Brand building success. As traditional media is eclipsed by new media, the concept of brand building continues to change in unexpected ways. Speed, adaptability, and collaboration are more important than ever before. Success means meeting today’s challenges, but tomorrow’s as well. Here are some strategies we’ve found helpful for building brands that stand up to …
how web design and messaging can strengthen your brand The most valuable piece of property in the world is the seven square inches your prospective client sees when pulling up your website for the first time. This small parcel of real estate has the critical job of connecting with your audience, either by communicating information …
With so much marketing taking place through a multitude of different mediums and applications, the tendency is for messages to become ever more fragmented — and more easily forgotten. start with a vision Don’t think of standards and consistency until you have a clear vision about why you are important to your audience and are able …
Framing marketing communications in terms of experience opens up new opportunities for engaging your audience. Our Be in Bellingham campaign is one example of this thinking at work; another is a thank you promotion we recently completed for Shew Design. The purpose of the project was to say thanks to clients and collaborators in a …
A paradox of destination marketing is that while each destination is unique in its own way, the materials and messages people use for different destinations are often indistinguishable from one another. In promoting Bellingham Whatcom County, we wanted to subtly rethink destination marketing to create work that departed from these expectations. We started by making …
Despite all predictions to the contrary, print communications still play a crucial role in how organizations reach out to their audience. Print has changed, though. It is now more an elective than a requirement, and like any choice it benefits from planning and thinking ahead. You must print intentionally. This can include details like a …
Most things are more complicated than they need to be. Navigation is no exception. You can fairly easily see what links people use on your website using traffic evaluation tools such as Google Analytics. More importantly, these tools can show you which links people don’t visit. This can help you make informed decisions about revising …
Research plays a crucial part in creating good design, and so a designer’s life is essentially a never-ending series of opportunities to learn. The best designers are really the best at learning. That’s what I like to say as I help myself to a generous handful of research. My third. “That’s Callebaut, 54%,” Kevin informs …
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 …
Garamond is one of a handful of typefaces that designers of all eras return to again and again. Apple used the condensed form in the late eighties, and it became the quintessential typographic solution for business communications in the early nineties. People who make lists of the most readable fonts tend to pick Garamond first. …
speak friend and enter A fundamental principle about marketing communication relates to making it easy for the audience to understand what you’re trying to say. A message that requires serious thought is almost certainly going to be upstaged by less demanding messages. Yet, as I see marketing as the strategic breaking of rules, I can …
“I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” — Mark Twain The process of developing meaningful content for websites is sometimes a bigger challenge than the technical construction of the website itself. One reason for this is that there is essentially no limit to need. The freeform nature …
We recently completed a print ad campaign for Chocolate Necessities. They not only make some of the finest chocolate you’ll ever taste, but they offer some unique truffle flavor combinations you won’t find elsewhere. The ads below were designed to highlight some of these flavors. Another goal of the ad series was to focus on …
Keeping your website and social media feeds up to date can be time-consuming and complicated, so it’s worth taking a little time to invest in a planning process to ensure you are getting the most out of your investment. the cost of complexity The problem some organizations encounter is undergoing a complicated and detailed process, and then falling short when it’s …
