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9-23-2009 - Flintstones Selling Winston Cigarettes

Advertising sure has come a long way....

Check out this old commercial of the Flintstones selling Winston Cigarettes.

8-5-2009 - Good Cop Bad Cop

Scrolling through the blog Art Backwash by illustrator / designer Von Glitschka, I found a post I rather enjoyed called "Serial Design Killers." In it he outlines his own definition of a 'bad marketing person' and a 'good marketing person.' Enjoy, I sure did.

A Good Marketing Person: They understand and appreciate the role a designer plays in a project. They communicate well with creatives and equip them to produce appropriate solutions by providing a coherent marketing strategy. They avoid playing art director, and let the designer steer the design. They desire well conceived and executed design and artwork just as much as the designer does. And they know that when combined with common sense marketing the end result will be far more effective and compelling in the end. In other words the recipe for success is founded upon a solid creative process and a mutual respect relationship between creative and marketing.

A Bad Marketing Person: They don't care to understand nor appreciate the role a designer plays in a project. Their opinion is paramount. They think they communicate well with everyone, until someone questions their opinion. Their idea of an appropriate solution doesn't come about from a coherent marketing strategy, but rather based off of what they see someone else doing. Cloaking it in their own psycho-babble, they sell it as an original idea they came up with. They love to play art director, and can often be heard saying "I took art class in college." or "Can you make the logo bigger?" They desire to just get the job done, because designers are too picky and no one will notice or care about that anyway. They think the creative process is a derived formula, so re-heating borrowed ideas is their recipe for success. If it fails they blame the designer, if it succeeds they take all the credit and further feed their self-deception.

7-29-2009 - Smoke and Mirrors Myspace Layout

We just completed work on the myspace layout for Erie hardcore stalwarts, Smoke and Mirrors. Smoke and Mirrors feature ex-members of other notable Erie bands such as Brothers Keeper, Shockwave, and Problem Solver Revolver.

They wanted the layout to reflect the art we did for their split 7" record with West Virginia's Heart Hold True and also begin promoting the world wide release of their full length "Join the Ghost Army." In addition to the new layout, they posted three new songs on their page.

Go check out the page here.

7-14-2009 - Lavery Brewing Company

Hey everyone, we just completed work for Lavery Brewing Company, a micro brew starting here in Erie. The owner Jason Lavery is of Irish decent, more specifically from the province of Ulster. We distinguished this by including the Red Hand that is on the Ulster flag within the mark. 

 We believe the identity provides a more upscale positioning and the inclusion of the hand will help the new company to stand out among other Irish born brands.

Head over to the graphic design section and have a look!

7-10-2009 - GM Should Change It's Brand

Well today GM exited bankruptcy after spending a 40 day stint restructuring and accepting government aid. It was widely speculated that GM may change their logo, from the blue box containing the letters to a green box, but now those rumors have been put to rest. GM will continue to use it's old symbol.

I personally believe this to be a mistake. GM needs more than a restructuring to return to profitability, it needs a change in culture. What better way to usher in a new era than to overhaul the brand? I believe their current brand is simply no longer trusted in the eyes of many Americans. GM has spent far too many years churning out gas-guzzling, unreliable, low quality automobiles. GM is seen as a hulking failure of a company, almost a national embarrassment.

I think it is damn near essential they change their brand. Hopefully I am wrong.

7-7-2009 - We hate Bleeding Cowboys

I'm not afraid to say it, I am sick and tired of the font bleeding cowboys. I first discovered the font sometime ago. I used it in a couple of projects and have since sworn off of using it. Since that time I have seen this font grow in popularity. At first within band logos and bar posters, then I noticed a few store fronts using it, and finally I recently saw a documentary on CNBC using it. The Bleeding Cowboys snowball has grown to an unacceptable size.

I strongly urge anyone who is about to use this font to take the longer path and distress your own typefaces. If not for me then do it for your designs!

6-05-2009

I just read a fantastic article about branding, logos, and corporate identity. The article by John Amy goes into the differences between branding, identity, and a logo. I'm sure many never thought there was any distinction, but quite the contrary! It also talks about the benefits of a strong identity and brand and how it can affect the success of your business.

A strong identity can instill trust and professionalism in your company and shows potential customers that your business is already a success, which people naturally gravitate to.

Also covered are the dangers of not properly funding your identity creation. The cost of a strong identity is worth it when you consider the potential lost sales that a weak identity is sure to cause.

You can read the full article here. Enjoy!

5-29-2009

Today I was researching a direct mail list for businesses around my city, Erie, PA, and a shocking and disappointing thing happened. Nearly ninety percent of all the websites that I viewed were way outdated. Some looked like they haven't been updated in a year or so and a few looked like they put up 'under construction' pages years ago and haven't touched them since (golly I hate 'under construction' pages).

I find it appalling how far behind my city is at times considering the web. I find it even more appalling how few business care about their web presence and actually acknowledge and accept that the internet is quickly becoming the top place for consumers to research for their needs.

Not having a clean and informative WORKING website is a huge marketing 'no no' this day in age, especially considering how affordable they have become.

I guess being one hell of a web designer has it's advantages in a city were so few businesses have nice sites.

5-27-2009

I was browsing about AIGA's website (the professional association for design) and found an interesting article for people about to hire a graphic designer or creative professional and have never done so before. It goes into the process a bit, talks about the value of design, and distinguishes what design is and is not. You can read the paper here.

Hope you enjoy!

5-13-2009

Hey everyone, welcome to the new website! Well it's been nearly three years since we began and we decided it was time for a face lift. We added a few new projects to our portfolio sections that were not on the old site, so head on over and check them out!

We have a hand full of new projects on the horizon including a Myspace page layout for West Virginia band Let the Guilty Hang and a number of new T-Shirt designs.

All in all life is good, till next time...