Birdsong Gregory

As the official type nerd of the office, I'm always excited to learn about new typefaces; and I'm happy to report the new one from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The name is Forza. It's a san serif face based on the rounded rectangle, and is described by H&FJ as "caught in between typefaces that speak in a singular, powerful voice, and versatile ones capable of expressing many different moods". It was commissioned by Wired magazine to work as their editorial workhorse, and the result is engaging and distinguished. With its many different weights, Forza offers a "range of voices" for designers to choose from. It's definitely an updated interpretation of a font style (the study of the rounded rectangle) that has lasted over two hundred years. Well done! I can't wait to explore its possibilities. birdsong gregory grants the seal of approval! 

To learn more about our Charlotte Advertising Agency, visit us at birdsonggregory.com! We're excited to work with you.

Mark my words, retailers who don't figure out smart, helpful, shopper-centric ways to harness the growing penetration of smart phones are going to evoke an old general store's big brass mechanical cash register: quaint, obsolete, and a reminder of how people used to shop in the past.

Meijer, a 194 store regional hypermarket chain based in Grand Rapids, Michigan has launched a trial system in four of their flagship stores that let users locate more than 100,000 items in store along with facilities like bathrooms and customer service. 

Indoor positioning systems have long been a holy grail for malls and big-box retailers – where labyrinthine aisles and massive floorplans often leave customers lost and irritated. The obstacles to deploying such a system are many: you've got to create detailed maps for every facility where you want it to work, and you need some sort of system for locating users with a reasonable level of precision since GPS is out of the picture. 

Conveniently, these stores have some 26 WiFi nodes deployed, which helps triangulate users down to a reasonable level of precision – though it's probably not going to be able to tell if you're standing in front of Heinz Ketchup or Hunt's.

But who cares. It's a fun, exciting, novel, useful shopper marketing tool, and, best of all, a free download for iPhone and Android users.

Kraft Foods' Triscuit crackers brand is partnering with nonprofit Urban Farming to create 50 community-based home farms during 2010, and the brand's new home farming initiatives also include offering free basil and dill herb seed cards on four million boxes of its original and reduced-fat varieties, and a website featuring tips on starting home gardens or volunteering at a local Urban Farming garden.

The Web site includes a tool that advises consumers which vegetables and herbs are best to plant (and planting dates) based on their regions/ZIP codes and the amount of sunny space available (ranging from a single pot on a balcony to two 4-foot by 8-foot gardens). Another tool enables users to find nearby community farms, and add their own home farms to a map. Forums and sharing tools are prominently displayed.

The site also features step-by-step advice for creating and maintaining a home garden from HGTV "Gardening by the Yard" host Paul James, who will make appearances at the openings of the sponsored community gardens.

The home farming theme meshes with Triscuit's "Weave Some Wonder" marketing campaign, which launched last year and marked the brand's return to TV advertising after five years. The broadcast component of this campaign emphasizes the crackers' "simple, authentic goodness" and quality ingredients, such as the "soft white winter wheat" from North American farms that gives the product its crunch and "22 grams of delicious whole grain goodness per serving."

What else? The home farming initiatives are being supported by PR, print ads, banner ads on gardening, women's general interest and other sites; messaging on the product boxes (which also drives consumers to the microsite), some outreach to blogs and tweeting through the Kraft Foods Twitter presence; and the community forums and sharing tools on the microsite. Rather than focus on promotion via Triscuit's Facebook page, the brand decided to make it easy for users to share the home farming movement site's existence and usefulness through their own social media pages or channels. Now that's tasty!

When you think of food and Southern California, what comes to mind? Beside the iconic In-N-Out Burger?

Increasingly, the region's true culinary claim to fame is LA's thriving street eats scene. Thanks to a growing selection of gourmet-on-the-go, mobile take-out joints that have at least 4 wheels (and an army of loyal Twitter followers), the LA street food scene is more dynamic, affordable, and delicious than ever before.

It even has its own festival, which happened a couple of weeks ago. Held in the Rose Bowl, 50+ L.A. food truck and ice cream vendors (set up in booths), bars, tequila and mezcal tastings and a marketplace of general goods and crafts provided enough culinary and visual stimuli to keep festival-goers happy (and possibly drunk). General admission tickets quickly sold out, and all the SoCal food truck favorites like The Grilled Cheese Truck, Don Chow Tacos, Kogi BBQ and Flying Pig Truck were there.

By now I'm sure you know how much I love type and illustration, so when I came across this beautiful illustrative alphabet I knew I couldn't keep it to myself. Jessica Hische, Brooklyn based designer, is responsible for these exquisite letters. She started a blog called the Daily Drop Cap, an ongoing project in which she posts a new hand crafted illustrative initial every day. These are a group of 2 color letterpress prints, and can be found at jessicahische.com. My own illustrative alphabet is in progress, I'll keep you posted! In the meantime, check out beautiful graphic design from birdsong gregory at birdsonggregory.com. 

Most designers will agree that creating a logo for a client is one of our most exciting tasks. Being able to visually represent a company is a great challenge. There are so many articles for designers and clients about the importance of this piece of design, and all that goes into creating it, but I was intrigued by this article from LogoLounge.com. It's all about the trends in logo designs of 2010. The examples above are only a few of the group they discuss, but lets take a look through them.

