Noisy Decent Graphics

The Post It post

Had the Post It note meeting this morning. It went well.

We had about 26 Post It's in all. We'd drew a life size, black and white grid of the Post It notes (about A1). Numbered the grid and the Post It notes. In the meeting we stuck the grid to the wall and as we explained the idea to the client, we stuck the Post It notes on the grid - almost as it happened in the original brainstorm. Except we stuck the Post It's to the wall not to a grid. Obviously.

The client loved the idea and they loved the presentation. There were a few shocked faces when I explained what we were going to do, but they soon got the hang of it.

I really enjoyed it. It was quicker, more immediate, more passionate and I think it got the idea across more efficently.

I'm going to do it again.

The bank that likes to say wise things

I heard a talk by the Chairman of Lloyds Bank the other day.

He said there are only 3 ways to for a business to make more money.

1. Charge more.

2. Cut costs.

3. Sell more.

And that was it.

He said that whenever someone comes to him with a proposal, he listens to their pitch and then he asks them which category their idea comes under. Will it enable him to sell more? Charge more? Cut costs? If the proposal doesn't fit into any of these he shows them the door.

Simple isn't it?

(I need some grey hair.)

NoOne, SomeOne

NoOne have split from their parent company (United London) and renamed themselves SomeOne.

Wow look at that, I never thought I'd get 3 Ridiculous Company Names in one post.

Innocent King

Way back in August 2005 I wrote these wise words.

"At the moment every start-up that approaches us for an identity says without fail, "We want to be like Innocent Drinks". I don't mean a few, or most, but all of them.

Now that's fine. I like Innocent a lot. I like the drinks, I like the people, I like their offices (I've been there) and I like the branding. But everyone can't be like Innocent. HSBC can't be like Innocent. BA can't be like Innocent. Tesco's can't be like Innocent.

Don't get me wrong, starting a company and aiming to be like innocent Drinks is no bad thing. It's just that when people say "We want to be like Innocent Drinks" what they really mean is "We want fantastic, consistent, witty, clever branding. You know like Innocent." Which is a different thing entirely."

Now take a look at these from Burger King.

Remind you of Innocent don't they?

I can't decide if I like them or not.

I like the fact they've tried to do something different. I like the one written backwards. I like the font and I quite like the boxy-ness but it's not brilliant.

I don't like the copy. It's alright, but it doesn't hit home like Innocent does. It doesn't touch a nerve, it doesn't reach that bit that makes you think "Oh yeah, I was thinking that". It feels to average. Too OK.

So do I like it or not? Probably not I guess. What do you think?

More good stuff from MIT

Here's another great article from MIT. This time it's about, err, different types of wrapping paper.

Check out this one for wrapping meat.

Clever isn't it? Unlike this post which is pretty lazy writing. Sorry about that, I'm sure you can read MIT Advertising Lab on your own.

Union Design

These are some of the original designs for the Union Jack/Union Flag. It's taken from an absolutely fascinating article on the BBC News website.

(As a little aside, you can't imagine this article on the ITV News website can you? I love the Beeb.)

"Throw someone a stick and they can be relied upon to get hold of the wrong end of it"

Actually said by Andrew Gimson about Michael Portillo in The Telegraph, but I'm gonna use it to describe the designer / client process.

Staff night out

Lucky Voice Karaoke in Soho, London. The identity and the graphics are all fantastic. The website is gorgeous (and it's all done in Flash and normally I hate Flash).

And quite right too.

From Piccadilly to the Design Museum

I walked from Piccadilly to the Design Museum today. No particular reason, I just had some rare time to kill and the sun was shining. I took some pictures along the way and I thought I'd share them with you.

Isn't that sign great? Less noise please.

And that chalk drawing of Tower Bridge is brilliant. Ken should sponsor a chalk drawing campaign across London.

"Hard work never killed a man."

I believe in the Scottish proverb: "Hard work never killed a man." Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work.

David Ogilvy

"Eighty percent of success is showing up"

Woody Allen.

I was at a presentation the other day. A big, corporate presentation. This particular company has offices all around the world. The Head of the Interior Design department was showing us the work that had been carried out last year.

She came to one stunning project, completed in Europe. She told us it was her favourite of the last year. When asked for the best thing about the project she replied, "You know what? It was great because they just did it."

Remember that people, it's all about the doing.

"I'm not made of time"

This is unattributable, but I really like it.

I suppose the answer is to manage your time better, or just say no but failing that this expression is a winner.

Post about posts

Witty, sexy, immediate, instant, clear communication - pure genius.

