5 ways to create a brand

Axle Davids, of Distility Branding in Toronto, shares his thoughts about brand creation in an article from Canada's The Globe and Mail. 

"The classic misconception is that branding is just about a logo or a name.” To do it right, he advises, start with these questions:

"Who is your target audience? Before you say “everybody” – which many businesses do out of fear they might limit themselves – think hard about who your most important customer is. That’s your primary audience, Mr. Davids says. Then identify your secondary and tertiary audiences.

What’s the competition doing? How are they addressing your target audience? This is easier to determine if you’re in a mature market with one or two well-entrenched competitors.

What’s your brand position? What sets you apart in your market? If you can’t answer this, then you’re losing on a critical concept of branding: how to differentiate yourself.

What’s your brand promise? Determine what you’re passionate about, fuse that with the needs of your target audience and you get your brand promise – the benefit that you promise to deliver.

What’s your brand personality? In what style will you deliver your brand promise? Will you be dependable but surprisingly fun? Will you be the hero, with better-than-the-rest deals that don’t compromise on quality?"

For the full article and links top pieces on start-ups, entrepreneurship and blogging please see here

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies.  Find out more at ILFutures

Spice up your (creative) life: five manifestos for starting a personal revolution

Very useful piece by Kirstin Butler gathering together manifestos on kick-starting your creativity and nudging “ideas out of your head and into the hands of the world.”

1. Right Brain Terrain: create to create – “to learn a little more about yourself”
2. The Cult of the Done Manifesto: “Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing”
3. Holstee:  “Do what you love and do it often.”
4. Work Is Not A Job:  “You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.”
5. Do The Work: “There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognise this.”

I’d highly recommend taking five minutes to check out Butler’s piece on the brilliant Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings site for the details. Five Manifestos For the Creative Life

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies.  Find out more at ILFutures

Design 101: managing design at project level

Another in the teeny blog’s occasional series of basic design guides (and apologies to grannies who know all about those eggs)

Four project level design management tips

1. Always do your market research as part of the design process. The main reason for a design failing in the market place is not understanding customer requirements.
2. The early stages of the design process are the best time for change . They don’t cost too much.
3. Make sure you regularly review the design process against the design brief and specifications.
4. Keep track of all improvements/changes to processes and technical performance identified in the regular reviews and final evaluation. This will be of major benefit to future projects.

Four general planning tips 

1. Identify resource and equipment needs. For example, admin support, storage, technical information and external specialists.
2. Set key dates for specific objectives and tasks including start and finish dates. Plan design activities, establish overall targets for the design team and monitor progress.
3. Fix a project budget plan for all costs including any external funding elements.
4. Have an effective system of management information for control purposes with good communications in place.

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at ILFutures

Word-up! 'Six design myths (and one fact)' from Design Week

John Spencer, co-founder and creative director of Spencer du Bois tells it like it is in Design Week.

Myth: The logo is dead

Myth: ‘A brand is a promise wrapped in an experience…’

Myth: Young designers have all the best ideas

Myth: There are ‘creative types’ and there’s everyone else

Myth: Brainstorming works

Myth: Research wins over instinct

Fact: Good design is honest

John has some thought-provoking and entertaining things to say about each of the above. Though, I do disagree with his writing off brainstorming! For the full text see here

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at ILFutures

7 etiquette essentials for networking

Corporate giant or one man/woman and their dog outfit, it doesn't matter. Networking is a fact of business life.

Connections expert Tony Altham has spoken at Interiors & Lifestyle Futures workshops before. Here's a reminder of his seven principles of networking success while you can find fuller details in the link below:

1. Rapport  - building rapport quickly is essential in building great relationship
2. Your handshake - match the pressure of the other person - don't crush, don't flounder like a wet fish
3. Respect & courtesy - regard the other person’s space and don’t get too close too soon
4. Certainty & conviction - strong and confident language will convey confidence and certainty
5. Etiquette - wait your turn to speak, avoid dominating a conversation. Instead, be the catalyst that draws other people into your group
6. Moving on - often at networking meetings you want to meet a number of people and the people you meet feel the same way. Acknowledge this and respect their time and yours
7.  Business cards - exchanging business cards is a simple activity that frequently has a big impact on how you are perceived

For the full details

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at ILFutures

5 reasons to visit the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo Friday 15 June- Friday 22 June

The Birmingham Made Me Design Expo kicks off next Friday (15 June) at The Mailbox in Birmingham. And, here are five reasons not to miss this week-long celebration of the best in Midlands design and innovation.

