Sharing My Crayons

It's A Major Award!

Fra-gee-lay . . .
It must be Italian!

Uh, I think that says "FRAGILE", dear.

Oh, yeah.

Mr & Mrs. Parker
A Christmas Story

Where have we been you might ask? Working would be the answer. We have been very busy. And one thing I have learned about this blogging thing is that I'm better at it when the plate is not hugely full – and it has been very full these past few months. I hope to unpack more of that soon, but I did want to share a piece of good news.

The fine folks over at Logo Lounge who have previously honored our work in three of their of their annual "best of" hardback books have included two of our pieces in another volume of their Logo Lounge Master Series. We have had logos designs selected for inclusion in both of their previous volumes of this series, Initials and Crests and Animals and Mythology. Set for publication next year, the third volume in the series will be Shapes and Symbols, and will feature two of our "shapely" logo concoctions.

One of these was for a pro bono (that's artist-speak for free) project done to support a reading program headed up by Kingsway Christian School in Avon, IN called One Book / Seven Schools. As the name suggests the program functioned as a sort of book club between seven local schools, and was very successful in the Hendricks County community. Thanks to Krista Shields who spearheaded the project and approached me about contributing. Since all three of our kids attend school at Kingsway, it was an easy project to say "yes" to. Here's the symbol:

 

Though our work was included in the first two volumes as well, it still think it sounds cool to say that we are featured in a book with the words "Master Series" in the title. I don't think that sort of thing will ever grow old. We truly feel honored and blessed every time we receive such recognition.

Alright now. Enough of a break . . . back to work!

The Story of Right Hand – Left Hand

Ah, little lad, you're starin' at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of Right Hand-Left Hand - the story of good and evil? Now watch and I'll show you the story of life. These fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warrin' and a-tuggin', one agin the other.

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter

OK, Robert Mitchum's preacher in Night of the Hunter is flat-out one of the creepiest dudes ever on film. But he speaks a world of truth in the little exchange quoted above. It's the relationship between love and hate – but I want to chat about a love-hate relationship. 

Several months ago I abandoned my Client & Project Profile that I use in the Discovery phase of a project with clients. I did much research (stealing good ideas when I found them) and rebuilt it from the ground up, expanding it from one page to five (although part of that expanse is so I won't have write so microscopically on the page). The new document greatly expands the questions about a client's target audience, because I think that understanding your audience as completely as possible paves the way for successful initiatives. A new question that I added was this:

What does your audience believe before you tell them anything?

Your audience does not come to you as a blank sheet of paper. There are things either about your or your brand/product – or even in their own experiences – that will color their perceptions in advance of whatever you do to reach them; which of course, should drive HOW you reach them. These preconceived notions are very important, as they can actually sabotage your efforts.

I'll give you a personal example. I have a big-time, serious love-hate relationship with Red Robin restaurants. I LOVE their A1 Peppercorn Burger (oh my!) – but I HATE their prices. Now I'm admittedly cheap, but $10 for a burger just seems wrong. While I'm eating I keep expecting the Miller High Life truck driver to walk through the door, load all of their Miller High Life on his dolly and wheel it back out to his truck as he tells them "Y'all must be crazy!"

See this is my baggage I bring to my interaction with this brand. No matter how much I talk-up their burger, I always do so with the caveat "but they're too expensive." And I now view all contact with this brand through the lens of this preconceived notion. And I've talked to a lot of people who say the exact same thing, lest you think I'm alone in this impression.

So to effectively reach their audience they should market with this in mind.

Instead they recently enacted the Red Royalty customer loyalty program that only draws my attention down to the H-A-T-E tattooed on the knuckles of my left hand.

How many overpriced burgers you think ya gotta buy before the hook a brother up with a freebie? 5? 6? 9? Au contraire, my friend. . . how about 12!!! Seriously dude? Yes, seriously. Once you're $120 in (not counting tax and tip 12 times) they'll bestow upon you a token of their appreciation. And they can too, because they offset the cost with the interest they've earned from your initial $120.

Do I sound sarcastic? Bitter? Cynical? You see, it's because I believe something about them before they told me anything about their new loyalty program. They built their program in a way that not only fails to fully tweak my preconceived positive notions about them, but it actually reinforces the negative ones.

And in the interest of full disclosure, they do also give you a discount on every purchase. See, now what was I complaining about. They're showing some love, huh? How much of a discount you figure they spot me? I won't even make you guess - it's 5%. Really. This essentially takes off about half of the tax on the bill.

A better idea would be to keep the 5% and just give me a free burger twice as often. A free burger after every six would make me feel like the Loyalty aspect of the program was going both ways. It would actually have me looking at the L-O-V-E on my right hand a whole lot closer, and a whole lot more frequently.

Can you see how important it is to know and really get inside the head of your audience? How would you answer the question: "What do they believe about you before you tell them anything?" How you answer that question is one of the first steps to reaching your audience in a way that will be meaningful to them.

