New blog location

Hello, loyal readers. Hello, Elements has a new home! The same great content you have come to expect from our blog is now nestled comfortably within our newly redesigned website.

So hop on over and take a look, and let us know what you think of the new look.

Here's a Thought ... Would You Invite Me to Dinner?

Someone once advised me to never hire someone I wouldn't invite to my home for dinner. Sage advice.

It's advice that I often share when I met potential new clients. Why, you ask? Simple. We're not the right fit for every potential client – and every company isn't a right fit for us.

Surprising? Well, we work on our clients communications. This requires us to dive deeply into understanding your company. To do this, there needs to be synergy, trust and comfort to enable us to do our best work – and for our clients to allow us to do our best work.

If you wouldn't invite me over to dinner, then I probably wouldn't be the right designer to work on your branding. {Not to mention, you wouldn't get to sample my New York-style cheesecake, either!}

T A C K W A L L :: Elements 2011 Postcards

Many people look forward to getting our postcards but may not realize what goes into the creation of those little pieces. Gearing up to produce the cards that will go out through the 2011 calender year, we have all been raiding our personal stashes of nostalgic or inspirational items collected over the years to piece together cards that will relate to the time of year that they will be sent in.

Can you guess whose collection each item came out of?

Hot Seat :: How Do You Measure Success of a Project?

The Executive Director of Constellation Health Services, a health care agency and Elements' client, asked us today's Hot Seat question in a recent meeting. Here is how the exchange went down:

Constellation asked: "How will Elements measure the success of our project?"

Elements replied: "We tailor our measurement of success in conjunction with each of clients' expectations for that particular project. That said, establishing what your expectations are at the beginning of a project is a vital part of measurement. Any successful marketer will tell you that success of a project is moving the needle forward. But, evaluation goes beyond that when you consider that every project's objectives vary widely.

Therefore, beyond the obvious increase of the bottom line, success could also be related to increasing the number of your company's Facebook fans, attracting quality applicants for open positions or expanding your brand recognition. Therefore, identifying goals – along with how they'll be measured – is the linchpin to any successful marketing plan."

NOTED :: Heinz Hopes You Love Ketchup. A Lot.

It's no secret that companies are using trial and error when integrating social media into their marketing plans. Heinz has long quipped clever lines from the front of their ketchup bottles – some of my favorites are "Instructions: put on food", "Fixes burgers at warp speed" and "Ore Idea extra crispy fries dig me".

Just spotted this week is a new label emblazoned with a call to action to join Heinz on Facebook. This is one of the only consumer products I have seen that so boldly features a social media component on their packaging. Heinz has extreme brand loyalists – one need only scan their Facebook page of 430,000+ fans to see that. It's a great idea to leverage that loyalty and take full advantage of their engagement with the brand – but it doesn't seem that Heinz has risen to the occasion.

Having quickly browsed the page, there are several fans who tout their love of Heinz ketchup – but, there are more fans who are a bit angry over the fulfillment process on a recent contest that Heinz ran. It's important to remember that when you give your fans a community gathering place, it's essential to monitor and respond to the conversations – especially when fans are unhappy. Heinz has fallen down here.

As for the packaging, I like the fact that "Ketchup lovers unite!" makes you double take, but the Facebook logo and message could have been incorporated in a less prominent way, so that even 
without knowing or caring about Facebook, shoppers get the joke.

For more best practices on incorporating social media into marketing consumer products, check out a recent Package Design article I was interviewed for: Advanced Social Studies.

3 Questions :: for our clients Robin + Jim Brown

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with our clients, Jim and Robin, and chat with them about their new business, Browns Educational Services, how they came to work with us and how our branding project is going. Here's their very honest answers to our 3 Questions: 

 

Here's a Thought ... Are You Really LinkedIn?

