Associating an organization with an individual is a double-edged sword for any brand. Making a company’s founder its namesake or mascot can bestow it instant credibility and industry cache. Yet, these affiliations can be devastating if its figurehead is discredited, or simply goes rogue.
Enter Lance Armstrong, the Bruce Wayne of professional cycling and the Batman of cancer philanthropy. For years he has used his Tour De France celebrity to promote Livestrong, his charitable effort to raise money for cancer research, education and advocacy.
But today Livestrong faces an identity crisis for...More
As a brand designer it is always somewhat flattering when a client wants to use their new identity as much as possible. After all, the application of one’s logo is branding, and branding is good, right? Well, not always.
Call it a pet peeve, but a great example of bad branding is the old “Putting your logo in the signature of your email” move. I see it all the time where businesses don’t realize the faux pas they are committing in the interest of looking more professional.
Basically, emails with graphic signatures have a few problems.
Mac users (at least) receive these emails as...More
The web has an ability to shed its skin and emerge anew every couple of years. It should not be news to you that the future of web browsing is mobile. Mobile has already overtaken desktop browsing in parts of the world and is projected to do so in the US before the end of 2013. The technique that most proactive studios and shops have coalesced around is ‘Responsive design’
It is a term I believe was coined by Ethan Marcotte, the author of Responsive Web Design and a leading voice on the topic. For the uninformed it attempts to address the ever-expanding array of device sizes and...More
By now, most of you have probably seen the hugely successful Christopher Nolan film Inception. It is a movie that explores that possibility that an idea can be planted in the mind of a person without them knowing it.
From Hollywood’s standpoint, it is a science fiction twist on an old-fashioned heist film. However, from the standpoint of a marketing communications professional, it is something much closer to pornography. For decades these folks have sought to plant ideas in the minds of consumers. Albeit, less dramatically.
While Inception is a work of fantasy, it seemed to me in watching the...More