1. PARTS:

This trend is all about iconic pieces (or "parts") that come together to create the silhouette of the whole. From a distance it's one thing, and closer up it reveals more information. This particular example's objective is to visually represent the statement "We the people form this nation". It's a smart visual solve of a more organic concept.

2. GHOST:

This trend is all about engaging the viewer. Gaining the viewers attention in a visual world is such huge challenge for a designer, so this trend forces the viewer to engage with the logo if for no other reason than to confirm what they're seeing. It's soft and subtle, but in a way that demands attention. Interesting concept, huh?

3. CUBIST:

The inspiration for this trend comes from a place that shouldn't be surprising. Fine art has always been an influencing factor to designers, and I believe that the best design comes from a knowledge and background in fine art. There's a certain visual pleasure in reducing images down to their essence, thus the appeal of cubism.

4. BOX-UP

The terminology is pretty obvious, as is the reason this trend is so popular. It can be difficult for a designer to balance the importance of typography and symbol for a company's logo. Enlarging the pair to be sure the type is legible can throw the symbol into the dominant role, and reducing the size to make sure the symbol isn't too loud can make the type too small to read. Using a literal box insures that it's all together in a package. 

5. STAINS:

This trend is another example that calls for the attention of the viewer, often times in a second look. The blurred edge creates motion. The immediacy of these marks creates an impression of authenticity and humanity. It looks hand crafted, not computer or machine crafted.

6. DUST:

This trend understands the importance of subtlety. The stippled effect creates almost a whisper that can produce different tonal levels with its density. There's kind of a sparkle about this kind of technique. It creates the illusion of motion with hard edges. The most obvious connection for inspiration is that of an airbrush.

7. FESTOON:

Another trend that's about creating motion, the festoon trend accomplishes this by using streamer like elements (almost as if they are blowing in a breeze).The key to this graphic solution is that the elements have a diminishing point. They also often use overlapping and transparency to accomplish the goal and push the mark a little further. This trend evokes a free spirit and lack of control that's visually interesting. It's lighthearted and festive.

8. PIXEL:

This trend is inspired by the digital building block, the pixel. Small elements come together to create a larger result. The same idea is executed in pointillism. Dots of color create the whole picture. The challenge for designers with this one, is making it new. I found this example particularly interesting because of the warped perspective of the pixels, which ads another layer with dimension. It's an interest and different way to do pixels. 

So what is the implication? The article concludes by saying "your price should substantiate your value claims...So the next time you establish your price, ask yourself this question “Does this price accurately reflect the value I provide?”

I would push this conclusion even one step further. The next time you establish your price, ask this question: Does my pricing accurately reflect the value I provide to shoppers. Said another way, does it reflect the value shoppers believe I provide?

While doing research for a project for one of our new clients here at birdsong gregory, I came across a designer's dream resource. The Library of Congress has dedicated a section of its online space to house a beautiful collection of WPA (Works Progress Administration) posters. 926 of them to be exact. The LOC has not only provided relevant archival information for each poster, but has also included hi-res TIFF files that can be downloaded free of charge! Some of the most beautiful typography and illustration you've ever seen is all in one place! This collection can bless any designer with much needed inspiration and visual reference. Thank you LOC for this addition! 

All words pointing to the same thing – I am passionate about shoppers. I love the discipline it takes to find the issue or barrier keeping shoppers from purchasing a product. I love the vision it takes to find shopper insights and then bring it to life in a relevant way. I love the curiosity it takes to stay on top of the technology and trends that are changing how shoppers approach retail environments, whether brick or click (traditional stores or online).

10 years of shopper marketing experience has brought along some awesome opportunities. I have worked on some of the largest retailer and manufacture brands around, from Walmart to USPS, Walgreens to P&G and have lived in some great cities along the way, from Fayetteville, AR to Cincinnati, OH to Chicago, IL. And this experience has led me here, to birdsong gregory in Charlotte, NC. Why? The answer is based on how I view the future.

I believe the best way to predict the future is to create it. And I believe the role of future creators will belong to smart, strategic, neutral and nimble companies, those who choose to approach problems as conversations. A conversation requires approaching challenges engaged in actively listening, watching and focusing on what factors are influencing the situation before responding. birdsong gregory has taken a purposefully conversational approach to their 10 years of growth, building their business on the idea that facilitating a conversation requires low overhead and high access. The fact that Charlotte ranks 8^th in the US for Fortune 500 companies has provided a perfect regional and national proving ground for this philosophy.

Have a passion for shoppers? Have a shopper challenge you need help solving? Let’s start the conversation.

For a while now I've been researching and studying designers who are also illustrators. It seems like they would be the best kind of designers to learn from because our skill sets are so similar. This week, the subject of my study has been Luke Bolt, a designer / illustrator for Gardner Design in Wichita, Kansas. I can really appreciate his energetic and whimsical style. He uses shape beautifully, and he has a knack for color. Some of my favorites of Luke's work though, are definitely his logos. Check them out! I find that no matter how far you think you've come as a designer, there will always be twice as much left to learn. birdsong gregory is dedicated to that growth, and excited to move forward and make our work even better by the day. Design nerds stay tuned; there's more where this came from!