The Corral

Creative Rodeo was recently asked to complete a redesign of Successful Farming’s specialty publication, Ageless Iron Almanac.

Ageless Iron is published six times a year and is read by people who collect, restore, repair, refurbish, and love old farm equipment—they are the agricultural equivalent of hot rod restorers and motor heads. The content ranges from profiles of recently restored tractors to tips and tricks that guide you through your own restoration. The magazine is intended for serious collectors and casual fans alike.

(Below: Old Ageless Iron cover)

The mandates of the redesign were to update the magazine’s layout into a more current look-and-feel without completely removing past elements found in previous issues, an evolution rather than a revolution. The redesign needed to look “new and different” rather than just “different” to acquire new readers without alienating current subscribers.

(Below: Interior Page from a past issue of Ageless Iron.)

The problem with Ageless Iron was not that of the functionality of the design—everything is legible and easy to navigate and read—but of a disconnect between design and subject matter. The old design has a quasi-Victorian quality without being too blatantly Victorian—or charismatic—and an overall look and feel that is flat and obvious which makes it uninteresting.

(Below: Interior page.)

There are swooshes and cartouches meant to evoke a late eighteenth to early nineteenth century feeling and this feeling is meant to align itself to the period in which tractors first appeared in the agricultural world. While this Victorian style does well to evoke a history—or a historical significance—to the subject matter it lacks a fundamental dynamic: energy. The current layout is missing any real personality (especially given the personalities of the collectors and, as Creative Rodeo would soon witness, the personalities of the tractors).

(Below: Interior department page from an old issue of the magazine.)

The answer then is to evolve the current magazine layout into a design that has historical significance, energy, and personality but still uses elements from the old issues. There are several questions to consider when evolving a visual system: How far can you push the current visuals and not alienate the customer base? What is the customer used to seeing? Did you push it far enough to achieve the goals of the original redesign mandates? Will the customer still recognize the brand?

It’s a razor’s edge as people invest emotionally into brands and products—stray too far and you upset the equilibrium and consumer recognition and connection goes out the window. Don’t think so? The Gap rebrand-debacle of last year proves otherwise (Gap-gate).

While still using elements of past Ageless Iron issues, Creative Rodeo evolved the magazine’s design by updating colors and fonts to feel more current and energetic yet still feel grounded in some sort of historical context. We also created a tighter grid system across the magazine so that empty space, item sizes, and proportions would establish a uniformity across all pages. This uniformity gives the elements (whether they are text blocks, images, or headlines) a visual order that eases the effort put forth by the consumer to absorb the content.

(Below: New cover redesign for Ageless Iron.)

The typeface was updated from a simple serif to Bodega Sans. Bodega came chocked with personality: there’s a machine-friendly-quality to the face, it’s a Deco-born typeface so it is grounded in historical significance relating to the subject matter (fancy way of saying, “It feels historical”), and it has a great amount of personality.

(Below: Redesigned interior page.)

Though the design for Ageless Iron changed, it still retained many of its original elements: the background parchment paper was kept, body copy type remained relatively unchanged, and lines used to separate text blocks and images still do so, etc. 

(Below: Interior page, spread, and department page from the redesigned magazine.)

A Time for Celebration and Support

A colleague of my wife was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer of an unknown primary. She is 36 years old, married with two children, and currently undergoing treatment at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City.

On August 13, a Family Benefit Event that involved food, drink, and music was held in support of their mission to beat this disease; friends, family members, coworkers, and colleagues were asked to support by means of a donation—either in the form of an item or funds—for both a live and silent auction.

I felt Creative Rodeo could donate something worthwhile and after weeks of contemplating on an item or service to contribute I came up with the idea of the above poster. Cowboy Wisdom—as it is titled—is 19" x 25", screen printed, and was pieced together using some of my favorite cowboy quotes and life lessons. In a weird way, the poster is meant to act as a cheerleader and a reminder that even though life might kick us around a little, the least we can do is smile and kick back.

