New Google Internet Stats
Launched today but hidden away Google Internet Stats is a neat little site to back up those all important presentations/proposals.
Five main areas are covered (with room for expansion) and the opportunity to submit your own stats.
Originally from Read Write Web via twitter
Super Supermarket Sarah
A lovely website with a real sense of discovery and browseability.
Hover over the products to see what’s still available and what’s sold. Click the browse button to see a different catalogue view.
Take a look for yourself. Supermarket Sarah.
Originally from the very excellent Design Milk
Seth Godin and your lizard brain
Good words from Seth about finishing the job.
More Snog
I’ve writtten about Snog on here before and I must admit I keep coming back to it every time we look at a fascia on another job. So now here’s some more pics and even videos at Lighting which has an excellent write up about the lighting scheme.
Also worth having a look at is their kiosk which opened in Westfield on Monday. Not many images online yet but no doubt they’ll start appearing soon, and the van is great too.
More Snog:
Asda – The Green Room
A week or so ago Asda introduced The Green Room, a place for ‘colleagues’ to share what’s happening around the business. Not much fanfare that I noticed externally at least that I spotted anyway. What’s interesting is the openness that surrounds the project as wel as how important it is that colleagues have a voice to interact with the business. One thing that seems to be missing is any ability to subscribe by email or RSS so the site will always have to pull readers to it. There are share buttons on posts though so at least it should have some life outside itself.
As many businesses look to embrace social media at least Asda have plunged in with both feet, whilst others prevaricate; mainly I suspect because they don’t know what they’re buying and/or don’t believe it has a part to play in their organisation. I’m pretty certain that (based on the kind of work we’re doing, more than anything else) that it will be the norm for businesses to have a social media presence of some description and more importantly that the people who run this side of marketing are employees who can be authentic about their brand rather than external agencies. Patterns of employment will also have to change. There’s no point having an online presence that clocks off at 5 o’clock.
At least Asda have a catchment audience in their own employees but many organisations seem to think that user generated content (UGC) will play large part in their social media strategy. This seems a rather lazy way out and flawed. After all if you’ve got Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc why would you go on a forum hosted by any business, it would have to be truly excellent in its own right. Organisations have to come to customers wherever they are, that’s always been the case in retail, and still the case online. Sainsbury’s forum for instance has as of today, 65,691 members but only 134 posts this month, there’s too many other things out there that are better and less brand led.
Another interesting part of Asda’s communication to their employees is that they’ve produced a poster (including a big brother mouse as a bomb, complete with fuse!) which while being rather foreboding at least shows they understand the perils of opening themselved up to the world online.
The posters, watch out for the interweb now …
Also worth looking at Asda on twitter and their YouTube channel, SYMtv (that’s Saving You Money tv)
And also worth looking at how Whole Foods run their whole online presence, as always the US is doing it better:
Danesi
I came across a couple of pictures of Danesi on Scott Hansen’s very fine ISO50 blog and it inspired me to look more into the Danesi brand.
The first set of pictures shows the ‘dch’ (danesi coffee house) concept, ” … a real tasting place to experience the original Italian espresso and distribute new “coffee culture” products; each one is located in large city centres.”
What I particularly like in the interiors is the calmness and structure that’s provided by the overall colour palette but carried through to the straightforward large image that’s used and the furniture with its cutaway details and chairs with mini shelves.
My favourite feature though is the lighting, especially the lampshades that cut through the ceiling raft above the counter. All very calm and elegant. As usual it’s the attention to detail that makes places like these work.
The Danesi website is also worth a browse to see the products as well as all elements you would need to create your franchise.
The second set of pictures shows the ‘dsao’ (danesi small architectural object) concept, “a small coffee corner, conceived as independent platforms, ready to be located inside malls, airports, railway stations and trade shows.”
Up the Albion
Here’s a newish caff, the Albion. Part of Terence Conran’s Boundary project. Continuing the trend of taking back Britishness from the far right, tea is served with crocheted tea cosy, cutlery in syrup cans and water in a tin pitcher. Definitely one to add to our next Retail Safari.
On a more social media type front they use Baker Tweet to let their locals know what’s coming out of the oven.
Links:
Night time shots and review An American in London
Jenny Tucker’s review on Sofeminine
Buy chocolate, feel better
Apparently in this recession we’re spending our money on going out and chocolate, as opposed to moving house and buying cars.
Always partial to a good chocolate shop this one in Singapore is worth a look. Great attention to detail all the way through.
Branding = consistency
I’ve had this post at the back of mind for a long time and reading this post on We Heart Branding about the difference between Pepsi and Coca-Cola has brought it to the front. It boils down to one things over the years … consistency. Surely though the graph can’t be true? Has Coca-Cola really been the same since 1886? Well it seems so. A little googling brings you to the history of Coca-Cola on their corporate website (worth reading from the point of view about how they gave free samples away at the beginning) and a few other pieces of their logo history.
The main message here is to be consistent. You don’t need to change or tweak your logo every few years, add some shine, shift the colours, make it 3D or use the latest photoshop/illustrator technique tweak or round the corners or add a drop shadow to make it web 2.0 or whatever the latest internet led logo fad is.
What you can do is add to the story, add that extra layer, think how the BBC works. BBC channels exist as a layer beneath the main BBC identity and each has it’s own distinctive style and colour, the idents between programmes serving to give that quick reminder of where you are, the redness and to a lesser extent the circle/globe spreading through the channel, including the news.
If you’re story is wrong or not well thought through or a little frayed around the edges, or perhaps you’re tired of telling it and your customers are tired of hearing it. That’s where you need to change. Although, more often than not it’s not the logo that’s an issue it’s how it’s been used and abused and fallen into the trap of becoming an excercise in design or marketing vanity. You hear it often enough, “let’s tweak the logo”, “can we look at some different colours and typefaces” (how scientific!). How about don’t. How about getting back to the origins of the identity, using the guidelines that it came with and creating a better story that underpins the logo, so your customers can create your brand.
I go along with Jacob Cass on Just Creative Design that a good logo/identity is:
- Simple
- Memorable
- Timeless
- Versatile
- Appropriate
I’ll add into this that a good logo should:
- Provide clear identification
- Stand for your message and values
- Be an internal focal point
- Stand you apart your competition
- Be credible
- Create order
- Create merchandising opportunities (maybe)
More Coca-Cola/Pepsi:
Logoblog.org
Landor – Refreshing an iconic visual identity
More logo design stuff:
Brand New
Logo Design Love
David Airey
The rest of your life
Looking for sign inspiration and came upon this from tikiranch’s photostream. An especially fine piece of copywriting.
