“Inspire Me, Now!”

Polish IA guru Szymon Blaszczyk has a fantastic Tumblog of Imagery. Not much commentary, just marvelous items to spark creativity, discussion and wonder.

Let’s face it, change can be scary.

Especially when it comes to a company’s brand mark. It is the single most visible aspect of a brand. It appears on everything — stationery, signage, marketing collateral, packaging, websites and more.

One of the single biggest concerns about changing a brand mark is the impact the change will have on existing brand equity. Make no mistake about it, changing a company’s brand mark will most definitely have an impact on brand equity. But that’s the point really, because the motivation behind a well thought-out and expertly executed brand mark update or change is to build brand equity. 

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I am always torn between total fascination (tinged with a wee bit of envy) and complete irritation when I run across websites that have very unique or unusual navigation schemes. This website, from Normann Design in Copenhagen, skitters along that knife edge of wonderful/irritating. The glorious design and products tip me over into the happy side.

The Victoria and Albert Museum offers a fantastic resource for unusual object imagery. There’s plenty of diversity, ranging from antiques and objets d’art to current trends in fashion, furniture and retail. Some of the images are so incredibly odd, I can hardly believe my eyes.

courtesy of TrueisTrue.com

I really admire Mike Cina of You Work For Them because he and his partner have shown that the designer’s vision is his or her  value. A designer’s technological or hand skills pale in comparison to the ability to imagine, to envision and to dream. Art, business, design become powerful when powerfully melded together. True is True is Mike’s digital scrapbook. It’s a great for its simplicity and its power. 

The Rake has a great article on You Work For Them. Props for it.

Sometimes one of the first and longest lasting brand or design decisions involves color selection. Every color has a different feel, look, or emotional resonance. Colors will evoke strong feelings towards a brand or design, so it is vital to choose a color that will represent an identity effectively.

“Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.”
- Why Color Matters

(via SwissMiss)

This year Go East will celebrate its 20th anniversary. We have many, many things to celebrate as 20 years of success in the creative industry is a huge milestone. 

Inevitably, celebrating anniversaries raises the question of developing a logo for the anniversary. Commemoration, celebration, nostalgia and gratitude all arise at this time, as does the desire for a logo or mark that embodies the spirit and emotion of the anniversary. The responsibility for capturing these emotions, as well as determining the creative tone of the upcoming celebrations, falls to the designer designated to create the mark. This is no small challenge. 

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I started creating websites way back in the Stone Age (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) using Netscape 0.92 beta (!!). We used to have huge debates about whether people would be able to see animated GIFs in their browsers. Really. So I was quite in the thick of things when websites started to get really interesting. Here’s a fabulous peek at several popular sites from 1998 and a few of the current 2008 flavor.