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Eye-Catching, Memorable Signage

I came across Sawatsky’s Imagination Corporation at a tradeshow recently and was impressed and delighted by their creativity and lack of limits when it comes to creating three dimensional signs and engaging environments.

Imagination Creation’s award-winning designs have been showcased across North American, which makes me especially pleased to mention they are a local business, based right next door in Chilliwack, BC.

I also love that I can imagine Dan’s parents when he was a kid saying “Stop all that doodling and get serious. You’ll never have a career in that!”

Imagination Creation has fun stuff for theme parks, which is a natural fit with Dan’s  style, but he’s also found ways to incorporate a memorable and slightly irreverent attitude for more corporate and blue collar businesses.

This guy “gets it” in a huge way and that’s refreshing. So much signage gets lost in the clutter, but this kind of style and personality will stand out anywhere. And that’s what good marketing is all about.

So, no more excuse for boring, blend in with the background signs. When you could have this much fun with something as functional as signage, why wouldn’t you?!

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 By liz gaige, October 29, 2010 · Filed under Creativity, Design, Logos & Branding

Getting Buy-In, Changing Behaviour

The concept of marketing — educating people, getting them to adopt an idea or a new behaviour — infiltrates every area of life. For those who despise “marketing” and think of it as only associated with sales and products people don’t need, this may be a horrifying thought. But take a moment to reconsider.

Marketing in it’s purest form is not about selling, it is simply a form of communication and as such is a neutral concept that can be used for good or for evil.

I’ve had newsletter subscribers tell me that even though they are not in business or marketing, they read my newsletters cover to cover and always find something that helps them. From the librarian who wants kids to know about the many fun, educational programs they can become involved in, to the kindergarten teacher who needs parents on board with her classroom policies, they find ideas on improving communication and getting better buy-in whatever their valuable, beneficial message.

I think that’s pretty darn cool.

Getting people to adopt new behaviour is often met with resistance, even when the change will be beneficial in some way. Sigh. We humans are such creatures of habit.

Marketing is usually thought to be concerned only with changing consumer behaviour, which has been the challenge of business owners since the dawn of…well, the dawn of business owners. But whether it’s business or social change (or some combination of the two), success requires both an understanding of the people you want to connect with, and the dynamics of the behaviour you want to encourage.

The Fun Theory initiative explores the idea of prompting a change in behaviour by making it fun in some way. Trust Volkswagen and the Swedes to be so inventive and show that change for the better doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be downright enjoyable!

What might the outcome be in prompting socially conscious change, if we took this innovative and friendly approach, instead of trying to beat people into submission with guilt?

In the following video, check out the guy who looks around for more garbage to pick up so he can do it again!

See more videos at www.thefuntheory.com.

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 By liz gaige, December 16, 2009 · Filed under Articles, Creativity, Marketing - General

Capture Those Creative Thoughts Via Mind Mapping

If you’ve ever been involved in a really productive brainstorm session you know the best ideas don’t roll out of your head in a nice orderly, organized fashion.

True creativity is a mess. If it’s a process, it doesn’t really act like one. It’s all over the map and often, the messier it is the better the outcome.

That’s where mind mapping bridges the gap between total chaos and linear idea collection. I love the concept! It lets us blurt everything out at once, all over the page, and draw non-linear but wholly logical connections while we do so.

I chatted with certified mind mapping consultant, Dragana Djurasic of Radiant Minds, and she told me there’s additional benefit when you physically write/draw your mind map, because it engages different areas of your brain. I believe that, it always works better for me that way.

But once you’re done, it would be awfully handy to have an electronic format, wouldn’t it?

Enter MindJet, a handy little tool I was introduced to today. I was able to capture all of my brainstormed thoughts, create a PDF of the document, add some notes, and share it with my colleague. Not only did it work like a charm, it looks top notch professional, too. Delicious.

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 By liz gaige, May 14, 2009 · Filed under Creativity, Marketing - General, Strategic Planning