The amusing part? The letter was set in Comic Sans, a common Microsoft font usually reserved for birthday party announcements or “free puppies” posters.  Instead of taking the letter seriously, people everywhere are mocking Gilbert for his choice of font. Not since James Cameron’s use of the font Papyrus for his blockbuster movie Avatar, has a font received so much notoriety.

Hatred of Comic Sans is not new. In fact there are entire websites (bancomicsans.com, flickr.com/groups/comicsans/) dedicated towards the eradication of the typeface. The font itself was conceived at Microsoft in 1994 for use in a software program aimed at children, and featuring a cartoon dog. A year later, it was included as one of the few standard typefaces in the Windows operating system, and has been a fixture ever since. Comic Sans can now be seen in everything from warning signs to official documents.

Here are some examples of questionable uses of the font:

It’s time for you to weigh in. Tell us what you think about the font, the letter and the drama around the trade of King James.

Everyday we are flooded with visual messaging. It is often that these messages are being incorrectly stated visually. Take Carrabba’s logo for instance. The apostrophe used is actually not an apostrophe at all! It is a prime mark, or in the design world  a “dumb quote.” Prime marks are used for measurements such as (‘) for feet and (“) for inches. So technically, Carrabba’s is visually saying Carrabba (feet) s. It was back in college that I noticed this snafu and actually wrote the company about this lapse in design. To my surprise, sometime later Carrabba’s released a new logo (I take no credit). The prime mark has been replaced with a “smart quote” — a true apostrophe!

See example A & B.

Beyond logos, prime marks are making there way elsewhere. Have you watched Jeopardy lately? The ENTIRE Jeopardy board is filled with prime marks! The comma after the quotation is also a typography no-no!

See example C.

Prime marks are even making their way onto the silver screen. In December, I saw the movie, “The Young Victoria.” It is a stunning film, yet in the first minute my design eye was cringing! Not only were prime marks used as quotations, the dashes should have been “em” dashes which are the correct dash to be used in a sentence pause — plus the period is set AFTER the quotation or in this case prime mark! Typographers and Type-setters around the world are crying!

What examples have you seen of prime marks, dumb quotes and smart quotes? Tell us what you think.

As part of a pro bono effort for ClimbOn—an organization that provides job opportunities for homeless youth—the H/M team re-energized the brand. Included in the project were a new logo, color palette, position line, business stationery and Web page.ClimbOn works with YouthCare to create partnerships with the Northwest business community to provide career counseling and exploration, job referrals and placements to help homeless young adults move toward self-sufficiency. To sum up ClimbOn’s mission, Hodgson/Meyers developed the position line: Jobs for youth. Hope for life. By interlocking the words “Climb” and “On,” H/M created a logo that suggests partnership and advancement.

Said ClimbOn’s Director of Youth Services, Bill Northey, “We couldn’t be happier with the materials—and the thinking—that Hodgson/Meyers provided. Their work has captured what ClimbOn is about, and has provided inspiration for all involved with the program.”

We beg to differ, Bill. It’s ClimbOn that provided the inspiration for H/M. And continues to provide hope for the homeless youth of our area.

The answer is a lot. In fact, color can be everything. Just where would Tiffany’s be without blue, UPS without brown, or Coca-Cola without red? Not only does each of these brands make effective use of color, they own that color in their respective categories, hands-down. Granted, it took millions of advertising dollars and years of brand impressions to do it. So what does that mean for businesses that don’t have the marketing budget of a small country? Can your brand still use color to stand out from your competitors? Why, yes of course!

Feeling Blue (or Red)

Here’s a fantastic graphic originally published in Wired magazine that illustrates the color landscape of corporate America. Although a little dated (note the Enron logo), it does a great job of showing just how concentrated the space is for brands using red or blue as their primary color. It also becomes obvious where there might be opportunities for differentiation.

Take a moment to think about where your brand falls on the color map of your specific battleground. Are you swimming in a competitive sea of corporate IBM blue?

Don’t Just Use Color, Own It
Here’s an example of how Hodgson/Meyers used color as a strong brand differentiator for Applied Systems, the largest and most progressive company in the insurance management technology industry. Applied Systems’ previous brand used a traditional royal blue and bright red color system. Ok, not a bad thing in itself — however, most of their competitors and a host of other companies in peer industries were using a similar color palette. Not good if you’re trying to stand out.

before

As a result, H/M proposed the current warm yellow as one way to break away from the pack and to represent Applied’s focus on cultivating strong customer relationships, as well as their status as an innovative, forward-thinking industry leader.

after

The new yellow color was designed to be an integral part of the brand, and was applied (pardon the pun) on everything from the corporate logo to promotional buttons. The result is a fresh look that re-energizes the brand and signifies its status as an aggressive, vibrant company.

What do you think?
What companies, brands or marketing campaigns do you think use color as a strong brand asset?  Comment here.

So, if you’re an advertiser, how do you stand out? In the case of Hodgson/Meyers client CSG Systems. Inc. – a customer interaction management solution company – the answer was to come out fighting. Or at least to wear boxing gloves.

How to stand out in the direct mail crowd

In touching more than half of all U.S. households, CSG helps companies such as Comcast, DISH and Time Warner with billing and customer interaction solutions. When the time came to introduce a new product offering, CSG wanted to reach approximately 100 key decision makers in the cable and satellite TV industry.

