Adobe vs Adude

A while back I stumbled across the observation this simple letter change: Adude. And what with CS4 being so similar to C4S (CAS)… I probably had been up too long.

Radiation marketing

The clever chap behind Now In Colour (Andy Whitlock) has come up with a very nice analogy about marketing and it’s similarity with the principles of heat transfer, that is well worth a proper read. It starts like this:

Conduction. The transfer of heat by direct contact
In marketing, this describes direct contact with the product or service. If people can try it, hold it, use it, smell it etc its value is transferred with absolute immediacy. This is often the smartest and most direct way to communicate the value of your product. But of course it’s not always possible.

Radiation
. Radiation is the transfer of heat energy through empty space

In marketing, radiation is traditional advertising and message-based marketing. These communications broadcast information (emotional and functional) about the value of the product and are far-reaching. They are beamed at us despite the ‘distance’ we might think is between us and the product in question.

Convection.
 The movement of molecules within fluids
This, if you’ll allow me to leap (naked and care-free) back across to marketing, relates to the flowing currents of social interaction that transfer information about the value of your product. Social excitement is akin to the heating up of molecules as heat (value) meets cold (absence of said value). I.e. All that social media jazz.

Pop on over and read it for yourself.

Logorama

I had an idea over Christmas, while I was in Hokitika, that I’d like to see all the shop signs, road signs, menus and all the ephemera in a small provincial town completely overhauled by a group of designers. Rather than an obvious uniform “helvetica” solution could they create a uniform (as in ‘of and area’, but still local and individual feel to a place without it being soulless? The whole thing could be carried out virtually in some kind of StreetView mashup (but as it happens Gogle couldn’t even be bothered to go there). The kerning on the main drag, Weld Street was horrific, despite being routed out of wood. With all that effort it would’ve been nice to get it right. And many of the shop fronts seems to be hereditary. I am not advocating the removal of history, I was just wondering if a collective of designers, with a proper strategy, could create something “better”. After all proper kerning is for everyone.