I was always a colorist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color… I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.
 —Damien Hirst

Gagosian Gallery presents “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” by Damien Hirst.

This new exhibition takes place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York (at three locations), London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, Hong Kong, and even Beverly Hills (watch out Housewives). Opening worldwide on January 12, 2012 and running until February 18 (in New York locations). Private individuals and public institutions, comprising more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries, are lending most of the paintings. The show has been conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations.

Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.

This is a great opportunity to view Hirst’s early work. And, for the squeamish, the show is free of dead cows, sharks, and flies. The gallery is also having “The Complete Spot Challenge” — visit all eleven Gagosian Gallery locations during the exhibition and receive a signed spot print by the artist, dedicated personally to you. While at the galleries, stock up on your “Spot Painting” lapel pins, coffee mugs, and wall clocks.

For more information about the Hirst show, the “Spot Challenge,” and a free app, visit  Gagosian Gallery.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 –1832) was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature… Faust is Goethe’s most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature. (Wikipedia)

“If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter,” is one of our favorite things that Mark Twain never said. The phrase is actually from the French philosopher Blaise Pascal who said, “I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” As communicators we strive to create interesting and engaging images with greater visual intelligence and fewer words. It’s much harder to edit and deliver that perfectly clear sentence. Too often we settle for more when we really seek less. So, we’ll stop right here…and wish for a year of less talk and more drawing.

Designer Calendars for Every Type
The best of 2012 calendars

Had enough of those calendars from your dentist? Langton Cherubino Group has done the research and presents you with our top calendar picks for 2012. Start the year off with style instead of puppies. Or babies. Or puppies and babies.

Mid-century modern
Let’s start with the biggest calendar. At a whopping 20” x 28”, this calendar displays the new year in colorful 18” numbers, all typeset in a beautiful custom version of the classic Bodoni typeface.

A mini work of art
At only 5” tall, this mini desk calendar with its own mini easel is going to take up mini space on your desk. And give you 12 months of beautiful original photography.

Sew easy
Get the kids, or your tailor involved with this one. This calendar has two lives. As a wall calendar it is a whimsical fabric wall hanging. As a cut & sew board game it is a great way to count along with the kids. Just sew up the dice and playing pieces and let the fun begin.

There is an app for that
UNIQLO makes great colorful cashmere sweaters. And a great colorful web calendar. It features wonderful and quirky images that show the beauty of Japan’s changing seasons. There is a web, iPad, and iPhone version available. All free!

Among the flora and fauna
This desk calendar is a collection of colorful flora and fauna illustrations. All simply packaged in a clear plastic jewel case that folds back to create a nifty desktop stand.

Leap year
2012 has a special number of days, 366. Why not spend them with a calendar that spotlights numbers? Each month features striking black and white photographs of street addresses in Helsinki. This Swedish design looks great when displayed one month at a time or all 366 days together.

Write it down
If you like to write down daily lists then try this calendar, designed by Ryan McGinness. It features generous note-writing space accompanied by a different graphic drawing each day by Ryan. Nicely packaged in its own cloth bound box, the calendar is really a 4” x 11” to-do list pad.

A different type of tweet
If you’re not lucky enough to wake up to the sound of real birds chirping, you can get this alarm clock that features a chirping electronic bird. And it’s also a calendar! Use with the stand for your bedside table or hang it on the wall.

uPrint
Why pay for shipping? You can buy this bright and colorful calendar as a PDF and then print it out at whatever size suits your needs. It features 12 different fun and unique illustrations including butterflies, high heels and our favorite, robots.

Bin Tin Tin
Never enough room on your desk to keep all the essentials? This 3-story tin is a perpetual calendar and a nifty place to store small office essentials. Simply swivel the compartments to set day, date and month. Only 3″ high and comes filled with paper clips, elastic bands and pushpins.

iOrganizer
Organizer is an iPhone application that works just like a real organizer. Manage your daily schedule, to-do list, notes or diary with it. 
Because it was designed to act like a paper organizer, anything you used to write down on a sheet of paper, you can now write down in Organizer.

