Battle of the Edits...

Today it's the battle of the Weekly Edits!

I'll be looking at two popular weekly edits that are designed for iPhone and pitting them against each other in the following categories:

• Usability

• Overall Design

• Functionality

• Regular Features/Stories

• Density of Product/Selling

I'll be looking at Asos and Company's weekly edits for iPhone. Two brands that have a similar customer pitch and that put out mini magazines every week featuring cherry picked stories from the big monthly publication.

So, First things first,

Usability

Can it be understood by first time users, and is it easy to navigate around?

Asos: Fairly easy to find your way around the app if you're already used to how apps work. Could do with a quick how to page for new users but generally easy after the initial read through. 3/5

Company: Same goes for Company. Simple up and down - side to side movements with each article only having five drops maximum. Even new users should be able to get around this no problem. 4/5

Overall Design

Asos: Generally I like how Asos have translated their stories for iPhone. It's simple and doesn't vary too much from issue to issue, which anchors the users' confidence in the app. Asos employ a set number of grids that remain in place every issue then introduce several break out spreads to keep it interesting. 4/5

Company: Unfortunately, Company is a hot mess. Pixelation left right and centre, ugly graphics that don't really fit with the brand, and clunky design elements that look like they've hopped straight out of Microsoft paint. Could be passed off as bad in an ironic way, but mostly it's just bad. 0/5

Functionality

Asos: The functionality in this app is super easy and self explanatory. Price points and buttons are nice and clear and anywhere that isn't obvious has a few words to guide us. Parfait. 5/5

Company: I'll try not to get too hung up on how ugly this app is. Once you get past the buttons that you can hardly see, the functionality is really quite good. We get a how to page up front and throughout the app functions are obvious and minimal. Little to no deviation from issue to issue so users get totally used to it. 4/5

Interesting Regular Features/Stories

Asos: A Fair amount of regular stories - enough to give the impression that this is a magazine that is edited properly rather than a scrabble around to find stories every week. Stories that let users know what they're getting every week while mixing in a percentage of new/current content. Overall, well pulled together. 4/5

Company: Slightly more rigid than Asos, almost all stories are the same from issue to issue apart from the specials. To their credit, the content doesn't feel old. There's a lot to be said for consistency. 4/5

Density of Product/Selling Power

Asos: Fashion UP is very product Focused. Almost every story is centred around product with only maybe one or two that is general interest. They've managed to be quite clever about it though and not shout the message at you. I never feel under any pressure to buy. 5/5

Company: Not quite as product focused as Asos. They tend to throw more padding in there. Not sure how I feel about this. For a weekly edit, I want to feel like I'm getting the pick of the weeks' new drops. If I want to read more general stories, I buy the monthly mag. For me, the weekly edit doesn't quite know what it wants to be yet. 3/5

Asos = 21/25            Company = 15/25

So, the winner, by 6 points is ASOS! For a weekly edit of product, Fashion UP is top of the shop for me. I like the injection of new product every week, the ease of use and the simple design.

Not that Company is all bad, it has it's good points, but needs to develop some more before it can compete.

In print, I really love Company's look, but they've struggled to successfully translate it to iPhone. Their printed graphics aren't made for such a small digital space and need to be trimmed down to fit the media.

What's your favourite Newsstand App?

Svea xo

A Flickr of life

I enjoy photography as much as anyone else and I often take days out to just snap away on the beach around my beautiful city. But I've become a victim of not taking my camera out and just relying on my trusty iPhone then uploading them to Instagram.

I don't usually upload my photos to Facebook, but I recently remembered that I have a Flickr account. It's been a while since I've used the site and was extremely impressed when I saw that it has had a brand new face lift.

Adopting the rectangle interface that has graced every photo sharing site and bringing in the photostream hasn't defined anything new but adopting similar styles will help more budding amateurs feel like its a natural part of their social sites rather than being the odd one out. 

