Some time back, my friend Karla Humphrey told me about her experience volunteering for a small town historical society and museum in Johnstown, Colorado. The museum, located down the street in her neighborhood, occupies a striking Arts and Crafts bungalow built in 1914 by town founders Harvey and Mary Parish—it is known as the “Parish […]
branding
What do you think of the branding for the 2020 presidential campaigns?
Politics aside—what do you think of the branding? These are, to me, decidedly uninspiring. It would seem (and I claim no expertise with this category of marketing) that this election and the contrast of views requires candidates that are willing to something different. These designs, in large part, appear to be designed by people who […]
The Southern Company’s logo is what branding is all about…
I stopped at an intersection recently and spotted a white pickup truck with a Virginia Natural Gas logo. I was particularly impressed by the story the logo tells, and how simple and clean it looks. After a little research, I discovered that the branding consultancy Lippincott created the logo as part of an identity strategy […]
A wonderful resource for restaurant branding and design
Grits and Grids is a blog created by restaurant branding firm Vigor. As is so often the case, the highest quality coverage of a subject comes from people with a passion for the subject—the site is curated by Joseph Szala, Vigor’s owner. As they tell it, “It started as a means to build inspiration and […]
BBDO employs some gutsy, perhaps crazy advertising and it pays off
In magic, misdirection is defined as the act of focusing the attention of the audience on one thing in order to distract its attention to another thing. Advertising giant BBDO used a little brand misdirection recently for their client JCDecaux–a company that sells (among other things) outdoor advertising space. The problem is JCDecaux’s customers were […]
Questioning the thinking behind an advertising campaign
This article from The Atlantic offers an interesting, in depth look at an ad campaign for Panera, the bakery-café restaurant chain. It discusses the esoteric nature of its branding. This too is a great example of how different branding a corporation with a big ad budget is from marketing a small business. If you’ve got […]