A couple of years ago, I was rooting around a used bookstore and stumbled across some old issues of Fortune magazines from the 1930s. Since I was only familiar with the current, somewhat aesthetically pedestrian, iteration of the magazine, I can safely say I was blown away. Those old weathered issues were simply beautiful. Filled with beautiful illustrations, design and typography, those old magazines easily bested anything currently on the newsstands.
Since then I have sought out other old magazines and marveled at how good they looked. It easy to forgot the power and beauty an illustration can have when used properly on a magazine cover. Unfortunately, it is so easy to forget because it is done so infrequently now. Aside from The New Yorker (which features a snazzy illustration by Eric Drooker on this week’s cover, there are few high-profile magazines that consistently have covers that exclusively use illustrations on their covers.
Now I don’t want to turn this into a illustration versus photography debate. I love good photography just as much as I love good illustration. I think the problem is more of one with art direction. Today, art directors must account for much more information that needs to be communicated. The result is covers jam-packed with coverlines teasing the content found within. This comes in direct contrast with what was done in the past (as seen in this then and now comparison.)
All things are cyclical and I for one hope that the pendulum swings back in favor of aesthetics over coverlines. There are a lot of talented illustrators and photographers out there. Let’s turn them loose and let them produce something truly striking.
Posted by Trev on August 10th, 2007
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At this point, no one can deny the success of 7-Eleven’s Kwik-e-Marts. Those Krusty O’s and Squishees are absolutely flying off the shelves. So I guess the folks at Disney just couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon. And what does this family-friendly brand come up with in a flash of cross-promotion genius as a tie-in to its animated hit of the summer? Ratatouille Chardonnay. Yes, wine. A 2004 French white burgundy to be specific. Now, the good news is that Disney and Costco decided to cancel the promotion after getting pushback from opponents of underage drinking. Not to mention California winemakers. Seriously, did nobody at Costco or Disney see this one coming? According to a Disney spokesperson, “We’ve been getting a trickle of inquiries and complaints.” I’ll bet they have.
Posted by Kelly on August 10th, 2007
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I am not sure if anyone else has noticed the Slowsky ads, or taken notice of the Slowsky following, but I am a big fan. In fact, most of my friends and others my age have taken to loving the Slowsky couple. For those of you who are not familiar with this ad campaign, The Slowsky’s are a turtle couple who hate anything and everything fast. Therefore they love their dial-up connection and would never switch to Comcast High Speed Internet.
Karolyn and Bill Slowsky now have their own blog and website dedicated to everything slow. It is incredible to think a simple ad campaign would spin off an entire following of Slowsky lovers. Not to mention continuing to advertise Comcast High Speed in new and fun ways has grabbed the attention of 20 somethings everywhere.
“Fast, it’s not for everyone.”
Posted by Kristin on August 8th, 2007
Filed under Advertising, Branding, Fun, Marketing, Web | No Comments »
In my excitement and anxiety for planning my wedding, I had thought that it made sense to register for a couple online wedding planning sites to help me stay on track. I also thought that these sites may provide to be valuable resources for local vendors or just for some ideas. But now, after only a few weeks of being registered, I am having some regrets.
Just to be clear, I am not getting married until next fall – October 2008. Which, is no secret to the wedding registry sites as this is one of the required fields. But clearly the vendors that have access to my profile are ignoring this rather important piece of information – the evening phone calls from photographers, and the weekly mailings from some companies have begun to test my nerves. Yes, I know, I should have anticipated this – right? Well, I did expect it, but with the wedding over a year away, I had thought that there would be a little bit of a grace period before being harassed, and not in such a terrible manner. First, don’t ask me when the wedding is when this is clearly part of the information provided through the online lead generation forms. Second, space out your mailings – if I am making a decision on a photographer in the next few weeks, I might hang on to your postcard, but not if you send me one once a week. Third, acknowledge some of the information that you have based on my profile – I am not going to use you as a vendor if your service requires meeting in-person and you are located hours away from my wedding location or home address.
So, for all of you lead generation marketers – READ the information that you receive through your lead generation tactics and use this information wisely when following up on requests or sending out any marketing materials. UNDERSTAND the request or submission and make the lead feel like the information that they provided was not a waste of time and personalize the response. More importantly, understand who this person is and what their purchasing habits and needs are. Lastly, RESPOND appropriately and make sure that you are providing them with useful information based on what you have learned about them.
Take it from me, there is nothing worse than ignoring your prospects’ needs and responding inappropriately. And for those of you that get leads from online wedding registries – make sure you at least look at the wedding date!
Posted by Christina on August 7th, 2007
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Fontself is “a bitmap font and text engine”. Basically it looks like an application that dynamically generates raster characters using collections that can have any number of variants for each character. Try it here, and have a look at an example of it processing some news feeds here.
It also has downloadable PDF documentation. It’s in french, but the images and examples seem to speak for themselves.
Posted by James on August 7th, 2007
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