I'm holding out hope for Red Robin though. I ate there yesterday (and it was SO yummy!), but only because I received a coupon in the mail for $3 off some bizarro foo-foo burger that I wouldn't eat with someone else's mouth (OK, maybe that's a bit extreme, but typing it made me smile). Printed smaller in the offer portion of the coupon were the words "or any other gourmet burger" - BINGO!

For yesterday at least, I can echo the rest of Mitchum's lead-in quote:

Ol' brother Left Hand. Left hand, he's a-fightin'. And it looks like LOVE's a goner. But wait a minute, wait a minute! Hot dog! LOVE's a winnin'? Yes, siree. It's LOVE that won, and ol' Left Hand HATE is down for the count

Positioning Matters

I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques.

I've got a technique.

It's called 'just go get the d--n ball.'

Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley played NBA basketball from 1984 – 2000. He was one of the most dominant rebounders to ever play the game despite being listed at 6' 6" and weighing 250 lbs. – although, as one website puts it, he was likely "a couple inches shorter and a few hoagies heavier." His unique shape earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound." Barkley was the shortest player ever to win a rebounding title.

About rebounding, he reportedly said that it's not about how tall you are, how long your wingspan or your leaping ability. Rebounding is about position, timing and persistence. The same could be said of marketing and communications.

Timing and persistence are the more obvious of the three, but I think it's positioning that sets the stage for success. As in basketball, positioning in marketing is about carving out space – not on a shelf, but in your customer's mind. Positioning not only takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of the brand, but of it's competitors as well. It's reframing what may already be in the mind of your target audience to create a favorable position, and a competitive advantage, for yourself.

When I was Creative Director for Tavel Optical Group, they had a great positioning statement: One Hour Glasses, Without the One Hour Price. That's powerful because it not only positions them as having what you want (your glasses in an hour), but their competition as having what you DON'T (the high price). I think of this as Underdog Positioning. It positions you favorably against a bigger, more seemingly dominant competitor. Some other examples of this approach:

• 7-Up: The Un-Cola
  
• Avis: We're #2. We Try Harder
  
• Miller Lite: Everything You Want in a Beer – and Less
  
• Apple: Think Different

I was reminded of all this recently when meeting with a client to discuss some new projects. Richard Behney is the owner of AttaBoy Plumbing Company. I've enjoyed working with Richard and his wife Laura since 2004 and created (originally in partnership with Fishhook) the branding and identity for their company, seen below.

The new projects we discussed centered around Richard's decision to run for U.S. Senate in 2010. Specifically, we discussed their desire for all of the visual communication we would create to not look like it came from a typical politician. This positioning was crucial to their message.

Richard is one of the co-founders of the Indiana Tea Party movement and the positioning statement of "Enough!" grew out of his experience there. It's an effective statement in that it taps into the frustrations that many are currently feeling with their elected officials. It works not because it creates something new in the mind of his audience, but because it takes what is already there, reframes it, and carves out space to create a favorable position from which to "go get the ball."

With that in place, I'm still left to figure out how to create a political brand that doesn't look like a typical political brand, which is the kind of challenge I love! Richard considers himself a "strict constitutionalist" which helped determine a foundation upon which to begin building, and led to this design:

We wanted obviously tap into the emotion behind "Enough!", but also wanted to communicate a feeling of Americana – a kind of moving forward with an eye to the past sort of vibe. The gradations in tone help reinforce this, but also communicate that this is a transition for Richard from business owner to the world of politics, reinforcing his position as the sort of the Un-Cola of politicians.

We also created business cards for key people in the campaign to hand out at rallies, speeches, etc. which feature Richard's core campaign principles on the back side.

All of this came together very, very quickly, including a Phase I website. Knowing that a robustly detailed website would take more time to develop, we worked to create small site that introduced people to Richard, told them a little bit about him and provided a means for folks to make donations, volunteer and connect with the campaign. We wanted a simple and clean look that had visual impact, and again, did not look like a site for a typical political campaign. Here's how the site design came together:

You can click the image to visit the site and experience what I think is an innovative approach to presenting the information. This sort of approach wouldn't work for the final site which will need more space to present a fuller and more richly detailed picture of Richard, but it succeeds in initially positioning him as your atypical politician.

As a general rule, I don't think politicians give much thought to this sort of thing. They may believe in what they have to say, but don't see the value in communicating it with a visual strategy. As a result they may appear disconnected from their message.

Regardless of your political leanings, the takeaway from this is that in order to gain effective positioning you must really understand both your audience and your competition – assuming of course that you already understand yourself.

It's how Barkley "cleaned the glass" against players much taller than himself – and it's how you can do the same.

Logo Forget-Me-Knots (not Knotts)

Listen, an IQ can be a mixed blessing sometimes.

Some people want it and can't get get it.

I got it and had to get rid of it.

Life's funny that way, y'know?

Barney Fife

I love Barney Fife's explanation for his academic ineptitude in one episode of the Andy Griffith Show. He explains to Andy that he made straight A's once and the teacher made a big fuss about it and the other kids hated him for it. Not wanting them to think he was a snob or an egghead, he "buckled down and got bad marks."

