, via the license, expressly permitted commercial use of his image, as long as he received a photo credit. Virgin Mobile Australia duly credited the photographer when it used his photograph in the ad campaign. However, because the Creative Commons license does not apply to the likeness of the girl, who found her face being used to tout a mobile phone network halfway around the world, Virgin may still be in hot water.

A photographer is free to license his own work in whatever way he sees fit, but unless model and location releases were obtained, that license does not, by extension, cover the likenesses which appear in the image. How many photos on royalty-free photo sites come with model and/or location releases? Not many, last time I checked.

So, next time you turn to the royalty-free sites when sourcing images for your clients, ask yourself these questions: (more…)

Apparently, some people think the success of online, interactive advertising is all due to blinking lights and sound clips, so they’re bringing the same capabilities to print advertising. Yes, print ads can now sing to you and flash lights at you; they can give you a temporary tattoo, a whiff of black cherries, or a taste of rum.

Take that, internet advertising!

Well, I have two comments. First, the power of web-based marketing lies not in its audiovisual smack, but in its vast capacity to deliver individual customers authentic brand experiences of their own choosing. To focus on the smoke and mirrors is to miss the essence of the trick.

Second, and this saddles me up on one of my favorite hobby-horses, all advertising must be interactive. Advertising is a dialog. Granted, we can only fully control half of it, but there is always a customer response.

If the customer’s response is to turn the page, leave the room, or navigate away, then the ad has failed to engage, and it’s not interactive no matter whether its online, or in a magazine with a sound chip and flashing lights.

Regardless of medium, interactivity in advertising is not an option. It is mandatory.

Search engine optimization is big business these days. Type SEO into Google and you’ll find hundreds of individuals and organizations promising to place your page near the top of the major indexes, for a fee of course.

Unfortunately, it’s rarely that simple, for each search engine has its own secret formula for generating results. Meta tags, links and who knows what else influence these calculations, so there is just no one right answer. However, at the most basic level, (more…)

This article from Computer Arts (UK) explores the challenge of staying fresh and original while still employing the tools of visual shorthand in communicating concepts.

I’m reminded of a quote from Pablo Picasso: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” Hey, that’s what all those award books are really for, right?

But I’m also reminded of a good technique for pushing past a pre-existing form. I’m not sure where I read this, but it was originally related to copywriting and the use of a “swipe file,” which is a file of ads and other marketing materials that one thinks are singularly effective.

The key was this: rather than re-execute the original, create the sequel.

View the full-sized version and click the links to watch some fun ads.

History tells us that advertising originated in a pre-competitive state, seeking simply to inform about a product: what it is, what it does, what it costs, where you get it. That was a long, long time ago. Ever since supply has exceeded demand, products have been using branding and advertising to create desire and set themselves apart from the pack. I came of age in the days of cheeky chefs replacing customers’ ordinary coffee with Folger’s Crystals, and big-haired models purring “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Advertising was about practical jokes and the promise of attaining transformation via a product.

These days, advertising bears little relationship to product information, and sometimes nearly eschews branding altogether in favor of pure entertainment. When I want to get information about a product that feels complete, reliable, intuitively ordered and clear, I go to Wikipedia. When I want to get subjected to a bunch of marketing blather within a tightly commercially-contrived order I go to the product’s corporate Web site. And increasingly, when I want to be entertained, I watch commercials.

Funny to describe watching commercials as a voluntary pastime, but the only commercials people ever sit through nowadays are the ones we watch by choice. It’s knocking the costly 30-second TV spot model on its ear, and making way for some inventive ways to engage with viewers through alternative media and a focus on entertainment. A surprising player in this movement is… (more…)

If you’re doing any direct mail in the U.S. – including brochures that may be mailed – then you should look at the new postal regulations. Because it wasn’t just a rate increase that went into effect, it was a change in how the Postal Service calculates rates. Odd size? Lumpy enclosure? Material that might jam the machines? Oh, that’ll cost ya.

Now, I’m not ripping on the U.S. Postal Service. Postage in the U.S. is dirt cheap compared to almost anywhere else in the world, and the standard of service is high.

But, as advertising professionals, it’s important to know media rules because they affect what we produce. An ultra-rigid cover may make a brochure more expensive to mail even if it fits in a standard envelope (section 101, part 1.2e). Our clients are counting on us to know this stuff, and here it is, straight from the source:

http://pe.usps.com/RateCase2007/DMM300_HTML/dmm300_landing.htm

Helvetica, the über-ubiquitous sans-serif font, is celebrating its 50th birthday. Here’s a BBC story about why this font has endured despite designers’ love/hate relationship with it.

Now, why should a copywriter care about a type font? Well, type is where the tone of the copy meets the tone of the design. Copy in Garamond Light Condensed (to pick on a popular mid-80s typeface) will feel different from the same copy in Bookman, or Palatino, or Franklin Gothic Book. Or Helvetica.

Typography can enhance the copy or detract from it or even comment on it. That’s why I like to work closely with designers – so copy can be tweaked to fit design and vice versa, depending on what’s needed to best communicate the emotional element of the marketing message.