Frustrated about color? It’s complicated.

May 22nd, 2013

How Do I deal with Color?
Color is a surprisingly particular thing. It effects the way we judge different items and the feelings that we have when viewing them.

Color has a huge effect on branding, by creating moods and feelings that influence us. It can be your vital piece when setting your marketing’s tone and how your audience and market accepts your message.

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Its coming for you…

May 9th, 2013

outsourcing-graphic-design

It’s all around you, there’s no place to escape. It’s in the chair you’re sitting on and the pen you use. It’s in everything and its coming for you! You can’t run and you can’t hide because I’m a designer.

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How design can influence you to eat bugs!

May 9th, 2013

Eating Bugs

That’s right! You read the title correct. Ento is a new company, based in England, that is trying to convince people to start eating bugs. Insects provide nine times the amount of protein, eat alternative foods that we don’t, and take less land and energy to farm versus cattle.

Makes sense when you look at the logic behind it. But how on earth are they going to convince the public to use a cockroach as a salad topping at their next dinner party?

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The Power of Fonts

May 8th, 2013

The Psychology of Fonts
Everything around us influences how we think, from the color of the walls around you to the noises that seep through your window. However, there’s one thing that you’re probably not considering.

I bet you never considered why educational essays are in Times New Roman or why it is improper to use Comic Sans on a commercial billboard. Choosing what kind of font to use can be a deadly decision for a marketing company. It can mean the difference of a consumer buying your product or walking away…

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Customer Service: a Life Lesson

March 22nd, 2013

complaint jar

“Customer Service”, let me tell you about Big Charlies Gun and Jewelry.

A tough name for a really tough looking guy. He doesn’t have a website and he doesn’t seem to advertise but if you google him he seems to come up all over the place.

He’s a big scary guy who must bend the scales at over 300lbs and wears twin shoulder holstered .45′s.

He has a burly gray beard and wears a jewelers visor and jewelers glasses cocked in the up position. They are the kind that look a little like military night scopes — only something more steam punk retro from the 40′s.

Befittingly, He sells and fixes guns and jewelry. Yea I see the relationship. I guess if you have a lot of jewelry you might want a gun too.

When you first arrive at his store, you’re faced with and must traverse through a series of security obstacles that make you doubt the reason that you’re there in the first place.

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Make Yourself Easy to Contact!! (A Rant)

March 21st, 2013

How to save money with your graphic designer
When I first started in business most businesses had one phone and a person to answer it. Somehow you seemed to always be able to reach someone and talk to them.

Technology and population have advanced since those old days. Everyone seems to have an office number, a fax number a cell phone number, and an email address.

Though our technology has made us more connected, it seems that it conversely made us harder to reach.

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How to save money with your graphic designer

March 19th, 2013

How to save money with your graphic designer
Ok, so you want a brochure, ad, package, website, billboard or TV commercial…
Whatever and whenever you need something designed, you need a plan.

Let’s say you want to do a design brochure for your company. Think of it as a puzzle. You have to determine the size and the elements that will have to go into it. Your best place to start is the copy.

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Slogans are meaningless and usually sound crazy – This article has a game inside! *Must read!*

March 8th, 2013

 
just-do-it-1

Trip Wire Magazine compiled a list of company slogans that they think are “catchy and creative.”

Having read the list, I’ve concluded that slogans are usually empty statements that need to be supplemented with a good product, interesting advertising, et al..

If read or heard in a vacuum, slogans seem like words uttered by a paranoid schizophrenic.

Let’s play a game: Read all of the following slogans consecutively. This will allow you to empathize with crazy people.

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The Guide to Going Viral – Advice from Jonah Berger

March 7th, 2013

 Contagious

Thanks to Fast Company for releasing this exclusive excerpt from Jonah Berger’s latest book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. These are six easy-to-learn, easy-to-share ways for your business to earn the audience that it needs to thrive.

6 “STEPS” To Making Ideas, Products Go Viral

“Contagious products and ideas are like forest fires,” Jonah Berger writes. “They can’t happen without hundreds, if not thousands, of regular Joes and Janes passing the product or message along.” Here are the qualities he says make things sharable (this excerpt series covers the first ‘S’).

  • Social Currency: We share things that make us look good (even if that means pictures of our cat).
  • Triggers: Easily memorable information means it’s top of mind and tip of the tongue.
  • Emotion: When we care, we share.
  • Public: Built to show, built to grow.
  • Practical Value: News people can use.
  • Stories: People are inherent storytellers, and all great brands also learn to tell stories. Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.

Image Source: Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

From Abstract to Concrete: The Boston Celtics’ Logo

March 6th, 2013

CelticsLogo_History

If someone came to me and said, “Welp, I need you to design a logo of an Irish guy for a basketball team called The Celtics,” then I’d probably over-think the whole image.

Shoes with buckles? C’mon. A pipe? What about how kids perceive the logo?

Luckily Red Auerbach, the hall-of-fame Celtics coach who led the team to nine championships,  commissioned his brother Zang to whip up a leprechaun who’ll play you one-on-one for his pot of gold.

The character even comes fashioned with a shillelagh, which is an Irish cane used to beat other leprechauns bunny foo foo-style.

(Editor’s note: A shillelagh is just a cane.)

Zang Aurebach concocted a transcendently iconic logo that will never be divorced from the basketball team hailing from Boston.

Say, would you like a transcendently iconic logo? You would?? Then go ahead and call Cimetta Design at 954.680.4584.

And when you call, ask for Cindy’s pot of gold to receive a free quote!

Image Source: Irish Dude.