"The Internet's Logo Snobs" Have Spoken

In business news this week, GAP Inc. introduced a new logo for the clothing company online and, due to vehement criticism from their fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter, quickly returned to their original logo. According to CNN's John D. Sutter, "the internet's logo snobs won this one." Interestingly, Gap had stated that they would "crowdsource" their new brand design, taking alternate suggestions from fans and implementing them if they were appropriate. Apparently, they have retracted this approach as well. A press release from the company states the following explanation: "We've learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn't the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing."

My favourite piece of commentary on this story comes from Margaret Lyons of Entertainment Weekly: "I get it. People hated the new logo. The little blue box just looked like dozens of other logos, we're all sans-serifed out, etc. But where is the Internet outcry about stirrup leggings? Or the lack of pockets on a jacket that should clearly have pockets? When will someone speak up about the terrifying reemergence of clogs?! Get your priorities in order, Internet. Those clogs are easily 900 times worse than that logo."

Saving the World One Design at a Time

Ottawa native David Berman is a pretty interesting guy. He is a Fellow and the Ethics Chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, a vice-president of Icograda, the world body for graphic design, a Canadian communication designer and author, President of the first elected board of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, and an international keynote speaker. He is also the author of the recently published book "Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World." The book builds upon the graphic design code of ethics that Berman introduced, which embraces social responsibility for graphic designers in Canada and is used as the benchmark internationally. Berman explains that "designers create so much of the world we live in, the things we consume, and the expectations we seek to fulfil. They shape what we see, what we use and what we waste." He argues that "the same design that fuels mass overconsumption also holds the power to repair the world." Berman definitely offers some food for thought. What do you think? Do graphic designers have the power to make the world a better place?

Apple Marketing and Advertising Thinks Different

If you know me, I, like many people, have probably blathered on about how great Apple's advertising is. I've probably already blogged about it. Well, I'm going to blog about it some more, because it really is fantastic.

The best part? The advertising is reflected in the products. Take a look at this image of an apple keyboard:



Now look at the box:

There are no headlines all over screaming about discounts, deals, or features I don't really care about. The image conveys the product's main selling point better than any pile of headlines ever could. It's what differentiates Apple from other advertisers out there. Other advertisers like, oh, I don't know, Microsoft.

YouTube user "fredandgus" (Fred and Gus? Users perhaps?) asks the question: what would happen if Microsoft designed the iPod package, and got rid of the simplicity that makes it so unique?

Microsoft Designs the iPod Package:


Yes, Apple advertising has come a long way since the old days of the Apple II. Remember the old days? Well, the Internet certainly does. Check out this old Apple ad:


Browsing through their old ads really is fun. I particularly like the old "Think different." black and white ads.


I wonder how old Steve Jobs was when Albert Einstein signed up to be in an Apple ad. Negative 3 years old?


And, finally, who could forget everyone's favourite 1984 Apple riff?



The only thing I don't like about Apple are their white earbud earphones. They just don't stay in my ear! Steve Jobs, if you're reading this, help a guy out. Design some non-earbud Apple earphones for your iPods.

Please and thanks.

Your pal, Mike.

Pepsi's New Look: A Pointless Endeavour?

Perhaps you've seen or read about the brand new Pepsi logo and can design. I must say, it looks very nice -- quite modern and minimalist, almost like something you'd see in a sci-fi movie set in the "not-too-distant future" (although the slightly different logos for each type of Pepsi might be a bit too much).

That being said ... is the branding change really necessary? Honestly, who's going to look at the new Pepsi logo and say "Well, I've been a Coke guy all my life, but I think I'll switch now because I really like lower case lettering!"

Chances are, not very many.

In an article on Advertising Age ("What Went Into the Updated Pepsi Logo"), Frank Cooper, Pepsi's VP of Promotional Brands, was quoted as saying that when the campaign officially launches, "hate it or love it, you will absolutely know that Pepsi is out in the marketplace."

Yes, because that's exactly what Pepsi needs. Honestly, I don't know anybody who has ever heard of this obscure beverage-maker, and a new branding and marketing campaign will be just the ticket to say, "Look out world, Pepsi is here!"

Seriously now, when a company as large and established as Pepsi does this, it seems like it's just change for the sake of change.

