Police Cars and Visual Branding
Branding isn’t just limited to websites; it extends all the way to police cars.
Branding
Branding insights, tips, and tricks for emerging and established businesses.
A Slice of TOMA Pie
The Village Inn has free pie every Wednesday? That sounds like a great example of Top of Mind Awareness branding.
Super Bowl Ads 2013: The Ads that Didn’t Advertise
Our yearly roundup of Super Bowl Ads. Some were good, some were bad, and most were just okay.
Super Big Trademarks: When Can You Use Them?
The NFL has a trademark on the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it.
We LOVE Our Credit Union
Building a long-term relationship with your clients really pays off, for both the client and the designer.
Educating Clients, Part V: Marketing Integration
The final installment of our client education series. Plan effective marketing strategies ahead of time to get the most out of your brand.
Educating Clients, Part IV: Content and Coordination
Part four of our series on client education. The flashiest website in the world is nothing without good content.
Educating Clients, Part II: The Early Stages
Part two of our series on client education. This week, we share with you our early process in figuring out what the client needs.
Educating Clients: a Tricky Process
Educating clients is a hard but often necessary process. We usually start with a conversation.
The Next Big Thing is Pretty Darn Small
Apple’s new ads for the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini are a little silly, but we thought we’d share them anyway.
Monday Distractions
It’s Monday, and we all know a fun filled distraction is always a welcome event. So while you are trying to plow though the pile of email, voice mail and “acKKKK my site broke this weekend, please fix it!” requests, take a moment to play with few fun Google Easter eggs courtesy of my son! (Branding Side note: as I mentioned …
Why Crowd Sourcing is Bad for Your Brand
Seemingly out of the blue, twice in one day last week, Crowd Sourcing design came up in two separate conversations. Once with one of my printers, and once by my son! Both thought it sounded like a great idea for us and asked if we were in the business of being in the Crowd that gets …
Good Questions, Run of the Mill Answers
This Ad Age White Paper asks some good questions about small business marketing, but gets some fairly run of the mill answers. We’ll help you sort the wheat from the chaff.
Spamalot 3 :: Best Practices
Today, we present best practices for successful spam-free email marketing, broken into 4 broad categories.
Timeless Advice from an Iconic Mad Man
The skills that made advertising the fine art of the late 20th century, are the same ones we use today at Phases to build great brands and Websites. George Lois, the guy who got the likes of Mick Jagger and Sting to want their MTV in the 80s describes the creative process that helped spark advertising’s creative revolution, and that are still the building blocks of the best work in the industry today.
We’ve been published!
Some of our client work is appearing in two separate curated graphic design books.
Facebook Timeline for Pages
Today Facebook formally announced Timeline for Pages, which will alter the default view of your business’ or organization’s Facebook Page to look more like your personal profile pages. On March 30th all Pages will roll over to the new design and you can do it now if you want, but Phases recommends you wait until Facebook works out a few of the kinks.
The Valentine’s Day Branding Massacre
February 14th is the biggest day of the year for florists, so if they don’t have their ducks in a row, the day doesn’t end well. 1-800 Flowers screwed up several hundred deliveries this year, and then dropped the ball on customer service. The damage to their brand will definitely hurt their sales, but it didn’t have to be this way, even after the botched deliveries.
Don’t Let Facebook Give You the Blues
Facebook’s dominance of the web has small businesses convinced that their Facebook badges have to be Facebook blue, regardless of whether or not the color works in the overall design of their own websites, or with their own brands. This isn’t the case. It’s your job to brand yourself, not to manage Facebook’s and Twitter’s brands. Here are a few sites that make the icons their own.