Social media avatars – photos, logos, or both?

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs all use avatars as personal ‘icons’ for members. Depending on the image you choose, these postage stamp-sized images can portray you as professional, playful, creative, silly or somber. The questions for business and individuals are, “Do I use a photo, logo, or combination of the two?” and “How do I [...]

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YMCA: Just Call Us ‘the Y’…

On July 12, 2010, the YMCA announced the first update to its identity in in 43 years. The biggest change seems to be the elevation in importance of the ‘Y,’ similar in usage to McDonalds use of the slang, MickeyD. The Young Men’s Christian Association (“YMCA” or in the USA “the Y”) is a worldwide [...]

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Social networking continues to grow

Small Business Watch surveys since 2007 have shown an increasing number of small businesses using the Internet to sustain and grow their businesses. “Social networking for business purposes is growing,” [Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card] said. “With such small operations, small business owners don’t need a long time to tell whether something [...]

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University of South Carolina Loses Legal Dispute over Interlocking SC Trademark

Affectionately referred to as ’SC by its students, alumni and fans, the University of Southern California is the rightful owner of the interlocking “SC” trademark, a court announced last week, despite the University of South Carolina’s latest attempt to trademark a similar symbol. When South Carolina initially came out with the interlocking “SC” logo in [...]

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Marketing that Bombs

I don't exactly want to buy a product being sold via a bombing run -- I simply can't understand how Motorola, Verizon, and Google think that positioning their product as a destructive, hostile menace is going to endear it to anyone.

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Why We Don’t Do Spec Work

The asset of our studio is our artistry — the creative solutions to the communications problems and opportunities facing our clients. And innovative originality can be tough to define, or agree upon. One person’s passion is often another’s poison. So it’s no wonder that potential clients often ask us to take a project on speculation. That is, to try out our creative product in much the same way they may try out a car before purchasing. Unfortunately, we must turn down such projects.

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10 Harsh Truths about Websites of Large Organizations

Early this year, Smashing Magazine posted an article detailing the 10 Harsh Truths about Websites of Large Organizations. As a designer who has work in both agencies and marketing communications departments, I can attest to the validity of each one of the 10 truths. Here are the ten with our comments...

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