Revolt-ing

Go on then lets do it; Let's say 'it's revolution not evolution.' (I hate tired old marketing terms more than Ikea even if you do turn them on their heads.)

Right, well we've got that out of the way but come on let's really go for it. If you want to stand out, if you want to be seen as different and if you want to take the lead then you are going to have to revolt. You are going to have to say: screw everybody else I am better than them and the way I do it is the best. By god it takes guts to do that and you may find yourself stood alone but soon everyone else can see that because you have had the balls to stand alone and you have positioned yourself exactly how you want to, without any influence from your competitors. That this sets you miles in front of them.

Great design and great marketing comes from revolution and ultimately having the guts to believe so much in who you are that you will go out on a limb and revolt. So hats off to the revolutionaries and long may they find the courage to stand-alone.

It's great to stand alone when it gives you the time to watch everyone else catch up

shock photography

Most clients see it as an easy way to cut costs and some designers see it as an easy way to great imagery. The photo library!

They've been around for years and god bless 'em they've embraced the internet like it's some kind of saviour. So much so that now it's not just an easy option for designers, it's thier first point of call. Picture the scene. Monday morning in your typical design studio. The Creative Director gathers his troops to announce that there is a new brief to be worked on and some poor sod has been told to trawl through the online photo libraries to look for suitable images. What the hell does that Creative Director think he's gonna get? Well I can tell you. He'll end up with a pile of sterile images that fall far short of what he wants to communicate, a bunch of bland shots that will never effectively communicate a brand because of their overall state of nothingness. But what the hell, he'll go with them anyway.

Stock photography is the paint by numbers of the design world. When you log on to their website it's like passing through those spinning yellow, urine coloured doors of Ikea. You leave your imagination behind. They will try and dress it up as the cutting edge of creativity and the place to buy (as will the photo libraries), but mass appeal does not equate to good design. It's just plain lazy. The right images require the input of the designer and the client to develop something that is unique, and when this is done successfully you have an image that not only is right but it embraces your brand without a hint of ambiguity. I know that this takes a little extra time and money but it's time and money well spent and it will, without question focus your brand to where you want it to be.

So look at it like this: Stock photography is the Ikea of branding. They might sell hot dogs but boy do they give you indigestion.

we know the marketing that goes

'We know the colours that go.'
What a statement. 'We know.' Not we will suggest or recommend but 'we know.' No messing, no flannel. We have positioned ourselves as the experts and everybody else really can't question our understanding. It's a standard marketing ploy to position yourself as an expert and hats off to Dulux as they have done this so well and have a great campaign to back up this statement. So much so that I bet their colour charts have become the dog eared bibles of home decorating across the country. Designers may stick they collective necks out to say that tonally some of the matches could be better or that some of the colours that 'don't go' could with a little tweaking, but the success of the campaign means that they would be questioning the new colour experts. Modern marketing done well and backed up by a great advertising campaign. Dulux say they know the colours that go and if they have the balls to say that who are we to question?

london olympic logo

Oh what the hell, everyone else has chucked in their ten pence worth so why shouldn't I?

Right let's try and look at this from a designer's point of view. I would love to say it makes a bold forward looking statement for London and its hosting of the Olympic games. I would love to disagree with the general public and state that it's a fantastic piece of design that in years to come will be held up as a real modern design classic, but I can't. To be frank it stinks. But I think more importantly it points out how big agencies with 'credibility' can produce inadequate design and 'up sell' it.

When I first saw this logo I was in a presentation and my gut reaction was 'hey let's give it time.' But then I went back and took another look at it and if I'm being really honest, if any of my designers came to me with this I would be very disappointed. I understand that it's supposed to represent '2012' in it's form but it looks so angular it produces a feeling of uneasiness. I read that the inspiration was from graffiti - oh God old designers trying to be trendy, it's worse than your dad dancing to the Arctic Monkeys at your cousin's wedding. But to me the biggest gaff is the typography. Bottom line is that the type is too small within the logo. This device will have to be produced on every kind of merchandising that the marketeers can think of, from caps to crap pens and it just wont work. It fails on so many levels of communication. Just yet another case of the emperor's new clothes and I'm so sad to say that designers seem to do that so well.

cut the class

Lifestyle....We've all heard the term and boy do agencies love to band it about, like it's something they came up with. I once fell into this trap during a presentation and stated that my client should use 'lifestyle' images. I was then asked: 'What is lifestyle?' I really couldn't answer. I also doubt that other agencies could have come up with a suitable answer. It's become a buzz word that really doesn't reflect the true meaning of the word. Lifestyle could be anything! Whos lifestyle? I like to read poetry when I'm drunk. That's part of my lifestyle. I sit in my garden and punish myself for the weeds that seem to be taking over. That's part of my lifestyle. So what does this awful word really mean?

Creatives would tell you that it's aspirational and that it illustrates what people want out of life. Bit general! I want a new guitar and motivation to dig up my weeds. Is that lifestyle? NO. Lifestyle has become the new class. Personally I hate the word 'lifestyle' almost as much as the word 'class' but pigeonholing is what marketeers do best, so if we have to embrace marketing and their sickly tags then we must try and understand that now, living in an environment of 'you can get what you want if you have the drive' a class system is out dated and so 'lifestyle' takes over. That's all it is. An adaptation of class to fit in with modern living.

So if ever you are told that you need to appeal to lifestyle do me and yourself one favour. Ask who's lifestyle and watch them squirm.

create problems, not solutions

So you've gone to your design agency and said something along the lines of: 'I need a leaflet, you know one of those A4 folded ones.' So off they pop, do there stuff and produce just what you wanted.

But here both you and the agency have fallen into a simple trap. You have given them what you think is the best solution to you, and the agency have been happy to get some work in, however dull because hey, at the end of the day it's work.

If you want to get the best from a design agency don't give them solutions, give them problems. Tell them you need to promote your company, tell them you want to raise your company profile, tell them you need to sell more products then let them create something wonderful for you. Most agencies would love to be challenged and have the opportunity to exercise their minds to create some wonderful and hopefully surprising solutions for you.

So pass on your problems, sit back and enjoy the solutions.

you got mail

Did you see our mailer? This was produced at the start of the year as part of an introductory campaign for nothing does. If you would like to receive a copy of this mailer then please email us at dosomething@nothingdoes.co.uk

what do you say?

We are all guilty of this, we spend so much time focusing on what we do we forget to think about what we say. I'm not talking about how we answer the phone here but what we say visually to our clients and customers. Your identity speaks volumes about who you are, what you do and who you do it for, even before you have had a chance to open your mouth, introduce yourself and deliver your well rehearsed pitch.

It's highly unlikely that when you meet a potential new customer that nothing visual is presented to them, even if it's just a business card. They even may have had brochures or catalogues prior to the meeting and they are even more likely to have had a good poke around your website. After just a quick glance at any of this material their mind has been made up. The customer now has in his head thoughts about your company, it's services and most importantly your quality, and chances are, if he now wants to use your services/products.

But the vital thing here is that none of this is out of your control. You can communicate your business effectively and quickly if you are prepared to invest a little time is finding out just what you want to say. It is then reasonably straight forward to bring all your visual communications in line with this! It's not alchemy of any kind as some design agencies might imply (they do this so they feel exalted), like most marketing, it's common sense!

So give it a go. Does your identity say who you are, what you do, who you do it for and for how much?