Cowboy Wisdom was one of over a hundred items donated for auction. 450-500 people attended the benefit which raised close to $55,000 in support of this woman and her cause.

This project is difficult to explain. The below are sketches done for Lowe's. They are done as a service to show how a room re-design will look in the end. Think of them as something you might see from an interior designer to convey a change in wall color, furniture, accessories, etc.

Anyway, they took some time and I thought, by golly! I'd better share them at least. These illustrations were completed by using pencil on paper and then colored digitally.

There are some dreadful commercials on TV right now. Whether they are tasteless, farcical, annoying, or tactless, these commercials showcase the desperation being felt as advertisers try to coerce down-economy consumers into spending their hard earned cash. As budgets dwindle, money for consumer market research gets cut and risky ideas for commercials don’t go through traditional checks and balances which causes companies and advertisers to miss the mark with their ads. Case in point: The Miller Lite Man Up! Commercials.

In the Man Up! series, Joe Everyguy saunters to the bar, orders a light beer, and is confronted with a choice from the attractive female bartender: "less taste" or Miller Lite. Since Joe Everyguy has no preference for taste he is told to come back when he loses his feminine accessories (items that range from skinny jeans and purses to bronzer and back tattoos) and, only then, will he get a Miller Lite. “Man up!” prods a voiceover. “Because if you’re drinking a light beer without taste, you’re missing the point of drinking beer.”

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. If you’re looking to “man up” you are hardly drinking light beer. Also, don’t compare the “delicious pilsner taste” of Miller Lite to “less taste.” Not only is it intangible (does “less taste” mean Miller Lite is simply “taste” and how much less taste?) but it shows a lack of understanding for your audience; people don’t drink Miller Lite for taste, they drink it to align with the beer-commercial-formula ethos: sports, friends, and fun. Finally, the female bartender asks, “Do you care how it tastes?” This question is almost as absurd as Joe Everyguy’s answer: No. No, I do not care how it tastes.

The Man Up! spots are insulting (YOU are not a man because YOU are feminine) and hypocritical (feminine = bad, but the women are dressed to be ultra-desirable). There is also an incoherent message. Are these commercials picking on “men” or “less taste?” Well, they’re picking on both.

Given the current economic climate (i.e., crappy) beer drinkers have been purchasing cheaper types of brew. Instead of drinking the “top tier” light beers (Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc.) consumers are trading down to beers such as Keystone Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Natural Light. A recent article on the matter in Brandweek, by Elena Malykhina helps to sum it up:

“It's been a challenge for premium light beers with the economic woes. Consumers have been trading down. Over the past two years, Miller Lite lost almost 10% of its volume from the peak,” said Benj Steinman, publisher and editor of Beer Marketer's Insights.

According to Beer Marketer's Insights, Miller Lite sold 16.5 million barrels in 2009, down 6.6% from 2008 when it sold 17.7 million barrels. Steinman added: “Even this year Miller Lite isn't performing well. Keystone Light is the industry's hottest beer in terms of barrels gained. So there's an urgency to grow Miller Lite for [parent company] MillerCoors.” To grab back market share, the Man Up! series was born.

Picking a fight with a competitor or an idea (i.e., less taste) is nothing new to advertisers—it may be the oldest trick in the book. Miller Lite picking on “less taste,” however, is susceptible to individual interpretations. That Keystone Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Natural Light are represented as “less taste” is unclear in the commercials. Why not compare them label to label? This at least gives focus for the viewer and helps them understand a product’s benefits over its rivals. Anything else falls flat, just like the “great pilsner taste” of Miller Lite (see, I’m picking on them directly and you knew that).

The worst aspect of these commercials is how they insult the potential customer. The point of a good television spot is to get the customer to align his values with that of the product. That is difficult to do when the protagonist, Joe Everyguy, is such a flatly drawn character and has few qualities that we relate to. He is shunned because of farcical feminine attributes and is subject to the scorn of his generic friends and the beautiful female bartender. No one wants to be this guy any more than they want to be “shamed” into buying Miller Lite, which is what Miller Lite is doing.

