design process: subtle changes

i am always told how well nooka as company does with branding – normally, companies retro-fit corporate identity systems piecemeal and only consolidate and rationalize when they are big enough to hire a large branding agency. in actuality, i started nooka with the brand fairly well articulated before i had actual product and the brand is as much a product to me as the actual objects we design and sell.

well...here is our first major [minor?] change since i debuted the logo 10 or so years ago – BOLDER logotype. it will be a subtle to unnoticeable change to the layman, but i'm sure the design crowd will appreciate the change.

it also contains the "mindstyle™" tag line.

here at nooka, we love evolution via iterative process as much as inspired design explosions!

contact ramblings and designer identity issues

i find it interesting how people who want to reach me go about doing so. some people just find the phone number for nooka and call, others email from nooka.com [the fastest way to get a response], some comment on a blog post in email format [somehow they know i won't post to the blog if it contains too much information], some find my desperate-need-of-updating matthewwaldman.com and email from there [worst way, i always forget to check that email!], some people go via our press agent [as a rule of thumb or via the confusion that we're both named 'matthew'], and others find me on either linkedin or facebook [a perfectly fine way to communicate!].

i find each of the avenues that bring a first contact to me fascinating. especially since it is easier and easier to find people, the route a person chooses is an expression of their impression of me as well as of their personality [or simply the rank order of their web search!]. it also helps to identify an issue i've been obsessing over again – public perception of me versus nooka, berrymatch or other activities.

without getting into an analysis of all of the above, all of this obsessing has made it clear that i have not done a good job defining my persona beyond this blog [and other blogs] so 2009 will be the year to put more PR energy into the matthew waldman brand – so keep your eyes here the next couple of months for updates.

also, here's wishing everyone a great 2009!

XEROX Rebranding WTF?

xerox has demonstrated that they know absolutely nothing about branding and marketing by undertaking a redesign of their corporate identity [logo and graphic design style for the non-design set]. i guess i'm one of the few identity specialists that would turn away such business, but their previous logo and identity was perfectly fine -- iconic and well recognized. if they have a problem with the consumer, it's in the product or the advertising/marketing-- not the logo.

companies that really understand branding [like apple computers, and nooka] know that branding excels by maintaining 3 main principals: 1. consistent presentation [through the application of a kick-ass corporate identity program], 2. consistent messages, and 3. consistent high quality products that embody the first 2 principals. for a company like xerox, in terms of priority, steps 3 and 2 are the issue.

what xerox fails to grasp is that a new logo will not accomplish anything other than causing blog posts like this to pop up.

if any executives there want to hire my brand studio, berrymatch, to fix the mess, have them contact me. i would suggest a revitalization of the previous brand standards with a focus on language and message and deliver a new look-and-feel without replacing the logo [why throw out the only positive brand asset you have?] concurrent to that, i would put together a world-class team to redesign their products to launch WITH the new look-and-feel, not before.