Monday, March 31, 2014

Clever Logo Design: Spartan Golf Clubs

Clever Logo Design
Spartan Golf Club - that minor adjustment with the lower torso makes all the difference.

Good Design Helps Sell: A Comparison on Sales of Books - Pride and Prejudice

Like many other articles on this site, the title is mildly misleading. Don't get me wrong - it's an article about how sales can be boosted by having good, clean, and theme-driven design + be something that any self-respecting business owner should consider a real and researched expense. The title is there to convince you reading this will improve your business/life/writing career, but it is a headline based off of mildly biased, semi-thoroughly researched analysis with a self-serving intention. If you're still interested, read on.

(My thoughts are bold, italic, and large)

The following is from reddit's /r/SmallBusiness subforum 

Original post by /u/TransitionMarketing:




This screen shot depicts the overall sales of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice based on five different cover designs and spanning 20 years. This provides a clear look at the power behind design, marketing and understanding the current market.

Have a look at the screen shot.

Sales for this literary classic hit a small peak of sorts in 1995, but overall remained fairly low until 2009 when it surged in popularity netting more than double the sales in a single year.

Why? What happened in 2009?

The Great Pride & Prejudice Surge Of 2009

The Pride & Prejudice film was released in 2005. Which means that this probably did not factor largely in to the 2009 releases success. If anything one would have expected a surge in sales to occur within the next year (2006).

Instead we see that four years later, in 2009, demand for this novel more than doubled within twelve months. What was it about 2009?

Every market surge has a history. There may be many contributing factors to a sudden sales onslaught but one can always trace the reasons. This can often be a complicated process and one may wind up with many dead ends before coming to a reliable conclusion as to the cause, but there is always a cause.

In the case this surge in 2009 it is not so complicated. Have a look at the cover that sold so well. The cover couldn’t be the sole reason could it? Design doesn’t make that much of a difference right?

Wrong. It is all in the design. The 2009 release happened to coincide with another novel series which just happened to be gaining steam at the time. Perhaps you have heard of it. It involved an angst ridden teenage girl and her love affair with a vampire and a werewolf.

The Twilight Saga had recently become a huge hit. It had been hitting the theaters and was discussed everywhere. Low and behold if we look at the cover design of the re-release of the Twilight series what do we see?

Well now look at that. Something familiar about those colors and the overall feel isn't there? What an odd coincidence…

Make no mistake. This was 100% intentional and from a marketing and sales standpoint, it was brilliant. The brains behind the 2009 publication of Pride & Prejudice knew their market. They knew the consumer zeitgeist. They knew what people were reading and they moved on it.

Does Pride & Prejudice share any similarities with Twilight? Well the lead character is a girl and Mr. Darcy is a bit of a wolf… but otherwise to lump these two into the same category would likely cause Mrs Austen to roll in her grave.

Yet the design of the book managed to subtly do just that. The four books published in the Twilight series used three key colors and several basic design elements. This is obvious when comparing the four of them side by side as we do in the image linked above.

The demographic that Twilight was marketed to had, had their eyes trained – trained to look for this specific color combination and style, thus any other book with similar traits would automatically grab their eye.

What is more, the design team behind the 2009 version of Pride and Prejudice increased its book size to match the size which Twilight was published in. The result was a book that looked, for all intents and purposes, like it belonged to the Twilight series – one that could sit beside them and not look out-of-place.

Customers would be looking through the shelves of books and their eyes would automatically flicker what they knew and recognized. Perhaps some of them even thought this was a fifth edition to the series.
This is the essence and foundation behind branding and that is exactly what went on. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series was branded with a very obvious aesthetic look. 2009′s Pride and Prejudice printing simply hopped on that band wagon and rode its coattails to success.

Design & Sales.

All too often there appears to be an underlying disrespect for solid design work. Few people – especially in the small business market place – realize the increase in sales that good design will get them. Instead the see the price tag that comes along with it and they balk at it. They cut corners, call in favors, hire rookies or try to do it themselves with all the “free online tools”. The result is shoddy and unprofessional design.

