New cover for the KANGAROO e.p. by Kyle Andrews. Constructed of felt, shiny things, tiny birds, feathers, hope, hot glue.
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Here’s where the Moose logo ended up after a few last minute adjustments….
Headline/photo is from an old piece of sheet music… Rest of copy and design is mine.
Getting close to finished on a new logo for The Moose, a men’s salon in Nashville. They’ve been open for over a year as “The Moosehead” but have decided to rebrand with the shorter name. The throwback to old-school men’s salons is a trend that has incorporated a wide gamut of design elements, from super-clean British mod style to funky mid-century modern, but the predominant vibe always seems to be a retro late-1950s to early-1960s feel. We wanted to go a little further back without seeming too “old-man-ish.” Another obvious consideration was to avoid having ‘hunting lodge’ design elements which, while conveying masculinity, might send the wrong message. The cigar-smoking moose takes a more prominent role in the new logo. I initially explored lockups with a symmetric moose head but having the moose facing to the side enabled a much more organic flow of typography, as well as allowing a much better balance between the scale of the logo’s elements. I expected to employ a more intricate illustration of the moose, but the more modern rendering seemed to evoke a professional sports franchise mascot, which adds a little masculinity and keeps things looking fresh instead of too old-fashioned. Having a ‘historic’ feel to your logo certainly implies a trustworthiness to customers, but it’s always a fine line between a logo that feels ‘classic’ and one that feels ‘retro.’ When clients ask for something a little old-fashioned, I like to try to recreate the look of something that has evolved over a few decades rather than just go for something 100% period correct. The great thing about going for a somewhat elaborate logo like this is that you can build in a handful of elements (e.g., the moosehead, the typography itself, the diamond device, and the scrollwork) that can then be broken out to use on their own, or reconfigured for different applications.
Been really busy with image work for The Moose Music Row (Nashville), Diversion Development (New Orleans), Bordello Nightclub (New Orleans), Free Agent Irons (Nashville), and looking forward to site redesigns for Black 13 Tattoo Parlor and Nude Booking in Nashville as well as packaging for Kyle Andrews’ upcoming album Robot Learn Love. Around here, when it rains, it pours. PROMocalypse 2010 was a success and a lot of fun to work on, we’re looking forward to taking it to the next level in 2011. This week I’ll also be working on digital ads for Black 13 for the newfangled video advertising screens you’ve been seeing in illustrious bar bathrooms all over town. It’s the same principle as Graffiti ads but they are video screens that accept Flash or movie files (I’m leaning towards doing movies in After Effects even though everyone else seems to use Flash). The company we’re using is UniGuest. Just like Graffiti, you have a lot of control over who you’re targeting — in addition to the obvious gender-based targeting (men’s rooms versus ladies’ rooms) you can also choose what venues your ad is going into. We really haven’t done targeted ads with Graffiti (aside from choosing generally to be in bars and other venues with that age demographic) but have had excellent results using them. “Bathroom marketing” options are a good way to spend your marketing dollars on something with guaranteed eyeballs and targeting accuracy, and with the ability to direct different creative to different places you can really maximize your effectiveness. For small businesses I think it makes much more sense financially to place in indoor advertising than print. A lot of the local publications here in Nashville are totally oversaturated with advertisements, and each one has half a dozen competitors for the same readership — but you wouldn’t be able to tell from their pricing. Who cares if you advertise to a circulation of 15,000 if your ad is buried? It’s better to have 100 indoor ads up that people are guaranteed to read. Plus, you have a pretty good idea of the type of person you’re crafting your message to reach! The one exception I can make for small businesses advertising in local print is if you’ve got some sort of good editorial coverage, i.e. an article about your business. If you can be guaranteed to get placement within a few pages or on back cover, then by all means do a full-page — you’ll have the impartial authority of editorial coverage within the actual content of the publication (which is why people read magazines and newspapers in the first place!). This primes the audience to be receptive to your actual advertisement, where you have full control of your image and can deliver a (hopefully compelling) call to action.  Black & White version Just finished a logo for tattoo artist Lenny Renken, who is opening up a solo shop in Omaha. Here’s a peek at the 1-color version. Initial PROMotions for Black 13’s PROMocalypse 2010, much more to come… Check out the website. From the “Zombie Prom” concept, we worked to develop a brief storyline portraying the prom as an event to end the socially unjust segregation of humans and zombies. It’s always great to have a project that needs design as well as some fun copywriting!  Horizontal lockup  Vertical lockup  Prom ballot advertisement  Prom ballot advertisement 2  Distressed version Printed materials are essential to many small businesses, but their costs can quickly add up. The success and proliferation of online offset-printing companies over the past 10 years has enabled all of us to get high-quality printed materials for dramatically lower prices. $50 now seems like a reasonable for 1,000 two-sided full-color business cards, but if you had quoted this job through your local print shop 5 years ago, it would be closer to $500. At the beginning of this decade, you could convey a sense of professionalism and quality with cheap offset printing, because so many other small businesses were still using Kinko’s or even their own inkjet printers. Now that cheap offset printing is ubiquitous, we’re looking for new ways to stand out. If you can afford it, jobs printed with spot colors on custom stock will always be perceived as more premium than cheap 4C. If you have to run 4C for budget or practical purposes, many printers are now offering Spot UV, silver ink, and foil stamping for very reasonable prices.  