Great Design Is No Longer a Luxury

In some circles, great design is still considered a luxury. But more often than not, this idea is a fatal flaw for a brand.
 
Today’s consumer has sophisticated visual tastes created by the most creative communicators in the world. Their reference point for this is not just your competitors—it’s every message they get from any industry.
 
This is why great design is actually a brand differentiator. Great design provides instant visual cues about your brand that affiliate it with other brands familiar to the viewer—allowing them to decide in as little as a second if they want to further engage with you. The more oversaturated people are with information, the more they rely on these cues as short cuts for adjudicating a product or service. It’s simply an efficient way of navigating information.
 
Here are some common mistakes brands make when they don’t embrace this important truth:

• Spend heavily on a media buy, but use so-so stock images and design that send the viewer packing after one look.
• Spend millions on a new building and cheap out on photography. A top-drawer architectural photographer will bring a wow to your image that will pay off handsomely.
• Invest in new technology or services, then depict them on a visually inferior website.

It’s better to go with less in other areas than to settle for also-ran design.

Why Good Ideas Aren't Enough: A Message To Leaders

Most leaders can see a vision for their company that will help it thrive. But the next step is the hard one—how to get these critical ideas adopted—and executed?
 
Here are some tips:

1. Create a strategic communication plan that lists the key messages, how often and when they’ll be delivered, and who will be responsible for each.  It doesn’t have to be complicated—just clear and executable.
2. Deliver the vision of the destination before you go into the how. Paint a picture of how life will look after the idea has taken hold.
3. Use language employees understand. Corporate-speak adds weight that drags down a message, so if you struggle with this, have an outsider review it and point out places where this is occurring.
4. Make it personal. How will it impact them? What exactly should they do differently now?  What is their role in success?
5. Use the media they relate to. Is it a video on a mobile-friendly site? An e-letter? A forum? (And yes, you’ll need to use multiple ones.)
6. Engage the senses. Today’s employee is saturated by visually rich messages—so an overworked text-heavy power point isn’t going to have the impact you need. Great visuals are now essential. And to kick it up a notch, use video to bring motion, music and sound and dramatically increase the impact of your message.
7. Understand their world. Employees get too much information—but not enough inspiration. Connecting your ideas to their sense of purpose is the best way to inspire them.
8. Keep it short. Employees like their information in short, snackable formats that they can ingest quickly.
9. Repeat it. Yes, over and over and over. By the time you’re weary of saying it, it will just be gaining traction.
10. Listen. Communication is a two-way street. Employees should have some way of submitting questions and ideas that get answered. 

These tried-and-true strategies will absolutely help your ideas spread. What other tools are helping you get your ideas heard?

How Much Does a Video Cost?

This is akin to the question “how much will a house cost?” There are many variables—the location, size of the house, quality of construction, amenities. So the price range for videos, like houses, is big.
 
Different business needs call for different kinds of videos, and each of those have unique costs. Here are some things that will impact the cost of your video:

• What kind of video is it? Basic interviews with b-roll? Animation? Whiteboard? It’s much more time-consuming to create a whiteboard video, since it requires custom drawings, than an interview video. Animations add cost. Complex graphics add cost.

• How and where will it be shot? Flying a crew to the outback of Alaska will add cost—as will shoots that require more days.

• Does it require professional talent, like a narrator or custom music? Adding narration requires writing a script (not necessary for an interview video,) researching, auditioning and recording the voice talent. Adding custom music requires composition and production of the song to fit your piece exactly. Both of these add cost.

• How much creative effort is involved? The creativity that goes into a Super Bowl ad isn’t the same level of creativity required for a CEO’s video update.

• What level of post-production is required? The possibilities here are almost unlimited, but most of them add cost.

• What kind of talent and equipment is needed? A simple concept can be executed by a freelancer with a camera and basic editing skills. Add complexity, and you need more equipment (lights, cameras, software) and talent to pull it off.

• What other services are needed? Do you need help developing your brand story before you produce the video? Do you need help ensuring that your video gets seen? Do you need a company that understands the unique aspects of your industry? All of these require broader talent than video production, and can add cost.

So does your house have granite counters and a swimming pool? Or is it a tiny house in your grandma’s back acre? The range of costs is so big, it’s impossible to quote either a house or a video price without knowing the goals, what you want to achieve and your resources (time and money).  But a good video vendor can not only help you decide how video can advance your business goals, but work within your budget to give you those answers—once the parameters are outlined.

