Positioning a Brand: a Lesson from American Idol

Tuesday night, a bazillion viewers and I were watching American Idol. This was the first "live" episode of the season, which featured the show's top 12 female vocalists.

Performance after performance, Simon Cowell and the rest of the show's judges shared with the contestants how they had simply failed to "stand out" among their peers. I was struck especially by the judges' recommendations.

"You're trying too hard to mimic Adelle or Duffy."

"It's all about song choice. You need to find the right song for you."

And for me, one of my favorite Simon quotes is always...

"That was just... forgettable."

The bottom line is, these contestants are trying to position their personal brands in front of millions of viewers. It's similar to branding a business.

Originality, personality, and individuality matter, whether you're competing on American Idol, or running an enterprise-class business. Too many of both - Idol contestants and businesses - suffer from the boring, uninspired sameness of "me too" positioning.

When it comes to being original and memorable this year, who are your favorites? Who is the most unique contestant (or brand) in your mind, and why?

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Rapid Brand Identity Design Process for SXSW Presenters: Pocket Tales

When creating a brand identity, it's not unusual for our internal process to take several weeks to a few months. It's not too often that we have to expedite that process, but every now and then, an opportunity arises...



Last week we received a phone call from a potential client who was in need of a logo. Initially we assumed the project would follow our typical design process: we discuss general requirements, business objectives, schedule an initial discovery meeting, etc. But by the end of this phone call, we realized this client was in a bit of a hurry. They needed a final logo by 5PM Central time on the following day!

Our new client, Pocket Tales, is only one of eight companies selected to present in the Entertainment Technologies category at the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator, part of the 2010 SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. We felt confident in their potential for success--especially when we learned that their project was selected by SXSW solely on the presentation of their concept.

We found out that SXSW needed a logo from Pocket Tales right away to begin printing promotional materials for the event.

We had only 24 hours to concept, sketch and finalize their brand identity design.

As our client described the concept, "Pocket Tales is an online social reading game for kids 7-12 years old. The objective is to earn points and rewards by reading books and completing activities like taking quizzes, playing games, rating books, and recommending books to friends."

Within the hour, we met with the client and discussed their concept, audience, and visual inspirations. Following the kickoff meeting, our entire design team was debriefed on the project and issued a challenge to have concepts and sketches to bring to the table the following morning.

The rest is history. Here's a visual snapshot of the process:

















The final Pocket Tales identity is infinitely customizable. The design allows the client to "swap out" what goes in the pocket--a globe, the wheel of a ship, a knight's helmet, etc.

Good luck to Pocket Tales this year at SXSW!

Project Timeline:

Tuesday:
3PM - Discovery meeting
4PM - Internal creative Meeting
6PM - Begin sketches

Wednesday:
10AM - Review concepts / sketches
11AM - Finalize top 4 concepts
Noon - Submit 4 concepts to client
1PM - Final direction approved by client
4PM - Rough vector art submitted to client
5PM - Final Pocket Tales logo design delivered

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2010 Super Bowl Commercials - Battle of the Brands

Which 2010 Super Bowl commercials did the best to build an already strong brand? Which brands invested in commercials that best introduced a new brand? Which were the best uses of Social Media, after the commercial? Which brands would have done more good by just donating their cash to a cause?

After they air, check here to vote for your favorite (and least favorite) Super Bowl commercials of 2010. Go Colts!




After you vote, please share your thoughts below.

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4 New Miles Design Logo Designs Featured in Logo Lounge Master Series

Our copies of the Logo Lounge Master Series books arrived this week. We were surprised to see that we actually had four logos selected for this edition, as originally we were only told there would be three of our recent brand identity designs included in their inaugural Master Library Series book.

The official title of the book is Master Library - 3000 INITIAL & CREST LOGOS.

The book itself is really well done, complete with silver gilded page edges - it almost looks like a bible. Check it out at your local bookstore.

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#PKindy

Last month I attended Pecha Kucha 20x20 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The theme was 'The Next Indianapolis' and the winning presenter would walk away with $10,000 to help jump start their proposed project. For those of you unfamiliar with Pecha Kucha, let me provide a basic context.

