Ideas for profitable
communication
by Baruch ter Wal
You look good in that
May 16th, 2011
I reckon it’s useful to think of your design agency as if they were your personal tailor.
Your tailor knows that some of your ideas aren’t going to work. She’s seen them tried before, and saw the outcomes. She also has box full of tricks to accentuate your positives and…well you know the rest. Their independent outlook on these things is useful. No matter how good your own dress sense, you only see yourself in the mirror, and never get to see yourself for the first time.
Lesson 1: Trust your designer. Sometimes you’re so familiar with your business that you just can’t see it as your customers and partners will.
On the other hand, you’re the best person to decide if you feel good in your clothes. If you’re going to feel tense, or not yourself, then you won’t make a good impression – no matter how good you look in the tailor’s studio. Furthermore, your tailor’s got a good knowledge of what people are wearing at many events – but you may actually know more than she does about how to dress appropriately for certain functions. Sometimes what is cool and what makes you look like a dick is quite specific to a given community.
Lesson 2: Trust yourself. Sometimes your gut feel trumps your designer’s.
The two lessons can come into conflict. When they do, the most important thing is courage. Don’t go with the designer’s expert opinion just to avoid responsibility. But don’t use your gut feel as a trump card to avoid changes that you know (deep down in places that you don’t like to talk about on Facebook) are needed.
The guy in the eye patch
October 1st, 2010
My friend Perry says that in a competitive deal there are two winners: the guy who wins and the guy who pulls out early.
This puts a premium on uniqueness. If you stand out from the crowd, you up your chances of winning (if you have a fit with the customer) or losing fast (if you don’t have a fit).
Logos and your look and feel have a role to play in standing out. Unfortunately most businesses tee up the design process in such a way that you’re likely to blend in rather than stand out. You know the process. Under the guidance of your design or branding guru, your team goes to a vineyard to generate the ‘5 words’ that truly sum up your business (and you come back with 7).
But guess what. There are really only 9 words from which everyone is picking – including your competitors. The nine words are some variation of the following: Responsive, Smart, Friendly, Experienced, Innovative. Precise, New, Reliable, Fast. Well done if your team ever came up with a word that is not a synonym of one of these.
Now if everyone is picking from the same 9 words, and if these words are truly guiding the design process, then businesses in a given category are going to look remarkably similar.
Just talking about look and feel, here are some ways to stand out:
1. Focus on the ONE thing that is truly special about you as compared to your competitors, and convey that.
2. Have character. Let a personality shine through – as long as it is in sync with what makes you special.
3. Check out what colours or types of imagery are not being used in your space.
In the movies as in life: the guy in the eye patch is always smart or dumb, never middle of the road.
Your logo is not a diagram
September 24th, 2010
“Our product takes the chaos out of the client’s life – can you show that in the logo?”
Every 3 minutes, somewhere in the world, a designer is receiving that brief. I’ve had it half a dozen times in my career.
Taken literally, the result is awful. A big mess on the left that turns into something simple and symetrical on the right. Unfortunately, your friends will say it’s great. Don’t forget to test on real people.
If your value proposition is the creation of simplicity, having a whole lot of complexity in your logo will not serve you well.
Your logo is also not the perfect vehicle to convey 5-7 magical things that set your business apart. More on that next week.
