I crossed the Mason-Dixon line in 2005, relocating from Boston, MA to Charlotte, NC. Making the transition from north to south wasn’t easy at first. Looking for ways to connect with my new community, I started with what I love — design. I had been involved with AIGA, the professional association for design, while living in Boston so I began volunteering for AIGA’s Charlotte Chapter – helping to plan new events and expand Charlotte’s creative community. My involvement lead to my being elected to AIGA Charlotte's Board of Directors and then, in 2008, I became President of the Charlotte Chapter.
I am obsessed with all things design, both on and off the clock. The inspiration I gather from my AIGA experiences help fuel my work as senior designer at birdsong gregory, a leading branding and advertising agency in Charlotte. And although the transition from Beantown to the Queen City initially seemed scary, this yankee has gladly traded her snow boots for sweet tea.
To learn more about the online and offline branding, marketing, and advertising services our agency offers, please visit the birdsong gregory website, contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299, or stop by the next time you’re in downtown Charlotte.
This week, the Charlotte Chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, is screening the documentary Proceed and Be Bold. The documentary covers the life and works of Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., an African American letterpress poster designer. At 40 years of age, Kennedy abandoned the traditional American Dream to follow his own. Unsatisfied with his comfortable, middle-class life, Amos traded in his computer for a printing press and his white collar for a pair of overalls. Armed with life, liberty, peanuts, and a meager yearly income of $7,000, Amos cranked out a new, mutinous declaration of independence.
Charlotte graphic design professionals and letterpress aficionados won't want to miss this screening! Proceed and Be Bold will be shown this Thursday, February 25 at Johnson C. Smith University. Doors open at 6:30, and screening starts promptly at 7:00pm. Click for further details.
Want to make your bookshelf look both smart and stylish? Charlotte graphic design professionals should check out Penguin Classics' series of hardbound classic novels with beautifully patterned cover designs by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Titles include Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility. Books available for purchase at Anthropologie.
That's right. UK retailers have been pioneers in the private label branding wars which continue to erode the market share and brand recognition of big, heavily-advertised national brands. So it was no surprise when Selfridges, the fancy English department store, recently rolled out a new high-end food line. Here's what the agency responsible for the package design had to say:
"A re-branded food range that echo the store’s forward thinking and contemporary attitude towards retail. Although there were over 100 own brand products within the store it was somewhat unrecognisable and lacked shelf presence. Our approach was to create a range that was unique; that did not follow any traditional sector cues. Color coding everything black would make an incredible statement with only the type to reflect what was inside for example strawberry jam would have pink type. The typeface used was trade gothic range left and all the same point size across the range where possible. This ensured clarity and uniformity.”
You keep hearing about the continued SKU and brand optimization efforts by America's powerhouse retailer, and, in the latest round of retail brand consolidations, Wal-Mart has sent Glad and Hefty packing from its food storage shelves.
Similar axes are likely to drop later this year, as Wal-Mart continues its efforts to streamline the it's product range, usually to the benefit of its fast-growing Great Value private label brand – and the national brands with enough shopper marketing savvy to survive.
Not being much of a football fan, I primarily look forward to the Super Bowl not for the guts, glory and game but for the clever advertising sandwiched in between the heroic plays and crushing tackles. Also as a member of the Charlotte graphic design community I found it interesting to take a look back at the 44 year history of the Super Bowl logo.
Bob Noorda died last week. As the designer known the world over for giving the New Your City subway system its iconic modernist design, Noorda introduced simplicity to what (to me) still appears to be a confusing welter of express trains, dank passageways, and garbled announcements. At least the signage is friendly.
Here's an excerpt from his New York Times obituary:
"Mr. Noorda had helped found Unimark in 1965, teaming up with a group of American and European designers, including Mr. Vignelli, who initially set up shop in Chicago and Milan. Theirs was among the first international design firms to base their work on the Modernist principle that a good design could have a positive effect on all aspects of life, not just on business. An early proponent of unified branding -- the consistent use of distinctive type and imagery to identify a company -- Unimark has been credited with awakening the corporate world to Modernist design thinking."
Here at our Charlotte branding agency, we're following in Mr. Noorda's footsteps and trying to help our clients adopt and successfully use unified branding systems. Not always easy, but the payoff can be huge.
Good question. Especially since the use of trade promotions by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods continues to soar. As largest expense companies face (second only to the cost of goods and accounting for approximately 70% of a manufacturer's marketing budget), manufacturers rely on trade promotions to counter the popularity of lower-priced store brands, to pass along a discount to a price-sensitive segment of shoppers (e.g., through a frequent-shopper program), to enhance brand exposure with target consumers, or simply to provide additional stimulus to move excess inventory or counteract competitors.
Retailers, in turn, favor trade spending because it builds store traffic, improves retail margins, and, in general, the majority of the costs (and risks) are borne by the brand manufacturer.
So as consumer products companies continue to spend a significant chunk of revenue on trade promotions, here at birdsong gregory, we're excited to see how innovative technologies from companies like Siperian are now helping consumer goods companies make more informed, holistic decisions when it comes to marketing spend in the trade channel.
For Charlotte advertising agencies, marketing gurus, and designers wanting to brush up on their graphic design knowledge, look no further than Graphic Design, Referenced by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit. This visual and informational guide covers the most commonly referenced terms, historical moments, landmark projects, and influential practitioners in the field of graphic design. With more than 2,000 design projects illustrating more than 400 entries, it provides an intense overview of the varied elements that make up the graphic design profession.
