2010: the year of clipart branding

Seeing the new GAP logo, kindly pointed out to me by one of our lead developers this morning, makes me wonder if Riff Raff are in the wrong business. Brand design is clearly a market with more budget than sense!

I'm not sure if this was a tragic case of design-by-committee or some kind of visionary enigma that only the branding elite could possibly appreciate, but I imagine that someone was duped into paying a vast sum of money for what can only be described as 1990's Clipart!

Finding the right tones of voice

In marketing, we often hear the phrase "Tone of Voice" used to describe how a brand communicates with its audience. It's usually used as a way of defining the character of a brand in written or spoken language, and expressed as a combination of simple adjectives like "authoritative", "approachable" and "informal", and there is often only a single tone of voice dominating the entire space. But in these days of sophisticated customer experience, we need to be a little smarter about how we define our Tones of Voice (yes, plural) to communicate a more targeted message.

What were Apple thinking?

A murmur of amusement and disbelief swept across the office like a Mexican wave last week, as one of our designers upgraded to iTunes 10, with most of the Riff Raff team huddled behind his monitor. "You've got to see this" he said.

Bad times for Murdoch

Last month, The Times introduced a controversial new "paywall", demanding paid subscription to access its content, losing almost 90% of its online readership in the process, according to the Guardian.

Size Isn't Everything

I'm sure most designers and design agencies, particularly on the web, harbour an unshakable desire to work with the biggest brands in the world. I'm sure most of us have dreamed, at one time or another, of landing a high profile account with the likes of Nike, Coca-Cola or Samsung. For most of us, this represents the pinnacle of our profession; The bigger, the better. But I'm not sure that's true.

Don't get me wrong; I'd love to be working on the next mobile handset launch, or designing a sexy new consumer web application with a seven-figure marketing budget, but I think there's a far more interesting world out there, that is often overlooked in the quest for fame and fortune.

I've been in the web design business for about more than 10 years now. In that time I've gone from freelancer to creative director to managing director, and some of the most challenging and engaging projects I've worked on have been with start-ups and SMEs. The characters behind these companies have a deep emotional link with their brand that isn't often found at a more corporate level; Something I find incredibly attractive and inspiring.

Since founding Moko Digital last year, my horizons have broadened dramatically. As part of The Dene Group, I often find myself pitching alongside Steve Salam, who has a plethora of big-brand experience to call upon that, at first made me feel a little inadequate. It's a difficult act to follow. And then I began to take stock of my career.

Looking back and assessing the true value of what you've achieved can be an empowering experience. And by value I don't mean your profit margin or your market share; I mean the value you have bestowed upon your client through your work. What effect your design work and expertise had on their lives and businesses (which for most start-ups are inextricably linked).

Beyond the nostalgic sense of accomplishment, and the pang of indignity over some of my dubious design decisions in the early years, lay the realisation that I had changed lives forever. I could look myself in the mirror and say with confidence that I have created ground-breaking brands and shaken markets to the core with my design work.

This might sound like a bold and egocentric statement, but it's undeniably true. Some of the brands I have helped fulfill are indeed relatively small when compared with my later work for PokerStars and the like, but my expertise gave them the punch they needed to break new ground and explore new territories.

Their markets may have been local, but it's funny how a confident new brand affects its competitors. It causes shockwaves that ripple outwards, forcing everyone around them to take stock and rethink their strategies. It may have been in a small pond, but the tsunami we created was truly enormous.

I'd urge all designers to look back at your career and the difference your work has made to the lives of those who commissioned it. It can be a confidence inspiring experience, to find the true value in the work you have done.