Offering a terabyte of space is great, I felt a bit put off by upgrading all the time just for putting my own photos on the site so adding this unbelievable amount of space has me sold.

Of course sometimes change is never a good thing, that's why in the forums a lot of hardcore fans have been complaining about the revamp. I can understand why because it uses the same interface as every other site making it feel more like a teenage social site, and many people used Flickr on a professional basis, but the site wasn't current or interesting. This new lease of life lets the site play around with layouts due to image sizes and I think it looks beautiful.

Biggr, Spectaculr, and Wherevr. is the sites' new motto and I hope this brings photographers back to this once great site. I for one am going to put down the phone and crack out the camera to give my photos the home they deserve.

'Til the next time, James x

Random Access Memories Unboxed...

Hi guys I'm back! Two days late due to technical difficulties.

Today I'd like to share with you a brief visual history of Daft Punk in honour of the release of their new album Random Access Memories.  [Fun Fact: Their brand mark was actually designed by one half of the duo Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo...yep that's his real name!].

This cool little infographic can be found here

I love how they take their image and tweak it slightly every time to keep it looking fresh and interesting. I'm especially feeling the fact that their latest costumes were designed by Yves St.Laurent!

From a Design perspective, this identity has everything in it that I love. It's responsive, current, inherently cool and bold with it. I like that they're happy to play with it every time as their music grows. Overall, a solid effort. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't buy the Special Edition Tron Legacy Vinyl when it was released...it's so pretty! But if anyone wants to pay £1000 for it on eBay for me then please feel free [It's my birthday in two weeks...wink wink nudge nudge].

I'm going to leave you with the awesome teaser trailer for the album. I so enjoyed watching this when it was aired last week, it's not often an ad for an album inspires so much excitement! The release felt like such an event!

See you next week!

Svea xo

Be exclusionary at your peril....

I was looking through YouTube this weekend and I stumbled across this viral video that has taken off in the last few days. You may have seen it already but it's a really interesting look on how if you make a brand exclusionary, you may face a bit of a public backlash.

Abercrombie & Fitch have a very extreme policy of not stocking any size above a medium, so that way only perceived 'hot' people are seen wearing their products and clothing. They advertise only using the most beautiful people and present an public image of cool, but one man Greg Karber took it among himself to change that perception.



This video gained so much momentum on YouTube and Facebook that the CEO had to respond by saying:

'While I believe this 7 year old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense. A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers. However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. “

Like any respectable brand, A&F has a clear position and has a definite target audience. But excluding sections of society can leave you open to ridicule as seen in this video.

So see this as a warning, if you want to exclude the general public, you can face a very public backlash that could leave you a little red faced.

James x

A Day at the Library...

Today we checked out the new Liverpool Central Library! We had a great afternoon exploring the new library and getting to grips with the archives. We even managed to get print outs of the Newspapers on the day we were born!

It's such a beautiful place, definitely one to check out if you're in town.

Have a great weekend!

Svea & James xo

Red Bull, taking social media by the horns.

I spoke on Monday about my love for Red Bull on Facebook and Twitter, so today I'm here to talk about how a video can change the whole perception of a brand.

YouTube

Remember those annoying hand drawn ads about how Red Bull 'Gives You Wings'? Even though this is a strong and memorable slogan encompassing all the drink stands for, the video content didn't do much for the cause.

But after a long time sponsoring extreme sports events, athletes, and focussing on taking the brand to it's limits, Red Bull can now make visually stunning and jaw dropping content that has around 2 million hits and is 1:01 minutes of awesome. Just take a watch




Implementing a long term strategy and benefiting from taking risks on these niche markets to create an image that Red Bull is a lifestyle not a drink is why I love Red Bull. It has totally re-invented itself and I think will be pushing itself even further over the next 12 months with more amazing content.

