Brand Design Blog, News and Ideas

Where has the blog been lately you may be asking.

Well I’ve been spending all of my free time organising the move into our brand new offices at the Monash Enterprise Centre.

The Centre houses and number of other great business working on the growth of their business.

It’s a great environment to concentrate on business direction and goals which is what we been developing for the last few months.

With the current economic crisis looming it’s a very exciting time to be in business and the are plenty of opportunities to sink or raise to even greater heights.

We’ll be working hard to be in the later group.

So, finally for a little bit of house keeping.

Our address and phone details have changed, so please update them where necessary.

Address: Suite 30, Monash Enterprise Centre, 5A Hartnett Close, Mulgrave VIC 3170, Australia

Phone: 03 8562 2239 (that’s +613 8562 2239 for calls outside of Australia)

The postal address will stay the same so any mail can be sent to the existing address.

If you are ever in the area feel free to give me a call and drop in for a chat.

I’ll hopefully be back on board with more regular updates as I drive this business to it’s next levels.

Speak to you soon.

Following some criticism regarding the ‘Fat Nano’, released last year - Apple has made a return to form with the new Nano for 2008.

While the ‘Fat Nano’s’ exterior was a departer from apples classic streamlined look, it does have some amazing features which have been included in the newer version.

One such feature is the two inch liquid crystal video display which can now be watched in landscape or portrait formats.

The addition of apple’s accelerometer technology, now making it all possible.

The Nano now has more colour options, which is nice, as is the even slimmer form factor.

It will be interesting to see how the new curved screen effects sun glare, but reports so far have sai that the viewing experience hasn’t been damaged by this introduction.

All in all, the new Nano design is a return to what makes the ipod great.

It’s unfortunate that this new version of the device wasn’t last years release, as many people who bought the 2007 Nano won’t upgrade simply due to the exterior design change.

What do you think?

Click the image above to see the latest advertisement for Nintendo’s ‘Wario Shake it”.

Make sure to watch more than just the first few seconds.

You’ll begin to see how you can use popular online media such as YouTube but take your ideas about online marketing to a whole new level.

Let me know what you think.

Over the last few years, the Console and PC Gaming industry has become big business.

With PC gaming alone, making over $10.7 Billion in revenue for 2007.

While those playing Computer Games on a regular basis have been watching this trend rise for some time, the world at large is starting to pay attention with Brand names such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo and World of Warcraft hitting prime time news this year.

With the increase in revenue, there has been an increase in spending in the marketing space.

Companies such as Blizzard (World of Warcraft) has been spending time and money on amazing trailers and pre-promotion for some time - but with their success (over 9.3 million payed subscribers last year), other game creators are starting to see the light.

The up coming ‘Rock Band 2″ is one such example. A game intro and promotion definitely worth watching (Not your average commercial).

The Computer Game industry is starting to take it’s strides up along side the Movie industry in revenue and the audience is growing so it’s certainly worth keeping your eyes on.

You can view the Rock Band intro here.

I’d love to read your thoughts about the trailer or your impressions of the gaming industry as it is today and in the future, so feel free to leave a comment.

Here’s a cute little video that helps to remind us that doing everything on our own can often feel like bashing your head against a brick wall.

Don’t forget to ask for or employ help to get the job done much faster.

You can check out the great little video at youtube.com.

As the post on toxel.com shows - logo design does not need to be complicated to be effective.

You can see all the logos here.

In fact I would suggest that if you look at the majority of high profile brands their logos are actually quite simple.

That doesn’t mean that no effort needs to be applied to the design. In fact, it often takes more effort to remove the unnecessary elements of a design to find the core design that will be the most effective option.

Simplicity, also allows a logo to be positioned easily on promotions and printed cost effectively.

Check out the full range of high profile logos here.

Business cards are a great way for clients and customers to receive your contact details, as they usually accompany a face to face meeting.

Unfortunately, because everybody has a business card, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd.

So having a business card that grabs people’s attention and makes an impact is one of the most useful marketing tools you can have at your disposal.

Check out this list of creative and inspirational business cards over at Toxel.com.

How does your business card stand up against the competition?

Trades people, including builders, carpenters, plumbers and electricians are finding that the online space is really where advertising dollars are needing to be spent to get results.

We’ve seen some great results from customer website, including $480,000+ client work coming directly through search engines and websites.We’ve just completed work on a new project for Glenrich Builders, a Building and Construction Company in the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne.

Glenrich builders specialise in New Homes, Renovation and Extensions and the task here was to get that message across through the use of text that would later be indexed by Google Search Engines. We we’re also required to include all content from the existing site while rebranding the look for their new corporate identity.

The new site design, copywriting and back end structure should lead to some profitable results for the year ahead.

If you’re a trades person looking for a web solution including online advertising, web design and search engine optimisation, give us a call to discuss the possibilities.

Do you love spending hours playing with new and unusual fonts and type faces?

Well here’s a bit of fun for all you design geeks.

Click here to watch the video

What’s the personality of your favourite font?

Designers and their clients often have trouble seeing eye to eye.

Why is that?

Because designers are pretentious, elitist, know it alls?  Well some are…but no.

Is it because business people are paying, so what they says goes…again, somtimes - but mostly, this is not the case.

The problem is that both parties are looking at the problem from different points of view.

So what is the solution?

The solution needs to come from the designers side. When explaining design decisions, a graphic or web designer needs to put on their business hat and see the project through the eyes of their client.

If you are a designer, you need to explain your design decisions from a practical stand point.

“I did it that way because it looks good” - isn’t a good answer.

‘I designed it that way, because the style I’m using is currently reflected in our target markets popular culture (state examples). Your potential customers will be drawn to this style because of these examples, which should help increase sales” - this is an answer that a client can understand.

When you are designing, make sure to always have client problems and objectives in mind, so that when asked you can explain your design choices in a way that means something to their business.

If you’re employing a designer and the same issues crop up, make sure to take a deep breathe and ask the question - how is that going to help my business.

It will save both designers and clients a lot of time and frustration, while giving design work more potential to do what it was intended for.

You’ll appreciate how it will lead to a happy working relationship going forward.

So remember, two hats. One for your design flare and one for your business brain.