Six Ways to Know if Your Graphic Standards Are Working or Holding You Back

Graphic standards are designed to create visual cohesiveness for your brand. But their  usefulness can vary widely depending on how old they are, how robust they are and how they have responded to changes in your world.
 
Here are six  questions to ask to see if your graphic standards are still serving you well—or need an update.
 
Is the logo practical?
Does it perform on a lapel pin and on the Web as well as it does on an outdoor board? In color or black and white?  Professional designers test their recommendations in these venues before making them, yet we still find logos out there that are difficult to deploy in different applications.
 
Is the logo footprint unwieldy?
Square, round or odd-shaped logos often get problematic because their footprint doesn’t integrate well into an application. A discrete, contained footprint is often the most practical one for a logo.
 
Do you have enough font options?
Different applications require different types of fonts. Fonts that work well on an outdoor board aren’t always the same ones that work well on the Web. So be sure you have enough font options for all of your applications.
 
Is there a standard font included for the non-designer?
Hundreds or thousands of people in your company will be trying to work with these standards from the comfort of their own laptops and desktop computers, all armed with the standard fonts that come with their computers. You should have at least one of these standard fonts as an option in your recommended fonts—or it could end up being very costly to purchase specialty fonts for every user.
 
Do you find yourself struggling with the colors?
Maybe the palette doesn’t translate well to Web applications. Or you find there isn’t enough contrast in the colors to provide readable print or outdoor creative. Or there aren’t enough colors to serve your needs. Or perhaps the colors are starting to feel dated. Colors do go out of style, particularly those that aren’t classic colors, so if yours aren’t looking fresh, add some new ones.
 
Can your logo be built in four-color vs. adding Pantone spot colors?
A logo that requires Pantone spot color can add cost, because it requires adding another ink to a four-color process. Designing one that can be built using four-color process can save you printing costs.
 
If these are problems, you can update your standards—you don’t have to completely recreate them to keep them useful. Add colors, fonts and applications as you see the need.  While it’s important to have consistency across a brand, brands migrate visually with time and this isn’t necessarily bad.  Remember that while it’s important to preserve consistency, it is ultimately as important that your visual brand works for you. Tweaking it as your business needs change should be expected.
 
What problems are you having with your graphic standards that could be improved with a little tweaking?

10 Guidelines for Naming Your Business

Naming your new product, service or business is about so much more than whether you like the name. Each word in the name carries with it meanings—some of which are pervasive and others which are nuanced.

Here are 10 guidelines we use when working with clients looking for a name:

1. In most cases, names that make it immediately clear what the business is will help your prospective customers engage sooner. If I’m looking for a florist and words like “flowers” or “florist” are in the name, I immediately see that this is the kind of business I’m searching for. There are exceptions, of course, but we know that when the brain spots a word it recognizes, the process of searching is made easier.

2. The name should be distinctive and memorable.

3. The name should import or evoke the desired brand attributes. If your business is competing in and industry known for fun, for example, then the name needs to evoke that.

4. Take into consideration what its acronym spells (in any language).

5. The name should be easy to pronounce, as sometimes it will be only heard and not seen (think audio-only ads).

6. The name should both sound good and look good visually on an ad, billboard, website or in a logo.

7. Check domain name availability and buy it quickly once you have consulted your legal counsel. And here’s a word of caution. Some domain sites actually buy-up names you search for as part of their business strategy, so you can look up their availability one day and later come back to find it is no longer available—except if you want to pay the higher price they’ve now attached to it.

8. If it’s a made-up word—like OptiTru or XyPhil—you’ll need the budget to teach the public what it means. Made-up names don’t signal any reference point in the reader’s brain. This can be good, if you want to create the brand from ground up—but bad if you don’t have a lot of money to spend.

9. If there will be multiple locations, make the name flexible to accommodate those.

10. If it’s a sub-brand, think through the implications of its relationship—visually and otherwise—to the master brand.

The Overlooked Sign: Increase Your Business With Better Signage

We designed a window graphic for this medical group in Colorado in an effort help differentiate it from its retail neighbors—and promote the clinic. Walk-in business increased by 333% the first two months, and those who set up appointments because they saw the sign while driving by went up by 380%.

If you’re spending money on media buys but not looking at how well your own signage is working, maybe it’s time to take a second look. It could be your most effective—and least expensive—ad ever.