by Micah Smith on April 10, 2012
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Your brand is not your logo. And when sales are down, a new logo isn’t going to trigger a flood of new customers. Instead, that’s up to you and the quality of the products or services you deliver.
But that doesn’t mean that logos are worthless. In fact, they’re incredibly important. Logos are a visual trigger consumers can use to quickly and reliably identify a product, so when it’s time to refresh a logo to keep it current, it’s a challenging balance of maintenance and innovation. The secret is subtlety.
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by Micah Smith on March 6, 2012
Recently, Inc.com posted a story on the huge opportunity retailers have to drive business through online shops. The story argues that in order to embrace all the newly available ecommerce possibilities, retailers need to consider investing in a quality, custom design. As author Jon Gelberg puts it:
“Here’s the thing about cheap, template-driven websites: They look like every other cheap website out there. And that cheapens your brand. It makes you look like you don’t take your marketing and messaging seriously.”
It’s easy to fall into the trap of a good bargain with cheap, template-driven websites, but in determining the best way to promote your brand, you have to weigh the benefit vs. the cost. Standard websites might meet an immediate need, but they won’t “wow” customers and they won’t grow with your business.
And in today’s marketplace, a quality website is a necessary tool for expanding your brand.
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by Micah Smith on January 4, 2012
Throughout my high school and college years, my moneymaking job of choice was working at preschools. I loved it mainly because of the raw honesty and creativity of a three year old. No concern for social norms, just pure imagination. Something about the best ways to act and not act are clearer when being played out by children. I honestly think everyone should spend a stint of his or her life working with kids and soaking this in.
This weekend I was hanging out with my nephew, Lane, and playing with stickers. Lane likes stickers. I’m pretty sure that’s a requirement for three year olds. As always, there was a lesson in there, and it comes in the form of a quote by Arthur William Radford: “Half of art is knowing when to stop.”
This is not a concept Lane grasps. I refrained from making comments like, “Aesthetically, that’s not a great position for that one,” and “You’ve already put ten cars on this page, one of top of the other. Maybe a traffic cone would be nice.”
Because guess what? No disrespect to Lane or anything, but more isn’t always better. In fact, more is rarely better. On a logo, a website, a brochure, a vision, and tons of other things, more doesn’t mean better. More means confusing.
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