Equating feminine traits with “funny” or “bad” is one thing but to do it without any hint of irony is tactless. It’s difficult enough right now connecting with customers, both current and potential, but by shaming the audience into buying their product, Miller Lite has shown very little thought and respect for the consumer. In an effort to pick a fight with a competitor (“less taste”) or un-manliness (“Man up!”) Miller Lite has inadvertently picked a fight with you, the consumer.

For some odd reason “proselytize” has become my favorite word-of-the-moment. I must have used it in conversation ten times this week already; the word seems to pop from my mouth like a verbal tick or hiccup.

Maybe it’s because I’m doing so much proselytizing. After-all, isn’t that what owning a business involves—especially a design business? Tirelessly championing yourself to potential clients, showing them the value you bring to their communication needs, and converting the masses to the idea that good design propels and amplifies the brand.

See? I can’t help myself. So, in the spirit of proselytizing Creative Rodeo, here are some tenants I try to live by when approaching potential clients, interacting with other design professionals, or approaching the design process.

The Process

The most important communication tenets to live by are who are you, what do you do, and why does it matter. Most companies do very well with the first two, they’re easy. It’s the third that really trips them up. As a shoe manufacturer it would be easy to assume customers will buy your shoes simply because they need a new pair or the price point is right. But given the sheer volume of shoe brands—not to mention the different types of shoes ranging from sneakers to wing-tips—out their, why the hell should they choose yours? What is it you do that truly connects with customers? Perhaps the shoes are handmade in the USA using only local materials. This focus on an important aspect of the shoe manufacturer’s production process can make all the difference in how they are portrayed and viewed by the—potential—customer.

Become the Absolute Best Partner Possible

Creative Rodeo strives to become indispensable. I’m talking about a relationship and aligning yourself not only with the client’s needs but also their purpose and passion. Many times in the design industry indispensable is translated as withholding materials (files, information, ideas) or becoming so ingrained in the client company’s framework and methodology that they have no choice but to use you. This is to say that some design firms become simple, marketing machines for all the client’s materials and the relationship continues despite the effectiveness of those materials. Creative Rodeo is about becoming a partner, understanding a client’s business and goals, and saying things they want to hear while asking really hard questions. After-all, when the client succeeds, we succeed.

Tell a Story

Contrary to what Marshall McLuhan said, the message is the medium now. At the risk of sounding trite, the world’s media are shrinking every day. You can watch TV on your computer and surf the internet on your TV. A person’s entire catalog of music can be held in their hand or on their phone. Also, all these media are interacting and blurring, quickly. Creative Rodeo believes the easiest way to connect with customers is to tell a story. Not a “once upon a time” story but a story of comparisons and benefits, information and value. A good story transcends any medium, allowing it take on a life of its own. It starts the conversation for you and does much of the heavy lifting. When that happens, the customer interacts and shapes the message; connecting on a much higher level, despite what medium they are viewing it on.

Work Ethically

What’s proper pricing? Do I understand my rights of ownership when designing? Does the client? How do I address spec work? What are my responsibilities to society and the environment? All these are important questions to answer for maintaining a successful design business. So much of what we do is, in reality, business. It’s about putting food on the table and paying the mortgage, but you can still do that without sacrificing your—business—soul. Acting ethically also builds equity for the design industry which hopefully creates a cycle of benefits: act ethically = better design culture = increase in design’s value = client advocacy = act ethically.

So why the word “proselytize?” Who knows. I could use “promote” or “advance” but somehow they didn’t sound as edgy or smart. Sometimes a word or phrase gets stuck in your head, it imbeds, makes a foundation, and becomes part of your common language. And then, it just comes out. Naturally. Like you have been using it your whole life. It’s similar to a really good design and how it creates a story or a brand that becomes part of the public conscience. When that happens the time and energy it takes to realize, rationalize, and resolve is shortened. Good design and branding make buying into something easier.