Graphic and Web design needs to be rooted in technical and artistic ability as well and an understanding of what is working in the industry today.

As we see in the example above, knowing the market and understanding design trends play a huge role in design success.

It is simple and it is truth. Good graphic design increases sales. Good design is worth the price.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rabbit:
That was kind of fun and informative to read, right? Twilight did something positive for humanity...how awesome! Anyway, I am now going to ignore the entire point of his post for now, and just move on to how you had just read a not-as-subtle-as-intended rant and sales pitch from a marketing company. 

The user behind Transition Marketing's reddit account created this post to rant about the lack of willingness of businesses to invest in good design and offer next to nothing for a logo, and aimed it at the small business owners of /r/smallbusiness to try and create some cognitive dissonance - "Heck, if it can work for a Jane Austen book I was forced to read in high school, why can't it work for me," and "Oh man, if only I had paid my graphic design guy in money instead of tootsie rolls, maybe my marketing efforts would work."

Followed by: "Oh man, /u/TransitionMarketing sure knows what they're talking about and certainly hip with the design trends and stuff - even put up a infographic to back up the claims! I should totally shower them with 100 dollar bills first chance I get."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Followup from user /u/gogoALLthegadgets

I'm sorry, but a 200 year old classic does not start flying off the shelves (relative to prior sales) simply because they ripped off the cool kid.

Pride and Prejudice was an inspiration for the first Twilight book (2005). In fact, the main character, Bella, even says it's her favorite book. The first movie released in November 2008. That's when shit got really crazy for Twilight. The cover change wasn't to capitalize on Twilight's success; it was to capitalize on their contextual affiliation with the main character - a character that every teenage girl wanted to be.

Also, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a re-imagining of the classic with hot-topic-of-the-year zombie fiction, also released in April 2009 bringing even more attention to Jane Austen's original.

It looks like the screen shot you pulled was from a NYMag article trying to make a point about how young adults are a lucrative marketing segment, so I'm not saying you're at fault here for making the assumption. It would be a better assumption, and more suitable to make your point, if it was a new book with no affiliation or relevance to the "cool kid". At least then you'd have anecdotal evidence that good design could provide a lift in conversion.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

Facebook Prompts Remind You that FB "Cares About Your Privacy" :D

Does Facebook Suddenly Care About Your Privacy?

Article from TechCrunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/facebooks-privacy-checkups-remind-users-to-stop-posting-publicly/

Some blurbs from the article:

"Though a seemingly minor informational prompt, the addition arrives at a time when Facebook is facing increased competition with a bevy of mobile, social services offering more private sharing – WhatsApp being one which the company notably acquired for a mind-boggling $19 billion.

Earlier this month, Facebook also rolled out new private photo-sharing tools that offer an easier way for users to select specific people to share a photo album with via Facebook’s News Feed. The selector itself is reminiscent of Snapchat since it also lets you pick individual friends who can see your private photos."

"It’s also interesting to see Facebook shift its course to refocus on more private sharing in this post-Snowden era where users are beginning to feel more wary of the public nature of online sharing. Meanwhile, a new generation of users has been born into a world where their identities and private lives were already over-exposed by mom and dad while still in the womb and learning to crawl. It’s the perfect storm for a backlash against public socializing."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Reality:
They just realized that by sharing your data with search engines they're bleeding value from their ad platform

:D

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Basic PPC Advertising Reports Analysis - Dimension and Segmentation

The Top 5 Most Important Segments and Dimensions to Optimize Your Google Adwords Campaign


So, you've set up your first PPC campaign in Google Adwords, and have been A/B testing different keywords with varied results, settled on a set that seems to be working, and are now looking for new ways of optimizing your ROI from PPC.


