A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in “The Bigger Picture Show,” a fundraiser for the Indianapolis International Film Festival and a chance for local designers to take a stab at redesigning classic movie posters.
Each designer had the opportunity to request a few of their top choices. I was awarded Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, Psycho.
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at The Wave: SMPS (Society of Marketing Professional Services) Pacific Regional Conference, held in Sacramento, California. Shortly after arriving at the hotel, I overhead a couple talking about “the mermaid bar.” About an hour later, I had walked down to a local restaurant to grab lunch and again heard someone talking about the mermaid. Once was interesting, but twice was an obvious trend.
I could only imagine how gimmicky a mermaid in a bar would probably look… but I was wrong.
Later that evening, a large group of us went to check out “the mermaid bar” which I later learned was called The Dive Bar. And true to form, they had a 7,500-gallon, saltwater aquarium above their bar, complete with saltwater fish, and a live “mermaid” dressed in a Hollywood-caliber costume, who gracefully swam back and forth every night.
Although the “mermaid” was quite mesmerizing, smiling with her eyes open underwater, what really got me thinking was how powerful their word of mouth marketing had become. Within one hour of being in Sacramento, I had overheard people talking about this place twice. Feeding off of the local word-of-mouth buzz, our entire group of conference goers couldn’t wait to check this place out.
There were other things that could have been used to describe this establishment – the fish, the size of the aquarium, the dueling pianos, the modern decor, the location… but it was the mermaid that people talked about, because it was the mermaid that was truly unique. And not just some caricature of a mermaid, but a very high-quality, detailed delivery of a mermaid.
Has something been designed into your brand that is truly unique, and will get people talking? What is it? What should it be?
Thanks to @AEC_Marketing for sharing the great pic!
Back in December, The Indy Chamber came to us with an eagerness to revitalize their brand into one that better articulated the organization they were becoming. As the economy and business-scene has changed over time, the Indy Chamber too has evolved—becoming a crucial resource and advocate for its members. Over the past few years, they have continued to be a vital player for our city–maintaining a voice of progress and improvement, uniting businesses and community to improve the quality of life for residents of the greater Indianapolis region.
Every year, the Indiana State Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society honors and celebrates local champions in the MS community. And, on February 22nd, friends, family, and advocates came together for the 20th Annual Dinner of Champions at Conseco Fieldhouse. This year’s honorees were Ann Larmore, a Ft. Wayne resident living with MS, and Scott Dorsey, Co-Founder of Indianapolis-based ExactTarget.
Miles Design was approached in late December to brand and design the collateral for the 20th Anniversary event. This consisted of the invitation and rsvp cards, the program, and some other night-of materials. Miles Design has worked with the MS Society on this particular event several times in the past, and we were very pleased to get another opportunity to work with such great people for such a great cause.
Continue reading…
Here’s a short video Compendium created to demonstrate the before and after, as well as showcase some best practices of our BlueLock blog redesign:
Template Best Practices by Compendium from Compendium on Vimeo.
If you’d like to read more about this blog redesign and the results of our work, check out our case study.
Brand Factor, our latest branding presentation at the Reach Leadership Series, has been featured on the SlideShare.net design page. It may only be there for a few days, but you can also catch the full presentation below. Enjoy!
Does your firm understand the benefits of using an architectural photographer to market first-class designs and projects? Susan Fleck, of Fleck Photography, provided the March Marketing FUNdamentals audience (hosted by Mike Worley at Eastern Engineering in Fishers) with some very helpful insights into architectural photography.
“We want people to know us as the best photography studio in town. We also want to build on the equity of being in business since 1964.”
…So said the fine folks at StudioThirteen.
Our job was to make it happen.
Just before the New Year, I was thinking about all of the “little tweaks” I wanted to make to milesdesign.com. At that time, our current website design was only about eight months old. Although I didn’t intend to generally alter the look or feel of our site, I couldn’t help but see opportunities for improvement. A few hours later, those “little tweaks” turned into a full-scale redesign.
I moved into “rapid prototyping” mode, quickly exploring grid and layout options within the existing brand identity system, landing ultimately on a new 6-column grid.
Here’s a quick rundown of many of the design changes we made, why we made them, and some of the technical improvements achieved by redesigning our own website. Continue reading…
As a design and branding firm, we’re excited anytime our brand identity designs get published.
But we were more excited than usual to learn that 18 of our logo designs were going to be published in the first annual iheartlogos book, iheartlogos season one. This competition is cool because it’s very different than the typical design competition. In this competition, everyone who enters one or more logo submission gets to vote (heart or not heart) for every logo submitted. Entries came from a variety of international locations, with Antarctica being the only continent not represented. Continue reading…
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