The case of Forward Growth Strategies (FGS) is not unlike the case of every other small company in America. They have a product or service; they wish to sell that product or service; and they are passionate believers in the game-changing, world-bending status of that product or service. Also, not unlike every other small company in America, they are unsure how to go about spreading the gospel of said product or service. FGS approached Creative Rodeo with the need to redesign their current identity.

First step: better logo. Why? Because it is one of the few, tangible items of a company’s brand that can be controlled. A good logo encapsulates a company’s personality, culture, and service in a single stroke. A good logo amplifies and extolls the company’s mantra and is the visual cornerstone of a company’s identity system and visual language.

The professional sector that FGS competes in is a difficult one to define; the services are intangible and require a very specific set of skills: They are a multi-service consulting firm staffed with highly experienced planners and project managers and deal in policy planning and development, research, strategy and fiscal sustainability planning. It’s a public relations meets advocacy meets strategy meets we-make-you-better-from-behind-the-scenes skill set.

FGS’s current logo, unfortunately, conveys none of this.

Though there may be no such thing as a “bad logo” the FGS logo doesn’t give much insight or interest to what they do and how they wish to be perceived. Also, the competitive landscape that FGS occupies is beset with similar logos. It’s difficult to differentiate companies and, therefore, easy to dismiss FGS’s prowess as a player in the scene.

Goal One: Picture the Brandscape

Companies rarely exist in a vacuum, therefore, they always have competition. Whether large or small, at the top or bottom, there’s always someone competing for your customers—and vice versa. FGS’s passion, purpose, and vision are what drive their business. What they might find is that their passion, purpose, and vision are similar, if not identical to the competition.

Creative Rodeo completed a competitive audit for FGS to help define the brandscape and, therefore, help them differentiate. This also helps evaluate FGS's nearest competitors and how those competitors might compare to the—potential—FGS brand.

What we found was though these companies vary somewhat in services and experience they vary very little in their visual makeup.

Visually they are uninformed, clichéd, clunky, and vacant of any substance relating to the company. They don’t evoke an emotional or intellectual response (“Hey, what’s that?” or “These people look like they know what they are doing.”) and certainly don’t speak to the experience and skills these companies are setting forth in their company rhetoric.

Goal Two: Visualize the Business

What is it that FGS does? And what could stick out? We began creating shapes and objects that reflected the skills and services mentioned above (strategy, advocacy, etc.). Some items and ideas stuck out more than others (direction, growth, guide, connect, plan, strategy) and those were rendered and refined.

Within those, one idea kept coming to the top: Advocacy. In everything FGS does as a business what they truly are is a facilitator—they take what a business is saying and doing and make it better, easier and more approachable. This is evident in their success at grant writing, PR, behind the scenes fiscal strategy, and so much more. One visual represents this sense of advocacy the best:

Goal Three: Refine

The “dialog box” was further refined to reflect a sense of advocacy and to show that FGS is the voice behind the voice (or within, in the logo’s case). FGS works within the established framework their client’s dictate and must take on that voice and, at the same time, use their own voice to affect their client’s goals.

Colors were researched to reach an optimal expression of personality:

Until the perfect color combination was achieved:

The new FGS logo evokes a great modern business persona, is clean and refined, energetic in its color yet very professional and makes sense within the confines of FGS’s vocation. At the same time, it looks nothing like any other brand in this business and will stand out nicely among their competitors. It is professional and serious yet approachable and, when used properly, will amplify the services FGS provides.

The good people at FGS were a joy to work with. They were informed and reacted very well to every step in the creative process and are, we think, energized with new vitality as they sally forth, new logo poised at the fore, and continue their business ventures with a refreshed sense of purpose.

-Chad Jewell, Creative Rodeo

A reminder that truly bonkers cinema is still alive, possible and releasable in our market-tested age, this utterly crackpot Belgian animation bounces around with a hyperactive dementia that somehow never flags.

Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar continue to lark around with a bunch of store-bought toy farm animals, manipulated for their stop-motion purposes. The dizzy adventures start with a talking horse called Cheval, a forgotten birthday, a gargantuan consignment of bricks… and things just get weirder.

There is absolutely no curbing of these leapfrog imaginations, or conforming of the story to a familiar arc. The figurine heroes, among them a group of cameoing mad scientists excitably pulling levers to control a giant, snowball-flinging penguin, have such sharply defined personalities that they set the whole certifiable agenda, which comes from an odder place than the wildest eccentricities of Nick Park.

Not long ago, I asked a gentleman what he did for a living. He responded, “I’m in marketing but I really do innovation.” When asked to expand on his response I received a vague description in which he used words like “creativity” and “imagination” and “leading-edge.” He had described innovation but not how he goes about innovating or how this makes a connection to marketing. I noted this and the conversation quickly changed subjects.

In President Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union Address “innovation” turned up quite a bit. He said we need to “out-innovate” the rest of the world. He also wanted to go about “encouraging American innovation.” He tied it to education, clean energy, and transportation and used innovation examples like the internet, Edison, and the Wright brothers to further expand the idea of America’s history of innovation.

In a recent commercial Nissan touts “Innovation for family, innovation for all” to describe their Quest model minivan. It comes with the usual features found in today’s minivans—power sliding doors, advanced climate control, DVD player, and an efficient engine. All of which are very nice but hardly comparable to the Wright’s first powered flight.

“Innovation” has become such a hot button word that it has, almost, completely lost its power. It’s the New Millennium word and will end up overused and faded like “extreme” eventually did in the 90s (“extreme’s” effective use officially ended with Taco Bell’s Extreme Quesadilla). Innovation is such an intangible, abstract word (it needs history and context and, like great art, is hard to describe but you know it when you see it) that many times companies slap it in their tag lines or mission statements without a clear picture of how to go about “innovating.” Worst of all these companies have no knowledge of fostering innovation.

But, since “innovation” is the action or process of innovating it may not be that hard to see. Take Google for instance. Google enables employees to spend 20% of their time—that’s 1 day out of 5—working on something that’s good for the company or good for the world. These are projects of the individual’s own choosing and do not need the approval of a manager, regardless of whether that manager thinks the project is a good idea. Think there’s a better way to write the search engine code? Take a crack at it. Have an idea for a new program? Spend next Tuesday developing it.

Some outcomes of this 20% time are Google News, Adsence, and Gmail. It can also be something as ubiquitous as Google Shuttle, the buses that bring people to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

The irony of Google’s 20% program is that it’s not really that innovative. 3M has been doing innovation-time since the 50s. Theirs is called the 15% Rule but has the same philosophy: think of a beneficial new product or process, we’ll give you the time to work on it. Scotch Tape, Scotch Guard, and the Post-It Note are all products of the 15% Rule. These products were created with no management oversight, formal budget, or mandate from 3M. It took a culture of valuing creativity, and a willingness to implement that value, in the company ethos to truly innovate.

So maybe that’s what “innovation” is. It’s a culture and philosophy, trust and support. It’s companies that value the upside-down pyramid: ideas begin and are developed by lower level employees rather than waiting for directives on how to innovate from managers. Another advantage of this inverse pyramid is its economy of time. Think of it this way: instead of getting forty people in a one hour meeting and coming up with an idea to innovate (that’s forty person-hours and one idea), a company like Google gets forty ideas. All because the ideas originate and are developed by the individual.

How a company uses the idea of “innovation” as a culture will probably define the new decade. These companies will be easy to identify: employees are empowered self starters, always a leader in the industry, and the company structure is jealously—but ineffectively—emulated by others.

A great big thanks to all that voted; we here at the Rodeo appreciate the time you took to view, scrutinize, and cast a ballot for your favorite banner design.

It was a close race at the end with the Wooden Buckle taking a full 41% of the votes. The Rodeo Riders made a big push in the final length with 34% and Fancy Type, apparently, never had a chance as the long shot only accrued 25% of your votes, most of those coming in the final days of voting.