"Pecha Kucha" is Japanese for 'chit-chat' and was the name of a 2003 event in Tokyo for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. This concept has expanded globally and PK20x20 events are held in more than 230 cities. The format of the event is that each presenter must share their work in 20 images with 20 seconds of presentation time per image.

As I sat listening, I noticed some distinct correlations between the12 presentations and the struggle to create impactful brands.

1. If it isn't strategic branding, it's noise.

In the book The Brand Gap, a "brand" is described as being a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It's an emotional process implying first impressions are crucial. Let me explain.

In any given presentation, it took about 20 seconds (1 image) before the audience began to create their own perception of the proposed project. As the presentation continued it became more challenging to listen because other audience members were 'chit-chat'-ing with their neighbors due to confusion, skepticism, or event complete disinterest in the project.

The room was a microcosm of our branding world, – and brands were being established. Voices were struggling to be heard, but only the best broke through.

2. Know your next move – and get there before the audience does.

The presenters that struggled the most weren't keeping up with the audience. It was easy to see where the presentation was headed and to choose whether or not it was interesting enough to stay seated. As soon as a few members of the audience starting chit chatting, it became a chain reaction. It was clear that if the presenter wasn't compelling, the audience decided amongst themselves if it was a worthy enough cause. A few presenters, including the winner, received vocal cheering, standing ovations and even support via twitter. It's safe to say they probably left with a stronger brand than when they arrived. So what was the difference? Guidance.

First impressions are crucial but it doesn't end there. If you make a good first impression, excellent -- but know your next move and when to make it.

--------------

Hooked on Pecha Kucha 20x20

The event was a blast and the concept is brilliant. Several of us at Miles Design fully expect to attend the next Pecha Kucha 20x20 event and would highly recommend going to anyone interested in seeing design's influence in your community. More details for upcoming events can be found at Pechakucha.com.

Related Information:
PKindy
Laura Henderson - $10,000 winner.

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Designing your Mission:Simplifying the Rational, Emotional and Radical.

This past weekend I was reading an article in Fast Company that reminded me of a speaking engagement I had a few years ago.

I was asked to discuss corporate website basics--what websites need and where most go astray. If I remember correctly, the first words out of my mouth were, "Take your mission statement off of your homepage, because nobody cares." I think I had their attention.

I went on to explain how so many corporate websites showcase their bland, forgettable mission statement prominently on their homepage. A website isn't helping anyone by telling the world "our team empowers life-long learners to achieve the utmost quality and customer satisfaction in every..." Zzzz... Does that sound like an excerpt from your corporate mission?

I have talked about the importance of niche positioning and how a mission statement often reflects poor positioning. Which should come first, the mission or the positioning? I'll be the first to admit it's a bit of a chicken/egg thing. We prefer to begin by developing a strong positioning and let the mission statement flow from that language. But to be fair, today we'll look at the mission statement as a starting point.

Ideally your mission statement should be the guiding light that directs the course of your business. If your mission is a little lackluster today, let's look at four ways to reconsider where you're going.

1. The Rational:
What do you do? What is your product or service, and who do you do it for? What is your market? How far is your reach? What are actions that your company uses to describe its services? This step should be pretty straight-forward. Once you've wrapped up, move on to step two.

2. The Emotional:
How does your organization make the world a better place? Who does your company benefit? Who would miss you if your organization disappeared? Why should anyone care? Make a list of some of the most emotionally charged benefits of your company. If the world reaped the utmost from your benefits, what would that look like? Once you've given this ample consideration, move on to step three. Still scratching your head? If you're stuck on this one, consider enlisting some professional support.

3. The Radical:
What is the one thing that you do better than anyone else? Are you the best at it in your market or region? Can you claim "only-ness?" Complete this sentence: We are the only (blank) in (blank) that does (blank). When you fill in the blanks, what do you get? If it sounds the same as your competition, you may need to dig deeper. Give this plenty of thought before moving on to step four.

4. Simplify:
Taking what may be several pages of notes from the above exercises, begin simplifying the message into statements. If you're really focused, you may be able to distill it down to a few succinct words. One of our clients has their corporate mission statement polished down to two words. "Inspire Hope." Here's a hint: Corporate senior leaders need to own this. Hiring a professional to help word-smith your mission statement is wise, but this is not a task meant for a committee. That's important. No mission statement committees. Got it?