No one can argue with the fact that keyword optimization is a must to successfully manage a campaign. But we also believe that if this is all you look at, you’re only scratching the surface of your potential.
When we analyze the performance of a PPC campaign, we must look at the data in a number of different ways to determine the real pain points and opportunities within a campaign. Below are a few reports we suggest you look at the next time you’re optimizing a PPC Search campaign in Google AdWords:

Device


You can find this report on the main ‘Campaign’ tab, under the ‘Segment’ drop down. This report is going to show you how your campaign is performing on Laptops & Desktops vs Mobile Devices vs Tablets with Full Browsers.

If your campaign isn’t performing on mobile devices you may want to consider adjusting your mobile bid modifiers to limit exposure and have your mobile site checked for errors.

Day of Week


You can find this report on the ‘Dimensions’ tab, under the ‘View:’ drop down. This report is going to show you how your campaign performs on the various days of the week. Depending on your type of business, you might perform better on certain days than others.

If your campaign isn’t performing as well on certain days of the week, go into your campaign settings and adjust your day parting strategy to limit exposure on those days.

Hour of the Day


You can find this report on the ‘Dimensions’ tab, under the ‘View:’ drop down. Similar to the Day of Week report above, this report is going to show you how your campaign performs during certain hours of the day.

For most outside of local late night brick and mortar establishments, the hours of midnight to 4am are generally unproductive. If your campaign isn’t performing during certain hours of the day, go into your campaign settings and adjust your day parting strategy to limit exposure on those hours.

Network 


You can find this report on the main ‘Campaign’ tab, under the ‘Segment’ drop down. This report is going to show you how your campaign is performing on Google.com vs Google’s Network of Search Partners, like AOL. If your campaign isn’t performing as well on Google’s Network, go into your campaign settings and exclude Google Search Partners.

Geographic 


You can find this report on the ‘Dimensions’ tab, under the ‘View:’ drop down. This report is going to show you how your campaign performs in various geographic locations.


  • If you are a local business, you might want to only show your ads within a strict geographic region. 
  • If you are a nationwide or international business, you might find you perform better in certain regions and less so in others. 
  • If either of the above circumstances are happening, go into your campaign settings and adjust your targeted location settings. 


Depending on your situation, you may need to add or exclude certain regions.



At the end of the day, when it comes to Pay Per Click, it’s our belief that you always want to focus your energy – and your money – in the areas of the campaign that have the greatest promise of generating a return. If you invest the time to analyze and optimize each of the above aspects of your campaign, we’d say you’re on the right path. Just remember to check on those keywords every now and then.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Should I Use Blogger for My Business Website? Realistic Pros vs Cons over Wordpress.

How Using Blogger Might Save Your Small Business Hundreds of Dollars Every Year

This article is not actually meant to be a "Blogger vs. Wordpress" checklist, it is meant to explain why Blogger is a effective and easy system to consider for most small business owners, and its potential for saving a lot of money and time when getting a company website up and running by lowering setup and maintenance costs.

META: A screenshot me me updating my Blogger with this article. 

Ok, so you're a small business owner and you're already familiar with the fact that a web presence is a very important factor in a modern company, and you've probably already heard of Wordpress and gotten an estimated quote of between 3-6 thousand dollars for a site by an established firm or freelancer, and rates pertaining to site maintenance and marketing. Now, let me try to present the Blogger solution for small business that I specialize in and provide some cognitive dissonance.

First off, what is Blogger?

Blogger is a CMS (Content Management System) like Wordpress, currently owned by Google, and was originally designed to be a blog-specific CMS. This meant that there were no static pages (about us, location, etc pages), few design options, and a Blogger Navbar over the pages - all terrible for business sites. However, Google got their stuff together, and overhauled the system to fix these main issues, and now it's a different beast altogether, but retains its focus on the most important thing for marketing on search engines: CONTENT.

Blogger can, although it arguably requires more work, be used as a competent web design tool (since it does have raw HTML and CSS editing with the ability to add jquery/javascript tools), but now, with the addition of static pages and significantly increased flexibility with design, Blogger has become a powerful but overlooked platform to build a site upon.

