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 »

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:

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(Guest post by Sara)

Google Docs snuck up on me like Rickey Henderson on speed skates. There was no getting-to-know-you period, it was like, “Pleased to make your acquaintance, now will you marry me?” I said “yes.”

Here are 3 reasons why Google Docs. makes my work day a breeze:

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Today’s great FastCoDesign post was titled ‘Some firms foster strong, team oriented cultures. Others just bribe their employees with free food.‘ When I checked the mail today, as our Office Manager who usually takes care of this for me left the office early because of a death in her family, I found below postcard amongst the usual mix of invoices and magazines. It is a postcard that our Office Manager, Sabrina, wrote to myself, with the single intent of making the CEO of the company smile. The smile carried over to the entire team, reminding us once again what a great office culture we have, receiving postcards from the people we work with across the hall. We hope this smile carries over to Sabrina as she deals with her loss today.

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:

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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.

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…and so were the 17 million kids that have been treated in Childrens’ hospitals with the help of the Children’s Miracle Network, the amazing organization that saves the lives of children by raising funds and awareness for children’s hospitals and foundations throughout North America.

I spent 3 days in Orlando last week, at the annual celebration of ‘Champions’, a program that honors remarkable children who have triumphed despite severe medical challenges. G&Co client, CO-OP Financial Services, invited me to learn about the cause that CO-OP is so heavily backing through various generous programs (CO-OP donates almost $2 million annually), and to start the conversation of Geyrhalter & Co doing pro-bono work for this special cause.

Sam (2010 Texas Champion, Age 15) gave us an insight into his fight against Hereditary Dystonia during one of our Credit Unions For Kids meetings.

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Why is it that the more prestigious the design competition, the more it costs to enter?

Prices for a single entry can be around $120. But once you are selected to either receive an award, or be published in the awards annual, which after all is part of the exercise, there will be an additional fee of $280 – $400. And that is for just one single entry.

Sure, we play along. Sometimes. As we see fit, and for projects we feel deserve to be honored. But we too draw the line.

Let’s not forget that we are an agency, we have a PR budget and cash flow. How about all the students, freelancers, micro design firms, nonprofits and other entities that may have the big, creative, genius ideas that we should all be drooling over? The ideas that really look different because they come from folks that may not have ‘corporate’ breathing down their necks, or they do it for free, out of passion and just for fun? Isn’t that often when truly great ideas happen? They will never be in any of the ‘big’ award books showcasing the best, the brightest and most amazing ideas. The books that design students get for christmas, that turn into their text books of what they ought to measure their own creativity with, are lacking to showcase just that, the unconditionally best creative endeavours. Read the rest »

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.

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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 »