Instagram

Red Bull teamed up with We Are Social to bring a clever instagram campaign to trial a new flavoured energy drink. People would upload their photos using three filters red, silver or blue and would use the relevant hashtag #rededitionplease, #silvereditionplease or #blueditionplease and include @redbulluk. Just by giving away a free sample of the drink user's would create great visuals to help with the brand message, now these images are getting used on billboards throughout the UK

As well as creating a really memorable campaign that is at minimal cost to the business, they could also potentially launch a new flavoured drink in the process. This is a brand pushing the boundaries in social media and this the reason why I'm loving Red Bull.

Keeping the message simple
Choose one central message that ties the brands' online and offline efforts. Red Bull keeps its' messaging simple with its' 'Gives You Wings' tagline. Other brands should do the same – after all, consumers are bombarded with messages all day long. Keep yours top of the shop by making it simple and easy to remember and relate to.

Utilise the company’s strengths
A brand always play to its strengths by utilising resources or connections its company already has. Red Bull, for example, uses the recommendations of its athletes to choose the videos it posts. This insider’s perspective is definitely not lost on fans.

Give audience what they want
Always keep an eye on what is resonating with your target market and use that information to your advantage. Every engagement tactic deserves some play time, but focus resources on the ones that really resonates with your audience.

'Til the next time, James x

The Importance of Strong Brand Imagery.

In this designers opinion, one of the foundations for building a strong brand is to ensure consistently strong imagery that represents your brand aesthetic. 

Often, the imagery is the first element of your brand that potential patrons will come into contact with, and so should deliver a clear, consistent message every time. 
Today I wanted to demonstrate this using two brands that hit the button every time for me. I've chosen to show you Zara and H&M, partly because I love their stuff, but also because these are two brands that I feel I can count on to deliver high quality images that capture the essence of the brand and always tell the same story. 

So first, Zara. 

Zara can be counted on to give us fuss free, beautiful assets time and time again. They don't tend to drastically change how they shoot their product and so as a result have built up a strong look and feel for their brand over the years. We tend to see the most deviation from the norm around Summer and Christmas time (remember the animated snowflakes anyone?). 

Their imagery can sometimes come across as slightly hard but the over-arching element is how the product is presented with minimal fuss and with a definite sense of sophistication. 

Now, H&M. Another brand that is renowned for their strong look and feel. H&M Take a slightly different tact to Zara, choosing to incorporate location photography into their offer. You'll find though that both location and studio based photography carry a fairly graphic and bright feel to them. H&M's images tend to look slightly more poppy, and whilst still slick have a more approachable, everyday quality to them.

Despite both hailing from Europe, there is a definite separation between these two brands' photographic approach. The thing that links them however is their conviction to what their brand should look like. There is very little change from season to season but this has allowed them to build a strong relationship with their followers who will always know where they stand with this brand. I'm pretty sure if we lifted the branding from their website most would still manage to identify these two companies in a crowd.

This is a really important element of creating a strong, long standing brand for me. Some of the most prominent brands at the moment don't need to announce their presence straight away and can rely on their imagery to do the work for them (I'm looking at you Apple!). Long story short, bring your images in line, the rest will follow. 

Happy Hump Day!

Svea xo

Social media does work, just ask Red Bull

Red Bull is just an energy drink, just a caffeine drink that gives you a bit of kick during a tiring day. Yet, how does this drink come to be featured in the top 10 Facebook pages?

I love the way Red Bull has embraced social media and has taken all of its marketing primarily on-line to become a vivid, bold brand which has changed the publics' perception of the product.

Facebook

I don't like to rank Facebook pages by the amount of 'likes' they have but gathering around 37 million fans is a ridiculously big number. Facebook makes up about 80% of Red Bulls social audience and for such a powerful number of 'likes' they only post around one to two times a day and it is never about the actual drink, it is more about the lifestyle associated with it.

With post's getting between 1,000 to 60,000 likes and around 50 comments each, it provides the perfect platform to reinforce just what people can achieve through Red Bull.