With such a narrow, targeted audience, a direct mail approach seemed the most appropriate vehicle. However, these influential executives are also the same targets of most every other technology company as well. Thus, the challenge became to create marketing materials that would not immediately be placed in the round file, under W for wastebasket.

As the marketing agency for CSG, we needed to think big and think outside the box. In this case, thinking big meant size. And thinking outside the box had to do with thinking about what went inside the box.

Which brings us back to boxing gloves.

Adapt the mail strategy to the marketing strategy

Cable and satellite marketing managers face the never-ending problem of customer churn, people who leave one provider for another. CSG has a way to help providers eliminate churn with a better customer management solution. We recommended sending life-size professional boxing gloves along with product information to the target audience, allowing CSG to figuratively and literally give marketing executives the tools to effectively fight churn.

The sheer size of the direct mail piece (7.5” x 10.5” x 12.5”) received immediate attention. Inside a handsome box, copy and layout framed a personalized message as if announcing a heavyweight championship bout.

Box copy and Everlast boxing gloves were customized with each individual recipient’s name. These decision makers were encouraged to “K.O. churn with CSG customer intelligence solutions.” In so doing, they’d be able to build strong customer relationships, retain subscribers more effectively and enhance the value of each customer interaction.

Big package. Big Idea. In short, a real knockout!

(Customized boxes for the CSG mailer were provided by MasterCraft.)

Do you dig woodpeckers? Of course you do.

Get your FREE stick-on tattoo of Spike, our Chairman of the Board and Aviary Magazine’s 2009 “Sexiest Woodpecker Alive.”

Tattoos fully guaranteed for an entire week, unless you bathe. Or sweat.

Send us a photo of you with your new tattoo and we’ll post our favorites here.

We found another item for our holiday wishlist. Seattle designers (like us) will love this map of Seattle neighborhoods from Ork. Clever design and typography, guys.

They also have posters for Boston, Chicago, L.A., New York, D.C., Portland, San Francisco, and more.

Order online or pick one up in Ballard.

Thanks to Seattle Magazine for spotting this one.

Here’s recent work from Hodgson/Meyers for WatchGuard Technologies. This campaign was designed to give WatchGuard positioning presence and marketing personality in the crowded network security industry comprised of many competitors with “me-too” propositions. WatchGuard is known for its distinctive red hardware.

We developed the campaign positioning platform expressed here.

Get red. Get secured.

Then we created the red animal ad campaign that WatchGuard is using in print, interactive, and trade show environments. The campaign is also running as backlit display ads in major airports around the world, such as the one below in the United terminal at San Francisco International Airport (thanks to Jason Frummet, our Senior Account Director for snapping this photo with his iPhone for us).

Here’s what our client, Margaret Liddiard, Director of Marketing Communications for WatchGuard Technologies, says,

“This campaign is the most memorable one I’ve worked on in many years. We were searching for a way to make WatchGuard really stand out in a noisy, crowded B2B tech market, and this campaign is helping us do that with the catchy tag phrase and arresting images. And it has been enthusiastically adopted throughout the globe by our field marketing teams and partners. WatchGuard is on the move in the market place, and our Get red. Get Secured. campaign is contributing to our growing brand awareness.”

11:15 pm. You try a different photo. Try some Photoshop filter and some technique you saw in a video podcast recently. Surely that will pull this idea back from the abyss. It doesn’t. It goes over the edge and you watch helplessly as it spirals down to its death. In slow motion. Screaming “SAVE ME PLEASE!” But there is no saving of this idea.

12:45 am. You make a strong pot of coffee and splash cold water on your face. It helps, but only for a moment. It’s then, that your eyes glaze over and you have a weak moment. It starts as just a tiny thought that you immediately dismiss. But you think about it some more, and start rationalizing it. And then common sense kicks back in, and you feel dirty. Not because the clothes you’re wearing have been on for more than 18 hours and 27 minutes. You feel dirty, and cheap, because you’re rationalizing using a — cliché. Yes, a worn out cop-out cash-it-in surrender to the circumstances cliché. And your mind continues to wrestle with the thought. You think you could dress it up so it doesn’t look like a cliché. Get a really cool photo from Getty Images (there is a little photo budget in this job, isn’t there?). Get some dramatic lighting, maybe a little grunge background with some cool shadow stuff going on. Place and kern the type tastefully and expertly so that it just sings visually. People might just might swoon after all!

1 am. But the battle rages on within you. As tired as you are, a tiny vestige of rational thought struggles to its feet and croaks to be heard. You try to block out that little voice, but you hear it anyway. It says, “No amount of window dressing will ever change the fact that this “concept” is still just a photo of two guys shaking hands.”

___________________________

A little dramatic, perhaps, but consider the landscape. Take a look at some of the ads floating around, specifically in the B2B space. One would think it obvious to not be this trite, but alas, that’s not the case.

Many years back we made a list and posted it in our conference room. It’s a list of all the VERBOTEN things for ad and marketing imagery. We will NOT, under any circumstances, use ANY of these things in our ads or marketing material for our clients (unless of course they insist and their budget is . . . just kidding). Are there exceptions? Sure, but they’re rare.

So, don’t be tempted to use these whether you have an in-house marketing department or work with an agency. There are actually many more than these, but these are some of the biggest offenders.

The 7 deadly things that should never be in an ad.

1. Shaking hands

2. Globe

3. Gambling things (specifically dice, playing cards, roulette wheel, slot machine)

4. Mountain climbing

5. Dart boards

6. Crystal balls

7. You pick. What do YOU think should be number 7? Let us know in the comments.