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Dangerous Organizations: Projecting the Brand Essence of “Bad”

During early engagements with clients, our primary job is to help them to define and develop their own distinct “Brand Essence.”

 In other words–what is the feeling that their organization wishes to project through words and visuals? As we rapidly revolve into a multi-lingual, global society–graphics have been given a distinct advantage.

 To further illustrate this point, I have selected 5 well-known brands who have chosen to position themselves within society’s ‘Danger Zone.’

In other words, if you were raising a teenage daughter, and a gentleman caller darkened your front door with a t-shirt bearing any of these graphic identities, would you feel at least an inkling of concern?

 

Here are our TOP 5 picks.

 

5. The quintessential bad boys of Rock and Roll, the ‘Rolling Stones’

4. Southern rockers, “Lynyrd Skynyrd”– Gimme three steps towards the door!

3. The Oakland Raiders–The NFL’s original 'Head Bangers'

2. Jack Daniel's: Definitely not your grandmother’s ‘Pink Squirrel’–cocktail of choice!

1. Harley Davidson: This brand accelerates every mother’s fears!

Please feel free to present your own nominations!
Let’s create a collaborative list of businesses who prefer to–walk on the wild side!

 

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With Sadness, I Recognize the Death of RIT’s Once, World-Class Graphic Design Program

1981.

I’ve messed around at a PA state school for a couple of years.

Through trial and error, you learn to moderate the flow and perfect your social drinking skills.

Classes are fun. Weekends are better.

I have decided to throw in the towel with swimming.

Suddenly, I am locked in like a LASER.

Get out of the MINORS and into the BIG LEAGUES!

Rochester Institute of Technology.
RIT.
OZ.
The BRICK City.

The Tuition Thermometer EXPLODES!

“If you can make it HERE, pal–you can make it ANYWHERE.”

Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Xerox!

The Daily Grind.
Nose to the GRINDSTONE.
WORK makes Freedom–and even possibly–a JOB!

The RIT Design Dream Team: 
Remington, Merkel, Klinkon, Watson, etc.

SWEAT, sweat, sweat–under gray upstate NY skies.

Graduation!
A portfolio packed with proof. A brain packed with tools.

A job.
A better job.
An even better job!

A BUSINESS!
Hard Work.
Sweat Equity.
Puritan Work Ethic.
Aspirin. Caffeine.

Acquisition!

A couple of years ago, I took my 2 young sons to see the ‘world famous’ Harlem Globetrotters.

The team took the floor–and although they were wearing the same star-spangled uniforms that I grew up with, they were not the same famous celebrities that I once knew.

No Meadowlark Lemon.
No Curly Neal.
No Goose Tatum.

just LAUNDRY on the COURT (sigh)

F F > >

October.
2013.

RIT.

R. Roger Remington, half-century veteran sequestered in Vignelli monument.

Globetrotter uniforms filled with faculty lightweights.

Like:
Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox–

There are only rusted remnants of RIT’s once great Graphic Design Program.

RIP. RIT.

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BEFORE

EYMERized version.

As a creative director, if I could spend my time doing one thing, it would be designing corporate marks (logos).


In a corporate ID project, the goal is to develop a minimalistic representation of a company’s brand essence. At the same time, it is important to incorporate the subtlety of a 50 lb. sledgehammer. Impressions, impressions, impressions. Every time a viewer sees that mark, sweet brand essence must pour over them like the planet’s softest rain water.

I've recently noticed how the Wendy's fast food chain has updated their corporate mark. Wendy is depicted as an adorable redhead tween, who might very well live next door.

Who can imagine that this innocently cheerful farmer’s daughter would be responsible for doling out meat mortars–packed with 600 fat-laden calories, 255mg of cholesterol and a lethal 1990 mg. dose of sodium (Dave’s Hot ’N Juicy™ 3/4 lb. Triple)?

