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Don't throw away your shot
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Even if you saw Hamilton on Broadway, you probably didn't see its connection to logo design.
Photo by Joan Marcus for Broadway.com
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One reason Lin-Manuel Miranda's
Hamilton has been so popular is that it delivers messages on a lot of levels about ambition, patriotism, perseverance and more. But did you notice it also has something to say about marketing?
I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey yo, I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy, and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot.
In visual marketing your shot is your logo, and you never, ever, ever want to throw away its impact. That means making sure the logo works in every conceivable way you might want to use it.
Yes, the design of your logo should express who you are as a company and what you stand for. That's the creative imperative. But there are technical imperatives as well. Ignore those at your peril.
It's not enough for your logo to look good on your stationery, brochure or presentation folder. It also must be crisp and legible on something as small as a business card or pen, and on something as large as a billboard or bus wrap.
At some point you may want your logo to be embroidered onto clothing, or made into a rubber stamp. And of course, it must look good on screen for your website, social media pages, PowerPoint presentations and emails.
Here are tips on logo designs that work well in all formats, sizes and processes:
DO keep it simple. Fine details such as a thin line or tiny shape can disappear when your logo is used at a small scale. Test this before approving the logo.
DON'T get bad grades. Beware of gradients because they are difficult to reproduce on some materials, including embroidery. And you may need to eliminate gradients entirely when one-color printing is necessary.
DO guard your space. Ink on a printing press spreads a little or a lot, depending on the paper being used. Avoid a muddy-looking mess by keeping sufficient space between letters and around shapes so that the ink can't fill in the blanks.
To talk about your branding needs,
call Kim Landry at 484.829.0021 or email
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Who wants candy, chips or soda when you could snack on live crabs instead? |
How to pass the 'So what?' test
Q: My boss says our company needs PR. She told me to find something interesting to write about and then send a press release to the local news media. How can I tell if something I find interesting will be interesting to a reporter?
A: You are right that there's a line between merely interesting and newsworthy. To find that line, apply what we call the "So what?" test. To pass the test, you need good answers to three questions:
What's new? Is your news truly new, different or special?
Who cares? Will many people outside your company care about this?
What's the difference? Will this make a difference to others or the community?
To practice and sharpen your "So what" skills, take this News or Not News Quiz.
Quiz: News or Not News?
- Your office has a new vending machine! It has a nifty neon panel. Is this news? YES or NO?
- Your office has a new vending machine that dispenses live crabs! You imported it from China and it's the first of its kind in the United States! Is this news? YES or NO?
- Your boutique hotel has a concierge who books theater tickets, makes dinner reservations and knows the best dry cleaner in town. Is this news? YES or NO?
- Your boutique hotel has a concierge with a knack for fulfilling unusual requests. He just handled a doozy - helping an art-mad guest who was on a quest to see all 36 existing paintings by Vermeer, one of which was privately held by the Queen of England! The concierge got the client into a gallery in Buckingham Palace off limits to the public. Is this news? YES or NO?
Click here for the answers (and interesting links).
Even if you don't have a shellfish vending machine or access to royal art, do not despair. News can be made! Survey your customers on a hot topic. Create something, rip something down, throw a huge party to benefit a nonprofit. There are lots of ways to get media attention.
To learn more about earned media, call Hollister Creative at 484.829.0021 or email contactus
@hollistercreative.com. We can work with you on a public relations plan to get your company in the news in a positive way.
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Want competitive advantage? Rain dance required.
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| Wishing and hoping won't bring the rain, but dancing will. |
Most service businesses make the same empty claims about their competitive advantages: Highest Quality, Best Customer Service, Best People, blah, blah, blah. The fact is, if your claims echo those of your rivals, your advantage is zero.
To establish real competitive advantages in the eyes of prospects, focus on two things:
objectivity and
data.
You aren't objective about your company, so when you praise it, prospects dismiss that as hype. Objectivity comes from third parties: your customers, trade or general media, industry ratings and awards.
But if you sit back wishing and hoping for objective praise to rain down upon you, you are destined for drought.
Get up and do a rain dance every day! Ask your customers for testimonials. Cultivate media mentions with ongoing public relations activities. Respond to solicitations from industry rating agencies. Enter contests to win awards.
Data, like objective praise, does not generate itself.
You have to dance for data, too. Think about the claims you would like to substantiate. How could you quantify those claims with numbers? You may be able to mine existing data from your accounting software, or you may have to start tracking now and continue until you have enough data to make your point.