Risky? Stupid? Or a brave new way of presenting?

We spent yesterday thinking up some ideas for a client. The project has a very open brief and we're breaking new ground with the solution.

Whilst we were thinking of the ideas, we jotted them down on to Post It notes and stuck them to the wall. We do this a lot. When we were satisfied we had a decent idea we had a discussion about how we present this idea to the client.

We could mock up some visuals. We could sketch it all out. We could, but we'd lose something. We'd lose the energy, we'd lose the passion we had in the meeting. Inevitably in getting the energy from Post It note to computer printer we'd compress the idea. Little sparks of thought would get lost. And it would look too neat, too false.

So we're going to show the client all the Post It notes.

We're going to take a big sheet of paper (to recreate the wall) and stick the Post It notes to them as we did when we came up with the idea. Is it too risky? It might backfire on us. The meeting is on Tuesday (maybe Thursday) so I'll let you know how I get on.

Things I never want to do

Things I never want to do, but I get asked all the time.

1. I never want to check my balance.

2. I never want a receipt with my cash.

3. I never want to export my clipboard.

4. I never want black pepper.

5. I never want to see your candidates.

"I've heard the printer's broken, so I'm not coming in"

They could have remembered to put the apostrophe in.

MBWA* - Canary Wharf

Obviously I was at Canary wharf on Monday, and whilst there I saw some interesting stuff. This post and the next post are about that.

This is a travel agent called Escape. Isn't it nice when people try and do something different. Genuinely different. I love the look of this shop, it's so much better than other travel agents. That world map (at the back) is lovely.

This 3D sign is gorgeous. They've spent a bit more money on this and it shows, it looks great.

This is the wall of brochures that all travel agents have, but slightly different. Nice isn't it? I hope they don't go bust.

* MBWA = Management By Walking Around

Barclays makes me change my mind

Have you seen the recent Barclays ads? The ones that end with the strapline "Now there's an idea".

There's been a little controversy about them this week and that coincides nicely with a change in my feelings about the work. When I first saw the ads I liked them. They had a little humour and they didn't go for some of the ridiculous big philosophical themes that banking ads normally use.

Media wise Canary Wharf tube station has been invaded by this campaign. No harm in that, it makes a big splash and seeing as their HQ is in Canary Wharf that seems like a good idea. So far so good.

A friend of mine who's big in the banking world has been telling me for ages that the senior staff at Barclays hate those ads, that they're patronising and too wishy washy for a bank. I dismissed his view, because he is a banking expert not an advertising expert.

Yesterday I was in Canary Wharf and I saw this ad.

Look a little closer at the headline.

"Barclays Magicians. Perform vanishing acts when it's their round, but never fail to pull a good idea out of the hat."

There is so much wrong with that headline I don't know where to start. We'll leave aside the fact that

"Perform vanishing acts when it's their round, but never fail to pull a good idea out of the hat."

isn't a very good sentence and we'll think about what it means. What sort of company wants to tell the world that their employees don't stand their round? Especially in the country that invented the pub and especially in the industry where drinking and bravado is a big part of the culture. The writer is trying too pull off a double pun that simply doesn't work. A case of one execution too many.

Look at this one.

Barclays Creatives. That "Barclays" should have an apostrophe after it, as should "Barclays Magicians". I'm a designer and I can spot that, so to a writer that should stand out a mile. What are Barclays' Creatives? Do they employ an in house creative team? Of course not, I can see what they're trying to imply but it doesn't work. In fact the whole campaign is starting to look a little over worked and tired. How did my mate put it? Patronising and wishy washy?

At the start of this post I mentioned "a little controversy" . Last week in Marketing magazine former Barclaycard marketer Mike Hoban slagged off the campaign for being "juvenile" and "insulting to staff". The ads were also derided at The Marketing Society's Money Forum.

Seems like my mate was right and I was wrong. I'd better buy him a drink.

MIT Advertising Lab

I've always loved MIT.

Can't justify that really, except for the fact they've got a great name, a cool abbreviation and they've earned all that respect (Pentagram worked on some of their digital stuff - that would have helped.)

I've been drawn to this post about rethinking print advertising. If you're a graphic designer you'll drool over this but the whole website is really interesting, take a look.

"If you're interested in learning nothing will ever be boring"

Whilst at University I won an award. Through that I got to travel down to the DTI and present my idea to 30 industrialists and "fast trackers".

On the journey back my lecturer told me that if you're interested in learning nothing will ever be boring. I loved that, and it's stuck with me ever since.

Never found out what a  "fast tracker" was though.