Fun Facts 2012 Calendar from Langton Cherubino Group
Did you know that email “spam” came from a Monty Python skit about canned Spam? Check out “Fun Facts 2012,” a tent calendar with 12 fun facts particular to 2012. This showcase calendar is written and designed by our Design Director Jim Keller.

Here’s a review of our book Visual Marketing by Laura Petrolina
from 365 Days of Startups

For additional information on Visual Marketing – visit VisualMarketingBook.com

Early on in my career when I’d become stumped while working on a particular project or figuring out the best way to craft a message for a client, I would head to my local Hallmark store and browse the different aisle of greeting cards. Cards have a particularly powerful way at evoking a certain emotion and/or resonating with their reader in a manner that not many other communications mediums do. And so, I’d normally find myself reading a card wishing someone’s cat a happy Bar Mitzvah and I’d have a brainstorm on a perfect campaign to put together for my client.

Not only that, I’d leave the store buzzing with ideas, one after another of things I could do either for current or future clients. All I needed was a little spark of inspiration to get me going in the right direction. I think this is the case for many marketers, communications experts and for that matter entrepreneurs as a whole. These people (myself included), tend to be ‘idea’ people across the board, but sometimes they need a spark to get them going, a nudge to push them in the right direction (I know I do). That’s why when I picked up Visual Marketing, the new book by Anita Campbell and David Langton, for the first time…..I realized that if an entrepreneur could have a muse, it mostly likely would be in the form of this book.

This remarkable book is 236 page of ideas and inspiration, with an index at the end. Really what more could you ask for? It contains 99 hand picked examples (and not just hand picked by anyone, but two notable experts in the small business field) of visual marketing campaigns that hit the mark. Divided into three sections; Web and Online, Print and 3-D Physical Media and Logo/Branding, the book goes through every visual communications medium a organization could need and gives an examples of ways several businesses utilized the medium in focus to reach their goals.

More importantly, each example is accompanied by an explanation of why it proved to be powerful and a take away tip for the reader. These two pieces help an entrepreneur not just with the idea spark, but also with the follow through and application for their unique needs a business. The easy to read layout and visual examples make it a pleasure to pick up after a long day or as a mid-afternoon break vs. a burden (ugh….not another thing to read, I’d rather watch South Park, Football, Jersey Shore, fill in your brainless obsession here)
My one warning would be to come prepared with some sticky notes and a pen when you start reading so you can record your ideas as they ignite.

Find out more at visualmarketingbook.com Or order a book now. Laura Petrolino is chief communication officer at Ignite Venture Partners, which brings together consulting, capital, and concept incubation to build value in early and growth stage businesses. Find her on Twitter @lkpetrolino

Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market With Images and Design, is our new book written by communications strategist David Langton and Anita Campbell, Publisher and CEO Small Business Trends. Here is an interview by By Ivana Taylor that appeared on SmallBizTrends.com

Tell us a bit about Nothing.org’s campaign (p. 138). What caught your attention about it?

Anita Campbell: Nothing.org is a regional bank food and a small nonprofit. “Nothing” refers to having nothing to eat.

The marketing campaign depicting a can of nothing (i.e., a food can with the label “Nothing” on it) has meaning on several levels.

First, there’s an obvious play on words with a can of “nothing.” You expect a can to hold something. This one held … nothing.

Then you also have the wit involved with how do you visually convey “nothing”? I mean, how do you draw “nothing”? It’s hard. You need more than words to make an impact — you need an image. So there needed to be a way to make “nothing” seem tangible, to get people to donate. And since it is a food bank where people donate cans of food, the food can of nothing had double meaning.

It seems many of the selected examples found ways to gain interest from items we think are declining in popularity, like GGRP’s using 45 records (p. 86). Do you think these choices makes for a great long-term strategy?

Anita Campbell: GGRP is a recording studio. For a marketing campaign they created a mailer made of cardboard that you assembled into a 45 record player. They included a vinyl 45-rpm record showcasing their recording capabilities. What’s a 45-rpm record, you ask? It’s how people used to listen to music before iPods. Really old technology.

