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Friday, February 09, 2007

Logos, Campaigns, and Such

Dear readers,

What are some of your favorite logos? Ads that stick out in your head? Clever marketing campaigns you enjoyed? Tell me about the last time you purchased a new product and why.

Sincerely,

Budding Entrepreneur (aka kStyle)

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Logos:

I like simple shapes and/or letters in limited color palettes.

In my graphic design class we talked about the Saturn logo. It depicts only part of the planet, and it's "transparent" (basically a line drawing), so your brain gets interested in trying to complete it. It's like a little story.

We also talked about the Allina logo, and the Weisman Art Museum's logo, which I think is a little too complicated, but others thought it was fantastic.

Before & After magazine's website has a free download for some ideas on designing a logo out of letters.

1:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Marketing:

I remember one series of print ads that features an image split in half, and one side is part of a piece of furniture, and the other side is something that has the same pattern and/or basic shape. Like a striped comforter on a four-poster bed aligned with the back of a striped blouse. I like the way they showed how two seemingly dissimilar things are related.

I remember another ad in magazines and on TV featuring a guy who's traveling, and he's accompanied by a younger guy holding a sign showing how many miles or points or whatever he's accumulated during his journey. The characters interest me: There isn't enough information in the photo to tell exactly what they're doing or where they're going, but you can tell they have a story.

And God help me, I love the stupid dancing-silhouette ads for mortgage and loan companies--the dancing couple, the dancing cowboys, the rooftop walker.

Ooh, and there was a recent ad campaign by Kashi, where you could sign up to receive a free granola bar, and if you didn't like it, you could vote for the company's CEO to eat a piece of cardboard. I bought Kashi granola bars for a while after I got mine in the mail. (Then I discovered Nature's Trail, which is cheaper and also good.) But I don't know if I would have if it hadn't tasted good.

There's a book out called Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Perhaps you'd like it.

1:35 AM  
Blogger Narya said...

I'll give this more thought as I go, but my first response is: the iPod ads. Simple, colorful, high-energy, translated well to both moving and still media.

The logo of my favorite yoga studio is nice, as is the logo for the place where I've been getting massages (I use the plural even though the second massage isn't until this afternoon). I'll send them to you.

7:57 AM  
Blogger kStyle said...

Thanks, great ideas and info!

Ann: That book sounds incredibly interesting. I'm going to place it on my library list.

It's funny that you like the logo based on letters; after a survey of the logos I like best, I determined that I prefer an icon/stylized drawing along with the letters. I like having something to hold onto, so to speak.

I agree that the Weisman's logo is a little to complicated for my tastes.

I've never seen the print ads you speak of, but they sound neat.

Narya: thanks for sending the logos on. I agree, the iPod ads are clever. Recently, during an hour of half-watching TV, I saw *three* different ads for companies that are *not* Apple, each featuring an iPod. And the 1 Versus 100 logo looks like...an iPod. I feel slighty paranoid, seeing iPods everywhere.


Too lazy to write even a little code...here's 1 vs 100:
http://www.nbc.com/1vs100/

Since you both seem pretty interested in marketing/advertising, I'll post a few of my notes from my business class.

9:41 AM  

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