So how do you know when it's right? It should be clear, concise and inspirational. A two-word mission isn't the right fit for everyone, but if your mission is unclear, ambiguous or wordy, keep working. Are you inspired yet to get started? It's your business. Make it your mission.

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What are Your Brand's Affordances?

I took a course my senior year in college titled 'Making Meaning and The Design of Everyday Objects'. A typical session consisted of about 20 students of various majors working through the form and functionality of objects.

The first thing we would do is arrange our desks in a circle and place an object in the center. For 90 minutes we would work through a process that required us to remove all previous perception in order to observe it from an objective point of view -- relying on form to explain function. By recognizing the affordances as a whole and as individual parts, the object began communicating -- and quite often the intended function wasn't the only message it was communicating.

What would happen If we placed your brand in the center of the circle?

What are your affordances? You, your co-workers, the product, the service, mission-vision-values, visual identity, etc. (No, your brand is not just your logo)

What do these affordances communicate effectively?
What do they communicate intentionally? Unintentionally?
Do certain affordances distract rather than support the function?

By the time our 90 minutes were up, we had suggested a dozen possible uses for the object other than its intended function. Sure, spending ninety minutes with a neti pot can be tedious - but I'll never look at one without seeing its potential. Your brand may not be as limited as you think. It might take some additional time recognizing your brand's affordances to discover its full potential.

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A three step strategy for sharing expertise on Twitter: How professional firms can use Twitter to position expert brands.

Are you a little leery of jumping into Twitter? I think that's a common feeling among many high-end attorneys, accountants, architects, engineers, and technical consultants that we've spoken to over the past few months. It's not that these professionals don't have anything valuable to say, they're just not sure how best to get started.

All you need to do is jump online and post what you had for breakfast, right? Easy there... let's take a step back first.

Let's pretend for a moment you don't need me to convince you why you should be tweeting and that you've already established a solid set of goals for utilizing Twitter with your branding and marketing team. Let's assume after a long, focused discussion with those teams, your vision looks something like this:

1. Expand your network online to create top of mind awareness of your firm
2. Establish or reinforce your firm's areas of expertise
3. Attract the top talent in your space by showcasing your firm's thinking

You'll want to spend some time designing a vision specifically for you, but that's a good direction to begin implementing your Twitter strategy. From here, nearly everything you'll need to get started can be included in one of the three following categories: Start, Share, and Expand.

1. Start - Basic recommendations to get you tweeting:

- Choose your handle. Visit Twitter.com to select your own unique handle. It will be your username, and your posts will show up with "@" in front of them. Pick something like your name or your company's name. I'm @joshmiles. You can also upload your own avatar or photo and customize your page.

- Explore different user interface options. You don't have to be on Twitter.com to use their service. Tweeting functionality is built into various websites, smart phones, and desktop applications. One of my favorites is a free desktop application, which has a companion iPhone app called TweetDeck. It allows you to manage tweets in groups, shorten links, post photos, and even allows for multi-account support.

- Make smart posts. In general, stick to what you know. This doesn't mean you have to be robotic, but if you're tweeting about sushi more that you tweet about your area of expertise, some followers may lose interest.

- Schedule your tweeting. Choose specific times in the day or specific days in the week to spend some quality time on Twitter. It could be 5 minutes or 5 hours a day, depending on how Twitter best fits into your overall communications strategy. Bottom line - decide how important it is to your own strategy, and get in the habit of making regular updates.

- Follow smart people, or anyone you like for that matter. But since we're talking about building up the reputation of your firm, be smart about who you choose to follow. Clients, vendors, coworkers, and even other experts are great people to follow.

2. Share - What to tweet:

- Share your firm's thought leadership content. One obvious use of Twitter is to share your firm's ideas, links, and articles. Just remember: share, don't "sell." Users follow people for various reasons, but few will continue to follow users who post blatant sales messages.

- Share great posts, blogs, etc. Anytime you read a great relevant article, post a link to it. You can also forward other users' posts to your own followers, called a "ReTweet."

