reactions

We are thrilled to officially announce that our new packaging for Wigwam just won an American Packaging Design Award!

According to the letter of congratulations:

“For nearly five decades, Graphic Design USA has sponsored national design competitions that spotlight areas of excellence and opportunity for creative professionals. Of these, the American Package Design Awards is the fast growing. The reason is simple but profound: marketers are challenged as never before to convey their message. Package design — along with the related disciplines of POP and instore graphics — are increasingly the difference-makers in the consumer’s purchasing decision. This competition celebrates well-designed graphics, of course, but also the power of design to advance the brand promise and forge an emotional connection with the buyer at the moment of truth.”

Making this even better is that we were able to top ourselves… having won the same award for our soon-to-be-the-old packaging in 2008. Lightning has definitely struck twice, and it feels even better than it did the first time! Congrats to all at MSLK and Wigwam who helped make this as great as it could be.

Look for the new packaging as it arrives in stores this spring!

Everyone’s a critic. Over the years, graphic design has become more mainstream. And as more people have become more aware of design, more people have become quick to judge and criticize any change in a well known corporate brand. Because of this, it’s not unheard of for a brand to change their look and then have a public backlash force them to change it back and pretend nothing ever happened (Think Gap and Tropicana). Of course, it’s impossible to make everyone happy, but with so many people responding to rebrands, selling a new look to the public is starting to become a crucial part of the rebranding process.

Starbucks and Comedy Central were both given an overhaul recently and are very good examples of this. While they are two vastly different companies, what they do have in common is that both of the companies took the time to present these rebrands in a way that says, “Yes, we did change our look, and we are going to show you why this is a change in the right direction.”

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We’re asked all the time to create logos for organizations. A logo is the single defining image of an organization that you see on every piece of branded material. Think of Apple’s ubiquitous bitten apple (a symbol) or IBM’s striped blocky letters (a wordmark). More often that not, MSLK creates typographic wordmarks rather than symbols for our clients. This is not simply a matter of preference, but there are circumstances when it is better to use one kind versus the other. Read more to find out what is appropriate for your organization.
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Marketers are constantly exploring novel ways to reach their customers. How can you get people to notice your brand, buy your product, join your organization, go to your event or become a sponsor? Whatever the case may be, the goal is always the same: reaching your audience in a meaningful way that captures their attention. While your online and social media presence is definitely the most important viral way to engage with your audience, a recent print promotion for the Type Directors Club reminded me of how powerful a unique, well-thought out print campaign can be. Perhaps there is still a bit of room in the marketplace for this type of work. Sometimes it’s exactly what’s needed to make people notice just how great your company or organization is.

So what makes for a spectacular print promotion? I’d say it’s a combination of a unique concept, thoughtful material selection, a healthy dose of graphic wit, and flawless execution.  All of these elements should come together seamlessly to create something that people want to hold on to.
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There’s one trend in website design and development that we simply must call attention to. The curse of the “Coming Soon” page! In a world of up-datable content, blogs, and sites that change almost daily, a “coming soon” sign anywhere on a website pretty much guarantees that it’s a feature that is “never coming.”

How often do you get excited about a website, click over to the News section and see an exuberant “Coming Soon!” sign up there? Maybe there’s even an upbeat “Check Back Soon!” added for more dramatic flair.

It’s not your fault. It was probably your web designer’s idea, but it’s a bad one. If you are the web designer who suggested it — stop that!

Here’s our advice for what to do instead.

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So much can happen in a week. A company can unveil a new logo, receive a public flogging, ask for free submissions, and then revert back to its original logo. If all goes well for clothing chain The Gap, most people will never know that the brand just did one of the biggest belly flops in the history of branding…

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If you haven’t seen this website yet, have a look: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

It’s a promotion for the rock band Arcade Fire’s song “We Used to Wait”, and it uses an array of interactive features which customize the experience for each user. More than just a website, it’s actually described as an “interactive film” by Chris Milk using the latest website coding technology known as HTML 5. More than just a promotion, it’s one of the freshest things I have seen online in quite a while.

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Our website, www.mslk.com, is cited in the current issue of How Magazine in an article entitled, “The Marketing-Smart Website” written by Ilise Benun. The article gives examples of what to do — and what not to do — for designers setting out to redesign their site. Our site’s innovative and sorting features were given the following compliment:

“There are 90 examples of work in the portfolio section of MSLK.com, but it’s not overwhelming because visitors can sort by medium or industry category to find what they’re looking for. Mouse over any thumbnail and it automatically enlarges and identifies the image.”

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People love meeting graphic designers. Whenever I meet someone at a party or a prospective client at a meeting — nine times out of ten, it’s a game of twenty questions. Never  the same twenty, which is what keeps the game interesting. There is one question that is consistently asked by everyone: the Money Question. Everyone wants to know how much “it” (whatever “it” may be…) will cost.

There’s never a simple answer to this question because there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to what graphic designers do.

This is why I will be conducting one of two pricing workshops next month at How Magazine’s Mind Your Own Business Conference at the Sheraton Hotel here in NYC as a Spark event.

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Have you ever worked on bringing a product to market that was based on a formulation, product, or system that is already successful in the market? Almost everyone has. Market demand forces supply,  and before you know it,  your sales reps are begging for a product just like “X.”

We at MSLK believe it’s how you handle this situation that is the critical difference. Will you saddle right up to your competition with another “Me Too” product?  Or will you learn the essence of what consumers find so appealing, and offer them an alternative that is uniquely yours?

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