The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals. The awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 450+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media.
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1. Blog where your clients are
Find websites and blogs that offer content and resources that your clients need to keep informed. Where do they get their critical information? We’ve written articles for World-at-Work’s Workspan Magazine and Training Magazine to reach clients and prospects in the employee communication sectors. If you don’t know where your clients get their business information ask them. That’s another way to reach out and build a relationship with your audience.

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Friends and colleagues are out of work. The stock market seems to drop every day. And everyone wants to get back to “normal” again. But there’s no going back. A new paradigm shift is developing. Economic realities will force the hands of corporate America. Bad business decisions, greed and sloppy winner-take-all tactics are forcing us to make a change in values that will lead us to reexamine why we do business and how we communicate our products, services and values to the public. Businesses will need to develop clear, concise and meaningful communication platforms with messaging that support these new attitudes. (more…)

Little did we know that a packaging assignment for dog shampoo would make its debut on the Today Show! On Valentine’s, Day Lani — Dig Your Dog shampoo and conditioner were featured in a segment called “Today’s Pets.” On the segment, PupStyle.com co-founder Dara Foster shared fun and creative ways to celebrate your unconditional puppy love, including Lani — Dig Your Dog spa products. Go to www.LaniDigYourDog.com for more great stuff for dogs and the people who dig them.

How do you design “winning”? We put everyone on the staff to the test in designing Renee Weisman’s new book Winning in a Man’s World.

Designs ranged from the metaphorical corporate ladder to the strong image of a successful handshake. In the end, we all agreed, that nothing says success quite like a cigar.

Below are eight other cover designs that were part of the initial presentation.

Weisman explains that winning is making the most of your talents and using the skills you already have to move up in the field you choose. This self help book gives tips and examples of how to be a successful employee, boss and co-worker.

To learn more about Renee’s book (or to order your own copy) click here.

On St. Patrick’s day we like to paint the town green. You can be green with inexperience. Green used to mean you had a lot of cash, but now the green economy is a shade of sickly green––more green than our kids with the flu. And then there’s the greening of our environment. Can we be all of these greens at the same time? We get calls and emails asking about Green Design. Can we do green? Are you Green, What have you done that’s green?, Who have you worked with in Green Industries?

The answer to all of these questions is YES! But let’s look at each question a bit closer.

Can we do Green?
We’ve always recommended recycled papers, soy-based inks, and reduced paper sizes and quantities. We work with printers who are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We challenge conventional thinking. One of the best examples was an answer to the question of which shopping bag you should request at the supermarket “Paper or plastic?” It’s the wrong question. Neither is as reusable as carrying a cloth bag. Many retailers have come on board offering reusable shopping bags.

Are you green?
In our office we recycle our paper, print on two sides, and recycle bottles, ink cartridges. We scrutinize our mailings list and remove excess names. We’ve downsized the materials we mail out, order select quantities in digital printing and shifted many of our promotions online.

What have we done that’s green?
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By David Langton, Langton Cherubino Group

From the swoosh on our running shoes, to the mermaid on our morning cup of joe to companies like Amazon, Oracle and Delphi, mythology is everywhere. Nike the Greek goddess of victory encourages us to banish our fears and “Just do it.” The Starbucks mermaid sets us adrift in a sea of caffeinated bliss. All of these logos represent the values of each company and the mythology of their products.

As visual communicators we are often hired to create logos – which from the Greek refers to “meaning” and “logic.” I love the idea that a logo has real meaning. We often tell our clients that any identity we create for you should be grounded in reality. You must be able to deliver on your promise. We can design a great website, but if you don’t provide the services or deliver the research you promise, your company will eventually fail. We can draw beautiful pictures and select gorgeous colors for your brand but if this does not support your mission and connect with your target audience, then it is a waste of resources.

The best logos are practical, they reflect the principles, missions and objectives of services, products, companies and organizations. But what about aspirations? Can a logo express more than concrete reality? If it can embody hopes and dreams as well, is it still a logo? Yes! A logo is a symbol of something and for something.

Karen Armstrong, author of A Short History of Myth, defines “logos” as something that must correspond accurately to objective facts, “It’s the mental activity we use when we want to make things happen… when we organize… it is essentially pragmatic.” She describes “myth” as a way of addressing “what if?” questions. Mythology does not claim to be objective, but offers a way to understand something important, sacred, spiritual, or beyond our rational constructs. A myth offers a truth if it provides a new insight into the deeper meaning of life.

