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Incspring needed a rebranding?
If you’re a long time reader you know of my disdain for the self-misrepresenting Incspring which claims to be a “branding” website, but is in fact nothing more than a logo site that’s taken advantage of consumers and reduced the credibility & understanding of what “branding” really is.
In fact, Incspring is so oblivious to its own misunderstanding of the idea of “branding” that it changed its logo within the first month of being open and now has changed its name completely to Brandstack. Claiming to soon be adding new features and still lying with the tagline of “Worlds Biggest Brand Marketplace”, they praise themselves in a recent blog post for adjusting a common looking logo from their site and throwing on the new name.
The new logo isn’t anything special and in fact reminds me of this ending from a lot of 80s TV shows where the guy throws paper from his typewriter. Not to mention it looks like about 10 other logos on the site.
Now, I think this goes without saying, but 3 redesigns in a year, including a complete name change, sounds like something that could have been avoided had they gone through the complete branding process, where they evaluate their targets, their goals, what they want the company to become (instead of just what it is) and all the tiny nuanced details that go into branding that IncStack has demeaned into nothing more than a logo, a website and some letterheads.
I cannot say it enough: This site is garbage.
No comments. Posted by md in branding, interwebs, opinion, rant, ridiculous on 15 June 2009.
The Beast is a Buffalo based magazine/newsletter that I have been a fan of for over a year. This years end of the year post is just as great as last years, and I can’t help but wishing I could move out there and meet them. Some gems of hilarious writing in this piece;
If Satan were real, and had a severely chapped anus from a fortnight of angry, unlubricated gay sex with an evil moon-dragon, we imagine it’d look a lot like Monson’s disturbingly weathered face.
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43. You
Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American.
Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus.
Sentence: Invaded and occupied by Canada; all military units busy overseas without enough fuel to get back.
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40. Free Credit Report.com guy
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Palin had the beneficial effect of splitting her party between her admirers and people who can read.
For the whole list: 50 Most Loathsome People of 2008 and yes, Obama is on there. Great stuff.
No comments. Posted by md in comedy, news, opinion, politics, rant on 9 February 2009.
I heard about the ecofont some time ago through my Dutch friend Arjan. I’m still not sure how I feel about it or if I’m entirely sold. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good idea and am glad to see all this green propaganda take on other applications other than bringing your own grocery bags.
The ecofont is the creation of SPRANQ a creative communications studio in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group set out to find a computer typeface which would conserve more ink than traditional typefaces. They experimented with designs making the letter thinner, reducing them to just outlines and other methods until they fund that removing small circles from each letter was determined to be the best solution. The typeface uses 20% less ink than a traditional font.
I like this idea, though my battle with this font is mainly a visual battle. I struggle with the idea of having to read more than 3 pages of punctured Verdana. When I first saw it, I was honestly pissed off looking at the poor shot-gunned typeface. But I get it, the point is to use less ink. Yet I can’t help but wonder why HP or someone else hasn’t made available an eco friendly ink. I think this attempt along with other eco printing efforts could possibly help bring down ink and paper consumption. Not to mention, I, and all the typography maniacs will be at peace knowing that Verdana has not been turned into Swiss cheese.
SPRANQ understands that their font won’t solve the problem of waste in printings, but they hope it at least raises awareness. So please, feel free to test it out and share your thoughts.
1 comment. Posted by adria in concept, rant on 25 January 2009.
One of the themes with our questionnaire, and generally in our lives as designers for all of us working on the magazine, is the detestable practice of plagiarism in the design community. We got a lot of varied responses to one of our questions about the industry view of imitation vs inspiration, and how it’s perceived/handled outside of the academic environment.
To me the majority were like “yeah, it sucks, but you can’t really do anything about it”
I guess that’s how I saw it playing out in school as well. Some of the most ardent style-chasers and idea-copiers had their transgressions ignored, in the face of the overwhelming evidence and transparency of what was being done.
