I had mentioned a few weeks ago that we were looking to hire a production manager. Well Today he arrives. David Ytterberg. He and his wife Rebekah are moving here from Auburn, AL.

He was referred to us by Josh Hausen of A Bryan Photo – not only are they a great client, but they have now referred two Matchstic team members to us! (the first was Dustin)

I think it was sealed when we realized that he owns a scooter.

We sent him a package to offer him the job. He responded with only this photo on the left.

Welcome to the team David…or…let’s just face it, you’ll be called Yetti.

The Aesthete trend is about the desire for beauty and perfection. Brands tap into this desire by establishing themselves as the artistic, elegent or attractive choice. Not only in product design but in what the product will do for the customer. This is exemplified by Rembrandt Toothpaste. Rembrandt has taken a healthcare product for cleaning teeth and positioned it as a beauty product for making your mouth perfectly clean and white. Name and design taps into this desire as well as the product offering; beautiful and perfect teeth.

I play co-ed softball. Its alot of fun. Its like the tuxedo t-shirt of sports; It says you’re formal, but you still like to party. A new season brought about some new faces on our team and along with that the normal small talk. Someone asked me what I do, and I instinctively quipped “I’m a graphic designer”. After the inquiring conversation came to a halt I thought to myself, I am so much more than that. The title “Graphic Designer” has lost all of its value. Ever since the mass production of photoshop elements (and quite before that honestly) our profession is measured up with the likes of Cousin Sam who does graphixs, and Aunt Betty who does the Church bulletin every week. The term graphic designer is simply a commodity.

So, here are some other options I could have used in my response:

I am a heartfelt communicator
I am an artist
I am a business asset
I am an aesthetic evangelical
I am a sales force
I am a strategic thinker
I am a trend setter
I am a team member
I am a brand strategist
I am a cultivator
I am a storyteller
I am a color theorist
I am an investigator
I am a performer
I am a juxtaposition junkie
I am a dedicated typographer
I am a benevolent listener
I am optimistic
I am a culture maker
I am a problem solver
I am a research analyst
I am high in ROI

I am not cheap

I am out of ideas

I am more than a graphic designer

Earlier this week Mozilla released their newest version of the Firefox web browser. When they announced plans to release the browser they also announce their plan to set a new world record. They wanted to set the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours with Firefox 3. They made an event of “Download Day” getting people to pledge to download the new browser on the day it was released. After it was all said and done they set a new world record with a total of 8,636,491 downloads in a 24 hour period. I participated in “Download Day” and am now part of a world record. Instead of just downloading and updated version of my web browser I was excited about the release of the new one because it was more than just an update it was an event. This proves that if you can make your product an experience for someone they will care about it more than if its just another product. Congratulations Firefox on the record unfortunately its still not as impressive as the world record for heaviest set of twins or the most spoons balanced on your face.

This past week I was on vacation with my family in Destin, Fl. Like most real-estate markets, Destin is in a sad state of affairs. Almost every beach front house has a for-sale sign or foreclosure sign drilled in the yard, plus vacation rentals are extremely low this year (mainly due to the media dubbed “Staycation” movement where families simply stay at home for vacation).

Like most families we just googled the area, looked at some pictures, and booked a house. Commodity. On the second night of our vacation however, we were all cozied by the TV watching AFV and a knock rose from the front door. It was our landlords for the week with a freshly made homemade cheesecake with a handwritten note. They popped in, dropped off the lovely delight, asked if we needed anything, and then politely let us get back to some slap stick entertainment of kids hitting their parents in the groin with whiffle ball bats (which never gets old).

It was such a simple gesture, but spoke tons of value! My family later gathered around the cheesecake and read the letter. “What a nice gesture” my sister exclaimed, and “I’ve stayed at alot of vacation rentals before and this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done!”.

It’s sink or swim in tense markets and beachreunion.com is sailing high above the competition.

Once again the highly anticipated next chapter from “Memoirs of a Brand”. This one we shall title GATTACA. This trend is about the future being here now. Its about the virtual world no longer being the means to an end but rather the end itself. Its a product or a brand that makes virtuality a reality.

A couple easy examples are the iPod or iPhone. The idea of a having your computer complete with internet, email, music, video, camera and a phone all in your pocket was only a dream until the iPhone made it possible. There were precursors to the iPhone of course. But apart of this trend is simplicity and acclimation. Those characteristics that come after new ideas have been refined over time and it becomes hard to realize life before.

Another example that Mr. Hewitt gave was a new rechargeable battery called Eneloop. They call this “The Battery for the 21st Century.” Essentially it is a normal battery with a few improvements. It comes pre-charged, is quick to re-charge and doesn’t die as quick as normal batteries. Kind of wish they would just invent a battery that recharged itself…but whatever…maybe 22nd century.

Heard a story the other day that got me to thinking about the never-ending discussion between creatives and users about form vs function. Apparently, a French climber decided to scale the side of the NY Times building last week. The architect who designed their building created a wire facade meant to add a design element of interest to the look of the building. When French climber Alain Robert saw this, he saw grips he could use to scale the building.

This takes the conversation a bit further…what happens when something creative is made that has an unintended function? The architect who designed this building accomplished his goal of creating a functional and visually appealing building, he just never imagined that a small design nuance would be used by someone to scale his design.

This raises the point that as we develop creative solutions, true creativity comes into to play when all angles and possibilities are considered.

Law 14 of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

What branding builds, subbranding can destroy. Holiday in wanted to get into upscale hotels. Cadillac wanted to introduce a smaller car. Donna Karan wanted to make cheaper and more casual clothes. What did they do? They didn’t create new brands for the new ideas. No, they came up with Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, Cadillac Catera and DKNY. I highly doubt that before the moments those subbrands were introduced did any one ask Holiday Inn if they had a more expensive place to stay, or Cadillac for a smaller car, or Donna Karan where to find her sweatpants.

Customers have a plethora of choices, even though subbranders think otherwise. Why search out an more expensive hotel when you have Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott? Subbranding is an inside-out branding strategy because it forces the core of the brand into new directions.

Another common problem is what you could call the mega brand. It’s the idea, most commonly found within the car industry. Ford isn’t our brand, Aspire, Escort, Taurus and Mustang are. Well I’ve yet to drive down the road and see a sign for Mustang.

What I learned: When you feel the need to create subbrands, you are chasing the market, not building a brand.

_gern

The third part to this series is called SILICONE. This is the trend that says innovation is fun. New and innovative design that makes life easier in turn makes life more enjoyable or fun.

The first thing I thought of was Swiffer. I remember their duster commercial called “Famous Cleaners”. In this they had famous TV cleaners like Alice from the Brady Bunch or Jeffery from Fresh Prince all vacationing because they dont have to dust (clean) as long as they used to thanks to the Swiffer duster. The product is simply a duster like there always has been but with new technology and design. The “feathers” are electromagnetic (attracting dust) and you just throw away the feathers when your done. Not as hard to dust…no clean up…dusting becomes fun.

Once a month or so we will have a client over for Brands n Eggs at Matchstic. It’s a time for us to sit with one of our clients, hear about how their business has evolved, and get feedback on how we can serve them better.

Recently the whole A Bryan Photo Team came to visit us. Rather than me tell you about it, you can see what they had to say here.
**note: Blake is still at Matchstic, he just wasn’t around for the photo opp**