Though all the banner designs were created and steeped in a thoughtful process and show a good relationship to the spirit of this here blog site, we had our favorites going into the voting. We were confident our choice would come out on top only to learn that we’re terrible at predicting the future. However the outcome, we were deeply satisfied with the process of producing these banners and extremely happy people took time to make their choices heard.

In celebration of the New Year, The Corral is getting a new banner. The original above was done in haste and, for some reason or another, stuck around too long, wore out its welcome, and its high time it vamoosed. There’s nothing much exciting about it and those of us at Creative Rodeo are looking for something that suits our delicate sensibilities to type and design a touch more.

We came up with three designs and we liked ‘em so much we couldn’t decide which is best. So we’re asking you, our loyal Corral readers, to pick the new banner. Peruse the designs below and vote for your favorite. Tell a friend so they can have a say as well, votes are limited to one a day and the results will be revealed next Friday, January 14.

Happy voting!

Banner One: Wooden Buckle

Banner Two: Rodeo Riders

Banner Three: Fancy Type

By Chad Jewell

What could be more Christmas-y than the warm glow of store front windows decorated for the holiday season? During a recent shopping excursion down Main Street, USA, I stood transfixed outside Badowers on Ingersoll. Their front windows bid good tidings and good cheer in a well manicured fashion that spoke well of the store’s high-end products and fastidious customer service. It was a confluence of outward appearance matching internal purpose. But, mainly, the effect tempted me to step inside and, at the very least, poke around at the merchandise.

What a wonderful tool, the store front window. Badowers had taken advantage of a simple branding mantra: Seize every branding touchpoint, in this case their store exterior. With such a simple asset to utilize I wondered if other stores were doing the same. I decided to jet around town and found, to my surprise, that some were but many were not.

(Below, Badowers on Ingersoll)

My first stop took me to the East Village. I was drawn to Dornink’s— a maker of bridal, evening, and cocktail dresses—windows because of their simplicity but found myself engaged by the elaborately decorated tree adorned with white-on-white ribbon and ornaments with spots of gold and silver. “Unexpected details” is what Dornink touts and their Christmas decorating fits the bill.

(Below, Dornink in the East Village)

Even though Soleil’s windows aren’t on their store front I give them praise for trying to draw attention, or at the very least attempt to be festive. They could just as easily have left these windows empty—they’re on the back of the building, facing a retaining wall half-seen from the street—but they chose to decorate them instead.

(Below, Soleil in West Glenn)

It wasn’t until Beaverdale that I found another festively decorated window. Back Country had a full spread complete with Christmas tree, dangling lights, products on display, and wonderful use of hand-rendered type on brown-packaging paper hung like ribbons. They did a lot with a very narrow space and the details—frosted snow flake decals and stocking caps suspended magically—made it very engaging and evoked holiday cheer.

(Below, Back Country in Beaverdale)

What took Sergei Prokofiev four days to write and compose was stretched into a five year labor of love by Suzie Templeton in her reimagining of Prokofiev’s childrens classic, “Peter and the Wolf.” Those familiar with the story will find quite a shift from the original with Tempelton’s darkly comic yet enchanting version. “Peter and the Wolf” is told only in images and sound and is interrupted by sustained periods of silence that do more to move the story and inform the character than any amount of dialogue or action could. The soundtrack is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra with each character in the story identified by a particular instrument or musical theme (Peter: strings, Duck: oboe, Cat: clarinet, and so forth). Templeton uses a combination of stop motion puppetry and digital photography to tell her story and the characters and backgrounds are rendered with an attention to detail, care, and realism that truly brings them to life. (To see an extended scene, click here.) The need to explore tangles of birch trees in the background will only be suppressed by the majesty, grace, and raw power expressed in the animation of the wolf when it finally makes its appearance in the third act. Skin looks real and transparent, snow, cold and crusted having long sat on the ground.