Scribblers' Club

When you have something to say and you commit to three right side consecutive print spreads to say it. The same concept can be used by stacking Facebook images in a single post. GOING fills first image, GOING with swirling in second image position, and GONE as final image.

Trade shows:

Every detail matters. You rehearse your key messaging with staff. Refreshing everything to do with your customers struggles and how your products and services help. You sharpen the teams understanding of your current market space, its threats and your current track record. Your team 'knows their Sh! #'. After that it's your tangible branded communications that require attention. You are what you wear when it comes to a trade show presence. Your booth needs to catch attendee attention. It needs to speak directly to them in a way that cuts thru the surrounding competitive clutter. Most competition in the trade show arena is laden with minutia, text heavy boring booths that exhibit only a fear of empty space. A thousand messages side by side fighting for attendee attention.

Less is more.

A river of traffic walks past your booth, you have seconds to catch their attention. In Arbourdale's case we used humour. We started by creating an oasis from the 'noise'. The entire booth is backlit, the space is well illuminated and inviting. Attendees feel a sigh of relief, a break from the incessant onslaught of noise.

Keep it simple.

The poultry market threats were broken down into a highlight reel. Most companies offer a core suite of solutions. Their products may solve a litany of problems but typically those problems can be divided into a collective few categories. Speak to those few, the highlight reel. Capturing the poultry savvy attendees attention utilized clever imagery speaking directly to poultry industry threats. It's said that the correct picture is worth a thousand words; I'll suggest that a clever thought provoking picture speaks volumes. The show was a success with many new leads generated. The entire booth is designed with specific messaging isolated to one or two panels. This allows for booth updates as threats/solutions change without the expense of reskinning an entire booth. A fun side note, attendees were taking selfies in front of the booth panels. Their posts compounding Arbourdale's social media reach.

Ben is celebrating his birthday with a merch sale! Lots of cool designs, many by yours truly! Enjoy!

Tomorrow is my birthday, but I'm giving YOU the present. I'm running a special birthday sale in the merch store from now until the end of May! If you want to show off your devotion to the Dork Side, there's never been a better time to pick up a shirt, hoodie, or hat!
http://Dorkintheroad.dashery.com

The target demographic were financial market men. It was at the time a truly male dominated target, men who wanted to build something tangible, who would dig owning a burger joint and would appreciate the benefits of a proven franchise model. The ad was placed in the middle of anything related to financial reporting, as an island ad in the middle of the media if possible. We would pay a premium to slap the ad smack dab in the middle of where we wanted it, even if that meant encouraging the media owners to make exceptions for us. You opened the New York Times financial section and floating dead center and surrounded by the tickers would be the ads. It was placed in in-flight style magazines too, anywhere we could see our man indulging, we put a franchise recruitment ad in front of him. Once the engagement paperwork was flowing we then sent a die cut paper model of the current Prototype M restaurant design. Printed flat on 11x17 card stock and folded to 8.5x11 the die cut models were easily mailed out. The models would either make it home to the kids, or they would be built and displayed in the financiers office where they became topics of discussion. Working with the very bright Jim McGrory we later undertook creating another complex onboarding 'Welcome Kit' for signed clients. More on that and the hedonistic burger ritual in a future post. PS - If I ever write a business autobiography it will include a section on Laura Ashley pant suits and "F-OOOO-D THEE-ATE-RRR".

Tiny video, big product. More to come.

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A childhood friend of mine had an architect acquaintance that was about to lose a large contract. At least that's how I recall it. I received a call from my friend late on a Friday afternoon. He asked if I would be interested in helping them out of a bind. The short of it was that the 'end client' was struggling with the previous proposals for their Canadian Head Office. I guess there had been a few iterations and nothing was doing it for them. I later saw the iterations and I have to say they weren't doing it for me either. In fairness, I don't know what took place between the folks seated at the table and the staff that were then relayed instructions back at their office. The end customer has a history of each continents head office trying to architecturally out do the others. They saw their facilities as part of their brand statement. I had already helped with Carl's Jr/ Prototype M and the Baja Fresh build/remodels which had somehow stuck with my buddy. It was arranged that I would come up with a couple proposals to be presented two days from ending the initial call, which was Monday morning. I spent the rest of Friday night absorbing anything I could find on the parent company's activities. I learned how they moved equipment from job site to job site. I saw potential for opening up some interior areas to sunlight and an opportunity to help integrate the various admin, executive and fabrication populations to encourage a more cohesive and shared human experience. I have experienced several large manufacturers intimately and know that having everyone sharing the same 'deck' dramatically improves staff happiness which means improved productivity. Today I stumbled upon the wee doodle I made in my bedside journal. It was made in the wee hours of that first Saturday morning. There's a lot of ideation wrapped up in this tiny scrawl. Any guesses on the client.