Not a book nerd? You can get the design scoop and further inspiration from one of the authors himself! Armin Vit is coming to Charlotte on January 28th as part of AIGA Charlotte's Talk About Lecture Series to share with our members his process, learnings, experiences and latest work. The event is open to the public and the design team from birdsong gregory will be in attendance. Hope to see you there!
That's a great question. And to answer it quickly and correctly, here's my two cents.
Traditional marketing (OOH, TV, Radio, Print, etc) falls under the general category of "push" marketing. That is, retailers, manufacturers, and brands pay big agencies a lot of money to push a message into the consciousness of the consumer. Think Superbowl ads.
Here at birdsong gregory, our boutique retail marketing-focused agency has found a more effective and budget-friendly way to influence consumer behavior: pull marketing.
Unlike it's monolithic, broadcast cousin, pull marketing puts the recipient of the message (a highly-targeted "narrowcast" demographic") in control of deciding whether to act.
Think about it. Since people are very resistant to any messages that they see as (pushy) advertising, the beauty of pull marketing activities is that they encourage a prospect to seek you out and find out whether you have something of value to offer them.
Unlike it's heavy-handed, loud-mouthed cousin, pull marketing uses the law of intrigue and natural attraction.
Each year I look forward to selecting my new calendar the way school-kids look forward to picking out their notebooks, pens and pencils every fall. For designers a calendar can be the perfect combination of typography, simplicity, creativity, and visual order – and no I am not referring to the ones that feature fluffy cats or been-done aspirational phrases paired with photos of mountains or seascapes. Here are some of my favorites for 2010: Timor Perpetual Calendar by Enzo Mari, SusieJack* Wall Calendar, the fun and quirky Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar wall calendar, letterpress desk calendar by Snow & Graham, and always a favorite at our North Carolina ad agency the Stendig Calendar by Massimo Vignelli.
To learn how birdsong gregory can bring creativity and visual order to your biz in 2010, visit our website.
Pantone LLC has announced its 2010 Color of the Year is Pantone 15-5519 Turquoise. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute® say “{Turquoise} is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”
As a Charlotte NC Ad Agency, birdsong gregory looks to Pantone for creative and color inspiration. We hope their selection of a color that reflects both serenity and invigoration is an indicator that 2010 will be an exciting and restorative year for businesses. Already Turquoise is making its mark in the retail environment with a variety of tropical-hued items including: furnishings, clothing, housewares, linens, dinnerware and even nail polish!
Brought to you by birdsong gregory's favorite computer/application/smartfone/digital lifestyle company – delivered in their own fun, clever, rapacious flavor of brand personality.
And from all of us here at our shopper-centric Charlotte agency, have a safe, peaceful, meaningful end of the year and a bitchin' Yuletide.
"Gone are the pallets of merchandise that clogged the main aisles. The navy-colored signs have been replaced by a soft blue. Food offerings have tripled. And merchandise shelves are so low, shoppers can stand in one corner of the store and see across nearly every department. The overhaul is part of Project Impact, a five-year, companywide effort launched last year. The strategy aims not just to make stores look cleaner and more open but to fine-tune vast product offerings and reframe the way Wal-Mart Stores Inc. markets itself to consumers." In many ways, Wal-Mart has become more like its top competitor — Target Corp.
The strategy comes at a key time. During a persistent downturn, Wal-Mart has continued to outperform nearly all retailers, including Target, as well as stores that aim for a piece of its business, such as Best Buy, Toys R Us and even smaller specialty chains such as crafts store chain Michaels.
"Now the fight is on to keep those shoppers."
Man, if those aren't words to live by.
This holiday season you don't have to be a Charlotte graphic designer to create your own festive decorations. Design-conscious blog Design*Sponge offers a variety of handy DIY guides for making unique and fabulous decorations that will give your holiday flair a designer edge.
This holiday season look beyond the standard wrapping paper when packaging up your gifts. New Japanese washi paper tape from happytape is a great way to get creative when sending packages or wrapping up festive treats for your favorite Charlotte graphic designer.
Every ad agency in town has a different way of coming up with big ideas. Conversely, not every process works as well, and some shops will deliver creative based on little more than what you see below. So if you're a company looking for a reliable, efficacious marketing partner, make sure you look under the hood.
Designers are color obsessed by nature and our birdsong gregory team knows how important color is to a successful brand. Thanks to the extensive line of Pantone accessories Charlotte graphic design professionals can now color code not just their professional works, but also their personal lives. Luggage tags, wallets, messenger bags, coffee mugs, pepper mills, key chains, cufflinks and iPhone cases are just a few of the ways you can define your own personal color brand.
Nixon, the über-trendy surf and skate clothing company has a flair for west-coast flavored euro-styling. I'd love to find this watch in my stocking, and the company's use of a super skinny version of Chalet on their website and in their ads is refreshing. Here at birdsong gregory, the design team always keeps an eye on the underground fashion world to help our Charlotte marketing agency stay inspired and informed.
I crossed the Mason-Dixon line in 2005, relocating from Boston, MA to Charlotte, NC. Making the transition from north to south wasn’t easy at first. Looking for ways to connect with my new community, I started with what I love — design. I had been involved with AIGA, the professional association for design, while living in Boston so I began volunteering for AIGA’s Charlotte Chapter – helping to plan new events and expand Charlotte’s creative community. My involvement lead to my being elected to AIGA Charlotte's Board of Directors and then, in 2008, I became President of the Charlotte Chapter. 
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