Client: “We really like Apple’s branding. Can you do something like that for us?”
Designer: “I love what Apple is doing too, but your company’s a Mortuary?”

Often when I’m hired to do identity design, I’m given direction like, “Make it look Web 2.0-ish” or “Can you make it look really clean?” or “We really like red. All of our competitors are using it.”

Without some kind of roadmap, the conversation inevitably revolves around personal preferences regarding color, typography and what competitors are doing.

An Identity Spectrum gives everyone involved a common vocabulary for talking about how an identity should feel. What attributes should it convey and to what degree? It attempts to take something very subjective (an identity), and in some small way, measure it. It doesn’t serve as a Bible, but rather a starting point. A point of origin better than just our personal preferences.

Together, we plot 5 or 6 different points between different pairs of attributes on a chart. This helps us to quantify abstract… ...(more)

At 4:45 AM we went to Dawn Patrol at Albuquerque’s 2006 Balloon Fiesta. It takes place about 5 minutes from my house, and is one of my favorite annual events in Albuquerque.

You literally can’t take a bad picture there (unless you forget to remove your lens cap). There were approximately 200 balloons in this morning’s Mass Ascension. They all launch side by side, and spectators are given free reign of the take off field. So you can pretty much walk right up to them, between them and even under them as they launch.

I’ve made a desktop from one of my favorite pics. If you like it, please feel free to download it (no “Mark Bixby” logos or anything).

SIZES:
2560x1600 (<-- Now in "Veerle" size)
1920x1200 (<-- 24" iMacs)
1690x1050
1600x1200
1440x900 (<-- MacBook Pro too!)
...(more)

I’m not what you’d call a Dashboard poweruser. It’s a great app, but until now I just haven’t come across that many really useful widgets.

Sundial is a sweet one developed by the prodigious minds over at Clearwired. As with any great widget, it does one thing, and it does it really well.  Sundial allows you to log time directly to your Basecamp Plus or Premium account.

We’ve upgraded our MethodArts Basecamp account to Plus (from Free) to take advantage of time tracking (as well as file sharing, and a few other features that I think are really going to make Basecamp worth the investment ).

A few notes on using Sundial 1.0:
If you use multiple Basecamp accounts, simply create a separate instance of Sundial from the Dashboard widget bar.

You can also jump directly to your Basecamp account from the widget… ...(more)

I’m all signed up for An Event Apart, Seattle. By far my favorite part of conference-going is meeting other people who get excited by the same things I do. I’ll be traveling with 9ruler, and “celebrity blogger” Brian Warren. An Event Apart will coincide with the official launch of our new consortium, so we wanted to throw a small event of our own.

Our group has been working together now for almost 5 months, and it’s been quite an experience. Big changes are in the wind:

- CSS freak of nature Brian Warren has officially gone solo.
- We’ve launched our first collaborative project. Some good stories there, and when we have a place to write about them, we’ll do just that.
- Vincent Thome has also officially said goodbye to his temporary cubicle job. I think he wants to become a blogger when he grows up.

So, we’re inviting anyone… ...(more)

Following an abysmal interaction with PNM‘s customer service department (New Mexico’s public utility company) I went online in search of a consumer advocate group with whom I could share my despair.

Knowing it was a long shot, I pointed Firefox to PNMsucks.com with the hope of discovering a vocal opponent to these “evil-doers”. No such luck. Interestingly, a quick domain lookup revealed that PNM was fully aware of their negative perception, and had preemptively purchased the domain… for ten years.

Not only did this revelation further incense me, it reinforced their brand - that is, my experience in dealing with their company. After witnessing first hand the full impotence of their customer service department, I’d now found that PNM was also attempting to quash a response to their utter “suckitude” rather than, I don’t know… trying not to suck maybe?

SaraJoy Pond’s recent rant on a visit to her local Walmart prompted another quick check, revealing Walmart too worries they suck… ...(more)

Could I go back to when I was designing this site, I definitely would’ve incorporated a “links” section (like Longboard, or Premium Linkage) for when I saw something I wanted to share without bothering those who don’t have ADD. I’m hoping soon to have a new outlet for my daily distractions, but in the mean time, here’s some cool stuff from the internet this week:

Got Advertising?
A heartfelt public service message from my good friends at 3 Advertising. Please help? A true testament to what 3 guys can accomplish when they go off their meds and start their own agency.

SaraJoyPond
Another in a very long list of websites that make me feel old and busted. Great designers who also use words like “perspicacity” rule!

Get a clue.
Advice for lazy… ...(more)

To me, Jeffrey Zeldman is the King of Cool. It feels like he’s always 1 1/2 steps ahead of whatever’s going on. With a savant-like mastery of design and web standards, he still manages to exude incredible humanity.

So not for a second does anyone believe he’s the wandering noob he appears to be during his recent challenges with an expiring domain, and his flickr Pro account. One important lesson companies can learn from him is “don’t bury your mistakes”. Without malice for the companies that failed to watch his back, Zeldman shares his mistakes, and offers advice for preventing these situations in the future. A genius, a visionary and a guru - but human like the rest of us. It’s his brand.

Many businesses go to great lengths to hide their flaws, mistakes or even simple lapses in attention. They feel it would hurt their credibility if anyone were ever… ...(more)

As a designer who spends some time designing logos, I want to state for the record that your logo doesn’t matter. That’s right. If you created a spectrum of all the problems facing large companies, small companies, stagnating companies, companies experiencing painful growth, you won’t find one that a logo can fix.

So I wanted to offer some logo advice for business owners I’ve gathered through my experience in developing brands:

- Your logo is not your brand. Don’t expect it to be.

- If you are unable to articulate why someone should choose your company over your competitor, a well designed logo is not going to fix that problem.

- Trying to look like a big company when you aren’t one is a bad strategy. These days, 2 guys can have a billion dollar idea. No one cares how much overhead you have. That is old thinking.

- Your logo is also not your value proposition. Don’t expect it to be. “How will people… ...(more)