- Don't limit your thinking to what you can fit in 140 characters or less. You can link to longer content such as websites, videos, blogs, etc.

- Company Blogs. Speaking of blogs, every posting at your firm would be greatly complemented by a Twitter mention.

- Email Newsletters. Do you have an e-newsletter? Provide occasional links for email newsletter sign-ups.

- News, Events, and Awards. Twitter is a great platform to make announcements, share news, awards, mentions, etc.

- Have Fun. If used in good balance, Twitter is a great way to showcase some of your firm's culture or some of your personal interests. But like we discussed earlier, don't get carried away on the personal stuff.

3. Expand - Don't stop there...

- #Hashtag Keywords. For some topics, you may want to "tag" your post the with the pound sign such as #branding or #followfriday - click here to learn more about #hashtags.

- Stay on top of your account. Keep an eye on who's following you, and choose who makes sense to follow in return. Find other users who talk about similar keywords, and consider following them as well.

- Hello my name is @joshmiles. Add your handle as another piece of contact info: email signature, email newsletter, blog, website. If it makes sense, consider even adding your handle to print materials (business cards, etc.) or sharing it in articles, presentations, or networking events.

Remember to commit some time to discussing your goals and strategies before jumping right in, but don't sit back for too long. Being an active Twitter user may be one of the best ways to position your brand as an expert firm.

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Does Your Brand Have Any Competition?

Take a moment to think about your "competition". You probably immediately thought of one or two competitors. Your clients-to-be often ask you about them. They pitch all of the same accounts that you're pitching. Even the not-for-profit world has competition. You're kidding yourself if you don't see those other charities as competing for the same donation dollars.

What if you could make them go away? I don't mean out of business or even out of town. But what would it take to prevent them from being able to compete with your company altogether? You can't actually get them to "go anywhere", but there is a very simple solution.

Make your competition invisible by getting out of their business.

Okay, before you stop reading, listen to what I mean. If you're in the professional services field (which most of our clients are) then more than likely you're competing on the same platform, and selling a virtually identical service to the same audience as your competition.

How would you describe what's unique about your brand? Chances are, you'd offer a paraphrased version of your mission statement. "Our commitment to quality service, and dependable ...great products and fair pricing ...and the best people in the business." Sound familiar? Yes. That's because it's exactly how your competition talks about their brand and their services.

It's time to Get Truly Different.

It's all about positioning. If you're familiar with the concept of Blue Ocean Strategy, finding an untapped, wide-open market is awesome. The truth is, you may not have to be quite that radical. The truth is, if you take a page out of the Seth Godin playbook and just do something remarkable, you're halfway there.

A great first step is to define a niche. "But I don't want to pigeonhole our company with a niche!" Yep, think of all of those poor, under-performing niche brands: Crocks (just for kids), North Face (just for hikers), Geek Squad (just for home computer repairs), Apple Computer (just for creative types).

Niche positioning doesn't limit your market. Nice positioning expands it.

Why is that? When a consumer thinks, "Gee, I need an XYZ," whatever brand fulfills that niche positioning, will be the first brand the consumer will think of.

Okay, so how do we apply what we see in the consumer product market, to the professional services market?

First off, let's remember that the same "30-year-old dude" that's buying North Face and Apple, could be the same professional who's making the decision about which architects to consider for the building expansion, or which law firm would be best suited to handle their intellectual property needs. People are people. When they're at work, they're still people. You aren't selling to a "business." More than likely, you're selling to another person. Don't forget that.

So back to the question, how can we go about applying what we know in the consumer market to the professional services market? Here are my top five suggestions:

1. Find a price niche.
What would your customers be willing to pay a premium price for? Within your market, what can you offer at the top end of the price spectrum? Or how can you bill differently. If your industry bills by the hour, consider a monthly retainer or flat package or project fees. On the flip side, what can you systematize and charge a miniscule amount for? What if you became known as the giant law firm who filed Trademark Applications as fast as the online guys, but with the clout and service that you're known for in the community?