Sponsoring extreme sports events, following athletes and their journey to push themselves to their physical limits, helps Red Bull the brand capture some breath-taking collateral that is used to brilliant effect on their Facebook page.

Sponsorship has paid off massively for Red Bull, the highlight for me being the Red Bull Stratos space jump. The whole world seemed to have stopped still for the 10 minutes Felix Baumgarnter was falling for. It not only pushed the limits of free failing but pushed Red Bull to what they can achieve by devoting themselves to marketing a lifestyle.

Twitter

As an international brand, Red Bull has hundreds of Twitter feeds spanning the globe. Today I’ll just look at its main feeds, of which there are still a huge number.

The Primary Red Bull account has just over 900,000 followers and generally just tweets out links to images and videos of its sponsored athletes, though there are occasional questions and comments on current events.
Red Bull is certainly better at responding to users on Twitter than on Facebook, but it still only replies to between 10 and 40 tweets per day.

While the strategy is not as strong as Facebook, reinforcing the momentum gained from other on-line media it serves as another string to their successful bow. But, it doesn't seem like Red Bull makes a great deal of effort to have conversation on Twitter, instead it builds up the massive events and then just takes a step back and lets the followers do all the work on their feed, very clever.

I'll be back on Friday to bring you the other captivating ways Red Bull has changed the face of social marketing.

Til the next time, James x

Once Seen...

 

Just dropping by to share one of my favourite logos. So what's all the fuss about Lindon Leader's Fedex logo? Oh, it's just that neat little arrow that the negative space between the E and the X makes. And that is why I love Typography people...kerning at its' finest. If you want to learn more about this sweet piece of Graphic Design, I'd give this a read.

Have a great weekend all! James and I are off to a housewarming tonight. He'll be back with another post on Monday.

Svea xo

Translating Print to Pad

One of the challenges I've been faced with recently in work is to take one of our existing publications and translate it onto an iPad. We had a fair amount of creative freedom with it but it was decided fairly early on that the flavour of the printed version should still remain. 

The DNA of a brand should be the most important aspect of the publication - a reader should be able to pick up any manifestation of the publication and still feel that they're experiencing the same brand. For me, Asos are one of the best examples of how this can be achieved. 

I've taken several articles and shown how they look on an iPad, iPhone and also the printed magazine. The thing that stands out is how consistent and rigid the interpretation of the story has been across platforms. Although I believe that the digital version should bring something new to the table, the brand should always remain in tact.

The danger with having the software to create these digital publications is that the temptation is there to add every sort of functionality under the sun to every page. It's scarily easy to make things fade in/spin around etc so what I like about the Asos magazine is that they've managed to reign it in and actually create something that's quite beautiful and simple. 

We can see that effort has been made to consistently translate the story through to every platform without changing everything up to much. They appear to use a set number of grids that can be applied to most articles and that are used time and time again. By approaching it this way, they've given themselves the ability to churn out (in the case of the iPhone version) weekly edits that are visually interesting but also full of great content.
As a reader, I don't care that I'm not getting something that has been totally redesigned every time a new issue lands. I like to be able to flick through and immediately identify my favourite articles. Updates to design are fine, but I find that constantly having the rug pulled out from under you visually is really off-putting. 

These are my top five take-outs from translating a publication to iPad:

• Keep things simple

• Pick a few strong elements and keep repeating for consistency

• The flavour of the brand should remain in tact

• Interactivity should be decided on early and should always be operated in the same way to avoid confusion

• Grids are your friend. 


Until next week!

Svea xo

Making the most of your email

Welcome back, hope you enjoyed our first few posts. This week I'm going to be talking about some of the benefits of using emails. We have them all in our inbox...that email we subscribed to but cannot be bothered to open. Like me you might open them out of keen interest, or it might just something to look at on the bus, or maybe you genuinely want to see what the latest offer is.