From their backlit drive-thru menu, it is quite obvious that Wendy and friends have elected to discard their bicycles in favor of the fat bus–with extra wide seats.

So with an evil glint in my eye, I took it upon myself to modify the new mark so that it more closely represents Wendy’s greasy brand essence. – Cheers! Doug.

 

 

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Like a Broken Record: Joe Buck & Tim McCarver Drone On.

Like a Broken Record: Joe Buck & Tim McCarver Drone On.

Subtitle: How the FOX Network is covering the MLB Post Season for the casual viewer and not the diehard fan.

Tomorrow night, I will be watching my twelfth post-season Red Sox game hosted by Fox’s Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. This will be the third game that I will watch with the volume completely turned down.

I think that Joe and Tim are true professionals, have many great attributes and are extremely knowledgeable concerning the game of baseball. As hard as they may try to be impartial, it is difficult to hide the fact that they are rooting for the ‘red birds’.

The problem that I have with the broadcasts is that they appear to be directed for an audience of casual observers and not true baseball fans that are glued to their sets–pitch after pitch, game after game.

Boston’s Xander Bogaerts is enjoying a fantastic rookie post-season and as a Red Sox fan, I hope to see many more season of on-field heroics. However, if I hear Joe and Tim again mention the fact that he grew up in Aruba and speaks four languages–but not French, which he chose to give up learning–I am going to hurl. 

Yes, Mike Napoli’s beard has been growing since spring training, Mike Wacha is not only 22 years old, but has a milkshake named after him–the 'filler fodder' keeps dripping like a leaky faucet. Like the classic movie, ‘Groundhog’s Day’–each night, it’s the same droning content, over and over again.

With a much-deserved day away from baseball, I have high hopes that Fox is rebooting the Content Refresh Button. – Doug.

MAIL FAIL: Episode #2, Realtors (Brief Follow-Up)

This is a very brief follow-up to a recent article. Here is the link to that article.

Guess what was found in today's mailbox? Another hard-hitting piece of marketing from our good friend, Joseph. Your honor, please accept into evidence, redundant form letter #4.

 

Joseph, you are wearing me down!

This series, just may just go in to the MAIL FAIL! hall of fame! – Doug.

 

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Trendspotting: College Marketers are Cupola Crazy!

Trendspotting: College Marketers are Cupola Crazy!

My son, the high school senior, receives a plethora of printed marketing pieces each day in the mail. Some are opened, some are left closed–but all of them end up in a big shopping bag in his closet.

Since I am usually the family member most responsible for mailroom activities moreover, being a designer of college marketing materials myself–I enjoy looking through the daily allotment of marketing pieces.

So, using the test bed of Foster’s shopping bag, I decided to sort through the collection, because I have noticed a couple of trends in college logos/marks. Here are three of my discoveries:


1. Mountains are irresistible subjects–especially if your campus is located in northern New England. Add the ‘Sound of Music’ soundtrack, a mountain goat (a moose is also a great option) and a Ricola trumpeter or two and you would have my application zipping your way!

Roanoke College

Champlain College

University of Maine, Farmington

Johnson State College

2. Nothing stops me in my tracks faster than a red seal. These bad-ass seals show that these colleges mean business. Blood, sweat, and tuition payments. Sign me up!

Cornell University

Colgate University

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The University of Chicago

3. When all other ideas fail, how about featuring the highest point on campus–the cupola!*

Bentley University

Colby-Sawyer College

Seton Hall University

Highpoint University

Furman University

Saint Michael's College

Mitchel College

Lynchburg College

St. John Fisher College

Manhattanville College

Utica College

University of Vermont

Marymount University

Aimed skyward to the stars, these little babies–rustle up the unrelequishing powers of heaven, forcing them to make an emergency landing, smack-dab in the school’s epicenter. 

Hey if it works for their college, why not mine? – Doug.

*No cupola? A steeple will often do the trick!