Let's say you want proof that you serve customers extremely well. Client retention data can prove that point. Ask your bookkeeper to pull up "sales by customer" data and sort it by year. You can quickly determine the percentage of clients who have done business with you for 3 years, 5, 10 or even more.
Client referral data can be a proof point, too. Prospects so often hear "Most of our business comes from referrals" that their reaction is "Yeah, sure." It would be infinitely more powerful if you tracked referrals and were able to say, "Over the last 4 years, 66 percent of our new business has come from customer referrals."
Every piece of objective information and data that supports your claims will add to your competitive advantage. So shout them out on your website, in your marketing materials and in pitch meetings with prospects.
Do your rain dance. You'll be a better rainmaker.
To inquire about consulting services, call Kim Landry at 484.829.0021 or email
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Annual report theme inspires unique design
Client's Challenge
AO North America (AONA) advances the care of people and animals suffering from musculoskeletal injuries and conditions that arise as a consequence of those injuries. A nonprofit organization, AONA improves patient care through physician education and research in the principles, practice and results of treatment in orthopedic trauma, craniomaxillofacial, spine, neurosurgery and veterinary orthopedic surgery.
While well known among surgeons, fellows and residents, AONA wants to increase brand awareness across the wider medical community and the public. To that end, the organization has begun a marketing and public relations campaign. A key component was to develop and distribute AONA's first-ever annual report.
Leaders wanted the content to clearly communicate the organization's 2015 activities and achievements as evidence that AONA is working to achieve its vision and live its mission.
Leaders wanted the design to break the mold of previous AONA collateral, which felt somewhat cold and sterile, as standard medical collateral tends to be. The challenge was to create a report with a look and feel both warm and unique.
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| See a video of starling murmuration when you click to view the ebook version of the AONA Annual Report. The cover image changes from a photo to a video of this amazing natural phenomenon. |
Our Solution
Hollister Creative was selected through an RFQ to assist AONA with theme development, writing and editing, and to design the annual report. The theme that emerged was "Coming Together," because AONA advances care through collaboration.
Surgeons come together to serve on the education, research and community development committees that guide the activities of each clinical division. And once a year, the One AO scientific congress brings together the entire AONA community to explore common problems and solutions across disciplines.
Hollister's designer came up with a unique concept to illustrate the Coming Together theme through photos of bird murmuration, a natural phenomenon in which thousands of starlings fly in mesmerizing formations. AONA agreed that murmuration was an apt metaphor for the organization's many parts and individuals coming together to form a greater whole that is fluid, flexible and dynamically moving forward.
The choice of nature photos also conveyed warmth in a way that photos of surgeons in operating rooms just can't. All of the other design choices that were made supported and strengthened the dual goals of warm and unique.
Client Comment
"Hollister Creative did an excellent job listening to our organization's needs and working with surgeons, leadership and staff to conceptualize and deliver an incredible design for our Annual Report. The Hollister team was very professional and easy to work with for all aspects of the project. They paid close attention to detail and effectively helped to coordinate all voices and feedback into a high-quality, cohesive story. We are getting rave reviews with the finished piece!"
Director, Marketing, Communications and Extramural Programs
Three Quick Tips
If you are challenged to create a feeling of warmth in an annual report or other printed piece, here are three suggestions to help you:
- Use photos from nature. People are naturally drawn to Earth's flora and fauna. The incredible variety of species, each with a different appearance and set of behaviors, gives designers a world of options for creating visual metaphors.
- Choose a warm color palette. If the client organization's identity colors are cool, use them sparingly for headlines or accents. Select a warm color palette that complements the identity colors to spread warmth across the pages.
- Take "look and feel" literally. Paper and coating choices are important. To support the warm look of your design, reject the harsh glare of glossy paper and choose silk instead. Add a "soft touch" coating to the cover for the perfect finishing touch.
To talk with us about your challenge, call 484.829.0021 or
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It's summertime ... and the living's not easy. Especially when day after day brings temperatures in the 90s and high humidity. When it's hot and sticky, there's nothing like
ice ice baby to bring the temperature down. (That's water ice, of course, not
Vanilla Ice.) And there's nothing like
Rita's for refreshing water ice.
So if you're hot and bothered,
email us a request for water ice by noon on July 22.
We will randomly select five readers who have not won
in three months to receive a $5 gift certificate good at any Rita's location. Be cool and stay cool.
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