Posted On August 25th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Marketing, 0
I was recently beginning a new website design for a client. This included brainstorming concepts, looking at other design inspiration, and experimenting with texture, type, colour and layout.
Then I received the client’s brand guidelines which outlined exactly how the logo should be used, what type of imagery (right down to the photography techniques and where people in the shot should be looking), what percentage of a page the header should take up. The list went on. For those wondering what these are, brand guideline documents are expensive, lengthy books created by branding firms, typically by the designer of the company logo. They specify how other designers should use the logo, included a lot of basic “Don’t mess with the logo” examples. It is meant to ensure “brand consistency”.
It got me thinking about brand guideline documents in general and wondering; what’s the point?
Before I get much further, I should state that I agree with the idea of brand guidelines. Businesses with no knowledge of their brand and no champions and enforcers of it are unlikely to succeed in communicating who they are to potential buyers. However here is my issue with these documents: Brand guideline documents are not expressing what the brand is, or even how the brand should behave, they merely express what it looks like.
Thinking of a brand as a person, consider this: If I was commissioned to write an essay describing you as a person to strangers, what would you want me to say? Of course you would want me to be honest mostly, but at the same time paint a positive image of you, and downplay any negative aspects of your personality. Fair enough. But what if my essay didn’t speak about your morals or kindness, your discipline and determination, your conviction or your generosity, it just talked about your hair and eye colour, height, weight and style of dress. A tad superficial, no? Worse than that, it would need to be kept up-to-date as fashions change (not to mention weight periodically).
To me, this is what brand guidelines are—nothing more than a style guide. They say nothing strategic or high-level about a brand. Instead, a single designer has made interpretations of how the brand should be presented instead of what the brand is. At worst, these guideline documents pigeonhole any possible new expressions and extensions of the brand, favouring a locked-down visual template. But even when this isn’t the case, the document is often ignored anyways—which begs the question; Why bother creating one in the first place?
On the other hand, think of popular and successful brands that have lasted for decades; Apple, Nike, Coca Cola, Disney, to name a few. What do they have in common? They didn’t rigidly stick to a style guide. They have changed and reinvented how their brands are presented while staying true to the core essence of what makes them who they are.
So a word of advice to smaller companies out their: Create a brand. Hire professionals to help uncover your brand and document it’s values and goals. Hire talented designers and marketers to creatively and consistently interpret and present your brand to the world. But don’t waste precious time and resources on creating a paint-by-numbers style guide. Set your brand free.
Posted On August 18th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Development, 3
It’s been a long time coming, but ExpressionEngine 2 is finally here, and after using it on a number of projects, I can say that it was worth the wait.
This is not meant to be an in depth post, but merely a few points that I especially enjoy about the new EE. Because some of the features are more technical in nature and not necessarily of great interest to end users (our clients) I want to separate the points into those two categories; Clients and Developers:
Clients
Better Control Panel - The actual CMS looks a lot better than EE 1 (hey, Ellis Labs even seemed to brand it with the Headspace hot pink. Good taste I guess). Above and beyond just aesthetics, the new control panel is actually easier to use. There is more use of AJAX effects and JQuery enhancements, which means less rooting around and clicking on multiple nested links to get to where you want.
File Management and Uploads - I can admit it - uploading and managing images and other files, and then inserting them into posts was painful for clients in the old EE. Now it couldn’t be simpler. I can now create custom fields in the admin as upload fields, so the upload/browse function exists right where it makes sense - even cropping and resizing right there with no hassles. There is a simple file management tool, where you can easily see all of the files on the server, and you can view/edit/delete them with only a few clicks.
Complete CodeIgniter Compatibility - OK, this point probably belongs in the developer heading, but then I thought about it; This serves end clients as much as it does developers. For those who don’t know, CodeIgniter is a popular, free, open-source PHP framework that Ellis Labs created for developers to rapidly build custom web applications with. Unlike EE1, the new ExpressionEngine is actually a product of CodeIgniter, being directly built off of the platform (When you download EE, you are actually downloading CodeIgniter with an ExpressionEngine folder inside it). What does this mean for clients? More back-end power and flexibility so developers can create more customized functionality within ExpressionEngine, and make it behave like a true web application. There is virtually nothing you could need on the web that EE can’t do for you.
Developers
Snippets - Common repetitive blocks of content or code that appear through your site used to be managed with embedding templates in EE1. That meant more database queries and slowed down your site if you weren’t careful and selective. Snippets allows me to place common blocks of code (PHP, ExpressionEngine tags, or just static markup/CSS/JS) within a snippet and include that whenever and wherever I feel like it. It is not included like the templates, it actually just becomes part of the page when loaded, using no database queries - thus allowing me to work more efficiently, write less repetitive code, and still keep sites light and fast.
Template Saved as files - This feature was technically possible in EE1, but I could never seem to get it to work right. In EE2, it is easy to sync templates to HTML files on your server. Instead of fumbling through templates in the control panel and updating the database each time I make a small edit, I can now just work remotely off of HTML pages in my favorite coding editor (Coda) and just save them when complete, just as if I was coding a static website. Collectively, this saves maybe hours of time on a project and is much more enjoyable to work.
These are just a couple of things I wanted to note about ExpressionEngine (I promise they are not sponsoring Headspace). It’s nice to have more firepower in our back pocket, and I look forward to getting into EE2 more over the coming weeks and months.
Posted On July 13th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Headspace News, 0
Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re mid-way through the year! 2010 has so far been a great year for Headspace as we continue to grow.
It’s been a while since the last post - way too long - so I just wanted to mention to those who still check for updates, that the blog will continue to be updated. The summer is unusually busy, with new project coming in all the time. Part of that has been our newest team member, Amy Wheaton.