As some who always tries to do something differently I found it frustrating when people who were just mimicking better designers were able to get the same attention, critiquing seriousness, and often better grades. I guess my frustration lies in the fact that the thoughts I was always running into were the same:
“Is no one going to say anything about this!” “Am I the only one that can see that’s a complete Rand knockoff!?” “I mentioned my idea and 10 minutes later you just HAPPEN to change what you’re doing!?” “The teacher has to notice, they’ll say something, point them towards something else right? NO!? What is going on!” “She clearly stole that idea!” “Her boyfriend made that., why is that okay!?” “If this is how its going to be, maybe I should just drop out and try to be a zoologist like I wanted to be in 4th grade.”
Oh, sorry, maybe I’m still a little bitter about things.
Anyway, what I was getting at, was the idea that certain things like plagiarism, unoriginality, or the idea of just telling someone when a project isn’t working, or someones already done it, always seemed to be the ignored elephant in the room. At least in my interactions with Professors, they always just assumed the person had done it unintentionally, mistaking imitation for accidentally overly-similar inspiration.
3 comments. Posted by md in issue 1, rant on 23 December 2008.
Ian Stevenson: Microsoft Messenger Book Series
Ian Stevenson was recently commissioned to illustrate 4 books for Microsoft by Love Creative. You can see an online version by clicking here.
No comments. Posted by adria in books, rant on 4 October 2008.
This past Thursday I went to L.A to see the loudest, most awesome show I’ve been to thus far. Read more. →
1 comment. Posted by adria in music, rant on 4 October 2008.
Fill/Stroke Supports Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
I would like to take a moment to express our views of the upcoming election. Though it may be obvious in our posts, we here are all supporters of electing Barack Obama. We believe he is the best option for our country, given the past 8 years that we’ve all been put through. He supports a new direction away from our current downward spiral, both economically, as well as in foreign policy. John McCain, though a good man, is not right for the position of President, least of all with a running mate as ignorant and corrupt as Sarah Palin.
This post, this public support of a candidate will likely beg the question “Why are you talking about this here? Why are you talking about politics on your design oriented blog?”
The first reason is the importance of being part of an alternative media from (i.e. blogging, the internet, social networking media) and adding relevant, thoughtful and timely information and opinion, to counteract the simple-minded and incorrectly focused news casting methods of the television media.
Another reason ultimately connects in large part to our general approach to design as a profession:
Design is more than design.
This might seem like a redundant and pointless statement, but its importance can be seen through some explanation.
Design is affected by everything. Being a designer who only reads design blogs, design books and looks at other designers work, will become a mimic, an uninformed, and therefore, unimportant, part of a large body of thoughtless, meaningless design work.
Being part of the global community, being an active member in all parts of society, life and the future are how designers can really affect the world through their work. One track mindedness only leads to repetition and uninspired end products.
I personally find that reading about science, politics, societal trends, global connectedness, the ideas of how language is formed and interpreted, advancements in developing countries, etc etc etc all effect me as a person and me as a designer. My magazine list doesn’t just include Print and Creative Review and Dot Dot Dot. It includes Seed, Scientific American, The Economist, Skeptic Magazine, Buffalo Beast, and many others unrelated to design at all.
So, while we are a design magazine, while we focus and live and breathe design and those things directly related to it, we find that all of what we are, all of what we do, can benefit from a broader intelligence level and a broader, more rounded interest collection.
With that being said, here is a list of links talking about issues related to the campaign. We will continue to post reasons for our views, articles that we find express ideas we believe in, and in general try and point out the reasons you should vote for Barack Obama.
We fully appreciate feedback and debate here.
Letter to McCain Supporter Pt 1
Letter to McCain Supporter Pt 2
100 Reasons Not To Vote For McCain
3 comments. Posted by md in politics, rant, writing on 18 September 2008.
I just read an AP article about how the United States federal budget deficit is nearing “$407B”.
Just spend one minute really considering that amount of money. 407,000,000,000.00$
I think it should be a federal law that any time you request a large amount of money you have to write out (including all zeros) exactly how much we’re already in debt.
That is all.
No comments. Posted by tanner in opinion, rant, ridiculous, visualization on 9 September 2008.
I could list plenty of reasons as to why I love Milton Glaser. And I know Tanner could add to the list too. But this clip, even though it’s relatively old, will do for today. Just listen to the man talk.
1 comment. Posted by adria in opinion, rant on 3 September 2008.
America Is F*cked…….(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.
2 comments. Posted by md in rant on 2 September 2008.