• It’s the first one and it’s telling a unique story - drawing together strands of design inspiration to create a unique platform for growth - featuring over 100 exhibitors from business and education in the Midlands.
• It’s all about design for everyone – thought provoking, inspirational, conversational, challenging.
• It’s been created and led by the region’s leading businesses, to pass on their unique experiences.
• It’s showcasing new talent, new design and providing inspiration for new collaborative opportunities. Many of them Interiors & Lifestyle Futures companies.
• The only cost of accessing this wisdom is your time!

Thanks to Charmaine Stint, Enterprise Development Manager at Birmingham City University

 For more see ilfutures blog and for a detailed programme Birmingham Made Me 

And, don't forget to call into the Entrepreneurs store

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at ILFutures

Olympic heroes - Bean2Bed

Three cheers for Bean2Bed who’ve landed a very cool deal to provide its bean bags, which convert to full size beds, for both the Jamaica and USA Olympic teams.

The company - an active member of the Interiors & Lifestyle Futures community  - will be providing specially-embroidered bean bags for both the Jamaica track and field team and USA athletics team’s training camps in Birmingham. 

Matt Roberts pictured, January 2012, on the Interiors & Lifestyle Futures' stand the UK  Interiors Show

Visit Bean2Bed

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

Obsession - because it's worth it*

The human instinct to collect is a natural one – an expression of individuality and yes of obsession. The big stuff, the famous pieces, the historical and the archaeological, get housed in galleries and museums to be admired by professionals, enthusiasts and tourists ducking the rain.

But, who gives voice to the personal collectors – of artificial grass, say, or Japanese guitars? Well, Helen and Graham Powell’s Obsessionistas is doing just that. The company, one of our recent ILF members, may only be a few months old but it has amassed a staggering online repository of design archives, collectors and their collections. It has also garnered serious attention from broadsheets, tabloids and glossy mags. 

Obsessionistas also hosts exhibitions of various collections – recently at the Milan Fair in April while y ou can catch them next at the Design Expo in June at Birmingham’s Mailbox.

If you have your own obsessive collection, Helen and Graham would love to hear from you.

On a personal note, talking of wonderful collections, if you are ever up in the North West, make sure you visit the Pencil Museum 

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

*I know that's Klein not L'Oréal!

At last.... some real alternatives to death by powerpoint

These days there really is no excuse for boring people to death with powerpoint bullets. For example, here are two great web-based tools:

 

 

Prezi  is described as  The Zooming Presentation Editor and  is a cloud-based presentation software/ storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas on a virtual canvas and its unique is that it enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. Checkout the official Prezi introductory video.

 

 

Sparkol  allows you to build a presentation by concentrating on the content rather than the format a bit like putting a movie together. If you sign up for a paid sparkol accound you also get free access to videoscribe.tv which lets you build animations in the same cartoon style but obviously nothing like as good as the RSA Animate videos. Here's the official Sparkol introductory video. 

Ken Thompson (aka The BumbleBee) blogs about bioteams, virtual collaboration and business simulation at www.bioteams.com.

Tight budget? Create a marketing strategy for free

In our workshops with small businesses, it is frequently clear that there is little if any budget for marketing. One thing they can do, points out Vanessa Merit Nornberg, is to develop a narrative that becomes a cost-free marketing strategy.

Vanessa suggests three overlapping options:

1. Tell your company story
2. Tell your product story
3. Tell your personal story

You can find Vanessa’s article here: why your story should be your marketing strategy

And, given story telling seem s to be a mini theme this week, don’t forget to check the post below for a critical take on  ‘making’ stories.

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

What's the point of a designer-maker video?

In our workshops, the concept of uploading a video to the designer-maker's website often arises. The aim is to tell the 'making' story and illustrate the craft involved, reinforcing the value of the end product. A justification of why this item costs more than a mass produced version.

Rob Walker's 'The Theater of Making' article takes a fairly critical approach to these videos - but he makes points that will be useful for anyone planning to make or remake such a video.Plus, he has links to several examples of the genre.

And, by the way, Design Observer, source of this article,is well worth  a regular read for anyone designing or interested in design.

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

Keep abreast in design by checking your Wallpaper daily

Wallpaper describes itself as the leading global design destination for showcasing all thats best in art, architecture, fashion, interiors and contemporary lifestyle. Check out their Watches and Jewellery Hub and their Lifestyles section. They also have a neat iPhone app.


Ken Thompson (aka The BumbleBee) blogs about bioteams, virtual collaboration and business simulation at www.bioteams.com.

