I’m really proud to show you all some of our latest work. Our team at Orange Element recently helped the great folks at interactive design firm Fastspot redevelop their brand identity to help them better communicate to their target audiences what defines them as a firm.

We’ve known Fastspot for years and are well versed in their work, but folks that didn’t know them as well didn’t understand that Fastspot is equal parts technology and design. They are a process-oriented firm that considers both sides of the equation, producing beautiful designs that deliver the best possible user experience.

To get to the final mark and identity that we settled on, we went through our typical discovery process and were able to get a good sense of what Fastspot was looking for. At that point, we collectively participated in a logo study to settle upon something that they felt achieved their goals. The results of this study were actually turned into a really great poster, which I will write about in a separate post to come…

Our final solution was something that I think communicates perfectly their blend of creative design and process-driven technological savvy (both necessary for extraordinary work, and the tone and personality of the mark we’ve created is a direct match with that of their firm. It’s a strong, beautiful, dramatic mark - just like their designs, which you can check out by visiting their site at www.fastspot.com.

Brand mark:

Lockup:

Business cards:

Mark on the Web site:

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Our new intern, Kaley Hymiller started at Orange Element today. She is tops in my book already because she sent me a sweet link to blog about. As you know from reading my earlier post about Kaley, she’s way into industrial design. That’s why she loved this Gizmodo story about RFID-driven library chairs.

It doesn’t look real, but it is. You simply swipe your library card in front of the chairs and like a little puppy they follow you around, waiting for you to want to sit. They do this using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, but it can best be explained by checking out the video:

Now THAT would be a fun product to brand and market.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Now that the primary race has (finally) settled down and we have ourselves a consensus on the Democratic and Republican nominees for President, it’s time to start the analysis of each candidate’s marketing efforts. Since this subject matter has likely been covered eleven bazillion times already, I promise to keep my thoughts succinct and relatively raw. And, I promise to give you an objective view - truth be told, I am interested in both candidates and what they have to say. I’m one of those undecided folks that needs more time to make an educated decision.

I’m going to start today by giving you my thoughts on their online efforts (and later asking for your thoughts). While both candidates have been lauded by analysts for creating well marketed campaign platforms, it is difficult to give the nod to anyone but Barack Obama for his online efforts. He has been using the internet in ways that no other political candidate in history has and of course has focused on connecting through design more than the other candidate, as covered by Bruce Nussbaum HERE.

In a side-by-side comparison of the two candidate Web sites, Obama clearly has an edge. While McCain’s site is better than many political sites, Obama’s is clean, easy to navigate and even has great use of typography - something that he has been praised for over the many months of the primary race. Every detail appears buttoned up and well thought out, down to the use of icons for navigation. I even really enjoy Obama’s use of a landing page which encourages visitors to sign up to be a part of the campaign. This is something McCain doesn’t do until you get to the homepage, and even then it’s buried amongst many images, many links, and many other points of navigation.

I also recently heard from my friends at Make My Logo Bigger about a micro site the Obama camp has created called http://www.fightthesmears.com. This site is an amazingly important part of his campaign strategy, in my opinion. Essentially it lays out each and every ’smear’ that Obama’s opponents have unleashed to the public and gives targeted answers to these smears. This is great, because as you know, smears are often nothing more than unfounded rumors that tend to multiply from person to person. Obama has effectively greatly diminished the influence that a smear will have over the outcome of the political race. It also puts another tool in the toolbox of Obama brand stewards. I can definitely see someone passing along this link to someone that perpetuates a smear against Obama…

I’m really interested in what you all think about the candidates’ online campaigns. Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts and opinions. As a matter of fact, feel free to vote in the new poll question to the right!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Whether you see it as disturbing or not, I’ll bet there will be a big market for these. They are branded caskets, and they are made by a company out of Detroit called Eternal Image, Inc. It seems they already have licensing deals with Major League Baseball to produce caskets branded after your favorite baseball team. If you’re into the Tigers, here you go:

And just recently they started working with CBS Consumer Products to produce Star Trek caskets. NICE. If you’re not into the whole burial thing, why not live on in one of these:

What will they think of next? I’ll bet brands are going to start sponsoring tombstones. Yikes. Thanks to Adfreak for the tip.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Brandchannel has a new debate out that I found pretty interesting. The question is: “Are 3-D logos revolutionizing or ruining logo design?” My answer: Neither. Here’s more on what I had to say. I could have written a thesis on this but unfortunately you’re only allowed so many characters:

This is an interesting debate, but I don’t think there’s a right and wrong answer-And I certainly don’t think 3-D logos are ruining logo design. That said I think there is something to be said for taking the simple approach when considering a brand mark. Obviously as designers we are looking to communicate something specific when we set out to design an identity, so we have to make sure that the message isn’t lost in the complexity of a design. Unfortunately, turning a design into 3-D often adds another layer resulting in that loss of simplicity.

What I have seen a lot of lately are brand marks that aren’t “3-D,” but that do have some sort of dimensionality. This can even be seen in some of the most noticeable brand marks such as BMW, Apple, BP and even Nike. These logos are 2-D designs, but they all feel as though they aren’t flat. These logos have subtle changes that give them dimension, but they all START as a 2-D mark. Also as many other respondents noted, 3-D designs fall flat when reproduced in certain mediums. A true test of a mark is to start with a black and white version. If it holds up in black and white, the mark does its job.

The bottom line: Designs created in 2-D can be adapted to have dimension; however, a logo designed in 3-D is generally a failure in 2-D. I’m a proponent of simple, clean 2-D designs. If we find out that 3-D is out of style in a few years (which I think it will be), there are going to be a lot of brands with 3-D logos on the hunt for a branding + identity firm!

What’s your take?

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Sarah is awesome. She sent me a link yesterday that I thought was pretty cool, so I wanted to pass it along to you so that you brand lovers can check it out:

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/

Brand New is a great blog that I am sure to add to my Google Reader. It’s mainly about something that I’ve written about in the past–refreshing a company’s visual brand. The best part is that it’s a great collection of old vs. new identity examples, many from major corporate brands but also some from local and regional brands as well.

Here’s one of my favorite examples - pretty shocking departure, and I actually like it. I think Ford needs a brand refresh to change my perception of the brand! If you read the post at Brand New about it, you quickly learn that it was an April Fool’s joke. Too bad….

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com