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These is from the FORTHGEAR annals of proper design terminology. Something to remember:

IDENTITY
Primarily made up of those items immediately connected with a logo — including logo type and mark (if any) — and the relating communication materials (normally referred to as Corporate Collateral), such as Stationery System, Note Cards, Large Format Envelopes (if any), and sometimes the Kit Cover falls into this category.

BRAND
Originally referencing the symbol burned into a cows hide to help distinguish between herds (or the “Logo”), this is term is now more comprehensive. Brand can be considered the relationship between an purveyor of goods and services with the consumer — and the loyalty that consumer gives back to the purveyor by purchasing their goods and services. More specifically put, the promise a company makes to the consumer and their ability to perform on that promise.

EQUITY
Equity can be had in both identity and brand — meaning the intrinsic value held in the marketplace for either, due to longevity and/or awareness. Brand and Identity can and should commingle. It is arguable that Identity used to play the bigger role; however, Brand now seems to reign supreme with the Identity acting as a visual symbol connecting the marketplace to the company.

Occasionally I will have clients that have tried their hand at Graphic Design using Microsoft Publisher and want me to extract images or content from that document when they wise up and come to the professionals. Since we don’t have nor would we want to have Publisher in-house, I’ve struggled with what to do without frustrating or making my client’s life harder. I stumbled on an online solution that works great that I wanted to share. A company called Zamar offers an online conversion tool for publisher files that will convert them to any number of formats including a PDF file. This has come in very handy on a couple of occasions.

Here is a new vehicle wrap I have designed for Lisa and Glenn up at Puckrin’s Soccer Shop in Clearfield. It is quite a bit different than the design I put together last year. I think It still refelcts the brand direction pretty well and the illustrations were a lot of fun to do. I will post photos once it is produced next month.

Here is a new poster in the series I have created for Davis Lanes.

This is a homepage concept I developed for Bloom Recycling out of Ogden.

I don’t enter a lot of contest but this one was short, sweet and offered a free $10 iTunes gift card just for entering. Below is my silly entry. Go to the site and vote for me and your other favorites and maybe I’ll win the grand prize. The first 1000 entries receive the free iTunes card and it looks like there is still plenty of time to enter and win. Join the Fun!

http://24-7designheaven.com/button/landing.php

Greg sent me this handy link which is a great library of Industry related PDF magazines
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/04/22/inspirational-pdf-magazines/

We had a client call up and have us design three signs for him to take to the Jazz Game tonight. It was really random but gave me a chance to do something I have always wanted to do - design a stupid sign for a Jazz Game - and get paid for it! I did this quick caricature of Tracy McGrady for one of the signs. It would only come out if the Jazz win so hopefully they win and we all get some ESPN facetime - Go Jazz!

UPDATE: A photo of our signs was taken by an AP photographer and posted on ESPN.com

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/photos?photoId=1928595&gameId=280502026

These quotes are from Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller a company often looked up to for their visionary commitment to innovation in design:

They are unique in that they outsource a lot of their creative development, his response to why:

“The drive for us is our commitment to new ideas and solutions. Our external network ensures that we are always taking a fresh look at problems faced by our customers without subjecting it to our own filters. This approach has it’s challenges but it often leads to the best ideas and breakthroughs.”

He also gave these words of advice when outsourcing creative:

“What we’ve learned is to have a willingness to follow and give ourselves over to these designers - not loose ourselves, but be open to following them to places that we may question in the beginning…We try to follow them without judging them too quickly.”

His definition of success:

“It’s easy on some ways to come up with great designs that have no commercial value, but to have great design that solves real problems and creates commercial value, that’s where genius comes in.”

“Solving problems is where our design work begins.”

@ISSUE magazine, Vol 12, no. 1 p. 2