Marketing and Management Thoughts

Little of us know the extent to which the work of men like Saul Bass (a personal hero of mine) have had on the visual language the world around us speaks. Saul was the first to use moving title sequences in film. Today these sequences have come light years from the early roots.

Title sequences can be great for video announcements or promotions, and for creating clean, simple, and easy to understand flash animations for a church website.

The top five title sequences of the year according to the NY Times are: (more…)

Hope - Obama by Steve Rhodes

Just about two weeks ago we wrote about the legal case around the image the iconic Obama hope poster was created from. It is an issue of what constitutes fair use, and what is copyright infringement.

This issue alone could cost a church millions of dollars if ignored. Thankfully fellow bloggers over at Church Marketing Sucks came out with a three part series on fair use, from a Copyright Lawyer Richard Byrd.

Check out each of the three parts:

• Part 1 – Defining Fair Use
• Part 2 – Understanding Intent
• Part 3 – Use of the material

With the current financial crisis on the news and minds of everyone day in and day out. This ten minute video does a very good job at explaining the macro-economic cause/effect of the crisis and how we got to where we are today, without all the technical jargon.

If you are a minister and don’t understand the crisis. This is worth your time. The people you minister too will be thankful you took time to understand how things got where they are. (more…)

Follow Up Post: Psychology of Tropicana Re-branding Failure

Yesterday it was announced by Pepsi Company (the owners of Tropicana brand Orange Juice) that the new packaging/brand that they rolled out in January for Tropicana will be removed. Over the last two months Pepsi has undergone a very aggressive re branding campaign of many of their largest products (Pepsi brands, sierra mist, mountain dew).

Now in a statement released by Pepsi Co and an article in the NY Times Pepsi says they are rolling back the brand to the much more familiar orange with the straw in it. So what was the problem?

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This video is inspiring and really well done. Each of the people were asked one question, “Where would you like to wake up tomorrow?” The answers varied with a few below and creative editing could provide a really dynamic sermon intro video.

“Today I’m actually feeling a little bit homesick, so to wake up there would be really nice.”

“I’d probably be in a graveyard looking at my fathers tombstone.”

It’s an example of something that could be easily done in the community surrounding your church. This is a great way to interact with your community, invite people you wouldn’t normally bump into, and give people a reason to come in the doors on sunday morning.  There are more 50 People, One Question videos on their vimeo profile page.

Check out their website at fiftypeopleonequestion.com

This site just made me smile. Full of quippy, funny, and some thoughtful quotes about design. There are many more where this comes from.

via (quotesondesign.com)

In the ongoing debate over what constitutes fair use of another persons work, the iconic poster of Barack Obama has been brought into the spotlight.  The conflict is under the Fair Use section of the copy right law and their may be implications for your church.

For those of you unfamiliar with this struggle, copyright law has for a long time been a point of struggle for artists. Part of the brilliance of Andy Warhol was his re-purposing of a popular image (Marilyn Monroe, or Campbells Soup Cans) into something totally different.

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Earlier we’ve blogged about the importance of having a presence in online communities like Facebook and Twitter. Talking with some pastors and other friends of mine in ministry has raised an interesting point.

How does one separate their close friends, from those who know them because of their ministry? Facebook has actually built in a number of features to help you grant and deny access to various parts of your profile! Most people don’t realize this is even possible.

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While much of the public understands that photographs are touched up, the extent to which this happens is widely not understood. Someone over in Germany created these photo shop posters and plastered them over the top of a CD advertisement for Britney Spears, Leona Lewis, and Christina Aguilera.

Check out some of the photos below.

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One of the things that I love about the beginning of every year is all the predictions that get made. Not that I believe almost any of them, but it gives a unique pulse of direction that certain people feel an industry is heading into. The design world is no different. Of all the lists that came out last month I felt like this was one of the better lists.

I’m not saying that we should abandon our current styles and designs to adhere to this list, but I always find it inspiring to see examples of other good work.

Smashing Magazine did a top ten list that is worth a look. Its full of great examples and descriptions.

1. Embossing
2. Rich user interfaces
3. PNG transparency
4. Big typography
5. Font replacement (sIFR, etc.)
6. Modal boxes
7. Media blocks
8. The magazine look
9. Carousels (slideshows)
10. Introduction blocks