What's in Store

As a design agency, we are lucky enough to work with clients who trust us in delivering creative that fulfills their design criteria but also inspires them. Back in 2009, we assisted with Audiovox's "Mobility Expanded" rebranding effort. This earbud product line was focused on the tween demographic at a price point around $10-$15. Audiovox discovered that at this particular price, the packaging, colors and style drove the purchase decision versus overall performance for higher priced CE products. After exploring competition we felt that one priority the earbud's category was missing was personality. We presented a variety of directions and made such an impression that the client ended up changing their marketing approach to a good-better-best scenario. This way they could incorporate 3 completely unique ideas instead of settling on one. The direction Audiovox chose for the "Good" category was a creative direction inspired by a desire for individuality....

During a recent vacation to the Philippines, I made sure to take photos and pay closer attention to my retail experience so that I could share what it’s like to shop there. Different But the Same At first glance, retail in the Philippines isn’t that much different than here in the U.S., most notably if you're in a highly developed area of the country. There are a variety of grocery stores, and walking around the mall feels like walking around a typical mall here. Unless of course, you’re braving the ridiculously huge Mall of Asia or Megamall. For electronics, you won’t find a plethora of big specialty stores similar to Best Buy, just as you wouldn’t easily find stores devoted to sporting goods such as Sport Chalet. Instead, like many things in the Philippines,  it’s easier to find smaller boutique-style shops in a mall or department store where there is far less merchandise and more customer service and attention.  PC Express — small electronics store within a...

Thanks to Noggin Bops, we at JDA have no problem expressing how we feel about the weekend... Joel is an Art Director at JDA Inc, a graphic design firm that specializes in supporting companies' branding and retail efforts with a Unified Marketing approach. To learn more,  click here .

Squarespace and Fiverr Offers Logos at Rock-Bottom Prices; Should People Bite? The company Squarespace , most famous for providing easy-to-use editable templates to make well-designed websites attainable for the masses, upped the ante recently by launching an app for do-it-yourself logos. This, predictably, had the design community up in arms. Making a technical enterprise like building a website simple was one thing, but encroaching upon logo design, which calls for a special alchemy of creativity and communication expertise to capture a company’s essence in one eloquent mark? Blasphemy! To be sure, as this Wired article points out, the demographic for this app would never have even considered hiring a professional graphic designer in the first place, so it’s doubtful it would take any jobs away from established designers or firms, but it could potentially increase the proliferation of badly designed logos, and possibly make it harder for designers who are just starting out to fin...

Years ago when I worked on the client side rather than the agency side, I was a merchandising manager for a CE corporation. CE retail chains were many and varied back then. I'm talking about when CompUSA, Circuit City, and independent dealers and lots of VARs were around. The industry was changing rapidly so I took a seminar focusing on retail merchandising and the CE industry. The speaker suggested we take a look at how grocery stores do things. I walked through stores and made casual observations like how they would pair chips with salsa on an end aisle display or place huge pallets of beer and pretzels the week-end before the Super Bowl. Why weren't we using these simple strategies? I went to a CompUSA and noted that the ink and paper was clear across the store from the compatible printers. Why make the customer walk all the way over there to get something the store and the manufacturer made a huge margin on? I also noted that extra memory for computers was found acro...

Packaging can be one of your most important marketing tools. It provides a tangible impression of your brand and acts as a silent sales person in-store. You can have mediocre packaging but what if your packaging fails all together. Here are some ways to avoid the epic failure. 1) Seek input from potential retailers If you don't solicit input from potential partners, you run the risk of producing a package that can't be merchandised in their store. Let's say your box only stacks but in their store it is pegged. Do your leg work and see how your package is merchandised before you start the package design process. Meet with the buyer and see what they suggest regarding package format, wording and content. Show them a rendering or a prototype of your packaging so you don't waste any time or money reprinting. You don't have to take all of their advice, but very often they can help make or break the sales of your product. 2) Don't Stand out in all of the wron...

I got an email from my bank the other day and this stopped me cold: No, it wasn't their generous offer that stopped me in my tracks, but rather their failure to properly kern the space between the "1" and "0." Kerning is the space between letters that affects their visual treatment. Compare the space after the "1" to the space between the zeroes. Quite a noticeable gap, wouldn't you say? This now-common disregard or ignorance of proper kerning can be attributed to the rise of digital typography. Most digital fonts allot a certain set amount of space between letters, without discerning whether that space is appropriate for that letter. To the computer, the skinny "1" is entitled to the same amount of space as a fat "0," resulting in a certain visual discord.  Back before the days of digital typography, a typesetter would make manual adjustments to metal type pieces for optimal spacing and readability. Since that method h...