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MAIL FAIL: Episode #2, Realtors

Thanks for all the great response to the first episode of MAIL FAIL. You know how when you go to purchase a car and you finally decide to buy something unique–as soon as you leave the dealer’s lot, you begin to see cars just like your new baby, every 2 blocks.

The same goes for MAIL FAIL. Please feel free to send along any examples that you come across. I promise to blast them out to the universe for you.

Here is my story. We are selling our house. The contract with our real estate broker recently expired. When this happened, we soon began to receive correspondence from a pool of broker’s who were looking to take her place.

Example A.: Impression, Impression, Impression.

Our friend Phillip, has opted for a stylish business card–complete with a flattering photograph of himself, sporting his business best and walking up the steps of a beautiful home. His intention is to make you feel as though this is your home and Phillip is just about to close the deal.


This all well and good, except–my first impression of Phillip is garnered from the way that our name and address is rendered on the blank envelope. Despite the fact I have a designer’s handwriting, I guarantee that I could do a neater job of addressing the envelope with my left foot and a charcoal briquet.

If you are handwriting challenged, perhaps you should use a label printer. At the very least–an old fashion typewriter.

Nice try Phillip, MAIL FAIL!

Example B.: Details, Details, Details.

A successful real estate broker must be able to both corral and care for a number of details simultaneously. Important information, falling through the cracks could, mean a quick occupation exit, as the career house of cards collapses.

Please take a look at our broker candidate, Joseph.




Joseph’s handwriting is a little better. It is fine on the first envelope, just as good on the second and for consistency sake, equally as good on the third.

From the looks of things, Mr. Groundhog Day is not paying much attention to whom he is sending his festively colored form letter.

All are resting safely in my circular file. MAIL FAIL!

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Don Draper Dead: Body Found in the Conference Room, Riddled with PowerPoint Bullets.

EYMER DESIGN: Two Big Changes.

Approaching the 10 year anniversary of the most recent version of EYMER DESIGN Laboratories & Think Tank (3.0),* I have decided to make two significant changes.

1. I will no longer be known as a GRAPHIC DESIGNER.
    I am now a BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECT
    (BCA, for short–since we all love acronyms).

But Doug, why?

• The term GRAPHIC DESIGNER is too often confused with the term GRAPHIC ARTIST. True, artists and designers can both create visuals. There is, is however, an enormous difference.
  
  
• A TRUE (Fine) ARTIST works to express their inner feelings. The artwork that they produce is a personal expression of what THEY are currently experiencing at an unconscious level. Occasionally, a gallery will handle their work–selling to wealthy patrons who for the most part, are looking for something that matches their hand-tooled, leather sofa.
  
  
  
• There are also the HOTEL SALE ARTISTS. You know the type. They are decent renderers who spend their days generating paintings of sad clowns, seascapes (row boat, lighthouse, two gulls, seagrass), and large eyed kittens. Content is secondary to their need to produce an original oil painting–that matches your “Sofa with a Secret.” There work is displayed and at the local Holiday Inn on weekends–usually under the heading of STARVING ARTIST SALE. For fun, they draw unicorns within the margins of their PEOPLE magazine.
  
  
• A GRAPHIC DESIGNER is what used to called a commercial artist (another horrible term). In circles of TRUE ARTISTS, they are often referred to as “sell-outs.”
  
  
• GRAPHIC DESIGNERS, work to express the communications needs of their client–usually businesses, who are attempting to bring their product or service into the limelight. A successful designer, finds the best means necessary to draw attention to their client. It is NOT personal. It’s all business

So, rather than spending too much time attempting to clarify the confusion, I have elected to walk away. I am very serious about what I do, committed to achieving fantastic results for my clients, and looking forward to extending my career another 20-30 years.

I am now, Doug Eymer, Business Communications Architect.

2. Company Name Change
    EYMER DESIGN Laboratories & Think Tank will now be known as:
    EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank.

But Doug, why? Everything seems to be going so well.

