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Check out this new competition being put on by The Future Perfect design shop called Lift Hold Roll. The goal is to take an every day object and use one (or more) of them in an inspired way to make a new object. With a caster, pulley and clamp- the opportunities are endless. Whether it applies to our packaging design or a print ad- the creative process has to start somewhere, so we always love things like this.

and have a look around!

I think we have a pretty cool office over here at birdsong gregory, thanks to some help from our friends at Dialect Design. We get a fair number of comments about it, even though we are a bit hidden, so I thought it might be fun to post a few pictures of our space. And if your ever in the area, feel free to swing by and say hello!

One of my good friends from high school, Adam, went to college to get his degree in Historical Preservation, and I made fun of him for it for years! I just couldn't see the need for something like that. Maybe it was the fact that I was in Boston, and the history of that city is everywhere you look. Well, since I've moved to Charlotte, I've completely changed my mind about the need for people like Adam. While there are beautiful buildings in Charlotte, the Bechtler Museum being the newest and most amazing, there aren't many historical buildings. A lot of buildings with real character were torn down in order to build new high rises and apartment buildings, and I think people are starting to realize they should have put more effort into saving those places.

This latest initiative, called Save Our Signs, is trying to maintain some of the visual history of Charlotte and I think it's a great idea. Their goal is to register the historic signs of Charlotte to protect and preserve them so that people in the future will get as much enjoyment out of them as we have. So hats off to this group and I can't wait to see the JFG Coffee sign back up soon!

We did it! Set up a new project management software that is. It was a long and confusing journey and based on the number of options out there, it will be for you too. I relied on reviews and information from other companies around the world to narrow down my choices and now it’s our turn to contribute.

For us, we wanted to be able to track jobs, tasks and time at a bare minimum. Above that, we were looking for invoicing capabilities, a great calendar, contact management and robust reporting capabilities.

There are lots of programs out there that do the required tasks and some are better than others. Basecamp is certainly the most well known of the simpler project management pieces and Teamwork PM is a newer and more powerful version. Of the two, Teamwork PM was by far our favorite and while they are planning on adding capabilities in the future, it just wasn’t enough for us at the moment (their responses to our questions were above and beyond every time for what it’s worth). Both of these options were relatively inexpensive and could be set up with a minimum of effort.

On the very opposite of the spectrum (both in cost and in capability) was Function Point. This is meant to be a Microsoft Project replacement and is just as complex. It really was amazing program and it seemingly had the ability to do EVERYTHING. For us, it was overkill. We aren’t managing offices all over the world and projects with 200 vendors (yet) so using this program to its maximum would have taken more time than it was worth. Workamajig is the more well known player in this space and it is equally capable but be prepared to be rejected if you don’t have 10 or more people… they won’t take you.

We needed to meet in the middle and for us, the choice was Copper Project Management. It’s from an Australian based outfit called element software and it’s used by companies like Apple, with good reason. The interface is clean and pleasant and all of the information can be accessed quickly and easily. Tasks are easy to assign to multiple people and can be monitored easily from the Dashboard. The time tracking and update systems are both time stamped so we can see exactly when projects were updated. Above the base level needs, Copper also has a great contact management system, billing capabilities, a drag and drop calendar and ways to pull reports for custom time intervals. It really puts the budget in perspective and makes it easy to track.

To be fair, we’ve only been using the system for a couple of days now but so far so good! I’ll certainly come back in a few weeks to update our progress in the system but in the meanwhile, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you are considering copper as well.

Who doesn't love tracking Social Media? Ad Age has recently started tracking the 10 most popular brands on twitter and it makes for a good read (check it out here). This in itself isn't what concerns me, it's more the content that is being tweeted. If Justin Bieber, whose fans are so young I'm surprised they can even use twitter, can make on the list who knows what will be next on that list? A terrible remake of another Nicholas Sparks book? Oh wait...

BMW has picked Jeff Koons to design the newest BMW Art Car for the programs 35th Anniversary. It's the ultimate in Packaging Design for the "ultimate driving machine". Art Cars have always been close to my heart because of my love for both cars and art and the combination has never been less than amazing. Jeff Koons has done some amazing work (check him out here) so it's a great move by BMW to pick him. I wish him well, but he will certainly have a hard time living up to my all time favorite Art Car by Roy Lichtenstein. I can't wait to see the results.

