Brand Camp is a two-day intense branding workshop retreat that brings together like minded entrepreneurs to discover their company’s unique identity in the marketplace. Unlike most workshops, there is a very tangible take away, the brand brief.

I asked the attendees to send me some quotes about the experience and here are a few I received the day after we got back.

“Matchstic’s Brand Camp was amazing.  In 48 hours we were able to verbalize what our company is about and where we go from this point forward.  Being able to discuss it with Craig and Blake, and other businesses, to get their feedback and guidance was invaluable.”

“Going to Brand Camp, I was nervous that we really weren’t different and truly unique from other consulting companies.  But, Matchstic did an amazing job of pulling it out of us — helping us realize that we really are unique.  It wasn’t that they told us who we need to be, or that we just made up what we want to be — they helped us realize who we really were.”

We have a few spaces available for our June 2010 Brand Camp, email brandcamp@matchstic.com or call Craig at 404-446-1511 for more information. Space is limited to five companies per camp – so get on it!

The answer to the question led me to realize you can have two types of focus, an industry niche or practicing discipline.

An industry niche focus is more of a traditional agency with the one-stop shop mentality, providing services across multiple categories, being pretty good at those crafts (a master of none) and well versed in a particular industry sector.

A practicing discipline focus is a more progressive model focusing on a specific craft and mastering it, then utilizing other master craftsman along the way to form super teams in order to accomplish the full spectrum of needed resources.

The industry niche says I know this market and how to re-purpose my problem solving skills with in it. Risking stifled innovation and differentiation this is a pretty safe option.

The practicing discipline says if you want the best in the world at my craft, regardless of your industry, come see me.

So our response to the inquiring board member? ‘If you want marketing experience in your industry then they are the ones for you, BUT if you want brand identity experts then hands down it is us.’

I’m only a third of the way through it, and I’m known for jumping to conclusions, but screw it.  This book is a must read for any creative.  We are immediately adopting most of the philosophies and systems that come out of this book.  This is not a book about how to come up with ideas, but a book about execution and organization.  Belsky has definitely done his homework by studying and interviewing many of the most successful creatives around.

The best part is that it’s not all theory.  They’ve developed an online system where you can actually live out the philosophies: www.actionmethod.com. They have a web app as well as an iPhone app.

We’ve been searching for a new project mgmt system for a while and assumed we would end up adopting the base camp system.  While we’ve tried base camp and others, the Action Method is our favorite.

Basically, go buy this book and read it.

Fellow Atlantan? Design student? Industry folk? Inquisitive patron? Current client? All invited! The only thing we ask? Please RSVP so we know how much food to prepare by emailing us at rsvp@matchstic.com with your name, company name and names of any guests you’d like to bring. One little perk… If you RSVP you will be entered into a drawing every hour to win one of our latest t-shirts. You must be present to win, so don’t skip out early. Only one entry per email address.

Come hungry!

For years the desire to give back lived in a reactionary mode responding to several heart-felt stories with several short-lived solutions, resulting in little significance for the organization. As a branding firm, we evangelize the power of focus, and decided it was time to practice what we preach. On The House is the strategy of saying several “no’s” in order to say one really big “yes” and radically transform one deserving organization per year.

Since starting the On The House program in 2008, we have transformed two organizations with a third on the way, resulting in over $250,000 in donated services. But most notably we have ignited an ever-growing flame of passion and impact on our city and on three incredible causes.

We can’t do it alone. On The House Partners.

Matchstic offers a full brand identity over-haul, including brand strategy and design implementation, but that only goes so far. We have assembled some of Atlanta’s leading experts, including public relations, photography, trademarking, writing, printing, web development, and motion design, to join the cause and make an even greater impact. Our current 2010 partners are:

Ries & Ries

SeeSparkGo

Standard Press

Battle Axe

Stephen Hunton Photography

Bottlecap

Green Tricycle Films

Branderfield

Zoink

Foltz Martin

2010 On The House Recipient- Atlanta Union Mission

The Mission serves as many as 1,070 men, women and children every day of the year with emergency shelter, residential recovery and transitional housing, as it is the city’s largest homeless initiative. With a new leadership team it is primed to have an even greater impact on this city with a brand over-haul. Homelessness is an overwhelming issue in the city of Atlanta that few dare to take on but the mission IS changing lives and ending homelessness.

We are currently under way in the branding process and will soon be announcing the brand new Atlanta Union Mission. In the mean time, watch this video on the Mission for more information:

2009 On The House Recipient- Swift School

Swift School works to prepare children with dyslexia and related language-based learning differences to be successful in life. Swift School is where success with dyslexia starts.

Matchstic positioned the SWIFT School brand around the term dyslexia. Dyslexia is an umbrella term referencing most language-based learning differences. It was also easier to remember and gave SWIFT some much-needed focus. Matchstic also removed the word “The” in the title from “The Swift School” to just “SWIFT School.” “The” was unnecessary and only weakened the more important words.

SWIFT School believes potential is more powerful than dyslexia. Matchstic chose to visually depict the hope that parents need. SWIFT School is synonymous with hope for kids with dyslexia and helps them to be successful in life. A star represents hope, belief, achievement and success. The color choice of blue is more appropriate than the original hunter green for aligning with hope. The star is unique to SWIFT and contains a hidden “S” inside of it communicating the idea of hidden potential.

SWIFT School’s rebrand has been featured in various local Atlanta outlets including the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Good Day Atlanta and Cox Curry & Associates Review. The new brand identity was officially launched at the International Dyslexia Association-Georgia’s “Dimensions of Dyslexia” conference on February 20, 2010.

