This is in a reply to a twitter comment by @jwojchi about my compliments to Landor for their recent re-branding effort for DC Comics.

Great branding firms do not create for the past, they also just keep the present in mind when designing for the future.

Change is hard to give into, especially when it intrudes an era of historic connections with die-hard fans, but there is a larger chance that Landor’s work will in fact do what it promises to deliver, which is to turn DC Comics’ objectives into a lively, current and adjustable brand platform that is weathered for changes within DC Comics that outside spectators, like myself, can not be aware of. Read the rest »

Geyrhalter & Co. has an ideal location on Main Street in Santa Monica. It’s close to the ocean which makes for a perfect lunch hour. Walk two sunny blocks to the beach, take your shoes off, and eat your lunch. A true “sandwich,” as it were.

The lunch choices in our neighborhood are plentiful. Within a few-block radius we can choose omusubi or seitan and pico de gallo or pancakes. But with too many choices comes indecision. Read the rest »

9/11/11 is past us, and I am sure we are all a bit relieved as it is not a joyful day in any means, and it comes with many hurtful memories atop of fears of repeat attacks. When flipping through the great New York Times memorial issue, I paused to reflect on the way brands chose to walk the very delicate line of mixing honest sympathy with a hint of marketing message – all the way to a blunt in-your-face sales message hidden inside the memorial post. Here is a selection of the ones that grabbed my attention the most:

Read the rest »

In times where brands respond to customers within seconds via Twitter it makes sense that brands try to stay on top of the movement by providing a personalized experience to their customers. It is good to try, but if you try too hard, you die trying.

Some policy changed at Peet’s Coffee & Tea for example and all of a sudden a random ‘barista’ shouts ‘Good Morning’ to the crowd, which feels very awkward as everyone feels like they are being talked to, yet no one feels addressed. Another awkward new habit is to have employees at stores such as Nordstrom, and even Barneys, use their downtime to write strange postcards that look like they are written by a pre-teen, for a pre-teen, to their customers.

Brands, be careful out there. Unless you really understand who your customer is and how you can take advantage of a more unique outreach that is truly personal and honest, it is best not to try too hard and stick to the conventional ways you already mastered. It can only backfire.

I have been buying a lot of used vinyl lately. Mostly for under $1 and a majority of it focused on establishing a collection of all the classics: The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Dave Brubeck, lots of Motown and Verve Records, and of course the occasional 80′s record that just brings back those childhood memories.

It is interesting when you listen to the 80′s pop genre. The music you know, you think of as ‘amazing’ and then once you hear B-sides or tracks on full lengths that you have not been exposed to, they sound, well, dated. Or shall we say ‘cheesy’, and often plain embarrassing.

The same holds true for the record sleeve designs, as you can see in the examples below:

Read the rest »

I just recently came back from a trip to see my parents in Austria. We are all big lovers of Austrian wines and have an affinty for great design. It seems to go hand in hand in many cases, no  pun intended. As I tasted a Grüner Veltliner from a vineyard I have not explored so far, something interesting happened. I did not take the bottle with me while having the first sips.

Read the rest »

92 year old Mr. Harman, of hi-fi equipment Harman/Kardon fame, recently purchased Newsweek for $1. Well and the $50 million in liabilities that come with it. Most of us have heard the story over past weeks. Last weekend, the New York Times released an interview with Mr. Harman that gives an insight on what he is planning to change about Newsweek as the new owner of the money-losing magazine. The first thing on Mr. Harman’s list, quoting the New York Times, is a change in its graphic design:

He thinks the magazine is “dull to behold, dull, dull” and wants its graphic design to be “as meaningful, as imperative, as the written expression.”

To us, this is a very significant statement showcasing the understanding of the importance graphic and brand design has gained with corporate veterans over the past years. It also signals that the marriage of design and content is seen to indeed create a more successful message delivery. While changes in staff and editorial views would be on top of the list for most newly appointed owners at this significant turning point, for Mr. Harman it seems to be the creation of a distinct and harmonious Brand Atmosphere in order to compete and win in an industry that is on the verge of collapse.

A smart move. In this day and age of content source overload, a news publication needs to create a product that differentiates and convinces through its design. We can’t wait to see the changes come around, maybe on Mr. Harman’s 93rd birthday?

March 15th I was attending a concert of the amazing jazz pianist Keith Jarrett at the equally stunning Walt Disney Concert Hall. I went by myself, since my wife was not interested in seeing him again and going solo for this experience felt like the right thing to do. That day I received the book ‘Rework’ by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 signals in the mail, so I had a great companion.