Of the major names to compare to, the easiest way of looking at it on a scale is:
<---More Standardized |||| More Flexibility--->
<---Ease of Use |||| More Work Required --->
Blogger ---- Wordpress ---- Drupal

In short, Blogger is a platform that has been reduced in terms of potential use to make it easier for the end user to modify and update, but can be hacked into increased functionality.

To summarize for the business owner:
If the website you need is informational in nature (brochure site), need a basic 5-10 page site with a contact form, Google Maps embedded, and a mobile-version ready to go, Blogger might be the option you've been looking for. (...and it's cheaper to setup than a Wordpress site!)


The Blogger template uses a lot of jquery tools to create a traditional website feel, though there are still some Blogger-touches noticeable to the trained eye. The disadvantage is that using Blogger in this way is limited in features and/or tricky to accomplish things that are easy to do with WordPress widgets and plugins.

On the other hand, the main advantages to using Blogger as a website platform are...
  1. Free hosting (Google hosted)
  2. Unlimited bandwidth
  3. Rock solid server security
  4. Automatically backed up
  5. Simple UI for clients to edit posts and replace photos
  6. Multiple users can be given author/admin privileges
  7. Great for SEO purposes
  8. Easy to integrate with other Google Apps for Business products
  9. Mobile-Site ready - most templates can be easily modified to add a mobile version
When we set up a business client with a Blogger website, the most important part is to train them in using the Blogger UI, and expanding on point 5, the content system is incredibly easy to learn, and updating the site with new content is streamlined, and provides real search engine results after 2-3 months/20-30 posts of investment even in competitive markets.


Well, hope this has been informational, and check out our clients list at the bottom of the web design page for examples of happy customers using the Blogger platform for their businesses and groups.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

How Much Should I Pay For a Small Business Logo and Card Design?

How much do you think this cost?

"How much should my business logos, branding, and designs cost? Artists are a dime a dozen, right? It can't be that much."

This is one of the most common questions ever in the business world, especially now that start ups are coming along left and right, and is probably one of the most frustrating parts of being a designer due to misconceptions about the design world. Thankfully, I found a post that answers this question in the most straightforward way I've ever seen, and breaks it down to real monetary amounts.

The initial question:

I want to pay someone to design a logo for a company. How much should I expect to pay for something of quality?


Reply from reddit user /u/jessefletcher of www.jessefletchercreative.com

Your price request seems to have stirred up people a bit and the info may be confusing. The thing with logo design is that it is very dependent on the client and scope, and people not really knowing either of these about you makes it difficult to estimate. Here is what I would expect in terms of pricing:

$50-$300
Junk for the most part, the logo will be generic, quick and typically a knockoff of something that already exists, you will find students and overseas competitors in this bracket

$300-$1000
This will get you something solid that reflects your company to some extent but it will but just a logo, it may have some proper fonts to go with it, some Pantone colors and that's it. You will find freelancers and print shops in this bracket.

$1000-$5000
This will be your meat and potatoes, proper resource should be done at this level, looking into competitors, brand usage and guidelines should be generated. This will reflect your company and the "feel" that you want, and may include some other elements like business card designs. You will find freelancers and design firms in this bracket

$5000-$20,0000
This is much more of a branding package, it is the logo properly researched and then implemented into the company, how it works on cards, letterhead, photography, jackets, vehicle wraps, building signage, promotional items, website etc... (Note: this is not the building of those things though it could include it, just how the brand would be implemented into it) this would typically be handled by design firm.

$20,000+
These are bug corporations, cities, countries and the Olympics. Most the cost of this is implementation, usage cases and perceived value. Usually this would be handheld by an internationally recognized firm.