2. Light Blue Ocean.
What do our customers want that we (and our competitors) don't currently offer? How could we take our service to the next level? Daily personal telephone updates? On-site service? Online project status monitoring? A project manager with an iPhone could easily post progress photos of your new building, and status updates via Twitter. (Hint: This may be the thing from #1 that allows you to charge a premium.)

At our office, the dry cleaner picks up our laundry from our suite and delivers it right back to our coat closet. My credit card is on file, and I seldom even see our trusty delivery guy. It's like magic. And guess what? It costs pretty much the same as the strip-mall dry cleaner. Remarkable.

3. Before you try to look different, figure out how to be different.
Design and marketing professionals are experts in the art of creating something new and interesting. This works out great when you ARE new and interesting. However if you're really more of the same old, same old, it tends to backfire. (See also: JetBlue, etc.) Arguably one of the best "brands" in history for doing something different: Barack Obama. He sounded different, he exploited his differences, and he did an amazing job of looking different. Now we get to see if he lives up to his brand promise of Hope and Change.

4. Now that you're doing something different, it's time to be sure you look and sound different.

5. Let someone else look in the mirror for you.
Chances are, you're so close to your own brand that you're still a little confused. You may have even convinced yourself that you're well-niched, doing unique things, have made your company truly different, and do in fact you look different too. Strangely, your competition is still there, buzzing in your ear. Now would be a good time to get a second opinion. Try consulting a mentor, a colleague from another department, or try enlisting the help of a marketing professional.

Here's one final suggestion: when you're looking for a professional firm to help you with positioning, branding or marketing, ask them why they are unique. And then ask them who their competition is. If their answers sound similar to yours, keep looking.

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The true identity of your brand

I recently had the privilege of presenting an activity at a local networking event for the Keystone at the Crossing Rainmakers meeting. The activity revolved around the concept of identity and how taking time to learn more about someone at a networking event could positively impact your business. And while my presentation at Rainmakers was specific to that event, here's a slightly edited version of my presentation for this context:

The top grossing movie of 2008 is all about identity. The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it yet, it's the latest installment in the Batman series. One of my favorite scenes finds Batman's true identity, Bruce Wayne, off to dinner at a swanky restaurant. He's been rejected by his longtime girlfriend, Rachel, who is one of the few people in the world who knows his secret identity is Batman. Of course, it just so happens that Rachel is out at that same swanky restaurant with her new boyfriend—the City's District Attorney, Harvey Dent.

As Bruce Wayne walks into the room with his Russian Ballet girlfriend on his arm, he pretends at first not to see them, but then he's "surprised" and feigns a smile to greet the new couple. Rachel is annoyed at first but responds as cordially as possible. "Bruce... this is Harvey Dent." Harvey doesn't seem to feel the tension and smiles back at Bruce, "Rachel has told me everything about you." To which Bruce replies, "I certainly hope not."

Identity can be a complex thing. Like yours, there are many elements to my identity. I'm a business owner. I'm a father. A husband. A brother. A son. An artist. A writer. And some things I don't care to share in public. Some people know me very well... others don't know me at all.

What about your identity? What makes you who you are? Are you more than a sales person? More than a business owner? Who is it that most people think you are? And who are you REALLY?

I don’t know for sure, but I’m willing to bet you’re somewhat like me… you want your public identity to be more than your life roles. More than "just a salesperson." More than "that tall guy who wears jeans." There are some things that you want to be known for, and there are other things that you would just as soon keep to yourself.

Now what if I flipped that and asked, "What is the true identity of your company?" Your brand identity is one of the most valuable assets that your business owns. Is your "true identity" crystal clear to your customers? Most importantly, has the public perception of your brand kept pace with how your company has grown? Do we see your brand like you do? Our company specializes in positioning high-end services and premium products. We help companies clearly define who they are, what they do, and why consumers should care.

Our goal is clarity in how the public perceives your brand. When your brand "walks" into a swanky restaurant and encounters your next potential customer, what is it they will say about you?

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What brand of razor did Ockham use?

Ockham's Razor is an age-old principal that suggests the most simple solution is usually the best. If you take a complex solution and peel away all of the unnecessary layers, you'll eventually get down to the essence of the idea. That one, pure, simple solution.

This works great when we're developing a trademark for a brand. It applies to business problems, and as I recently found, it also applies to personal hygiene.