The little things we take for granted. Here is a small sampling of what is involved in making a simple decal wrap for a commercial product, a decal that needs to withstand the environmental tests of time. In this case to avoid UV damage the decals are best produced using serigraphy with UV stable inks and a support white base for punch. Digital print vendors will claim UV stability but so far real world examples have disproved that claimed longevity. 1. Establish the 'branded' design vernacular that will roll out across all products. 2. Create the various logos needed in a way that they will read as dimensional chrome complete with drop shadows that will fade to reveal machine paint. This dramatically reduces production/installation costs. 3. Incorporate a suite of model numbers, all again illustrated by hand, electronically 'airbrushed' to read as 3D chrome for consistency. A 3D artist could create the models and then export the 3D imagery to be used in print, however the 3D models tend to look too sterile and fake. As Leo' Da Vinci once said,"without a touch of ugliness, there would be no beauty". The man was onto something. 4. Develop files that a vendor can understand when tasked with reproduction. This step is critical, it's alarming how off the rails a production house can get when an element of complexity is added. Heres a collage of bits that make up the decals seen in the final photos.

A good friend made a comment recently, they meant no harm in it, but it has been sitting with me since. We were talking about the current state of AI. Commenting on his perceived state of AI 'threatening' my livelihood. He innocently enough stated that 'AI is great for making logos'. Below are several logos that were not created by AI. I just grabbed these with a quick google search, clever text based logomarks like FedEx or Coca-Cola aren't here but the point remains. None of these marks could be generated by present generative AI. Typically (there are always exceptions) a great logomark is the simplification of a more complicated story. The only logomark I see in this screen grab where AI stands a chance would be Target. Perhaps Chevron. At the extreme other end, an impossibility for AI, are Cisco, Nike, NBC, AUDI, etc. Brands are built over time, over a repetition of placement and service consistency. One could argue that any scribble could become a recognizable brand. Do something well and long enough to build a fanbase of Brandvangelists(TM) and slap an identity on your work and you can build a recognizable brand. But to birth a logo, a competent storytelling mark, that is simple and not a collage of prompts still takes a human. Using AI to help you get there is smart, The contribution of AI's investigative research is massive. It's a tool that expedites excavation, but right now it still takes a human mind to find the gemstones. Speaking of scribbles, I once considered a Uniball pen 'scribble' to update our own mark. Just for sake of experimentation I asked AI to lend a hand. Second image is that first result. The PROMPT V1: "My company name is Scribbler's Club, we are a graphic and industrial design firm that helps clients manage their brand at every touchpoint. Create a logo for the company." The result: FAIL. AI has thrown the kitchen sink at the mark. It lacks any uniqueness. It tried to put a C in there but forgot about the S. Nobody will care about this design. I thought I would give the AI a second chance. That second attempt, providing AI a 'better shot at success' PROMPT V2: "create a quick scribble, using a black ballpoint pen, draw a scribble that is primarily circular movements, isolated on a white background. This will be used as a logo for a company named Scribblers' Club". The result, IYKYK? Comic Sans is the least desirable typeface of the industry. There are sites dedicated to making fun of Comic Sans. I don't see AI being sophisticated enough to have made a clever joke of it. The complexity of the mark is again too much to be practical. It produced what was prompted by a human (I defined circular so as not to feel aggressive, pen: because the Uniball is my goto pen) but again the mark failed with meeting the practical needs of its application. I did give me a chuckle. If you're of the people who need a bakery logo with basic type, or a towing company logo for your hoppy copy business cards that includes a tow truck cartoon and thats 'good enough', then go for it. For everyone else who understand that when it comes to branding "you are what you wear", that your logo speaks volumes, I'm always happy to help out. Extra attached imagery - The original Scribblers' Club name came from the idea that our staff, when they were younger, had parents who hung their artwork on the fridge. We are all part of that club. The mark itself represented the pencil to paper, the idea, passing across a digital screen and being brought to life within that digital space. Originally flat colours c1990, then dimensioned 'as a refresh' c2004. extra ligatures, the dots on the 'i' have been removed intentionally. Also tossed in a few food service related marks I created over time.

Fun.

This client knows their business inside and out, upside down and backwards. The owner, a bright guy, knows what he likes when he sees it and expresses thoughts clearly and with immediacy, it's fantastic. The marketing world appreciates honesty and candor. Their market opportunities run wide. Arbourdale's show circuit is divided into market segments. Each segments' trade events attract their own focused, specialized crowd. Attendee's needs are obvious, you either deliver on those needs or fail. Arbourdales products deliver. At any trade show, companies have fleeting seconds to engage with a river of prospects flowing across the frontage of their booth. With so little time to make an impact you need a precision bait on the lure. Using strong clever visuals with segment specific humour does the trick. We make people smile. 'Introductions made', the product sells itself.