These are just guidelines based on what I have seen. You could get the perfect logo for $20 but it would be a random rare shot.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Rabbit's Perspective:

Great and straightforward answer from Mr. Fletcher, and from our perspective, because we work primarily with local small businesses, we have our logo design price level at the freelancer/print shop range. Any higher, and many of these business owners would have sticker shock because they don't understand the value of a good design, but since it's such a low price, I have to impose very strict guidelines, such as number of redesigns and touchups I will do before having to charge more.

Regardless, I hope this clarifies the issue for people searching for professional designs.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Learn Marketing to Other Cultures Through Sushi Preparation

That look delicious to you? If so, you're probably not Japanese.

The title is mildly misleading - the video has nothing to do with marketing - it is a video of a faux-"Iron Chef" contest between an American and a Japanese sushi chef on a popular Japanese variety hour show. On the other hand, it provides a very powerful lesson on cultural expectations and perception, which are the most important things in the world when marketing to ethnic groups that are not your own.

The Video:


This contest is between the two chefs + sous, and they present 3 rounds of sushi/sashimi dishes. You can tell that they went out of their way to find an mid-level American sushi chef who likes to fry things to compete against the experienced and traditional Japanese chef - it's easy to see from just the knife work and presentation styles alone. For sports fans, it'd be akin to asking an American high school football team to compete against a professional rugby team on their terms. However, it is interesting to note that the review panel is all American.

So, first point:
No one likes losing at their own game.

Yes, the reactions might be real, but the situation is planned from the beginning. A Japanese show isn't going to chance having their own lose on nationally-broadcast TV in a contest of their own signature cuisine - even with the All-American panel, the difference in skill set between the two chefs is vast. No cultural group likes to watch what they have claimed as their own taken from them.

Think about it this way: It's why French winemakers and tastemakers got their collective panties in a bunch when a wine from California won all those years ago.

But, any reasonable person in the modern age will understand and should appreciate the spread of their culture's contributions to the world, and there will always be room for non-natives who want to learn. Just don't be surprised if you do it legitimately better than them and get some nasty looks.

Now, it's important to note that there is about zero English that you can hear over the dubbing in this video, but that leads to an excellent second point:
Emotional Responses Overcome Language Barriers

Just watch the video and just listen to the Japanese crowd as the American prepares sushi, and at the end when the judging begins. Their sounds and facial expressions convey all of the information you need to figure out what they are thinking. This is important when trying to pitch to a business owner or end user who can't communicate with you fully. If your product is good, can you convey that to that person? Can you evoke an emotional response even when you can't speak their native language?

Finally, going back to the fried sushi concept -Most Japanese folks like some fried things (tempura), but the majority of the cuisine is eaten REALLY FRESH or REALLY FERMENTED, and the American chef completely ignored the roots of the culture in which sushi developed from, and took the Southern-Fried route as well as adding flavors that completely mask the flavor of fresh fish like mango and jalapeno (a big no-no in fine sushi cuisine). He probably thought he had it in the bag with an all-white judging panel, but no, he completely missed the point, and lost for it.

And so, third and final point:
New Isn't Always Better. Even if it is, Not Always Appreciated 

The American-style fried sushi stems from not being able to get fresh, high quality fish, so a lot of the sushi styles you may have come to enjoy are actually from the mindset of "Let's Hide the Lower Quality With Novelty and Strong Flavors" marketing game, so serving a fried roll to experienced sushi eaters is like serving a filet mignon to a steak lover well done and covered in a spicy pepper sauce. Even if you started with fresh products and good intentions, they'll assume you're serving them old product and trying to pull some shenanigans.

Going back to a previous paragraph, the core concept of Japanese cuisine is to take something really fresh or fermented and create a balanced flavor profile with whatever dish they make with it, a several thousand year-old concept that gets thrown out the window by the American chef, and just reinforces the idea that American cuisine and the fusions styles that comes from it is a set of unbalanced dishes with too much masking flavors and fat, a cultural perception that even the American panel understands and stands behind in the end.