Interestingly enough, while I was in Jacksonville, FL a few weeks ago, I needed a shave.

Much to my frustration, I'd left my razor at home. Now I'm not sure about you, but I'm still using my trusty Gillette Sensor Excel. Anymore it seems a little puny. It's quiet, simple, square pivoting head looks pretty basic. It's the kind that you pay a six or seven bucks for, and then spend the rest of your life paying for blades. (Which is a brilliant marketing maneuver by the way, but not my point.) It's not that I hadn't tried out the other "fancy" razors. I just kept breaking them. I've tried Schick and Gillette. (And don't event talk to me about electric razors. I want to shave my face, not irritate it.) The more blades and bendy features the razor boasts, the faster I could break them. I'm not sure I've got the world's toughest beard, but apparently I needed a simple solution to my facial hair problem.

In this modern world we get to choose between three, four, and five-blade razors that slice, dice, and even battery powered models with vibrating blades. And there I stood in that Jacksonville bathroom, without even my lowly two-bladed razor. Bummer. So I responded the way I normally would in these situations... "HONEY!!! ...Did you pack my razor?" Of course, I had to make her feel like she was a part of my issue. "Just use my disposable razor," she said, "It's in the bag."

With a major blow to my masculine soul, there sat a brand new, disposable Venus razor, staring back at me from our bathroom luggage bag. At first glance it was curvy, and a two-toned white on girly blue. "Ugh. Whatever, I have to shave." And shave I did. I've got to admit, even though it looked a lot like the more feature-heavy men's razors, it's very simple. The flat head houses three blades. It's sturdy. And best yet, it shaves very, very well. I know it sounds a little odd, but I kinda liked shaving with this kinda girly razor.

So I'm not sure if William of Ockham would agree, but for me, the best solution actually has three blades, and is marketed only to women. I haven't broken it yet. And yes, I'm still shaving with a "women's" razor.

What product or service do you sell to a specific target market, that could possibly benefit from looking to other markets? Do you sell anything to just one gender or industry? How could it change your sales model if you rebranded this product, and broadened your focus? What solutions do you provide that could be further simplified?

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Holiday Cow

HolidayCow.com

Some of you are probably thinking, "Uh... a cow?" Others might be thinking "Finally something different this holiday!" And some of my more discerning students may be thinking, how does Holiday Cow relate to the Miles Design brand?

The short of it is, we wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays in a way nobody else would. And we think, even if you do have an innate fear of cows, you will probably find this humorous on some level. At least we do.

Sometimes doing something a little out of the norm is the best way to get noticed. And other times, it's not...

Something that veers towards inappropriate, crude or subversive, is bound to get noticed as well, but not necessarily in a good way. Chances are, the most creative way to get noticed is also appropriate for your brand. Doing something outside of the norm just might help a potential customer imagine your company in a fresh, new way. "Hey, did you see that thing with the cow? You gotta see this."

For us, Holiday Cow is about sending a fun Holiday message to our friends, clients, and vendor partners. It carries on our slightly irreverent sense of humor, our brand look and feel, and just so happens to "moo" occasionally. Hopefully you will enjoy Morty as much as we did creating him for you. (Who knows... maybe next year it will be a Llama, named Ike.)

What have you done with your brand that's outside of the norm (in a good or bad way)? What can your brand do differently in 2008? How can we help?

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Make the Logo Greener?

If you've ever worked in the marketing world, you're very familiar with the phrase "make the logo bigger." Now there's a push for companies to be perceived as environmentally responsible, and practicing sustainable business er, practices. In effect, companies want their brands to be perceived as the most "green."

NBC has taken this one step further. They made their logo and website green for the week. Okay, I'm sure NBC means well, but is making their logo green for a few days really benefiting the environment? NBC launched "Green is Universal" last weekend during Sunday Night Football. As part of this awareness campaign, NBC dimmed the studio lights to demonstrate how they were helping conserve energy. Here's where it gets funnier...

In addition, NBC flew anchors from the Today Show to all ends of the Earth to report on the conditions from all around the world. I'm no expert, but isn't jet fuel a major contributor to the release of general nastiness into the environment? It seems to me that they could have done more good by launching local campaigns in local markets, instead of burning jet fuel to report on the damages already done.