Daily Breakthrough fave Seth Godin wrote a good piece about this on his blog ("Your Brand Is Not Your Logo"). He doesn't believe in Pepsi's claim that the new logo will help to win them more market share, saying:

Take the time and money and effort you'd put into an expensive logo and put them into creating a product and experience and story that people remember instead.

Good advice. While a strong logo and powerful branding is very important to a company's marketing -- especially for a new business trying to establish itself (and last time I checked, that doesn't describe Pepsi) -- in the end, it's the product and service experience that must be conveyed above everything else.

Marketing is about all of the visual and emotional elements working together in unison to create a cohesive brand -- something a mere logo update can't accomplish on its own.

Take the Shortcut!

Take a second and look around. How many printed words do you see? No, not just on the computer screen in front of you, but besides that? Your 'Tim Horton's' coffee cup, words on the motivational poster on your wall, words in the logo on your pen or the label on your Club Monaco shirt. All the words we see around us were designed. Some catch your attention more than others. My hope for this blog series is to get you to notice design around you and help you appreciate the difference between GREAT and mediocre.

I'll be bringing you tips, trends, advice, printing tips, new fonts, links to 'award winners' and all that is going on in the creative world of design we live in.

I'd like to start with some advice from someone who spends 10 hours a day in front of a screen; USE YOUR SHORTCUTS! Whether it's on a PC or a Mac, if you take 2 seconds to learn a shortcut you will be saving yourself hours of valuable time in the long-run. (speaking of which; command S). I recommend writing down 3 to 4 shortcuts a week on a Post-It and have it close as a reference until you've learned it.

Mac users, here are a few 'cool' shortcuts that might help.

The Dictionary Shortcut

When using any Mac Native Applications you can scroll over a word (without clicking) and press Ctrl-Cmd(apple)-D. What will appear is a dictionary definition for that word. Amazing!

The Mac 'Print Screen'

If you ever need to capture a specific area of your screen use the shortcut: Cmnd-Shift-4, what will appear is a small cross hair that you can use to select a certain area of the screen. The computer will save a png file, named 'picture1.png' onto your desktop.

Text Copying

Do you ever get sick of pressing Cmnd-C (Copy) and then Cmnd-V (Paste)? Well here's an interesting way to copy a large amount of text and it's very simple.

Simply, select the text you need, click on it and drag it to the desktop, it will save as a text document that you can use drag into an email or many different applications.

I challenge you to use shortcuts, you'll find the faster way there every time!

A Tale of Two Apples

Apple is threatening legal action against the Victoria School of Business and Technology, the Globe & Mail reported earlier this week. According to the lawyers representing Apple Inc., the school's logo reproduces the Apple logo, thereby "falsly suggesting that Apple has authorized [the school's] activities".

According to a poll on the Victoria School of Business and Technology's website, 72% of respondents do not agree with Apple that the logos are confusingly similar. It is this type of public support that the school hopes will discourage Apple from following through with a lawsuit. In our culture, the apple can symbolize knowledge (as Newton's apple), sin (as the forbidden fruit), and health (as we all know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away).

However, over the last thirty years, Apple Inc. has built up a particular two-dimensional representation of the apple to represent innovation in technology. It is most likely not the actual physical resemblance of the school's logo to the Apple logo that is offensive to Apple, but rather the fact that this school sells itself on having expertise in technology AND has incorporated the two-dimensional symbol of the apple into its logo thus capitalizing on Apple's status in the technology industry.

As a sidenote, Apple is no stranger to this type of conflict. The company has endured numerous legal disputes with The Beatle's Apple Corp since 1978. The final settlement came only last year.

As blogger Jeff James explains, "most brands need to fill [its] imagery with meaning over time (what would an apple logo really mean without the history of Apple's brand?)". Apple's very first logo (shown right) depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting beneath an apple tree... The logo has clearly come a long way since 1976.

The current incarnation of the Apple logo is so well known across the world that the logo speaks for itself and no accompanying text of the company name is required. The logo is so effective that, according to a study stemming from Duke University, "just being exposed to the Apple logo can make you more creative". The implication of this finding is that Apple's logo is powerful, important, and its integrity is definitely worth fighting for.

Why Newspaper Ads Fail - And How You Can Fix Yours

I just was reading our local paper and couldn't get over the number of boring and just plain poorly laid out ads there were in this publication. Leading the list of boring ads were the ones placed by a well-known Ottawa furniture retailer and a shop that sells fitness equipment.

