the x factor

There was a bit of a buzz in the studio on Monday morning, after one of our clients - Aerobility, who we've talked about before here - featured on Sunday evening's X Factor. Click here to watch the clip on Aerobility's blog.

post secret

Last night I went to the RCA's annual Secret Postcard exhibition. I've heard of it before, but never been, and really enjoyed it. The thing is that a whole load of artists - from famous ones to students - are given a standard issue blank postcard to do what they like with/on, then the cards are sold anonymously for £45 each, and only once you've bought it do you find out who the artist behind it is. You can find out more here. And here are some of my favourites (I seem to go for the prettier ones, but there really is something for everyone there)...

Bess

cake porn

A top tip from Nik for next time you're out and about in Soho. Swing by Brewer Street and treat yourself to something sweet from Cox Cookies & Cakes. It's a new "bakery" by the shoe designer Patrick Cox. "When I first heard he was doing it, I just thought he'd be jumping on the cupcake bandwagon, but when I stumbled across the shop, I was pleasantly surprised. Imagine a black, neon sex shop staffed by preposterously handsome young men in studded leather aprons selling nothing more than innocent little cakes and the like. It's quite amazing, and just shows you don't have to be girly to do sweet..."

sweet charity

Would you visit your bank manager for a loan wearing a tracksuit? (writes Julia)

Its probably an outdated question given that nobody even has a bank manager these days (and banks aren't handling out loans that easily either)! However, the relevance of the question refers to a conundrum facing a client of ours recently. They are a small, ambitious, driven and extremely needy charity. Through a timely set of circumstances, we offered our services pro bono to develop their identity and presence. This was largely in response to the usual charity objectives: to increase membership, sponsorship and awareness in a very busy and competitive market.

In much of our other work with a diverse range of corporate and FMCG clients, we help develop brands with similar objectives in mind. However, never in my experience with these clients have I heard concern in the form of the question I was asked by the charity's CEO:

"Now we look so great, will we be perceived as less needy and therefore not achieve our objectives?"

Slightly taken aback - after month of hard work to get to this point - I thought that maybe he was right. After all he is the CEO of the charity and has a lot more experience in the industry than we could ever claim. Had we overlooked a fundamental aspect of the challenge of working with a charity?

But, after some thought, I decided that we were absolutely right in our approach. Charity or not, there can only be a positive outcome from a brand being assured of its place in the market. Possession of a clear set of values, a distinctive personality and a unique and relevant position can only be a positive. And presenting this in a consistent manner across all touchpoints with consumers can surely only build awareness?

Anyone investing money or time in an organisation - charitable or not - could only be reassured by the fact that these resources aren't being wasted on inconsistent sales material, recreating the wheel every time a quarterly newsletter has to be sent out.

Creating a brand model, templates and guidelines that offer consistency yet allow flexibility for creative interpretation is the key - every time. After all, why do businessmen wear suits to meetings, and why did women wear short skirts to visit the bank manager (in the old days)? Because it was the template for success.

So, having been reassured of all this, was our charity client rewarded with a positive result? Launched at the 2010 Farnborough Air Show, it's too early for quantitative results, but the new identity has brought fresh energy to the team of volunteers running the charity, a consistent look and feel across web, print and all other media, and an increased drive to get out there and spread the word. Their Air Show stand was one of the most-visited, and the team are still following up on all the leads received, a much greater percentage of which seem to be leading somewhere than in previous years.

However, I can't say it's all down to the fresh look, after all the CEO was wearing a suit and that must have said something for them too.

spotted in Stockholm

Our eagle-eyed Creative Director Nik often comes back from business trips with news of new products and designs to share with the studio. His latest dispatch concerned Unilever's Swedish Flora packs. Says Nik: "Very odd... looks like something your Gran might have in her bathroom. That said, I bizarrely quite like it!"

our favourite colour combinations

Seeing as our last post was about colour, we'll follow it with the next in our series of favourite things. These are a few of our favourite ...colour combinations!

(clockwise from top: nautical blue and white stripes; grey with dusky pink/peachy orange; charcoal grey and neon yellow; blue and amber; really bright acid orange with either shocking pink or an electric aqua; the dark blue vs. orange bit just above a sunset; black with bright pinging colours like magenta, yellow, cyan, luminous greens etc.; cement grey and white; sky blue and chocolate brown; pink, red and orange)

flying colours

I've always wondered what would have happened if Paul Rand had chosen a different colour for his famous IBM logo (writes Peter). Maybe a bright orange, a lush green or a rich purple?

Or was 'corporate blue' already the default back in the late 1950s? {Must re-watch Mad Men to find out}

IBM even gained the nickname 'The Big Blue', and for as long as I can recall blue has been the safe colour of choice for corporations.

Move on 50 years from the design of IBM's logo, and surely the web has started to dilute corporate blue? No expensive multi-coloured inks to mix and print, plus access to may 1,000s of web safe colours - major corporates must be a riot of colour on the web?

Well, this chart from colourlovers.com suggests not - or at least not yet.

Skype, Twitter, AOL, PayPal, RealPlayer, WordPress, LinkedIn - all major brands born out of the web. And their corporate colour of choice? Paul Rand would be proud.