The power of context.

Design Observer had an article a little while ago about the power of context. One example given was about the use of bland typeface. Customers thought of it as ‘too bland for our new logo’, until they were told that this is actually the typeface used for Chanel … quite a powerful brand. Placed in the right context, the bland typeface suddenly made sense. Another example is that little design that looked like a checkmark, and which nearly didn’t make it in the end. Luckily for the company, the founder of the company had the luck to admit, “I don’t love it. But I think it’ll grow on me.” I think you know the company by it’s logo:

No one really got it in the beginning … and it took years to build it. The official story can be found here.

Something to think about next time you want to create a new slogan or brand.

Update: great article on design and the World cup here at Presentation Zen.

Does money make your marketing less creative?

Seth Godin blogged about marketeers and Money. his First and Second Rule struck a chord with me:

  • First rule: great product development and marketing almost always comes from organizations that don’t have enough money. Having less money keeps you from trying to buy your way out of trouble.
  • Second rule: learning to live with less money means you will develop skills and resources instead of buying them. And it means that when you have less money (again), you’ll be prepared.

This may be true as most big brand with big budgets spend a lot on (mostly offline) campaigns to splash their brand in people’s faces. Not the most creative or effective way to spend your marketing dollars. And when the budgets go down, it’s hard to all of a sudden step out of the spending model and get creative…

Testing the Lazer Granville

I’m testing the Lazer Granville helmet on my Yamaha Fazer. Great helmet, so far. I have always been happy with the Shoei helmet I got, and never really ditched that one for the Lazer Revolution. The nice thing about the Revolution, and the main reason I use it when it’s sunny, is the integrated sun-shield. Really good feature! The Granville doesn’t have that, but it’s lighter, and because it’s a modular helmet with a flip-open mask, it’s great for those wearing (sun)glasses.

Helmet courtesy of icemike.