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Andy sent me a link to Bittbox with this link to Icon Finder.

It’s a searchable database of free downloadable icons - some of which are very cool.

Never thought I would write a disparaging post about two companies whose products I have admired for being aesthetically admirable - Apple and Dyson - but I have a problem. When I buy a product, first and foremost, it has to work - and work well. In my mind, if it looks ‘cool’, it’s simply not enough, especially now I am so much less fashion and trend conscious. (more…)

We made a great decision about four months ago in a management meeting. Our company van had come to the end of it’s lease and we were discussing whether we should buy it. A quick outright cost then ongoing savings.

It got us thinking how we were looking at the van as a cost. What if we spent a little bit more and turned it into an asset? You can’t make a vehicle an asset surely?

We think we have with our new van - custom paint job, sports pack and hard-to-miss signage with our new branding… What d’ya think?

Having driven it around the town a couple of times, I can tell you that people actually stop and look…

So, we have now have 365 days to sell one website or design project from someone seeing the van and getting in touch to pay for the annual cost… I’ll let you know how we get on.

Well, it’s not actually waterproof but who’d want to watch a TV under water anyway? The client project for the Aquivo LCD screen really shows how water resistant it really is.

The client arranged a video shoot with the local fire brigade, we edited and clipped it together to make it a little more interesting, then we threw it on You Tube, commented on a few blogs and generated a a few links.

Someone must think it’s worthy, it’s already had nearly 500 views in 48 hours…

If only I could explain what I do for a living to my old careers advisor! You also see the ‘fireman meets the waterproof tv‘ video on You Tube.

It seems that traditional PR people are actually admitting that they can’t do web very well according to a report at E Consultancy.

The research found 55% of respondents – either agency, inhouse and freelance PRs – thought their fellow practitioners were “incapable” of performing comprehensive online PR campaigns.

It is suggested that traditional PRs are busy doing what they traditionally do, which prevents them adapting to the changes and opportunities ‘online’ is bringing. That’s fair enough, I’m sure a lot of fax manufacturers were doing the same ten years ago.

One of the biggest problems, perhaps, is the fact that ‘online’ isn’t as controllable as traditional PR and reputation management. But, let’s face it, people are going to talk about you whatever - good or bad. It’s what you do about it that counts.

This creates a certain level of authenticity that is the antithesis of old school marketing and PR. Suddenly, we all have to… wait for it… concentrate on actually being:

1. Excellent at what we do: Good won’t do anymore - there’s so much choice.
2. Good at customer service: If you don’t treat me nice, I’ll go somewhere else.

Catching The Wave Of Choice

If you can consistently deliver, treat customers well and let the people who think you do a good job tell other people, then you can let go of your online PR and you may just end up catching the wave of other people’s choice. Their wave, not yours.

Of course, you can give people extra reasons to talk to everyone about you, such as useful content, tools, e-books, etc. but ultimately, if you are no good, people will find out online because people will (already do) talk about you.

And, if you are exceptional and worth talking about, you can know that people will do that too.

Online (and Offline) Marketing

• Retail Bulletin - Using integrated online and offline marketing is winning over consumers.
• E-Consultancy - Internet users want content
• E-Consultancy - E-Mail marketing overtakes direct mail

SEO and Technical

• Matt Cutts - disects the elements of a URL

Having worked in the office environment most of my adult life, and having visited many client sites of all shapes and sizes one thing I notice are that people like to personalise their workspace. And, one area where people do like to be ‘different’ is by having their own desktop background on their computer, whether it be a photo of a ‘hot’ woman, a car, the family, the latest pop sensation, etc.

Another thing I see a lot of is that these lovely photos are covered with icons due to the way the person works. I am a structured kind of guy and need a folder hierarchy for my digital filing but some people just love to throw every document the create on their desktop.

Steve, a colleague, who works this way (when his work is not on the server of course) has created his own desktop background system to help him organise his documents and still keep them on his desktop. So simple, yet so obvious… feel free to download the link.

I have just read The Jelly Effect by Andy Bounds and it got me thinking. He talks about AFTERs but one thing that struck me is that we need to be selling what people are actually buying - and translating this concept to our marketing material.

AFTERs is an acronym used in the book and although I won’t go into it now (I would suggest reading the book) it does make you think about your message.

Andy talks in one of the chapters about selling and the sales cycle and how clients are actually buying that feeling or result that they get maybe a year down the line AFTER you have finished your part or selling and delivering. eg. I spent £10k on a website last year - have I seen any leads come in? (more…)

There is an interesting article in Design Week (2/8/07 - vol. 22 / No. 31) by Mark Shaw called Doing The Business. In it, Mark suggests that Senior Designers should become ‘business designers’, understanding business in general and applying a creative mind to solving business problems.

I agree wholeheartedly. In short, client (and business) expectations are driven by results. Results [should] come from targets set by a strategy and as a Design Agency, we have a responsibility to understand our clients’ business, audience and market and deliver to them. We also need to understand business to a fashion: profit and loss, cost of acquisition of new clients vs. retention of old, etc. (more…)

Tony Wilson bought so many bands that shaped my life… into my life and this week at The Escape in Unit C we have been re-living so many of those bands that played during our youths. Most of who, it has to be said, hailed from Manchester and under the wing of Tony Wilson.

From Joy Division to New Order through to the Happy Mondays and even the fleeting career of Northside; times that seemed like yesterday… we remembered with so much fun and the realisation that we too, are getting that little bit older.

So, in a week of reminiscing that has ended with the announcement of the passing away of Tony Wilson we say… RIP and thanks for the memories.