One example Armstrong gives is that our ancestors learned how to hunt, build weapons and organize expeditions using objective skills (logos). Yet learning to deal with the complicated emotions involved in killing animals or getting lost in the jungle or risking one’s life is reconciled in myth.

So how does that apply to the Nike swoosh or the Starbucks mermaid? All of these symbols represent the values and attributes of each company and serve as logos. They also project hope and the promise of the future and serve as myths.

The Renaissance brand

Renaissance Capital is a successful financial research firm in Greenwich, CT. that studies Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and produces extensive research reports for their clients and subscribers. Their old logo featured an Old English “R” common in the newspaper mastheads like The New York Times. This logo was old, but not from the Renaissance period. My firm was hired to create a new logo and we wanted to know why the company was named “Renaissance.” We were told that the founders wanted to evoke the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of DaVinci and Michelangelo because they felt that the founders of Google, Ebay and the leading IPOs were the Renaissance people of today. Whew! How do you make a symbol of that? A symbol for that?

In creating a logo for Renaissance Capital, we had to understand their company name and embody the client’s challenge that the logo had to “say I-P-O.” The logo solution is based on a Greek revival Ionic column motif that is inspired by Renaissance design and literally spells out the letters “I-P-O.” The brand is mythic because it embodies the promise and aspirations of the new Renaissance Capital, it is a logo because it represents a company that delivers real research and useful intelligence on the IPO marketplace.

Can a mythic brand save a company? Enron had an impressive logo but that did not help a company caught in a notorious financial scandal. Legendary designer Saul Bass designed the original globe artwork for the AT&T logo and even though the company failed in the marketplace the brand was purchased by Cingular who renamed itself “the new AT&T” and relaunched the global icon. The AT&T brand was more than a logo. It was bigger than the failed company that it represented, it was a mythic brand.

About the Author

David Langton is a principal of Langton Cherubino Group, a strategic design and interactive communications firm in New York. He can be reached david@langtoncherubino.com or 212-533-2585.

Did you catch the typo above before or after you ate your lunch? Many people don’t see a misplaced, extra or omitted letter in a word, but for some, that’s all they see. And when you print anything, whether it is one sheet of paper or a thousand brochures, a mistake in spelling or grammar can be costly, for both your credibility and your budget.

It’s very difficult to proofread something that you have worked on all day. Our eyes tend to gloss over a sentence we’ve seen before, especially if we’ve tweaked and changed it a hundred times. That’s where proofreading comes in. While it’s best to find a fresh pair of eyes to look at your work, there are a few steps you can take to help root out those little buggers that want to spoil the job. Here are some proofreading tips:

• Change your place of reading — move from your desk and sit in a sunny spot
• Get a proofing buddy and read aloud to each other
• Print a hard copy on different colored paper
• Zoom in tight or out far on your screen and read from there
• Proof for one thing at a time: spelling, then grammar, then punctuation
• Look for trouble words: you and your, health and hearth, golf and gold
• Un-contract contractions as you read: it’s and it is, you’re and you are
• Use a ruler or piece of paper and read one line at a time
• Remember to proof headlines and captions
• Examine small print closely — with a magnifying glass if necessary
• Send it to your mom — she’ll be happy to hear from you, regardless of typos
• Enter special words and names — correctly — in your spell check’s dictionary and rid your doc of squiggly
red lines for onscreen viewing
• Re-proof copy that has changed and when it is correct, be done with it by drawing a box around it and crossing it out
• Read your document backwards
• Make sure your verbs and nouns agree and that your tenses match
• Test any phone numbers or URLs
• Get some distance on your work — go to lunch and then proofread

When in doubt, look it up. While the trend in writing leans toward a more informal style, most of the rules we learned in school still apply. It’s up to you whether you want to omit the serial comma or close up a word like website, but be consistent. Otherwise, a critical reader may think you goofed.

Judy Corcoran is a writing collaborator with Langton Cherubino Group as well as a freelance copywriter and copyeditor, who blames the nuns for her inordinate interest in grammar. She is the author of The Concise Guide to Magazine Marketing: Tips, Tools and Best Practices which is available at MagazineMarketers.com. Judy can be reached at 212-315-2449 and JudyCorc@aol.com.

Check out new articles on branding and communications in the online edition of Strategy Magazine:

Logos vs. Mythos: Strategies for communicating your brand

How do you get the most bang out of your marketing campaign?

A new article by David Langton was published in the October 2008 edition of Workspan, the magazine from “World-at-Work.” Wellness programs are on the lips of every HR and benefits professional these days. But starting one takes planning, patience and consistency. Learn how to get your wellness program off the ground with this primer. Click here to download
the PDF.