Award-winning branding, rebranding and package design
How brands outshine, outlast and outperform their competition
âThe one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.â Albert Einstein Authenticity. Itâs best when itâs real. When reorienting a brand and clarifying their core reason for being, companies are too often …
OK, I was late to the party. I didn’t start an Instagram account until August if I remember correctly, maybe even as late as October. It is there I share all things branding, food, coffee and chocolate. I try to keep it inspired. Having attracted almost 6,000 followers in that time, what I post seems …
It was an innocent email I received. The email stated theyâd seen my âWhat is Innovationâ post and video on Fast Company and needed something equally inspiring for their staff. The company? The global leader in luxury skincare: La Prairie from Zurich, Switzerland, with 14 affiliates and represented in more than 90 countries worldwide. As …
In the last 10 days, one client approved and aired a very smart “Super Bowl” ad and got covered by Forbes and Huffington Post. Here’s what I learned along the way and the 3 very important branding lessons every brand should know. Here’s the play-by-play: It was Sunday night, one week before the Super Bowl. …
In life (as distinct from branding), the three most used and most powerful words are, âI love you.â Together, they are definitive. Unambiguous. Powerful. (These three words, like The Beatles, are most effective when united.) So what about your brand? Do clients feel that strongly about your brand? Or is it a little diluted, falling …
A NYC Photographer Masters Brand Elevation Erick âHerculesâ Urgiles is a NY-based photographer who has worked with such diverse clients as music legend Johnny Mathis to Mercedes Benz to songwriter Jason Mraz. Breaking up his work assignments, Erick has had a fascination with gravity, more factually, defying gravity as part of a series of photos …
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make….” What could one do to follow “My Holiday Elfie”? The Fab Four and Abbey Road. The ultimate inspiration. Happy New Year. Abbey Road photo credit: Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock.com
A selfie? That’s so 2014… now, it’s the Elfie. I wanted to do something a bit more personal for this year and had a shot taken in the nerve center of DBD International where so much happens. This shot captured the spirit but calling it a selfie was so… wrong. So, I decided it was …
“A smart person will give you smart answers, but a wise person will ask you smart questions.” â seen on the Web In business and in life, the one who asks the smarter question wins. Whether youâre assessing a product pitch on Shark Tank, reviewing an investment opportunity with Warren Buffett, reinventing an old classic …
“I dream for a living. Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to, and I see another movie I want to make.” Steven Spielberg This year has been dramatic. I’ll explain. Video Confessions I am by trade and practice a branding professional, specializing in the design and strategy side of the …
Kim Kardashian. Her name alone conjures up images of very inflated portions of the female anatomy, something that became yet one more Internet phenomena recently with the PAPER magazine and Kim’s nudity. Kim, Leaving Something to the Imagination is an Art I am all for playing with the imagination of the shopper. But it takes …
Your best branding tool might be staring you in the face, and if it’s not, it’s costing you (big time) business, sales and phenomenal growth. There is one tool in your brand’s arsenal that will work harder, last longer and be seen more than any other component in your brand’s history and evolution. It’s one …
âStorytelling is the game. Itâs what we all do. Itâs why Nike is Nike, itâs why Apple is Apple, itâs why Walt Disney built Disney World and itâs why Vince McMahon makes a billion dollars.â Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia Thinking of best business practices, the original title for this post was “How to Effectively Wash Away …
For those unfamiliar, Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times best-selling author, a serial entrepreneur and a wonderfully entertaining, insightful and expletive-infused public speaker. If that weren’t enough, he said this: “All your ideas may be solid or even good⌠But you have to actually EXECUTE on them for them to matter.â If that weren’t …
“90% of branding that is not effective suffers from one of three problems, and nearly 100% of brands miss this last step of branding.” Very simply, brands should, and deserve to, grow. Going Viral in Real Life: A 300% Jump in Sales is Hard to Ignore I first noticed a pattern when I’d completed the …
âDon’t wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn’t like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.â â Lora Brody “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from …
“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” Michael Jordan Athletes are survivors. They tend to be the fittest. But how do you speak to them? That was the challenge I was faced with…. This dictated the …
It’s called “Breathe.” A new short video by Gary Ravenscroft. Growing up in New York City (Brooklyn, then Queens, then Long Island and Finally Manhattan), there is one quality I associate with NYC: Resilience. That “we-won’t take-sh*t-from-anyone” attitude which is a great quality [for anyone who’s in your corner] to have). It was this quality …
Finally, a video (shown below) that answers that age-old question, “How is Design Like Underwear?” Good design and branding (as well as social media and user experiences) do their job best when they fulfill their roles without calling attention to themselves, just like good underwear. Not Too Tight. Not Too Loose. Answer these questions: Ever …
âMoney goes in but it never comes out….â That was uttered by Kevin âMr. Wonderfulâ OâLeary from Shark Tank speaking about a pitch which had brand failure written all over it. I’ve got to say, when heâs not eschewing his âtough loveâ negotiations, Kevin has some very good one-liners. Is Your Brand Infested? Brand strategies …
Sir Richard Branson is someone who knows a thing or two about elevating a brand and rising above the noise. In his own words, he wrote, “The key to generating loyalty and rising above the general noise seems to be all about creating an authentic voice.â Brand Elevation and Rising Above the Noise There are …
“If youâre trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.â David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising ___________________________________ This is the first of two articles on this brand. If you’re looking for the …
Improvised and sung from the heart, this video will change how you see the world and how it sees you. I’d seen one too many people I care about victimized by mind-numbing cliches, tired taglines and empty pitches. After all, how many had to be hurt before anyone did something? Too many. It Wasn’t the …
Steve Jobs said, “A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.” The same is true of ideas: “A few A+ ideas can run circles around a giant team of B and C ideas.” How many B and C ideas are promoted daily? Per one report, …
It’s been said, “There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, really dark chocolate, and chocolate truffles.” Gulping Down the Entire History of the World? New York Timesâ bestselling author Sarah Vowell wrote, âJust the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying …
