February 10th, 2010
Marni MacLeod
Skunkworks Creative Group
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One element of your brand (whether you are a law firm or a country…like Canada) is colour and its consistent use throughout your marketing mix. The idea is to provide consistent visual cues so that your target audience associates the visual cue with an emotion (hopefully positive) about your brand. If you continuously change up your colours or use them inconsistently it can create confusion and dilute the clarity of your messaging. Instead of a clear association between visual cue and concept you get people wondering if you are trying to say something else entirely…and what that might be exactly.
Case in point…Canada has great brand colours. Red and white: high contrast, vibrant, energetic, bold, fun and so forth. So, for the life of me I cannot figure out the thinking that went into the god awful building wrap that is currently displayed on the federal building (also Canada Post HQ) located at the corner of Georgia and Homer here in Vancouver.
Corner of Georgia & Homer, Vancouver BC 2010
If there is one time when you’d think brand colours might be crucial…it’s during a major international event…you know…like the Olympics. In addition to the absence of any significant amount of white (one of our two brand colours) we have a colour combo of black, yellow and red within the banner placed in stacked stripes no less, ok they are in slightly the wrong order but doesn’t it remind you of….
… the German flag. (no offense to our German friends it’s just that it’s supposed to be OUR banner)…add in several different colours of blue and the Cheerios brand and you have the dog’s breakfast. Terrible. Bad design and a huge missed opportunity. We have some of the best brand colours of any country and boy did we blow it – in my opinion. The cool swag is all Red, White and Black…as sported by Brian McKeever and the golden boy himself, Alexandre Bilodeau (they are honestly the only good things about the piece) and at least gets some of the colours right…but the country name is…cut off. Granted everyone knows the name Alexandre Bilodeau…now. But a couple weeks ago that was more of a “might” know his name and where he hails from.
So…what happened? Somebody dropped the ball – that’s what. Wonder if it was the same people who forgot we might need a Canada Pavilion and stuck us with a tent? Hmmmmm.
Tags: brand colours, brand consistency, the Olympics
Posted in Advertising + Design, Things we don't like, We are amused | Add a Comment »
December 16th, 2009
Marni MacLeod
Skunkworks Creative Group
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If you are interested in the survey results you can find them in this issue of the CBA National. Just so you know…the panellists were not allowed to vote for sites of their clients or sites they had worked on. My hope is that this year’s results will inspire other Canadian law firms to take a good look at their websites and start thinking about how they present themselves from a client perspective.
Websites generally serve two primary functions. If your business is heavily skewed to the referral side a professional, informative website acts as a credibility check. If you are looking for new clients a user friendly website that clearly states what kind of law you practice and the matters you regularly handle is one way to provide another doorway into your office. Either way the site should be oriented to the user experience not limited to to a resume approach that focuses on the individual achievements of the firm’s lawyers. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t include all the wonderful things about your legal ability and highlight the prowess of your practice teams. Obviously, a prospective client wants to know about you. BUT I bet you they are more interested in how you can help them with the issue they have at hand (and how much it’s going to cost them to have you do so).
People skim sites looking for key words related to a specific issue or problem they are trying to research or resolve. In short, they are looking for reassurance they are not up the creek without a paddle or, if they are in trouble, they are looking for help. The other thing that tends to happen, particularly when people haven’t had any contact with the legal system or lawyers, is that they get overwhelmed by the procedural side of a problem or they develop unrealistic expectations about their position because they are misinformed about how the law is applied. Lawyers know that every legal issue has at least three component, a unique fact pattern, a procedural component and a case law or legislative component that will dictate or influence the outcome. This can be overwhelming for people who don’t have a legal background. When people feel overwhelmed it’s hard to make good decisions. A clear, user friendly legal website can restore calm by providing a frame of reference and perhaps most important it should supply a prospective client with general background on the practice areas covered and include an action plan (checklists are helpful) that includes calling the lawyer or firm for further advice.
One thing I have come across which I will say I think is a mistake (and this is just my opinion) is to hold back basic information on the assumption that the client will decide not to call or may think they don’t need a lawyer to help them. This makes no sense in my view. The better prepared your clients are when they walk through your door for the first time the less time YOU waste bringing them up to speed and educating them on what facts are going to be relevant, the kind of evidence they need to prove or defend a claim, the types of documents you need to review or legislation that may have an impact. Communication is key and part of a lawyer’s job is to explain a situation fully so that a client can make informed decisions and provide instructions accordingly. Ok, enough for one day. Next time I will share a bit of what I’ve learned about what makes a good user friendly legal website (hint: it’s not fancy Flash scripts or dramatic music).
Tags: legal services, websites
Posted in Advertising + Design, Inspiration, Law, Law firm websites, Things we like | Add a Comment »
September 14th, 2009
Marni MacLeod
Skunkworks Creative Group
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My fiancée creates jewelry (among other things) and for those of you who have tried it…photographing reflective metal objects can be challenging. However, this weekend I think I solved the problem. I built my own light-box. There are a tonne of instructions on the web (just Google “Build your own light box”). All you need are a large cardboard box, a utility knife, a ruler, baker’s parchment (or wax paper), tape, something to use as a background (I chose fabric), a light source and a half decent camera. I just used a run of the mill Canon 5.0 mega pixel digital camera which worked fine for experimenting.
I chose the instructions that looked the simplest (step-by-step written instructions AND pictures – because I don’t like to have to think to hard on the weekend ha, ha). After messing about with photos of jewelry (can’t show them just yet…but I’ll share once the new site is up and running) I thought it would be interesting to try photographing a different subject. The results are below. The secret in this case is a sheet of Plexiglass inserted at least 6″ above the bottom of the light-box. The objects (whatever they are) are placed on the glass so that when you shoot the photo they appear to “float”.
Lightbox flower_1
Lightbox flower_2
Tags: lightbox, photography
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March 16th, 2009
Jordan Milev
Skunkworks Creative Group
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For all those delving into web design: time to check the latest leaders in the various categories as presented in WIRED.
My personal favourite? We Tell Stories (digital fiction from Penguin): http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/. A sweet-and-quirky mixture of Victorian art and exquisite-yet-simple early 21 century CSS-driven web design.
View all the winners:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/sxsw-2009-web-a.html
Posted in Advertising + Design, Inspiration, Technology | Add a Comment »
January 20th, 2009
Jordan Milev
Skunkworks Creative Group
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It’s not a complete change of the Internet giant’s look but hey, it’s a step into that direction anyway. Since to all designer brethren out there the Google logo – or rather, the wordmark – might seem an offense to design as such, this change might signal a better marketing for the web behemoth.
The favicon, based on a Brazilian computer science student’s concept, can already be seen in most of the browsers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7839744.stm
Posted in Advertising + Design, Google | Add a Comment »