Amy joined us from Colour about a month ago as our first official Account Director and has been shining in this role, helping keep our projects on track and help Kevin and me with new business opportunities. We hope our frat house of immature humour and Lord of the Rings references do not drive her away, but so far she seems to be putting up with it fine.
There’s been some new clients on board who we’re really excited about, but I’ll wait until we actually have some work to show in the projects section before I announce who they are. As always, there is some great tourism website’s and marketing initiatives we are working on, but we’ve also got a diverse group of new clients and projects that are keeping us on our toes. We also continue work on our web application, of which more details will surface as we get nearer to finishing and launching it.
I realize this is a bit of a general, self-serving post - but I wanted to give an update on where Headspace is in July of 2010, and let you know there will be some new content arriving shortly. Enjoy your summer!
Posted On May 18th, 2010 Author Adrienne Wylder
Filed Under Headspace News, 2
Headspace Design was thrilled to participate in the 34th Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Portsmouth, NH this year.
The conference was presented by the NH Travel Council and took place from May 5-7 in the heart of historic downtown at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel and Conference Center. Over 200 participants attended which included New England businesses associated with travel and tourism, the Governor of New Hampshire – John Lynch, Mayor of Portsmouth - Thomas Ferrini, - Key Note Speaker Dennis Snow – author of Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service and Lessons From the Mouse, Mel Allen – Yankee Magazine Editor, Steve Jermanok and many other industry professionals. This outstanding line up of business professionals, organizers and speakers made this event a true pleasure to attend.
The 3-day conference was kicked off with a fun-filled 2 hour Cinco de Mayo networking Cruise aboard the Isle of Shoals Steamship. We enjoyed a breathtakingly beautiful tour of Portsmouth Harbor out to the Isle of Shoals, made famous by island poet Celia Thaxter.
There is a draw bridge that lifts up to allow the steamship to pass through – to my surprise, as we cruised out of the harbor, I looked up to see two workers hanging from harnesses on the bottom-side of the bridge! What a place to work! We continued on enjoying food and beverages while mingling with fellow event participants. We passed by tug boats, blooming nature, fishing boats, light houses and the closed castle-like prison named “The Alcatraz of the East”. Students from the University of New Hampshire Travel and Tourism study program were proud to have some of their research papers on display. The owner of the Isle of Shoals Steamship Company, Robin Wittaker and her personable staff provided everyone with a real class-act experience!
Thursday was jammed packed with excitement, education and networking. Headspace Design’s booth was set up amongst the hotels conference rooms accompanied by fellow-exhibitors from magazines, photographers, local chambers, resorts, and more.
Our day began with a welcome and NH Division of Travel & Tourism update followed by workshops and round-table discussions on topics revolving around marketing with a heavy focus on the importance of the proper use social media.
Our Key Note presentation was scheduled to take place via a trolley ride to the Seacoast Repertory Theatre. This trip was rerouted to take place right in the hotel due to a 9 hour stand off and bomb scare on a bus that was passing through downtown! The Key Note speaker, Dennis Snow presented a compelling and inspiring presentation “Unleashing Service Excellence, Lessons From the Mouse”. Snow encouraged businesses to “look through the lens” of their customer. He presented simple models that could provide true lasting memories, a “WOW” experience and a sense of relationship rather than just another plain old stale experience. Every detail matters to the customer when you look through their eyes. He went on to add that this generation is in fact one of the most social generations to come about in a long time. They are very unique, in being an extremely “technologically social” society – this is the key to understanding our younger generation. Snow’s transparency, humor and 20+ years of experience with Disney provided all in attendance with a fresh perspective on how to provide the most engaging customer service experience possible.
The day’s events continued with more exhibitors networking, facilitated break-out sessions, a Member & Legislator Reception and a silent auction. We wrapped up our busy day with a lovely Farm/Sea Table Dinner Banquet where we enjoyed delicious local cuisine including Bison, fresh produce and local wines, cheeses & breads. The decadent dessert spread at the end made for a inconspicuous loosening of the top button on my trousers and a well deserved night sleep!
The conference continued into Friday with more outstanding presentations and events. The highlight of the day was the travel writer’s panel, “The Increasing (Not Decreasing) Role of Travel Writers Working Online & In Print”. This dynamic panel included Mel Allen, Yankee Magazine editor; Steve Jermanok, Boston Globe, Outside, multi-media; Marty Basch, Columnist for the Concord Monitor, Valley News, Caledonia Record, Keene Sentinel, Boston Globe contributor; and Christina Tree, New Hampshire, An Explorer’s Guide, Yankee and Boston Globe contributor. The panel encouraged businesses to share from their hometown perspective offering unique details and honesty rather than a stale “announcement of the companies new Director” when presenting ideas for press releases or article suggestions. There are many ways that the same story can be presented for topics of inclusion. For example: The announcement of a new chef could be included not only in the food section, but also in articles about unique local people or the trends of organic produce. Use your imagination and go beyond simple boring facts to create a “sense of place” for readers.
The conference ended with a Keynote address, End the Hype: Getting the Most Out of Social Media Marketing with Christine Major from Awareness Networks.
I wrapped up my day with a visit to the Maffatt-Ladd House and Garden, www.moffattladd.org who opened their doors special for conference attendees, a walk through the indescribably beautiful Prescott Park and a visit to some of the wonderful local downtown businesses. Overall, the conference was well attended, professionally run, informative and honestly…simply too much fun. Headspace looks forward to developing the relationships established with these fine industry professionals throughout the year and our attendance at next year’s conference! Many thanks to the NH Travel Counsel for their hard work.
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