As icing on the cake, David Schwimmer and Al Gore are guest staring on 30 Rock Thursday night, in totally comedic "environmental wacko" roles. Interesting that they would choose this week to poke fun at their own initiative. Go figure.

Silly or not, they got me talking about their very own "brand of green." But if you ask me, it's just another green logo.

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MD News updates

Much has happened in the past four months. A new office, new baby, etc... So in the interest of catching everyone up quickly, here's a recap in bullet point format:

07.01.07 - MD moves into new offices at the Precedent, complete with a fourth floor view of "Lake Precedent." (To date, no geese have chased Josh into the new office. Stand by for further updates.)

07.01.07 - Long time MD collaborators, Wired Ground, agree to share office space with MD.

08.15.07 - Meg Taylor Miles
Born 1:37 am
7 pounds, 10 ounces
19.75 inches long
Eyes - grayish... maybe blue, but too close to call.
Hair - short brown
Hands and toes - long and thin

09.01.07 - Two MD entries have been selected to appear in Graphic Design USA's design annual, due to hit newsstands in January. The selected pieces were the redesigned brand identity for Surroundings, and MD's own holiday card from 2006.

10.01.07 - After much delay, MD finally settled on printing new business cards on plastic. Cool stuff.

10.22 - Brand identity design specialist Brian K. Gray joins the team at MD.

10.27.07 - MD designer Amanda celebrates her nuptials with husband Joe, in quaint New Harmony IN.

11.01.07 - MD remembers blog, updates past four months.

11.04.07 - Did anybody catch all of that?

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Why blog?

It's funny. It's been over a year since we added our first (albeit brief) entry to the Miles Design blog. Although my original vision for our blog was to have a venue to talk about branding and share all of the interesting things around me, here we sat nearly 15 months later, with just one entry.

Ironically, as I have been procrastinating over writing new entries, I've had several clients asking me about blogs. Among our clients, there are those who are considering starting blogs, those who are a little slow to add content to existing blogs, and of course the clients who seem to be getting the hang of it. Just the other day at lunch, blogging came up again. This time it was a potential client who asked us a very straightforward question, "Why would our business even want a blog?"

Our group all chimed in to share their perspectives... A blog is an opportunity for an organization to show it's personal side. If a brand is the total perception of a company, what a great way to build "personality." It's a great chance to express opinions, discuss trends, dig deeper into the details of a project, or have the ability to go deeper than the company's 'capabilities' or 'client list.' It's an opportunity to showcase their best team members as thought leaders, or even express the CEO's sense of humor. It's a place to link to interesting sites or stories. And some business leaders find blogs less intimidating to add to, versus updating the "about us" page on their website.

Thankfully, I'm taking our table's advice. As a part of our impending re-launch of MilesDesign.com, we're re-committing to maintaining our blog, not just updating our samples and client list.

So why would Miles Design want a blog? First of all, our previous website was launched in February of 2006. Our single "news" page listed our all of our "newsworthy" items over the past few months. While that seemed adequate at the time, it forced our "news" to be reduced down to headlines, such as:

08.06 - MD launches smart new ad campaign for The Heart Center of Indiana.
07.06 - MD begins work with Sensory Technologies.
07.06 - MD (and team) win Telly Awards for The Heart Center TV commercials.

You get the idea...

So for us, a blog is a great opportunity to expand our "news" into full stories. It's a chance for us to share more about what is happening in our office, as well as outside. And let's face it... I like to talk about us, almost as much as I like the BBQ chips from Jimmy John's.

Secondly, our blog allows Miles Design to be a better example for our clients. If branding experts can't demonstrate the marketing benefits of a blog, why would their clients show interest?

Finally, let's not downplay the fun factor. It's a chance for us to share the cool things we experience all around us. Our shop maintains strong ties to culture, and it's something our principals encourage. As design thinkers, we're constantly looking at the trends going on around us: in business, music, fashion, all types of design, and (of course) branding... all topics we'll likely be exploring. And when you have a such a simple, fun, brand-building forum as a blog, who wouldn't want to share?

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