Glued to the book, I intuitively used the ticket stub as my bookmark and as Mr. Jarrett started playing, I thought of the emotional connection that bookmarks have with the time, the space, the moment in ones life when a specific book was being read. But once the book is put to sleep on the book shelf, that memory is buried, indefinitely. Quite different to a piece of music which can reach your ears unsuspectedly at a gas station, a bar, a restaurant, the car radio, yet it has the same power of almost instantly catapulting you back to a particular scene of your life. The book on the other hand is simply ‘filed away’. I thought it would be great to create a simple web site for anyone to upload their otherwise ‘bookshelved’ bookmarks. Great to have them archived, fun to share and even more fun to peruse other people’s books with their unique or fun bookmarks. Who knows, if a good number of people start using it, we might want to add social components to the site in the future.

The book I was reading, ‘Rework’, has a chapter in it that talks about not trying to produce a finished product, but rather launch it in a bare bones state. If people like it then change the good product to a perfect one (‘Launch now’, Pg 93). Good is good enough. It also declares death to procrastination (‘Start Making Something’, Pg 38). Funny as I run my company in many of the ways described in the book, and many of the others are big aspirations for this year. So here I was at an inspirational concert, an inspirational setting, reading an inspirational book and I had a quick idea.

Read the rest »

It took me a while to get here, and it has only been a week since I can say that besides 3 weekly Production Meetings, and the necessary face time between employees as well as clients, I fulfilled my goal of running Geyrhalter Design by simply opening my browser. I used to rely on lots of programs to handle the different operational tasks at hand, but now I just have tabs in my browser and I can start conducting all aspects of my business from virtually anywhere. As finding the right way of working did not come overnight for us, and I am very happy with the results, I want to share the way I run my company via a browser with you. Maybe you can benefit from some pieces, or the entire workflow.

1. E-Mail & Calendar

We use Zimbra, an open source  E-Mail and Calendar solution that let’s us easily sync to our iPhones, which allows me to stay up to date on meetings and e-mails, even while being on the road. I can make appointments and write e-mails from wherever I am and my calendar and Inbox will always look identical, may it be on my phone or my laptop, saving plenty of time in itself.

2. Project Management

Geyrhalter Design relies on Basecamp to be the hub for all our projects, internal as well as client projects. We create timelines, keep deadlines (‘Milestones’) and exchange project specific information as well as files. We even use it to house internal company information such as a contact database, printer trouble shooting tips and log in information that might otherwise be a big pain to search through your inbox once needed. Read the rest »

We are excited to share details on our just launched re-design for California based Evolution Fresh, the independent and family owned juice company, run by chefs and master juice makers. The 98 labels for the popular, all-natural, Evolution brand, and its mirrored private label ‘Harvest’ juice line, is being sold in over 500 stores along the West Coast including Whole Foods, Pavilions and Gelsons. Celebrated as the freshest juice available, Geyrhalter Design, together with the owner and marketing director of Evolution Fresh, took on the challenge of giving the brand a fresh and clean new look while staying true to its independent and free spirited roots. We focused our effort on creating a consistent brand image. By introducing a revised red identity to go along with all-red caps it enabled the brand to stand out from direct competitors such as Naked and Odwalla. The label stock was changed to matte laminated finish, which created a semi-metallic effect when refrigerated and added to the fresh feel that was sought after. While creating a uniform look, a unique color was picked to compliment each juice, giving it a visual flavor and making it easier for the customer to identify a specific juice on the crowded market shelves. The whimsical illustrations were carried over from the original design to make it easy for customers to recognize their product and keep the home-made feel that is so important to the product.Besides illustrating around 50 vegetables and fruits for the back label, the biggest challenge was to find appropriate colors for each flavor that work with the brand mark red as well as differentiate enough from the other SKU’s. It started as a clean-up initiative of the former labels, and it really opened a whole slew of layout concerns, leading up to this re-design. We are now working on strengthening the brand further through social media initiatives, shelf talkers and a new web site. It feels great keeping this wonderful brand ‘fresh’ for nearly a decade now. For us it was a unique labor of love, Evolution being one of the companys’ first clients, who enabled Fabian Geyrhalter to move the operations from a garage setting into an office space, which in its beginning was shared with Evolution’s marketing team, 9 years ago.