Spot UV on a Black 13 postcard Aside from the fancy options, I think it’s important to be sure you’re still getting a high quality product, and to try to sidestep some of the pitfalls of cheap 4-color printing. We got some new postcards for Black 13 Tattoo Parlor back recently from OvernightPrints. I’ve used OvernightPrints before on numerous occasions where budget is an issue and have been more or less satisfied. An internet search will find hundreds of complaints about OvernightPrints, which is probably a testament to their popularity. Caveat emptor applies as always: Any gang-run printer is going to have color shift issues between jobs, and even moreso on ‘tricky’ CMYK colors like oranges and dark yellows. However, I think most people’s issues with any bargain-basement printer can be avoided with some experience (and sometimes, lowered expectations). That being said, I’m a little less than satisfied with this recent job. The noticeable amount of shift in tonality was really unexpected for me, because I managed my end of the color workflow correctly. The job was also run at a very low screen compared to what I’m used to. While these shortcomings may not be noticeable to the client, it’s always frustrating to expect a nice product and get something else. I’m casting around for some other bargain printers right now, and hopefully will have the results of some of their work within a month or two. What am I (or any other graphic designer) really looking for? To me, the ideal bargain online printer will: Have a lucid implementation of a standard color profile: Saying “We use GRACoL” is not enough. If your file uploader strips embedded profiles and recalibrates colors even when the embedded ICC profile matches what you’re using, let us know. The average printing customer may not care about this, but if you are not managing color reliably, graphic designers are not going to recommend you to clients. [I believe OvernightPrints was better with this in the past before they switched to the GRACoL standard] Rip vector elements at high resolution: OvernightPrints does not seem to do this. I believe their work flow essentially converts everything to 300dpi TIFF files. This has a serious impact on the legibility of small type. This is another thing that I believe has changed with them lately. Run a tight screen: And here is the straw that broke the designer’s back. While the client was happy with the job we got back from OvernightPrints, I took a close look at the photo montage because it looked, well, fuzzy. I was surprised to see a really slack line screen. We’re living in the year 2010, and I expect a little more than 133-150lpi on my offset jobs.  It's about 142 lpi. Yes, I counted. Note the blurry edges which would be sharp if ripped directly from a vector file instead of being downsampled by printer to a 300dpi bitmap. Some (most?) jobs absolutely require full color, and often the budget or size of the job will not allow for quality control measures like press checks and color match proofs. When ultra-tight color tolerance is a must, no one should even think about a bargain-basement online printer. Due to the realities of budget, however, designers will frequently be dealing with these companies. It is valuable to know which company is going to give you the best possible output instead of degrading your design due to dumbed-down production processes. While OvernightPrints put in a disappointing 140lpi (they are one of the few online printers that don’t mention line screens on their website), the standard for online printers seems to be 200lpi. I found one printer claiming to run 500lpi which I’m guessing is a typo. I’ve put together a short list of bargain offset printing companies and am dying to do a print-job shootout of sorts; there doesn’t seem to be one on the web. Check back soon for that. Gordon Pritchard’s blog Quality In Print has some really interesting and thorough articles including a lot explaining the vagaries of printing (gamut shifts, tolerances for spot color mixing, registration moire effects, and more!). Dense with information and illustrations which I love. Radio Shack’s rebrand campaign is up and running and I think they’re on track. They’ve kept certain elements (like the logo lockup) the same but have utilized a new color palette in print and on-air to really encourage consumers to re-interpret the brand. By getting rid of the generic-looking red and gray scheme and using a fresh, vibrant green and blue, viewers are more likely to look at the core message of the advertisement instead of filing it as “just another ad for junk at Radio Shack.” While the rebrand and restructuring of Radio Shack has been implemented on a wide variety of levels — from promotions to product lines to store management — it’s interesting how much a simple difference color makes. For Radio Shack (and any brand that is flagging in a vast field of competitors) it’s essential to make consumers to re-formulate their ideas about the brand. Because our minds are so visual in the way they process information, the radical color shift effectively forces us to re-categorize Radio Shack in our minds.  Ad Breakdown: In the smaller color gamut of web-press print ads, the blue and green become very similar in value, resulting in a vibrating color relationship which can make the ad a little hard to read. This isn't much of an issue for this ad because it brings the product photos into sharp contrast, and "cool touchscreen smart-phones" is at the top of the message hierarchy for Radio Shack. Aside from the color, Radio Shack is also encouraging the consumer to think about the brand differently by abbreviating its name to “The Shack.” While it has a colloquial, nonchalant sort of vibe, it illustrates the tricky territory created by the name “Radio Shack” — which now connotes antiquated technology in a dilapidated building. While “The Shack” is cheeky and gets rid of the dated “Radio,” I think the entire brand itself still has a limited lifespan. Even though “Silicon Fortress” would be a great direction to take it, it’s probably more likely that the company will be bought by a more-successful competitor. In the past, Radio Shack has filled a niche in the market that companies like Best Buy don’t: stores with a small, easily navigable footprint that have everything you need in an electronics pinch. A larger company could adapt these stores to reach a customer base that is unable (or unwilling) to travel to their big-block retail locations with minimal cannibalization. The proof is in the pudding, of course, and the earnings statements for Radio Shack will tell us if new CMO Lee Applbaum (and creative firm Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners) has been effective in his efforts. They’ve done some serious slashing to the bottom line in past years, closing over 700 stores, and now are set to outperform earnings estimates this year according to some analysts. Follow up note: It’s been interesting to see the Radio Shack creative evolving to address the problem of visibility I mention above. On-air graphics packages were initially similar to the print ad above, then versions appeared which shifted the green to a brighter value for more contrast. Most recent versions use the brighter green and go further by adding a drop shadow behind Shack. Other media have swapped the green and white, so the word SHACK is more prominent. Goes to show that no matter how cool your creative direction is, it needs to be readable in order to communicate anything! |
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Copyright © 2012 Greg Burgess - All Rights Reserved |
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