Well, that was a lot to learn about cultural differences and perception from a simple rigged sushi competition. Hope you enjoyed this informative opinion piece. 

www.r4bb1t.com

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Magus - DOTA 2 Clan Logo Design

Here's a set of logos I made for a DOTA 2 clan, Magus.

For those of you that don't know, DOTA = Defense of the Ancients, one of the most popular Free-to-Play games on the market.

To the Magus guys - best of luck on your endeavors, and kick some ass at tournaments so the world can see the awesome logos I made for you guys.

b0mb3r

benolot

flawless

Mutex 

TurtalyTurtle

Monday, March 10, 2014

Cost vs Effectiveness of Various Media (Print vs Radio vs TV vs Online PPC)

HH Global, a Marketing firm has put together a clean presentation on Cost and Effectiveness for every 1000 people reached, and below are the pretty info charts they made.

Here's the full article: http://www.hhglobal.com/blog/the-most-cost-effective-advertising-platforms


Cost of Reach/1000 - CPM


Effectiveness of various mediums - Newspaper vs Magazines vs Radio vs Televison vs Online
Source: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/what-type-of-advertising-has-the-most-influence/

The two graphs combined

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Reddit /r/freedesign - F-Tac Canadian Shooting Gear T-Shirt

Every once in a while we'll browse Reddit's /r/freedesign and pick a request based on merit/interest/however we're feeling at the moment. This week: F-Tac

[REQUEST] - shooting company T-Shirt design 

I started up in Nov 2013 just doing some shooting gear for fun and things are going fairly well. With the warmer weather around the corner I'd like to get some T-shirts done up but need an original logo. The Logo /u/dtrford came up with for the company is awesome but I want something a bit more gun related for the shirt (that logo will be on the front, looking for something bigger on the back). A lot from my original design request applies so I have copied and pasted it with some updates for this project 
The logo What words or letters do you want included in your logo? Something that incorporates Canada flag or Maple Leaf and a gun (either AR or short barrel shotgun) 
Do you have a tagline? Do you want it to be included in the logo? Not yet, open to ideas/suggestions 
Provide five adjectives to describe your logo. Some examples are below. Masculine, explosive, modern, loud, clean
Tell me about your company: I am in the military and enjoy shooting on the civilian side. I have come up with a few ideas for products that a local company is going to be making for me. They also have a few products they have offered me at wholesale costs. Products include slings, side saddle shell carriers, dump pouches, tac vests/chest rigs and hats.

Explain what your company / organization is and does. My goal is to provide high end gear at affordable costs to people for recreational, competitive, and real life (military/leo) shooting 
How are you different than your competition? I plan on having lower prices while maintaining high quality gear. Also, the individuals helping me design and start up (including the company making the products) are all full time or retired military.

What are the benefits of your product/service? Low cost, high quality gimmick free gear.
What attributes of your business / organization would you like your logo to reflect? Pro gun, Canada, and quality products