Why were the ads boring? Well, both of them looked the same, even though they were supposed to be advertising completely different businesses. Next, the ads featured unappealing and uninteresting pictures of chairs, tables, sofas, exercise equipment -- the kind of pictures that could be in anyone's ads. Finally, the headlines in the ads weren't prominent enough to attract a reader's attention, and they didn't sell something that a reader would really want.

It just never ceases to amaze me how much people will spend on large expensive, four-colour print ads, yet how little time they spend thinking about the design and copy in these ads, or how to get their ads to stand out and get read, especially in today's "scan and click" world.

Think about the last time you were in a Second Cup or Starbucks watching someone "read" the newspaper. For most people today, especially working adults 25 to 55, "reading" is really "scanning", an exercise that is more about flipping through the pages until they see an interesting headline, than it is about reading each page as it were in a book.

Think about the last home page you visited. How much time went by until you clicked to another web page?

I read today's paper in about five minutes, including the section I started off with, Sports. Two hours later as I write this blog, I cannot truly recall a single ad in this newspaper.

There's an art and science to designing ads that work in today's scan and click world. Here are a few tips to make your newspaper or magazine ad more successful this year:

1. Make sure the headline is the most prominent visual priority in the layout. Devote at least 20% of the space in the ad to the headline.
   
   
2. Add punctuation (quotation marks, exclamation or question marks) to the headline. This will help it attract attention and make a connection to the reader.
   
   
3. Whatever you're selling, include really good pictures of customers in your demographic in the ad -- pictures your customers can relate to. Research shows that you will increase the readership of your ad by more than 25% just by following this strategy.
   
   
4. Make sure that you have a clear "call for action" at the bottom of the ad. Always remember that the purpose of ad is to motivate/compel real people to do something -- like visit a store and buy something. If you don't tell a prospective customer what you want him or her to do as a result of reading or seeing the ad, chances are, they won't do it and the ad won't work.
   
   
5. Write the copy as if you were having a live conversation at the kitchen table with the customer. Make the copy exciting, credible and relevant.
   
   
6. Compare your ad against your competitors and ask yourself honestly -- are we noticeably different (from the customer's point of view)? Are there enough exciting reasons for a prospect to call or shop or choose us?

Finally, ask yourself -- who's the creative leader in charge of your advertising? And "do you have the best professional leading your team?"

To advertise successfully, you have to pitch the right things, to the right audience, at the right time, and in the right place ... and you also have to have the right coach in charge of your advertising team, someone who has mastered the formula behind a winning campaign.

Orange You Glad to Shop at Wal-Mart?

Rumour has it that Wal-Mart will be changing up its branding -- and it looks the retail giant is going Dutch.

According to this story first reported in the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart will be dropping the hyphen/star from its name, and its new logo will show the company name in white letters against an orange background, followed by a small starburst. In case you've been trapped on a desert island for the past decade or two, you'll know that the current Wal-Mart logo is white lettering against a blue backdrop with red stripes along the top and bottom.


According to the article, the redesigned, "friendlier" logo is in response to growing criticism from unions, environmental groups, and communities opposed to big-box store developments. This new look will apparently be phased in across the chain's 3,600 U.S. stores starting this fall (no word on whether the Canadian stores can expect to change over).

So, Wal-Mart is going orange. But why? When Marketing Breakthroughs creates a new brand for a client, colour is one of the key elements that has to be considered.

Like most colours, orange is somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of what it can represent. On one hand, it can indeed portray friendliness, ambition, and energy, which is what Wal-Mart (or should I say Walmart) is definitely looking for. However, orange can also be seen as a dated and retro colour, and it is also the colour of hunger, which is why it has been used by so many fast food joints over the years.

Orange certainly isn't the traditional big-box retailer colour (most big chain stores tend to use blues and red -- Best Buy, Future Shop, Zellers, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Rogers Video, Blockbuster, Loeb, etc.). However, Home Depot has been using the colour quite effectively, and the fact that orange is now associated with Home Depot might not help Wal-Mart's attempt to claim the colour as its own in a way to distance itself from the other "corporate" red and blue big-box chain -- especially since Home Depot is the #2 retail chain behind Wal-Mart!

So, what do you think of the new Orange Walmart? Yay? Nay? Indifferent? Better than the smiley face, at any rate. Unless they turn him orange too ...