Email marketing has changed a lot in such as short space of time, mobile devices are now king when it comes to reading emails. I can't remember the last time I sat in front of my laptop and actually spent time reading an email. 41% of emails are now clicked on mobiles and most companies have emails optimised for mobile devices.

But, why is email important? Well there are a few reasons that I want to tell you about today.

Time | Time is a huge factor, imagine picking up the phone and ringing everyone connected with your business at the same time. Not going to happen, but now you can create an interesting message at the tap of a button.

Personalise | It's hard to quickly tailor a customer experience in print but email has that luxury. Customer information can be put to good use quickly and effectively to keep your subscribers interested. I like receiving emails that remember my birthday or upcoming events in my life and I think it reflects well if you can be treated that little bit more on a special occasion.

Test | In the past I've tried to mix up layouts, links, graphics and language to see what readers have responded to most. You can assess later what has worked with tracking tools that now come as standard with most email software.

Spread the love | Emails are lot easier to forward and action than traditional print. If your email has something of interest, word of mouth could throw the door wide open to potential readership.

Track | Tracking gives you a great insight into what is most popular on your site and also what people are looking forward to. Once the most popular items have been identified via tracking they can be pushed to the fore using social media, and so maximise the potential of a product or service.

Green | Just think you're saving the planet with every email, that's one tree saved every time!

So when you have got your email just how you want it, when do you send it? Well this infographic should help. Like I said in my previous post, think like the customer, when do you answer your emails? Personally, it's in the morning or late evening (so that might be the best bet to send something to me!).

'Til the next time, James x

5 things I've learnt about Graphic Design

Hi Guys!

I hope you enjoyed James' post on Monday? I'm here today to talk about five things that I've learnt about my field since I graduated in 2011. I was lucky enough to get a job as a Creative Designer for Shop Direct pretty much straight out of uni. The experience of getting thrown straight into a professional design environment in a big company has come with some pretty steep learning curves. Here are my five things...

The General population seem to think that Graphic Designers and Web Designers are exactly the same thing.

I found this out when I was job hunting. I have a Graphic Design degree - so I am fully qualified to create awesome identities/set some cool type etc. Need a logo? I'm your girl! What I'm not trained to do is to code an entire functioning website (HTML what?!) But apparently, most companies that want a Graphic Designer also want someone who can code a beautiful site. Ever asked a Graphic Designer to code a website or a Web Designer to layout some beautiful typography? 9 times out of 10 it ain't pretty. Basically, read the job description thoroughly, they're probably after someone who can code.

A Great Mentor can be invaluable.

When I started in the forward planning team, I met and worked with someone who had (and still has) a profound influence on my work. I've been incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and work with this amazing designer, and FYI - he's the most humble person I've ever met. Long story short, if you find a person like this, you should absolutely make the most of the blessing you've been given

Intuition counts for a lot.

I'm learning this one rapidly at the moment. I'm currently working on my first full on publication at work. It's been stressful but I've come away with much more confidence in my design intuition. Sometimes if something isn't working, you've just got to get rid of everything and start again - throw things at the page and your intuition will get you through the rest. Just trust yourself, you can totally do this.

A lot of things can be picked up on the job.

Pretty self explanatory. I was panicking when I first started work that I wouldn't live up to industry standard. But you know what, no-one expects that right off. Two years on a Creative Department have given me totally invaluable experience. It's truly amazing what you pick up on the job.

Finally - Make the most of uni facilities.

Seriously - do you know how hard it is to screen print off your own back or get a lovely bit of letter pressing done?! Milk uni for all it's worth - and go to the lectures! It's really hard to make this sort of knowledge and experience available to yourself after uni.


There you have it, 5 things that I've learnt about my field since graduation! I want to finish with something my tutor at uni used to say to us all when we were stressing about work:

"Just F*@$^!g do it and make it beautiful."

...couldn't have put it better myself.

Svea xo