How do you intend to market your company? Local gun clubs, facebook, and hopefully (good) word of mouth. Possibly a website/store in the future if all goes well. 
Goals and Objectives: What do you want to happen as a result of this project? I want to be able to provide shooters good gear at a low cost. Being military, a husband, and father I don’t always have a ton of money to go out and buy the most expensive nicest kit available. 
Identify long-term and short-term objectives. Short term goal is to continue selling locally and through some online forums. Long term, I would like to be able to set up an online store and sell through that. 
**Describe what you want designed:
Describe your aims and requirements in detail here — the more specific, the better. Tell the designers what is required, but also let them know where they’re free to be creative.** 
What key pieces of information / copy need to be included? I am very open but would like it to be simple for ease of screen printing (one or two colours) and include a Maple Leaf and gun 
Competitors Design Use Google to search for similar designs that you like, include at least (4), explain why you like them and what to include / exclude in your design http://www.ammoland.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mesa-tactical-logo.jpg It’s simple, clear that it’s firearm related, “pops” out at you
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P59iynu_61k/UgE_v-vgLTI/AAAAAAAAA0U/GxnTiBhrZ2A/s1600/TampaTactical_Logo_01.jpgI’m not crazy about the skull but I like the guns beside the logo
https://www.irononsticker.com/images/2012/08/17/Aim%20Armed%20Imperial%20Military%20logo.png I like the bold letters and the cross hairs in it. It has a bit too much going on in the background though 
Do the same exercise but look for (4) competitors designs that you DO NOT like and explain why. http://www.taigear.com/assets/images/Taigear_Logo_Website.jpg too “American” (I’m Canadian). If it’s military related I’d like it to be country neutral or a bit towards Canadian (no stars and no rank insignia)
http://logos.co/1024/royalty-free-vector-of-a-logo-of-a-demonic-red-eyed-cowboy-skull-shooting-pistols-by-chromaco-5480.jpg Too “kiddish” and too much detail
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFZC_Hpl1Rc7kHKNH5rekBEcegHRwmUbOCQHRMgA_cHztRQixDhAUsz4CZUtWZ3H_HTAiCAuYy4W__IZphBsesWlbnvySDTbiCU37dOYhhNKp1h0RBj-HNAJAn2cXYycL5n35L_cNt1mQ/s400/%25210_0000_MORGUE_LOGO_Shooting_Logo05.jpg I don’t like the traditional paper target in the logo (or the hunting guns). The company is geared to “tactical/practical” bulls eye target shooting.
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/punisher_skull.jpg this ones pretty simple, no punisher skulls please. 
Who is your target audience? Mainly males in the 18-30 range (or at least act like they are in that range) that are into shooting black and green rifles/shotguns. I’d like the logo to be something you would put on your own child though (no swearing, middle fingers, etc) 
Who are you trying to attract with your marketing message? Be specific. I’m trying to attract people who go out shooting for fun and like running high quality gear to use on their own or for work. 
What is the overall message you want to convey to your target audience? “Tactical/Practical” gimmick free gear that works and you can trust. 
Tone & Image: Funny / Casual / Formal / etc. What tone and imagery will be most effective, specific visual goals? Bold but also fun (without being childish). 
What colors would you like to see in your logo? (It is usually best to stick to one or two colors): These will be going on black, brown or olive green shirts so I’d like to stick with black/white (and possibly red)
here is the company logo (thanks to /u/dtrford) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/frumpybikes/F-TAC/CBBDE0AA-B4D2-4C80-87E8-3FD53926D8F9_zps7h4mhzig.jpg

Result:
Did you know Canadians also shoot guns? Neither did I.



Hope /u/f-tac likes it.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Historical Timeline of Large Pizza Chains

Have you ever wondered "When did Pizza Hut open?"

...neither have we.

Regardless, here's a nicely organized picture of when each of the major pizza chains opened:


Reddit /r/freedesign - Brainstormville logo

Every once in a while we'll browse Reddit's /r/freedesign and pick a request based on merit/interest/however we're feeling at the moment.

Guidelines:
No revisions
No more than 30 minutes of work
No one obviously looking to exploit free labor

This week: Brainstormville.
[Request] Need a logo for my consumer product design company. The company's name is Brainstormville, ideally play on the brainstorm of it. I was thinking a cartoony brain as a cloud raining or a storm coming from it. I have no artistic ability to do this. Thanks!

I'll gladly add a blog post about you or promote you on our company page once we publish it!  
Result:

Hope /u/charizzardd likes it.
-Rabbit

Need a logo? http://www.r4bb1t.com/p/design.html

Monday, March 3, 2014

Rabbit is Offering a Free Design to One Denver Nonprofit or Local Business

March Giveaway! One Free Logo/Flyer/Card Design or Photoshoot for Any Nonprofit or Local Business in Denver

Pretty much exactly what the heading says - if you are part of a 501c3 nonprofit or a non-franchise brick and mortar shop/restaurant, Rabbit LLC is giving away 1 free design this month!






Sunday, March 2, 2014