Hasbro, the makers of Monopoly, will be releasing a new circular version of the game to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its release. The new packaging design and shape is apparently an homage to one of the original prototypes built before the game was launched. This particular version does away with the cash system, though, and gives players cards and PIN numbers to automatically handle the banking.

Now if only I could bring myself to actually finish a whole game...

Eat the one you're with! That’s the plan for the state of Louisiana anyway.

The Silver Carp has become a big issue here in the US. These fish were originally brought over to the United States to help control algae growth in wastewater treatment facilities but escaped into the wild pretty quickly. These fish grow and reproduce rapidly and have taken over many bodies of water and they frequently starve other species by eating all of the plankton in the water. Not only that, they tend to jump out of the water when disturbed presently a pretty nasty safety issue for people travelling in open boats or on tubes. While I've never experienced it, I can't imagine anything much worse than a high velocity fish to the face.

How does this have anything to do with Shopper Marketing, POS Design or anything else we do here? Well instead of trying to poison the fish or block their movement- they're going to eat them! Described as a taste combining Scallops and Crab Meat, the goal is to get people to like, and subsequently eat more of, this fish. That means there will be naming (Silver fin is what they are calling it), point of sale displays, advertising and all the other good stuff that comes along with selling a new product. When the fate of a body of water is resting on how well a product is recieved, the message and the method become even more important.

We applaud the novel (private) approach to a big problem.  Speaking of which- anyone in Charlotte want to start selling those pesky Cankerworms as snacks? Anyone?

I came across this new 24 concept store for Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake, and I can’t help but marvel at the design. The concept of the store is the 24 hour convenience mart of Japan and the “harmonious chaos” its art is known for. There was no detail left out of this concept. The bags were designed to resemble Japanese shopping bags, all of the furniture was designed and built to exist solely in this space, and the idea of a stock room was left out all together. There is no “back room” to store clothes, only what is on the shelves, so the feel of the store changes over time giving the store a feeling of being alive.


Bloom (a client of this here shopper marketing agency) has made their name by providing a pleasant and easy shopping experience while maintaining a competitive price and a wide selection. Walmart is also paying attention to store experience and is completely changing their store layouts to make things easier to find. This is just another great example of the level of detail going into retail environments these days.

Popup shops used to be the domain of seasonal stores selling cheap costumes or tacky holiday gifts but the ever changing world of retail and shopper marketing has turned that on it’s head. Popup shops (where a company takes over an unused space for only a few weeks or months and then closes) have now been used by companies all over the world. Cheap chic retail king Target opened up popup shops for their collaborations with both Steve McQueen and Anna Sui. Likewise, eBay opened it's own popup shop showing off some of the things you could find on the site.

These shops are great for testing a new area or launching a new product but their real strength lies in creating buzz around a brand. Giving a consumer an amazing shoppping experience along with a smart product is the ultimate way to earn loyalty and trust. So if you think your brand or product could benefit from a well designed and executed pop up shop, I know a Charlotte Advertising Agency that would be a perfect fit!

Our Designer Extraordinaire Leslie sent this to me the other day. It’s a chart that (based on known stats) shows the growth of social media all across the web. It’s amazing to see how fast things change and it’s just another illustration of how powerful and ever present Social Media has become.

I am obsessed with watches. I love the design, the technology in the movements and just about everything else about them. While perusing one of my favorite watch blogs I came across this fascinating article about the man who reinvented Blancpain by emphasizing what they didn’t do.

Blancpain was a watchmaker that was started as a family operation in 1735, one of the very first Swiss watchmakers. They were considered to be some of the most complicated and precisely made watches available and they were even worn by Jacque Cousteau in 1953 when he filmed “The World of Silence”. By 1970 however, the more accurate Japanese quartz movement watches had taken over the watch world and Blancpain was left behind and closed its doors.
 
In 1984 a man by the name of Jaune-Claude Biver bought the rights to the Blancpain name for $19,000 and started reimaging the company. Considering the company had gone out of business for not producing quartz watches, you might think it strange for that to be the cornerstone of the brand but that is exactly what Biver did. He coined the phrase “Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.” The combination of design and history appealed to luxury watch buyers all over the world and he later sold the brand to the Swatch group for $43,000,000! Talk about a return on investment.

The bottom line is that sometimes what a brand needs isn’t a new feature or gimmick, but to take a stand.