A lot of clients and friends often ask me how I use LinkedIn for business. Here are a few ideas of how I would recommend using LinkedIn for your business:

• Expand your network. Running a busy company affords me the great opportunity to meet new people daily which, in turn, provides an opportunity to continue to expand my network daily. Beyond the obvious addition of everyone I already know, I like to challenge myself to think of at least one new connect each day. Tip: The morning after a networking event, pull out the business cards you've gathered and search for them on LinkedIn.
• Join groups. I join groups whose members are of interest to me professionally such as graphic design associations, my alma mater, marketing directors, women CEOs and so forth. Then, participate. Read, write and respond to those who comment on your posts right away. Tip: Don't forget the above – if someone comments on your post and you start a discussion, by all means, send them a LinkedIn invite.
• Update your status daily. Usually, I update my status based on our current blog post. However,  you could update your status with anything  you feel appropriate to broadcast to your professional network. Don't mistake "I'm eating my lunch at my desk again" as interesting to your audience. Rather, "I'm working on an interesting RFP for a new hospital's website" might generate more buzz. Tip: When appropriate, always try to include a link to your website or blog into your status to drive traffic to your webiste.
• Take advantage of the Twitter connection. Assuming you have a Twitter account, you have the option of linking with Twitter to simultaneously send out a tweet when updating your LinkedIn status. Cool, right? I love anything that saves time and increases hits to your website or blog - so don't forgot to put a link in your status update. Tip: Use a url shortener and tracker such as bit.l.y into your LinkedIn status and Tweet so you track how people are finding and connecting with you.
• Set-up and save people searches. This is my personal favorite. LinkedIn has an advanced search capability which allows you to search for such criteria such as "basketball coaches" (for example) in a certain radius - based on the settings criteria you input. Next, save your search. Once per week, I receive an email with a list of all the new "basketball coaches" who have been added to my network since last week. This shows you the importance of my first tip - keep adding to your network - because you never know who you will connect with who is LinkedIn to the coach of the Celtics, for example. Tip: When I receive my list of "basketball coaches" who are new to my network, I'll do a little research and check their profiles on LinkedIn. It's a great way to connect with other professionals, vendors and maybe even find a new lead or two. Now, you can add them to your mailing list.

Just like any other social media tool (and in real life), you get out of LinkedIn what you put into it. I feel its worth the time investigating to make it work for you.

Picture of the Week :: Trash Can Type

 

When you work with designers, you come to expect that even the trash can is an opportunity to design. Here, Ben hand letters ELEMENTS onto our new studio rubbish receptacle. (Hey, we can't call it a trash can anymore when it looks this good)! 

Picture of the week was captured by Elements' own Simone Gutkin

MoodBoard: Camping!

Well campers, the talented designer Lucinda Wesson of Chocolate Creative and I are at it once again. 

This time, our challenge was to use "safety orange" (you know, the orange used to mark trails in the woods) and our theme was camping in the great outdoors. 

Since Elements is having a very special camping-inspired theme for our open studio party on September 30th, this was the perfect mood board challenge to get me thinking about all things camping. It brings me way back to my summer camp days in New Hampshire. The tents, fresh air, campfires, bug spray, flashlights, sleeping bags, s'mores, bike riding, jumping off docks and flannel. Ahhh. Getting in touch with nature feels good.

row one :: dining al fresco; off to the lake sign; s'more cupcakes

row two :: take a hike poster; campfire badge; hanging oil lantern; boy's orange flannel shirt; Smokey the Bear vintage poster; field flowers in mason jar

row three :: tent in the woods; coleman steel cooler; canoe dockside; twig crayons; "Wherever Adventure Takes Us ..."

pantone palette :: safety orange 165; deep-in-the-woods green 378; sunshine day 101; chocolate s'more brown 7519

By the way, Ms. Wesson, the last item on my board is how I view our friendship: "Wherever Adventure Takes Us ...". Sounds like us, doesn't it?

NOTED :: Women (Designers) Who Rock

WOMEN designers | Mujeres diseñadoras  
Good design around the world. // Buen diseño alrededor del mundo.

It was an honor to be noted amongst some of my heroines of design. I think Canadian graphic designer Carole Guevin put it best:

“Gender has got nothing to do with talent! Are women still under represented today? Yes! Needing more limelight? Yes! Meet women who rock the design industry… with more than pink design!” Carole Guevin

"¡El género no tiene relación alguna con el talento! ¿Las mujeres no tienen suficiente relevancia hoy en día? ¡Sí! ¿Necesitan más protagonismo? ¡Sí! Conoce a aquellas mujeres que rockean la industria del diseño… ¡con mucho más que un diseño rosa!" Carole Guevin

Thank you to Women Designers for recognizing Elements Amy Graver as a woman designer who rocks.