Although we have now committed ourselves to the twenty-first century, many large corporations still work under the following pretense:

• Marketing is for Women (also see: nurturing instinct, tidying the nest, packing the briefcase)
  
  
• Sales is for Real Men (look under: Braveheart, Don Draper, insert football/war term here)
  
  
• Design is a Necessary Evil (Google: namby-pamby, fluff, artsy-fartsy, sister-in-law the CPA–with MBA)
  
  
• (We have heard that…) Content is King (A.K.A.: all-beef filler, intellectual property, secret sauce)

“Design” is way too limiting. We are all about BRAND! We will take your quiet little company and scream your GOOD NEWS from the rooftops!

By the way, this is something that we have done since our founding in 1989–but now under a different name. – Doug.

*EYMER DESIGN 1.0 (1989-2000), EYMER DESIGN 2.0 (2000-2004, a.k.a. Eymer Design @ PARTNERS+simons), EYMER DESIGN Laboratories + Think Tank 3.0 (2004-2013), EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank (2013-)

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Doug Eymer

It’s been an extremely busy summer, and yesterday I had an opportunity to sort through the piles of mail that have accumulated. After sorting through the bills, direct mail, catalogs and college mailers (my oldest son is a high school senior)–I discovered these two gems.

Uh-oh! Looks like more bad news for the Pathfinder!

1. From: Dealer Services

First glance at the envelope, and I think, oh crap!–the Nissan Pathfinder has been recalled again! I immediately reminisce about all the other fun times that I have spent at the Nissan dealership, awaiting my least favorite car–ever–to be repaired. Obviously, this is NOT a “feel good about the Nissan brand” moment.

I tear open the letter and what do I find? This is not bad news at all! Nissan is offering me the opportunity to trade in my old car for a new one!

Tricked again!

Wow! What a clever marketing scheme! NOT.

 

MAIL FAIL!

 

2. From: Student Ambassador Programs

Tell me a parent that wouldn’t be excited to learn that their child has been selected as a student ambassador! “Of all the brilliant children in the world–they have picked mine!”

So what's wrong with this picture?

But wait!–this envelope and enclosed letter are addressed to the octogenarian-aged parents of my (late-40s) wife and mother of two teenage boys!

Merit-based selection or bad mailing list?

 

Makes you wonder if the ambassadorship was actually based on merit, or perhaps we have fallen victim to a bad mailing list. Hmmm, legitimate organization or…

 

MAIL FAIL!

Please stay tuned for more upcoming MAIL FAIL adventures! – Doug.

 

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A well-planned campus visit can either make, or break a collegiate brand.

The third, and final installment of my COLLEGE TOUR DIARY.

A Few Simple Rules

1. Help the haggard and road weary parent– by providing clear signage, to the Admissions landing pad.
   
   
2. 
We adore your school and definitely want to hear more about it (or else we wouldn’t have made the trip). Please provide us with some timeframes so that we can anticipate how long the individual program segments will last. A concise agenda is also very helpful. There is nothing worse than going on a long and drawn out walkthrough, when there appears to be no end in site.
   
   
3. 
A meal plan, is a meal plan, is a meal plan. The food is great, there are several options, we get it. This is a detail that can be clarified later. Lets move along.
   
   
4. 
To some parents, options for overseas studies are extremely important. Just be careful on how this information is presented. You don’t want to make it sound like your campus is not built to hold all the incoming students–forcing you to send them off to remote locations. In addition, unless explained properly, parents like me, start hearing cash register ‘pings’ as we anticipate the price tag rocketing upward.
   
   
5. 
You are spending a great deal of effort (and marketing dollars), building your brand. Even the smallest piece of information, with humorous intentions–can quickly ding up an otherwise solid communications effort. Please be careful out there!

Furman University, is a beautiful school with a rapidly growing positive reputation. Why would they risk a potential ding on their good name, by sending out a follow-up letter containing this sticker? Perhaps, I just need to loosen up. –Doug.