Brand Design Blog, News and Ideas

Business cards are a great way for clients and customers to receive your contact details, as they usually accompany a face to face meeting.

Unfortunately, because everybody has a business card, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd.

So having a business card that grabs people’s attention and makes an impact is one of the most useful marketing tools you can have at your disposal.

Check out this list of creative and inspirational business cards over at Toxel.com.

How does your business card stand up against the competition?

Designers and their clients often have trouble seeing eye to eye.

Why is that?

Because designers are pretentious, elitist, know it alls?  Well some are…but no.

Is it because business people are paying, so what they says goes…again, somtimes - but mostly, this is not the case.

The problem is that both parties are looking at the problem from different points of view.

So what is the solution?

The solution needs to come from the designers side. When explaining design decisions, a graphic or web designer needs to put on their business hat and see the project through the eyes of their client.

If you are a designer, you need to explain your design decisions from a practical stand point.

“I did it that way because it looks good” - isn’t a good answer.

‘I designed it that way, because the style I’m using is currently reflected in our target markets popular culture (state examples). Your potential customers will be drawn to this style because of these examples, which should help increase sales” - this is an answer that a client can understand.

When you are designing, make sure to always have client problems and objectives in mind, so that when asked you can explain your design choices in a way that means something to their business.

If you’re employing a designer and the same issues crop up, make sure to take a deep breathe and ask the question - how is that going to help my business.

It will save both designers and clients a lot of time and frustration, while giving design work more potential to do what it was intended for.

You’ll appreciate how it will lead to a happy working relationship going forward.

So remember, two hats. One for your design flare and one for your business brain.

Optus is running a new business promotion for an online TV series.

The chosen businesses will receive free business coaching advice with the winner gaining a $10,000 prize.

I think it’s definitely worth looking at if you are in a grow stage of business or are just looking for a little help.

I’ve added my business to the mix, so if you’d like to help me out. Click this link and vote for Crimson Fox. Thanks.

For everyone else that would like to join - entry is free (though I’m sure you’ll pay in junk mail) so have a look today.

Add a link to your businesses submission in the comments and I’m sure people will be happy to vote for you too.

Here’s an interesting article I found today on the effects and consumer reaction to green advertising.

That’s advertising based on your company’s environmental benefits – for those about to ask.

Is your company taking advantage of a ‘green’ perception?

If not, can you think of any way in which it could?

You can find the whole article here including to green advertising examples.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the link above so it’s working better now.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and a is conference that brings together great speakers from around the world.

The TED web site houses a gold mine of presentations given on topics ranging from Business to the Environment, from Culture to Innovation.

With talks by guests such as Jane Goodall, Al Gore and Brian Greene each FREE video presentation is packed with insightful and interesting information.

Each speaker is given (approx) 18 minutes to give the talk of a life time on their chosen subject.

There is some really great stuff on the site and I would highly recommend that you take some time to check it out.

I’ve also selected a category on design which I think you’ll interesting – “Design like you give a Damn” features a range of great speakers talking about all aspects of design.

If you found this interesting, leave me a comment and let me know.

So what is so good about Drop.io?

Well, first let me explain what it is.

Drop.io is a web site that offers file exchange services. Much like an ftp area within a web server, you have the ability to drop files into the server and have them picked up anywhere in the world where web access is available.

Sounds good, but most people have access to their own ftp area. Why do I want this one?

Well, for starters, it’s free. Up to 100mg is available free to anyone world wide and you don’t even need to sign up to use or create a work space.

You simply create a folder, directly on the home page. Put a password on that folder and you’re ready to go.

No sign up. No email input. Drop.io will log your IP address to in case of illegal activities, but the server you create is completely secure and unreadable by anyone without your password. Including the drop.io staff.

But wait – There’s more!

Once you have your own server. You can use it’s rss feed to monitor when the folder has been updated. Great for group file exchange

Another very useful application is the ability to accept facsimiles and voice messages. Each drop.io folder has a phone extension assigned to it.

The number can receive faxs which it will then turn into downloadable pdfs and voice messages will be converted into mp3s.

I find the fax particularly useful because I don’t have fax requests often these days, but they do happen. The cost of a separate line and fax machine to receive these messages can add up. If I can get a service like this for free, then why the hell not.

Of course, you may find that 100mg is simply not enough space for your file exchange. So, for $10 US you can purchase 1gb pf space which will be held for 12 months.

No bad at all.

I’ve already used many of the functions of this web service and I’m sure to use more in the future.

If any of you decide to give it a try, please let me know what you thought and if it was useful for you.

Drop.io can be found here. Enjoy.

You’ve probably already seen this in a million different places on the web, but I thought I’d make a comment anyway.

For the last year or so, there has been a format war over which High Definition video format will be the future.

Our combatants – HD DVD Vs. Blu-ray

Much like the older video formats – VHS Vs. Beta

There was simply no place for both. Double the cost for consumers, more importantly double the cost for producers. Having to produce multiple format versions of a film would add millions to the cost of distribution.

So, after a year of back an forth from one film studio or another, backing one format or another – then after a lot of money changing hands – All major film studios are now supporting Blu-ray as there format of choice.

So what does this mean for the consumer?

When there are going to be positives and negatives.

Firstly, having one format is going to make it much easier for the consumer to purchase a single hi-definition player and be able to stick to it.

On the other hand, because we only have one format, we’re unlikely to see any competition on price. So, for the mean time the Blu-ray players are in no real hurry to come down in price.

Personally, the convenience of only having to buy one player to get films from all studios has won me over. I could see nothing worse than having to buy one player to play one movie and then another player to play a movie from a different studio.

Either way, this is an interesting story and one worth paying attention to.

To read more information on this weeks events visit: www.engadget.com

I can’t finish the week without making reference to the biggest advertising event on the calendar.

The American Superbowl has become the most highly contested advertising spot worldwide.

With over 3 Million US dollars being shelled out for a single run during the game.

You then add the cost of producing each commercial, including A list entertainment talent. You are looking at a cool 5-6 million dollars for a single advertising spot.

While those figures sound insane from a return on investment point of view. Studies have shown that many products advertised during the Superbowl have received in excess of a 10% increase in yearly sales, directly attributed to Superbowl ads.

For high profile products this can mean an increase in revenue of tens of millions of dollars. Certainly worth the initial expense.

To see some of this years Superbowl commericals click here.

In my opinion, some Superbowl commercials are brilliant. Delivering a message that calls customers to action, while delivering just the right about of entertainment value to make the message stick.

While other ads have missed the mark by placing too much emphasis on the entertainment and not enough on the message.

Check them out and let me know which ones worked for you.

Here’s a list of name that you might want to try and remember.

All these young entrepreneurs are under 30 and have all created little online empires for themselves.

One thing to keep in mind though…All this net worth is on paper. They would need to sell their business and assets to great this amount of capital.

Still…I wouldn’t mind being in some of their shoes.

Check it out at: Top 20 Websites run by People under 30

We all know that business cards are one of the most useful pieces of promotion in our marketing armory.

But, making your business card stand out from the crowd can often be a difficult task.

Here’s a post from a blog I found recently that has some great reference material that will help keep you inspired when you’re banging your head against the wall for that great idea.

Check the post out here: Cool Business Card Ideas

I’d love to hear of any other great design resources that you’ve found.