Get To The Grapes

McDonald’s is making an interesting move with its brand – shunning bright red roofs and yellow table and chairs for a more muted and sophisticated look and feel. First, they launched McCafe’s to compete with Starbucks and now they want to compete further by designing their chains to keep their customers around awhile.  McDonald’s business model has always been to get as many people in and OUT as possible. However, their new design is meant to keep their customers comfortable and cozy – think Starbuck’s and the Apple store. I know, as odd as it sounds, that is exactly who they are trying to emulate.   It will be interesting to see how this new approach resonates with its customers and its brand.

See article, video and pictures via @USATODAYmoney here.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Biz Savvy

Focus should be on messaging, usability, personality, then design

Sacramento Business Journal - by Debi Hammond Contributing writer

Ah, the wonderful world of website design. A place where everyone you talk to is either an expert or knows someone who is. And a place where everyone wants to share the great deal they got on the design and development. And why not? I mean, it’s just one of the most important parts of your brand. The place where most of your customers and prospects will visit to learn more about you and your business.

The fact is many business owners are frustrated with their websites because they’ve put their brand in the hands of these so called “experts,” usually a graphic designer, or a website churn mill, where templates are applied to something that should be treated with the utmost care and attention to detail.

After all, your website is an extension of your brand. It should reflect who you are today and what kind of company you want to be five years from now.

I’m not here to belittle or begrudge graphic designers or their craft, as they are absolutely an integral part of the process. But a website is so much more than aesthetics. A website is visual and it should be visually appealing, but the design should be the last phase of your website, not the first.

So, whether you’re getting ready to build a website from scratch or redesigning an existing one, follow these five steps to make it successful. (more…)

If you’re wondering whether or not you want the new iPhone, well, watch this video.  This phone is amazing! I’m dumping my Blackberry for this phone!

Seth Godin recently wrote about Scott McCloud’s book on comics as it relates to marketing. As a huge fan of comics i just couldn’t let the opportunity pass without adding my two cents.

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July 1st marked the beginning of Levis new campaign “Go Forth” which places a huge emphasis on American Exceptionalism, our fight for independence and manifest destiny. They have invited us to take part in the campaign, the illusion they have created (and make no mistake it is an illusion). They have declared us “generation denim”…

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You can’t say ‘restaurant’ in Sacramento without saying Paragary’s. The two have gone hand in hand for longer than I have been alive, and Paragary’s Restaurant Group (PRG) latest foray into the restaurant business is simply swinging!

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Recently I stumbled across a series of ads produced in 2006 for a men’s clothing company by the name of Stori. I have to admit that the first thing that caught my eye was an image of Spiderman getting dressed, but upon further inspection I noticed a few other things that I thought made these ads worthy of the awards they won.

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Identities get redesigned, that is just the nature of design evolution. A company starts with and an identity and five, ten, fifteen years later the company has evolved. Their mission, their audience, their culture is different. Their original identity no longer reflects where they are, let alone where they want to be. Naturally the thing to do is to redesign the identity.

And when an identity is redesigned a host of things will come into play. From competitor logos to what is “expected” from your field in terms of color, form, image, symbol, even type. Audience must come into play as well. Who will see this? What impression would you like them to take away from it? Where will they see it? All of this is in some part determined when the redesign is done, and what is going on in the culture at that time.

Logos always seem to follow the trends of design, almost marking an era. Our current era, the one of social media and user generated content has finally crept into the mainstream of design.

Do you see it?
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That is what design is all about.

How does one communicate a feeling, a thought, an idea to a wide range of people who have different experiences, different understanding, different points of view purely through a visual representation? And what happens when that idea becomes more and more complex? Take wine for example, it is complex, it has all manner of classification and variety, each with a surprising number of subtle nuances. How would one explain wine, a topic of much interest here at Merlot, to a relative novice?

This is how.

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Here are a few more products that caught my eye at the show.

Although I mentioned Poggenpohl in my last post, I can’t help but to highlight a few more things about this line.  First, the quality is impeccable and the product line somehow merges sleek and sexy design with functional attributes. And given its European heritage, it optimizes every inch of space with unique niches here and perfectly organized partitions there.  www.poggenpohlusa.com

A place for everything...

...everything in its place.

New kid on the block Italian range maker, Fratelli Onofri, introduces some beautifully detailed products including a new ‘hammered’ finish as well as the very sexy “Divina.’

The new Divina Range

Toto came to the show in a big way introducing some amazingly beautiful new products in what I believe to be their biggest booth ever! One product that had more bells and whistles than I am comfortable with in that particular product category was the Neorest 600.  With its sleek and minimal exterior and seemingly easy-to-use gagetry, I did become a little more comfortable with the whole idea of this hands-free experience. Given that the toilet is self-cleaning, self-closing and helps keep the nether-regions exceptionally clean and dry, I think this product could very well be the best thing you ever did for your marriage, I mean, your home.

Neorest 600: Saving marriages one toilet at a time.

If you want to be pleasantly distracted by shiny objects then visit the Rohl booth at K/BIS. Modern, traditional, classic or country, they feature an amazing array of luxury faucets and fixtures for the home. Taking a more minimal approach, Rohl introduced its Vincent Bath Collection featuring subtle angles and straight lines that are as contemporary as they are timeless.   

Vincent Bath Collection by Rohl

So this last product is more personal preference than the best product found at K/BIS.  I have this asian-themed bathroom with a bamboo mirror and saw this faucet and fell in love! It’s the South Sea Collection by Danze. It’s all about the finishing touches…

South Sea Collection by Danze

 There were a lot of other amazing products at the show, but now we’re going to move on to something a little more fun! Stay tuned…