2008 On The House Recipient- City Church

City Church was birthed out of a desire to build a strong, service-oriented church in eastside city neighborhoods in Atlanta, just down the street from the Matchstic house. Twenty years ago when it seemed everyone left the inner-city, several churches that served the city went away also. In 2006, the city of Atlanta grew for the first time during that long period and the need for churches that serve the community became apparent. After sifting through many applications and interviewing three candidates, Matchstic voted and chose City Church Eastside as the first ever On The House pro bono client for 2008.

The vision of City Church-Eastside is not to be a big church, but to be a local serving church that grows and multiplies as neighborhoods grow and multiply. Matchstic consulted on the church’s name, created a brand identity and helped formulate the brand strategy that would tie the church to its community.

Matchstic’s goal was to develop a brand identity that fit the vision of the City Church brand and create a name that is scalable to multiple locations.

The strategy was to chose a logo that represented a neighborhood. The cross is actually a small picture of two cross streets with houses at each end.

Since then City Church has been dedicated to serving the neighborhoods in East Atlanta. Just an example of their commitment, they held a neighborhood garage sale bringing in $3,000 during one Saturday alone to benefit a local fire station that was suffering economically.

If you are interested in being a partner, getting more involved, or learning more about On The House email us at here. Here’s to transforming the city on brand at a time!

I’m on a “Creative Process” kick lately, probably because I spoke to some students at UGA last week about it, and wrote last week on the thinking inside the box.

Gunpowder is something highly explosive and if lit of fire will explode and go everywhere, making a mess if not properly handled. Take that same gunpowder, put it in a gun barrel, and you could use it to shoot a bullet and hit a target a mile away. That’s a big difference.

The creative process, and creativity in general, just like gunpowder, needs guard rails, it needs a system. Without rails, putting ideas into action becomes a lofty and lethargic task contingent on your own vigor. Some people might disagree and say artists need a free floating zen-like environment to produce magical ideas, which might be true for some, but for the most part those are the dreamers and not the doers. Those are the artists that live up to the black-rimmed-glasses-can’t-get-a-job stereotype. That’s not what I want to be. I want to be the dreamer and the doer.

For the doers out there, treating your genius like gunpowder, giving it a barrel of manifestation, is a great way to bring your ideas to life and potentially change the world.

This past weekend Alvin, Daniel, and myself listened to a gaggle of our favorite songs trying to pinpoint the perfect matchstic song. We need something that was cool but not pretentious. Upbeat but not Fergie. Fun but not Oingo Boingo.  Classic but not “Danger Zone“. It seemed easier to know what we weren’t more than what we were (alot like branding). We went from Bonnie Tyler, “I Need a Hero”  to Tokyo Police Club, “I need an experiment”. It was an overall feeling you got from each track that was either on brand or not. Simply put, it was a gut feeling. We finally narrowed it down to our top five and are trying to whittle it down even further to just one. It made me think on a different level about the matchstic brand.

What’s your brand song? How does it make you feel? Do people want to listen to it? Does it make them want to dance? Or Maybe its time for a new song?

Getting a job has added a few layers. Most obviously, I haven’t bargained lately, I have skipped to being terrified of the new pace of work. Why terrified? The possibility of failure, of course. Now, even in failure one can grow. So, it’s not the introduction of failure that matters. It’s the one that says ‘mayday’.  In the free fall of starting a career, asking for and receiving help is what will make or break you. I have been learning that and maybe – just maybe –  keeping pace.

Once thoroughly mapped out you can begin to score each individual touch-point on how well they engage your audience. Maybe your initial and latter touchpoints are strong, but somewhere in the middle it gets a bit soggy. Maybe you start strong and trail off like a SNL skit. Regardless of your scoring, you can prioritize which touchpoints to focus on and improve. You now know where the gaps are in the wall, and like my good friends from GI Joe said, “Knowing is half the battle”.

We recently did this exercise for ourselves, and below is the out pouring. It’s important to know every map should be different and a comfortable and honest scoring system is crucial.

Have you ever done this? If so, Which ones need the most love? If not, how can you start the process?

The reason I call it the Flag Shirt is that it was inspired from the flag you see to the left of it.  On our last retreat we flushed out our three core values.  At the time I was studying a lot of country flags and love their direct relationship to a brand identity.  I wanted to develop something that represented our values without just stating them directly.  So I approached Alvin about this idea of a flag that represented our three core values.  Later he put together this shirt to represent the flag.  Here is a brief description of our three core values and which color bar of the flag represents that value.

Blue | Harmony. Great relationships are the cornerstone of great work. Great relationships internally. Great relationships with clients. Great relationships with partners & vendors. Great relationships with our community. When there is no dissonance, but pure harmony, then and only then does pure beauty soar. Great work always starts with Harmony.  The sky blue color is a great representation of Harmony.

White | Truth. We are in a constant pursuit of truth. We are not manipulative marketers. We are seekers of truth. We dig for gold and bring it to the surface, clean out all the dirt, and hold it tall for all to see. Truth is excellence. Truth is what’s right, not what one wants. Truth is sought after with unmatched urgency. Truth is always black and white, hence the white bar of the flag.

Red | Courage. Excellence comes at a risk. Risk of humiliation. Risk of failure. In order to risk, one must have Courage. Courage to act in accordance with beliefs, in spite of criticism. We must also encourage our clients to take the risks they need to take in order to accomplish their dreams. Courage is not easy, but it is a vital component of building a brand and working at Matchstic.  Red represents that courage.

Thanks again to our friends at Zoink! for yet another amazing print job printing our shirts. You all are the best.