Branding Trends: #5 Clever Finishes

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TREND #5 CLEVER FINISHES
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When someone gives you a business and you go oooh ahhh, then you know you've come across a good one. It's done everything it needs to do - give a great first impression and imprinted their brand into your mind - JOB DONE!

Years ago, it would have been too costly to get special finishes onto your business card, stationary or packaging. But with more affordable printers popping up, the improvement of digital printing, specialty small-scale printers and off-shore printing add in a soaring Aussie dollar this is making finishes cheaper and more accessible for clients.

We are in love with the black foil on black card, coloured edging, blind hand embossing and overprinting.

Branding Trends: #4 Variety

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TREND #2 VARIETY

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Brands must be able to reach out to their target audience and a simple logo just doesn't cut it these days. You need to have a strong personality, strong point of view. And a point of difference to cut through to your audience and rush past those pesky competitors.

With so much communication out there your audience is overwhelmed with so much, well... stuff. What they do remember is something funny, a certain colour, something innovative or clever, the way something is packaged. Create a suite of brand elements that work together to make your brand visually attractive and highly recognisable.

Go beyond that brand logo and you'll get a brand that really sings.

TBW: the cure

A little disruption to the brand trending posts as this was too good not to let you all know about it.

Confession: We are True Blood addicts. Rewatching season 3 again in anticipation for season 4. It's gonna airing so freakin' soon we are itching at the screen.

This is a clever, clever promo. And piece of social media that not only promotes the series but also connects its fan base. Props. And tres cool too. Enjoy.

Branding Trends: #3 Return to Retro

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TREND #2 RETURN TO RETRO
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It's a wave of branding that is hitting our shores HARD. A return to retro, a bit of nostalgia. Think seals, ribbons, etchings, letterpress, contrasting pastel block colour, lovely tight type work - all done in a modern way. It is definitely is here to stay and there are more and more brands embracing this type of branding. Touching on our childhood heartstrings and it's working.

Hats off to the brands taking a risk, and moving away from that seen and done corporate look. It'll pay off and give you a great point of difference as a brand. And, it's something we'll remember and recognise as consumers.

Branding Trends: #2 Printed Tape

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TREND #2 PRINTED TAPE
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Somehow tape has gone beyond a functional object and crossed over to the Point-of-Sale slash Packaging slash Craft arena. It's no longer something that helps you wrap a present but has a DUAL purpose; it allows you to seal and brand at the same time.

Such a simple thing, TAPE, but it can be used in so many ways.
Here's a few ideas of how to use branded tape to get your creative juices going.

As a simple closure for an envelope.
On the floor to section off an area or mark your desk turf.
Diagonally across blank ready-made folders - cheap and effective.
Vertically on the edge of a presentation board.
Create branded beer bottles or wine bottles for client gifts.

Get taping!

Branding Trends: #1 Stamp IT!

We've been doing a lot of branding lately, it's our favourite part of creating and building a brand identity. Brands go beyond a simple logo - it's all 'bout attitude, fun, humour and getting across the type of brand persona you want your audience to see.

Over the next few posts we'll detail the top brand identity trends we've been seeing. Some are so simple that you might want to implement these or extend your brand identity.

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TREND #1 STAMPS
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So simple, cheap, cheap and A LOT of fun! Use it on business cards, wrap items in craft paper then stamp your packaging, create a pattern, overlay colours, stamp someone's head around the office!

You can get custom stamps created from your artwork file (usually done in illustrator) at your local Stamp supplier (have a look in the Yellow Pages) or stationary supplier like Officeworks or Staples.

There are two main types of stamps:

1. Self inking - all-in-one stamp, simply push down to get an impression but there are limited range of ink colours. But it's a clean process - no mess!

2. Traditional - simple rubber stamp with separate inking pad (there are an array of colours available)  and you can control the amount of ink coverage. Heaps of fun, one stamp that can do multiple colours, just wash - dry and start again.

Get thinking and get creative - you NOW control your stamp.

Images courtesy of Lovely Stationary

Prof. Yoshinobu Miyamoto at The Paper Convention

I know, it's been paper, paper and more paper. But it's the buzz word and I just can't get enough of it. A few of us went to the lecture by Prof. Yoshinobu Miyamoto, (let's call him YM) bought out by UTS for The Paper Convention all the way from Japan.

It's always hard going to a lecture by an international artist, as you wonder if the language barrier will be a problem - but, boy was it NO problem at all. YM was so humble, kind and generous with his lecture - talking us through each and every process of making his minimalist geometric paper structures.

The highlight was definitely the demo of the Craft Robo, a tiny desktop machine that he uses to cut and score paper drawn up in Google Sketchup - a free 3D drawing program.

The pictures speak for themselves and YM has re-energised our love of paper by getting back to basics; cutting, folding and making.

To see all of YM's work here. A big shout out to Lisa Loxley for putting on a fantastic week of paper - we look forward to the next one - bigger and even better!