b.todd | marketing + creative | denver, co

A Nice Surprise, A Nice Marketing Piece

Got a nice surprise in the mail today: The Super-Incredible Activity Book For Creatives from Veer. If you’re not familar with Veer, they are a website that sells fonts, stock photos and other resources for creatives. First off, it’s not everyday you get a nice, unsolicited direct mail piece like this. Secondly, it’s a pretty sweet little book filled with random puzzle and mind games with a lot of good design and great typography. My favorite game has to be “bah bah black sheep” which is a list of random phrases you try to get your relatives to say out loud at a family gathering. Anything from “How was the drive?” to “Have you seen my teeth?” Classic! read more

DISH Network Gets Personal

DISH Network has been in what seems like a never-ending battle, playing third fiddle to DirectTV and big cable providers like Comcast (Xfinity), Cox and Time Warner. Their growth over the last few years has been somewhat impressive and they’ve seen marginal success playing the pricing game in their past campaigns. However, for the most part they have played the same game as DirectTV and Comcast rather plan plowing their own road, attempting to boast number of HD channels or sports packages. Although they have offered cheaper service and a progressive HD service, DISH’s brand hasn’t outgrown their underdog status. read more

Firefox 3.6 is Purty

So after being reminded a dozen times, I finally got around to installing Firefox 3.6. They seem to have made some nice improvements to the browser, although honestly I really don’t take enough advantage of all the add-ons and plug-ins available for Firefox. Anyway, one of the more noticeable changes is the new Personas, that allow you to choose skins for your browser window and even allows designers to create their own. Not really a deal breaker, but a nice fun surprise that distracted me for a few minutes. Here’s a screenshot, which you’ll also notice the new b.todd Twitter page, so follow us!

When Companies Embrace Their Brand Equity

Brands can be funny things sometimes. Companies will spend hours upon hours along with a small fortune to develop, strategize and promote their ideal vision, yet when it comes down to the true brand perception, it is the consumer who gets the final say. As a company, you have the power to lay the groundwork for you brand and guide the consumer down the path that you see as ideal. Companies can preach certain values, choose who they market to, dictate store environments and determine product usage, yet they are always at the mercy of the consumer and whether or not they buy into that brand that is presented to them. When the company and consumer on the same page, it can be bliss. When they are not, it can be fatal. read more

Wait, is that a pe…?!?!

Every so often, a designer accidentally (or vengefully) designs a logo that is maybe a little too phallic, and the client doesn’t pay enough attention or care to notice that their brand new logo depicts a man’s naughty bits. Unfortunately for these companies, their customers notice, oh do they notice.

The London Sperm Bank happened to end up with a brand new phallic logo themselves, however, this one was on purpose….for obvious reasons. Seems like quite a clever branding strategy to attract younger male clients, we’ll see how the plan pans out for them.

(article via The Drum and @LogoDesignLove)