What The Sooke? » branding

Anatomy of a New Brand – My New Logos

Tim Ayres — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:45:53 +0000

Now that my new brand is completely launched – I thought I would share with you how it came to be. When I sat down with Jason from Inktvis at The Stick in Sooke, I had no idea about several things:

What I wanted the logo to look like
How to begin to think about it
Whether or not I would change the name of 642Blog
How happy I would be with the result!

The first thing Jason suggested was to email him with examples of logos that I liked. This way, he could get an idea as a designer what types of logos I would be happy with. So I scoured free and stock logo sites. What I wanted was a modern, fresh look that expressed the type of business I am in. So, naturally, houses come to mind, or rooftops, stylized gables, etc. I found it hard to find examples, however, that weren’t, well, trite.

Below are some of the examples I sent to Jason. See if you can pick out the design elements that he incorporated into the finished product.

Another element that I was drawn to were lighthouses. Being in a coastal community, this is obviously a natural. However, I had the same problem as before – it just seemed hackneyed and clichéd.

Jason emailed me the first results – it was starting to come together:

From my feedback we went here – a little too bright for my liking:

And then:

Finally we settled on this:

And this as an alternate:

It’s perfect. I really like how Jason put this together, using so many of the design elements that I like. The house sits atop the green hill, evocative of a lighthouse perched on a rocky shore. The stylized wave denotes a coastal theme and the typeset is bold and stands out.

While the logo for this blog is much more simple, it too is exactly what I wanted. The speech bubble indicating a conversation about Sooke – your comments will be that conversation. The ? signifies answering questions about Sooke and real estate in general, which is what I do here, and the ! denotes excitement, which I think we can all agree there is lots of in Sooke these days.

I’ve wanted a personal logo/brand for several years now, and had always been daunted by what appeared to be a monumental task. Jason helped bring that to fruition and I am forever grateful to him for it. If you ever need a brand or logo designed for your business – contact Jason - his approach is beyond comparison and the results will be spectacular! Jason can also be found on Twitter, usually at @DiscoverSooke.

Do you have a brand or logo you love? Share in the comments below!

Is The Election Campaign All About Branding and Buzzwords? [Video]

Tim Ayres — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:27:51 +0000

As a REALTOR®, I’m always taking notice of how other businesses market and brand themselves. I get inspiration for ideas from other people and businesses all the time. One thing I’ve noticed is that politicians in our current Federal election campaign have been all about branding and marketing their campaigns, rather than telling us what they’ll do for us if elected. What do you think?

Here’s a quick video I shot of Conservative candidate Troy Desouza in his heavily-branded car. He even waved for the camera!

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

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Bell’s New “ER” Ad Campaign is Confusing

Tim Ayres — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:44:59 +0000

A Slimmer, Trimmer Ma Bell

Telecommunications giant Bell has recently ditched their two spokesbeavers, Gordon and Frank, in lieu of a slick new advertising campaign where everything is better. Their logo has been stripped down to just the Bell name in a slim blue typeface, and now every ad you see for them with any word containing the letters ‘er’ has the pair of letters in blue, making them stick out:

From Bell.ca

Since I saw the ads during the Olympics, I’ve been mystified as to what exactly the emphasized “er” was all about. I Googled around a bit and managed to snuff out that it’s all about being easier, better, faster, and so on, but they don’t stick to that theme in their ads. They just throw in the blue ‘er’ whenever they please. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I even Twittered about it and was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who was confused. Then I logged into my facebook page this afternoon and saw this:

Should Bell Bring Back The Beavers?

Bell seems to be testing the waters on this issue. Not surprisingly, most people polled said they didn’t care, but taking those out of the equation, a good proportion just don’t get the ads.

And to think, some ad agency probably got millions to dream up that campaign.

What do you think?

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

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