The takeaway from GGRP’s strategy is not that it uses out-of-date technology. It was intentionally retro to get attention. And the retro technology related specifically to the business GGRP is in, so it was relevant.

No, the real learning is that when doing direct mail, send out interactive “lumpy mail.” You may quickly forget a letter or postcard, no matter how well written. But aren’t you likely to remember a 45-rpm record player that you had to take a few minutes to assemble, and the message you heard using it?

Creativity like that never goes out of date.

Speaking of creativity, we wanted to get David Langton’s advice on using visuals in marketing.

What advice would you give small business owners who want to embark on a marketing project, but don’t know where to begin?

David Langton: I always tell businesspeople, “Get professional help!” And I don’t mean therapy. Yet, creating a brand for your company is a lot like therapy. You must get in touch with the core reasons your business exists and create a brand that encompasses the core values and services you offer in ways that are attractive and distinctive to your primary audience

Gretchen Ditto is an image consultant — but just because she is an expert in establishing style and presentation for her clients does not mean she is a marketing or communication designer. She turned to professional designer Katrina Hase of Mix Creative to produce a new brand that has the right balance between casual and professional for Ditto & Co. Her brand provides a communication positioning that has increased her status as a speaker and a consultant.

What are pitfalls marketers should avoid when they are thinking of doing a visual marketing campaign?

David: The biggest pitfall I see is that small businesses try to be everything to everybody. Focus on what you do best. Your business is defined by what you do — and by what you choose not to do. Success comes when you define what you do best and then deliver that service to a specific audience.

Paula Bodnar Schmitt of the Bodnar Design Consultancy designed an abstract sign featuring the musical symbol for “quarter note” for the Quarternotes Loft apartments. This targeted music students and professionals who would certainly be aware of the meaning of the quarter note symbol as well as the clever wordplay on “living quarters.” By using the musical symbols, they targeted their message to the audience they wanted to reach, and the apartments were fully rented.

What are the core design elements that have to be present for a campaign to be successful?

David: The core design elements for creating a successful campaign are:

Style: The design or look and feel of the campaign should reflect the theme of your services and resonate with your target audience. Style elements include shapes, color, imagery and typography.
Meaning: What does the artwork or campaign mean? Does it reflect the mission of your organization? Is copy well-written, succinct and easy to understand?
Function: Does the design drive business? Change behaviors? Motivate or challenge your audience to take action?

All three elements must support each other. Your style should have meaning that supports the functions or goals and objectives of your campaign.

Renaissance Capital IPOThe Renaissance Capital identity is a good example of how all three elements work together in a successful identity and marketing campaign. Renaissance Capital is a research firm that specializes in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). They believe that the founders and innovators of new companies like eBay, Google and Facebook are the “Renaissance people” of today.

The new logo designed by my firm (Langton Cherubino Group) takes the letters I-P-O and evokes the style of a Greek Revivalist ionic column. By combining the heritage of Renaissance design with a modern style, the brand positions this research firm as the go-to source for IPO content. The new design, which also includes a streamlined and reorganized website, caught the attention of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE), which has become a partner in offering services to a new market in Europe.

What are the biggest mistakes marketers make when they create campaigns and what’s your advice on how to fix them?

David: The biggest mistake is to think that you are your best client. Designing a visual marketing campaign or identity should not be based on what you personally like. It should be about how your company and services are positioned for your target audience. Your visual marketing should be created to attract and persuade the people who buy your services.

Time and time again, clients think that they can design it themselves. It’s important to step back and try to think like your own clients. Present your objectives and goals to your designers and marketing experts and let them present creative visual solutions back to you. Let the creatives be creative … and perhaps you will be surprised by fresh and innovative ideas that you never would have come up with on your own.

What do you want readers to ultimately “get” from the book?

David: Visual Marketing is an “idea trigger” book. It gives you ideas for how to spice up your marketing, using images and design. If you walk away with just one or two new ideas, those ideas could result in tens of thousands of dollars — or more — in new business and profit. In that case, Anita and I have done our jobs, and thumbing through Visual Marketing will be well worth it.

You can find out more at the Visual Marketing Book website or follow on Twitter for updates at @VisualMktgBook.