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Design brief 101

You've thought of a new product or service and are keen to get it out there. But, remember most products fail due to poor market research. 


Of course, you'll create a design brief but, if it is going to work,  you must begin with four essential steps.

• a clear statement of the design opportunity, communicated with passion
• a definition of your target market (age, income level, gender, social group & geographic location)
• a run down of who your competition is 
• a concise profile of your ideal customer

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

Right here, write now - four+ tips for effective press releases

At a recent Visioning workshop,  a designer-maker asked about writing press releases. This blog isn’t the place for a lengthy how-to. A quick search on the Internet will give you lots of detailed advice (How to Write A Press Release for example )

 But, for a quick start here are my four basic tips*

• Make sure you know exactly what story you want to tell. It is surprisingly easy to fall into the trap of loading your news with irrelevant details.
• Aim for no more than 14 words in your opening sentence and tell everything concisely in your first paragraph – that’s all the editor may use. Make sure it answers these questions: Who, what, where when and how
• Check your spelling and grammar thoroughly – remember word processing spelling & grammar tools don’t think. They are weigh too dumb. See what I mean.
• Top it off with a clear and attention-grabbing headline but watch out for unintended meanings -  such as ‘Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge’

*This is the secret tip that’s rarely revealed. Forget the rules, type your story as it comes. Effective press releases aren’t written. Like all the best copy, they are rewritten. That's when, you won’t go far wrong with the tips above.

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Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

The strange tale of why aircraft toilets have ashtrays

Matt Simmons writes an excellent article with lots of helpful pictures , Engineering Infrastructures For Humans, on why aircraft toilets have ashtrays. In a nutshell Matt explains that airlines do not want us to smoke on flights and will do everything in their power to prevent this happening whilst airline regulators mandate that no commercial jet can take off without a fully functioning ashtray in all its lavatories. Disconnect? 
Matt concludes "That’s an awfully strange stance to take for a vehicle with such a stringent “no smoking” policy, but it really does make a lot of sense. Back in 1973, a flight crashed and killed 123 people, and the reason for the crash was attributed to a cigarette that was improperly disposed of. The FAA has decided that some people (despite the policies against smoking, the warning placards, the smoke detector, and the flight attendants) will smoke anyway, and when they do, there had better be a good place to put that cigarette butt!" 


So it actually makes perfect sense that aircraft toilets have ashtrays and is an example of the principle of good design known as affordance.

Ken Thompson (aka The BumbleBee) blogs about bioteams, virtual collaboration and business simulation at www.bioteams.com.

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Buzzing debut for Brum Made Me team

 Hailstorms and streets awash with rain did nothing to deter a throng from attending the debut of the Birmingham Made Me store on Tuesday evening. If anything, the buzz inside the Mailbox's newest retail venue was so great it threatened an electrical storm all of its own.

As executive dean of Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Chris O'Neil said this venture by talented entrepreneurs, with strong support from the University's employability team, is an opening salvo in the forthcoming IDEA Birmingham Design Expo, which doesn't just rival anything London has to offer, it trounces it.

Interiors & Lifestyle Futures is delighted so many of its member companies are part of the Birmingham Made Me store. Go see all the companies* soon and often at the Mailbox. Bring your friends and your wallets!

A hot bed of West Midlands-based design talent, photo Ronald Gunawan

*Angela Burman Fine Arts, Bangers & Mash, Bonnie Lush Hair, Coco's Closet, Creative Lab, Grabkowska Applied Arts, HCF Boutique, Penelope Jordan,  Sara Page Design, Sit On My Face and Tiny Chair,


Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk

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Stuck for an idea? Try the generation game

Fed up staring at a blank piece of paper as you try to get some fresh ideas flowing for a new product or piece of art? You need to organise an ideas generation session. Easy enough if you work in a company with other people. If you are a one-person outfit, call in a few favours from your business network, creative community and/or family. Lay on the coffee and plenty of biscuits.

Four dos and don’ts to get the best out of the session:

1.    appoint a chair and a separate notetaker

2.    set a time limit of around 30 minutes

3.    encourage off the wall ideas – as many as possible

4.    analyse and combine ideas

5.    don’t have a group of more than 12

6.    don’t allow criticism of ideas

7.    don’t be afraid of some silence –it will encourage thinking

8.    don’t allow any individuals to hijack the session

At the least, this should shake up your ideas and give you a fresh perspective. Even better, it will produce some creative solutions. 


Adrian Burns is part of a team supporting  the West Midlands community of interiors & lifestyle companies. Find out more at www.ilfutures.co.uk



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