AdWeek has a great feature on Samsung's pursuit of simple connections with their consumers.
A New Logo For The Met
Before and After…An excellent review of the new logo for the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mark Kingsley on the blog, Brand New.
Opening the Gates on Investment
We designed the latest edition of the Ohio Venture Report. We were able to elevate the design and introduce an overarching narrative to the story of Ohio's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The report featuring data from 2014 was published at the end of 2015. Many thanks to our friends at Venture Ohio!
Feed Your Filter and Stay Curious
I teach Graphic Design at the Columbus College of Art and Design. As an alumnus of CCAD, it is a privilege to return and offer insight and guidance to the next generation of artists and storytellers. In my sophomore class we recently completed a project that required students to work in teams to design a board game from conception to prototype as well as execute tactics of a launch strategy for the product. The class consists of majors in the areas of fashion, illustration, visual development and medical illustration.
"So what does this have to do with my major?" is a question I'm often asked.
"How will graphic design make me a better concept artist or fashion designer?"
I remember feeling that way about math. The truth is, good or bad, design is design.
I remind my students to keep their eyes on the big picture. Design relates to every component of being a visual communicator. From hierarchy of information to the balance of elements on a page, design is the underlying structure that holds it all together. There is no separation of majors in telling a story visually. Fashion designers tell stories through their choice of fabrics, color and silhouette just as much as a concept artist defines the worlds characters will inhabit with brush strokes. And who among them doesn't need to be able to organize their work into a cohesive whole for promotion or presentation? Art folks gotta' eat!
Design is all around us and I encourage my students to be curious. Inspiration can come from nature, retail, gaming, other artist's work or even a good book. Remember books, the original portable entertainment?
Each person has a unique viewpoint and way of interpreting a subject or solving a problem. I call it their filter. The filter must be fed. It's fed through observation, experience, research and study. As visual storytellers we never stop learning and refining our craft as long as we stay curious.
So stay curious, my friends.
DeviantArt Misses Its Mark?
Recently online artist community, DeviantArt unveiled their new branding along with plans for greater integration and the launch of their own app. The response from their 32 million registered members has been mixed. The comments range from the usual accusations of "corporatization" to plagiarism. Creativebloq.com has a summary of the initial reactions here.
What I think is most telling about these responses is that the community feels they missed the mark. It's much deeper than the logo or graphics – the story doesn't resonate with the audience.
This perfectly highlights the potential dangers of focusing on surface rather than the core of branding, which is a good story. The new DeviantArt messaging is not striking many of the artists as authentic. It doesn't represent the place they know and love, or look like somewhere they want to go. Often times organizations can operate in a marketing bubble and fall prey to how they see themselves versus how they are seen by their audience.
"Isn't branding supposed to control that?"
A good brand story doesn't just control perceptions, it informs your audience with details and authenticity to allow them to build their own connections. Your story must represent your values, your capabilities, and your truth. It should be simple and not require mental or verbal gymnastics to convey. Your audience is way too savvy and will spot phoney-baloney sloganeering a mile away.
Engaging key stakeholders is a vital component of the branding process. Thoughtful research and meaningful levels of audience interaction enable you to listen to thoughts and opinions so you can identify where your brand currently resides. Combined with well-defined goals for growth we determine where you want to go and how you want to be perceived. Establishing that fixed point of aspiration provides a roadmap for defining positioning and telling your story.
Know who you are and tell everyone about it.
Storytelling Works.
Storytelling has been called "the major business lesson of 2014" by Entrepreneur magazine.
We'll file this one under the validation column. A friend shared this article from the New York Times that sites this little gem as well as many others.
Brands make connections through a common narrative platform we all instinctively relate to: STORIES. Your story should be authentic, consistent and most of all, natural.
What's your story?
Welcome Back
After a prolonged development period, the new website is finally up and running! I have more great brand stories to share along with the usual insights and curiosities. You'll notice a few gaps in the blog. There were a few bumps in the road to getting the site live and one of them was importing the blog archive.
So, for those of you following along, we've lost a few things (years!) here and there including the great contributions by content marketing guru and frequent Novella Creative contributor, Devin Meister.
I'll continue to try to resurrect some of the old content while focusing on the new. Someone asked me recently if I was still in the game or if I'd reached a point in my career where I'm looking to be the "duck floating on the surface." Let's see, I just completed design builds on three websites, launched two brand projects and I'm working to roll-out a large municipal brand while engaging in a proposal to do another one.
I'd say at this point, I'm just getting started. Welcome back? I never left.