February contest results
Congratulations to Alec Strand for winning Shew Design’s February contest! It was tough competition, but he was the only one to correctly identify Bethlehem Steel as the answer to Q5 and that put him in the top position! Close behind were Shelley Calissendorff and Christina Wright and Tina S. Maxell Volkswagen. Original text: “Think small.” ...
Komen and Planned Parenthood
The public feud between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood is an object lesson in successful strategic thinking. It’s also a sign of what is to come in terms of captivating and motivating an audience. For those of you who haven’t followed the controversy, Komen recently announced they would (in effect) not ...
type as metaphor
Thinking creatively means making contextual decisions that are not always informed by an absolute set of opinions or values. For example: some people hate hyphens and never use them, but “real designers” know that sometimes hyphens have to be used… usually to avoid something even worse. I say that because recently we’ve been involved in ...
ignoring the rules
This is an enormous jar; when full, it will probably contain several thousand dollars. I like the design on the front. It made me want to throw in a few dollars, which I did – happily. This design breaks tons of rules, including: numerous technical errors no mention of the speaker, timeline, contact info, ...
building credibility
Thinking about structure in your marketing materials is about how you decide to use visual relationships to reinforce your message. It means thinking beyond what is being said, and exploring the how. As always, the process begins with focusing on your message, ideally your one message. Deciding on a core message is often the biggest ...
when you look into the abyss…
I’ve noticed how problem solvers often become strangely “infected” with and by the problems they are attempting to solve. In communications projects, this translates into a tendency to unconsciously fixate on the problem and be seduced into talking about its causes, outcomes and complexities at the expense of talking about the solution. Marketing is usually ...
The Treachery of Images
I had coffee with a friend this week who asked me for my thoughts on a brochure draft. The purpose of the brochure was to encourage people to donate to an organization that protects communities from a mechanical failure that can result in enormous harm and loss of life. The writing was straightforward enough, but ...
what on earth are people looking for?
For the past few months, I’ve been exploring a powerful tool that has exerted a subtle but profound influence on my professional life. Google Insights has become a backdrop for our strategic work, and truth be told, a bit of a fascinating toy as well. On a technical level, Insights is a free search engine ...
no thank you
A recent survey by ExactTarget indicated that 70% of Facebook users don’t want marketing to be incorporated in social media applications – even when they opt to become fans of a particular business. Of course. Given the choice, few people would claim they want to be marketed to, ever – regardless of the medium. It’s ...
anxious customers? keep it simple.
One way to think of the job a brand must perform is to address the risks involved with making a purchasing decision. Some people separate risks into different categories – physical, social, monetary, etc. – where others think in terms of high or low involvement. A low involvement choice is a product like detergent, gum, ...
colorful language
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet. – Paul Klee Though our eyes can distinguish millions of different shades of colors, our color vocabulary is limited in comparison – about thirty words in all. As a species, those words enter vocabulary at a snail’s pace, using a sequence that remains much ...