Maybe I can use that excuse to explain away some of my shortcomings in college. I was not the most academically committed individual on the campus. I was a bright lad – but I missed WAY too many classes (I personally blame my friend Chuck Horsman for leading me astray). But I did manage to retain quite a bit of what I learned when I decided to show up.

I remember slugging my way through a History of Letters sort of class taught by the wonderful Earl Snellenberger. When creating a logo recently, I was flashing back hard to the days of learning about Celtic Knot design. What at times seemed a bit like basket weaving with a pen has proven itself a worthy exercise many times, professionally. Being the incurable pack rat that I am, I still have my original folder with all my lettering guides and worksheets. Here's one of my original sample worksheets to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Over-under-over-under. It seemed tedious – and I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be doing design work for the ancient Celts in my post-collegiate career. But, as with much of design teaching, it's about the overarching concept and not the specific application.

Fast-forward over 20 years. I get a call from a client in Macau, China who is opening a new line of luxury eyewear stores. The brand needs to be culturally relevant and convey a high level of sophistication expected with a luxury brand. The name of one of the founders, Jean Scott, would be the name of the store as well.

The winning solution combined the initials J and S, woven together in a what looks to be a double figure-eight pattern. In Chinese culture, the number eight has great significance. The word for "eight" sounds like the Chinese word for "prosper" or "wealth". And doubled-up, they convey "joy" or "happiness" –even bearing a visual resemblance to characters which mean "double joy".

To understand how significant the number is to the Chinese, you may recall that the Beijing Summer Olympics started on 8/8/08 at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 PM (local time).

For this project, the old "over-under-over-under" was an invaluable resource to have tucked away in my gray matter. 20-some-odd years ago, doing Celtic basket-weaving with a pen led me to a design solution for a luxury eyewear brand in China. Whodathunkit?

Here's the new logo for Jean Scott to see how it all came together:

For the record, anytime you can get your brand to communicate that it brings prosperity and a double-potion of joy should be considered a successful day at the office!

But remember . . . you have to speak the same language as your audience. Even if you aren't communicating across cultures, you need to understand what things are important to them, what they need and how to communicate that you can supply it.

Just like when I was in college. Chuck knew that if he asked me to blow off class to join him for some cheesy garlic bread at Pizza Hut that I'd say "no" – until he said "I'll buy the beer". Sad, but true. He knew his audience and what (at least at that point in life) was important to them.

Thankfully though, I stood firm in my commitment to learning (such as it was) during the days of discovering the fine craft of Celtic Knotwork.

For this project, it certainly helped me "Nip it in the bud!"

"I Know a Good Idea When I Steal One!"

I'm no model lady.

A model's just

an imitation of

the real thing

Mae West

There are many great quotes about imitation. The most famous being "Imitation is the sincerest (form of) flattery", attributed to Charles Caleb Colton. The quote above from Mae West is good as well. But my all-time favorite is from one of my college art professors, Dee Schaad, and is featured as the title of this post.

As this quote implies, a great idea is often inspired by what someone else has done before you. In my office I have floor to ceiling bookcases with scores of books that are filled with examples of great design. In the design world these are often referred to as "swipe books". Used properly, they are a source of inspiration, application and direction. 

I do believe seeing what someone else has done and adapting it to what you are doing is sometimes a valid way to arrive at a good design solution. I've just never been the one being imitated before – until now . . .

A couple years ago I partnered with my friends at Fishhook (a big shout-out to all my Fishhook peeps!) for branding and identity work for Kingsway Christian Church (an added bonus was that this is also my home church). It was exciting to see their communications team envisioning a new logo as a part of a much larger community outreach effort. There were MANY meetings and a huge amount of work that went into the project before my pencil ever touched the sketchbook.

There are too many factors that contribute to why we landed on the logo we did to list here, but suffice it to say that it was a huge success. A teaser campaign was created and there was a "what's the deal with that 'k' we're seeing everywhere" kind of buzz in the community. For the record, here's the symbol element of the logo:

For the curious, you can read more about the work on the Fishhook site; see examples of the great ways the brand has been extended across a variety of venues and applications on my site; and even see the results from last Fall's aerial photo of Kingsway's congregation, gathered together in colored T-shirts to form a giant Kingsway logo, here.

If I haven't mentioned it, I'm extremely proud of this work. And apparently it (and the community impact it had) seems to have caught the attention of a few other very nearby congregations. For example, Grace Pointe Church recently unveiled their new logo:

Amusing similarities, don't you think? Of course, they weren't the first. That distinction belongs to Lakeview Christian Church with their re-branding:

I do give them points for using capital letters though. And then I had to laugh when I drove past Plainfield First Assembly of God a couple months ago en route to my daughter's daycare and saw this outside their building:

It seems we've started something of a movement in church logo design. And in all honesty, I find it very, very cool. It makes me feel good about the work we created for our friends at Kingsway. It makes me happy for them, as they must see this and feel good about the decision to move in a very untraditional direction in order to reach the unchurched community around them. And it makes me feel like these other churches must have noticed the outreach potential Kingsway had tapped into and wanted to adapt that to their own efforts – which is not a bad thing at all!

And somewhere, bent over a spinning potter's wheel, Dee Schaad is smiling!