Most people like to think they live their lives and determine their reality based on their logic and reason. But in reality, most decisions are based on our emotions. We justify our purchases with logic but we buy on emotions. And the emotions that we buy on, are about either avoiding pain or gaining pleasure. Be careful what “buying decisions” your emotions prod you to make.
How this works?
If we see this is not a complex theory, it is how our brain works. for example when I say the word “dog” if you’re like most people you have a picture of a dog in your mind. Your picture might be your dog when you were a child, your neighbor's barking dog, your ex-girlfriend's dog, or perhaps Scooby-Doo, Whatever the case, you had a picture in your mind and that’s because we translate words into pictures.
Next in the process come feelings. Your "dog" picture might generate certain feelings for you. Perhaps you had memories of your childhood, you remember you haven't heard your neighbor's dog for a while or remember you saw your ex the last week in a coffee shop and so on, those thoughts turned into a picture which led to some feelings for you.
If some of these feelings are strong we'll go ahead to take action, maybe you felt some nostalgic and call your parents, you ask to your neighbor about his dog or you just have the crazy idea to call your ex. It is important to mention we are not talking about thoughts, we are talking about feelings, thoughts stay in your head, but feelings lead you to take action.
How to apply this concept to your marketing strategy?
Some people think emotions has no place in a marketing strategy, maybe they are right if we were talking about manuals and employee handbooks, but keep them out of your sales and marketing department. The big mistake in marketing is being boring. The world is full of advertisements. If your message is boring, you don’t have a chance.
Think something exciting about your product, but be careful, your message doesn’t need to sound like late night television to provoke emotion, it is important to get a clear idea about your niche, keep in mind aspect such as gender, age, locations, language and so on, then find common aspects between them, what they love, and what they hate, what keeps them awake at nights. You’ve got to know what aspects of their life they’re emotional about. Here is where social media starts getting importance in your business, social media is more than likes and comments, this is a priceless source and you have access to this data anytime you want.
3 ways good design makes you happy
This is an amazing video about how we all make all of our decisions based on emotions, not logic, it could help you to get a solid idea about this topic and bring some inspiration to start an effective marketing strategy right away. Here Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.
This has been one of the more complex projects I has worked as a designer. It is more than creating a new logo, the client has hired me to create a new and fresh image for a brand with over 18 years of recognition. The Secret language is the name of the famous book series trilogy. Visit the website
The Secret Language of Birthdays: Translated into 15 languages, more than 1,000,000 hardcover copies have been sold after 34 printings. Per the author: "By the way, out of over 2 million people who own my books, they find them 80 to 85 percent accurate." This translates to there being a 15 to 20 per cent of error/inaccuracy in the information/personology in this book. The result of years of observations of more than 20,000 people, including contemporary and historical figures. His extension of Henry Murray's concept of Personology posits that people born on the same day share certain traits.
The Secret Language of Relationships: More than 350,000 hardcover copies have been sold. This book presents 1,176 relationship profiles between any two individuals based on the week they were born. In each profile, six relationship realms are discussed: love, marriage, friendship, work, parent-child, and sibling.
The Secret Language of Destiny: More than 150,000 hardcover copies have been sold The third book in the Secret Language trilogy seeks to answer the question, Why am I here?. Based on an individuals complete date of birth, the book reveals what each person came into this life to achieve, what lesson is to be learned, and what goal is to be embraced.
BRIEF
The client was really specific about the logo requirements:
The logo will adorn all of our network websites to provide a continuity between them (since they will be designed quite differently from each other) and also to our 90,000+ products for sale online (www.cafepress.com/mypersonology)
We like your logo which is why we hired you. It is Authentic, Timeless, Intelligent, Trustworthy and Insightful
We want Black on White with a touch of Bright Red. We want to avoid color as much as possible since it undermines the qualities of Authenticity, Timelessness and Trustworthiness. We like Black on White since it respresents our printed material and Bright Red because as a warm and powerful hue it evokes passion, love and it warns of danger and is the color of life.
The iconic sun illustration on the book covers is a powerful reminder of our brand - perhaps the only existing brand identity other than the size and heft of the books themselves. We would love a version of that Sun that could accompany the name "The Secret Language" which could also be recognizable with no text included, just the Sun device itself.
BRAINSTORMING
The first problem to solve is: How can I support the 20.000 people study? It is a real number and not a random number typed on a website.
The answer is easy. There are three heavy volumes full of knowledge, these are not handbooks or PDF documents recompiled from the internet, and one of the most important aspects, they have been around for over 18 years, even before The Secret. Based on this information, I think the books are an important element to keep in mind, this could be a solid base to support the brand with expertise and knowledge.
Another important aspect of the brand is the book layout concept. It is classic, beautiful and timeless. This in part is attributed to the font used - a classic Sans Serif typeface which is always elegant and current... and easy to read. In fact it could be the perfect typography to transmit the same attributes in the new logo.
Since the purpose of the brand is to be recognized in the market as unique in image and methodology, we must be careful to avoid focusing the logo concept in the word "Secret" for obvious reasons. I"m not saying it shouldn't include it in the logo, but I must be careful and avoid its use in the main symbol.
In conclusion, I have focused my brainstorming in three important areas to create the new brand logo.
1. The book is a solid base to support the brand with expertise and knowledge.
2. The sun is the symbol that has been the brand representation for over 18 years and it must be included in the new logo.
3. Sans Serif font could be the perfect typography to achieve a classic, beautiful and timeless look.
LOGO CONCEPTUALIZATION
The process to achieve a simple, solid and timeless logo involves several pages of sketches and notes, but I will try to explain the creative process in the simplest possible way. My challenge was to create a concept that combines these three fundamental elements mentioned above - book, sun and a Sans Serif Typography. Personally, I thought it was crazy to try to create a professional concept combining a sun and a book. Well, that is my problem to solve and that is the expertise the client is paying for.
After some brainstorming, sketching and research, I found the perfect solution to combine the book with the "L" letter, used for "Language". If we see this as an open book which is just perfect knowledge, it starts to make sense.
Now I have to find the way to incorporate the sun. As always, I must keep it simple. After a couple of days of test and sketching, I found the perfect solution - so unique that it is hard to think there is a better alternative. If we see the sunlight as a book pages, we have captured my idea to represent the "L" as a open book and also have incorporated the sun.
Rendering
And the final result is an open book lighting up.
A source of knowledge that will become the guide for a lot of people in their lives
Big mistake to avoid if you want to get traffic to your website and increase your sales:
Almost every business owner makes the same mistake. They build a website to be used like a brochure, just to give information about their products or services…BIG mistake if you want to get targeted traffic to your website.
Why? People aren’t looking for marketing brochures, prospects and clients are looking for tips and ideas before buy products or hire your services, we spend hours in google and Facebook looking for answers , if you give those answers you will increase your website traffic and sells, a website created like a brochure is just for clients that are ready to buy and it hardly will help you to reach new prospects.
The solution
A BLOG style is the solution these days, informational and educational websites get up to 500% more response than basic BROCHURE style websites, if you understand this basic online marketing concept – you can double the response you get from your website, attracting more prospects and increase your sales dramatically.Why Facebook and Twitter are so popular? Everyone wants to read stories, what is happening in Los Angeles, find out fun facts, and get answers.
This is my advice: By giving people the information they are looking for, you can increase your website traffic and sales. Enjoy!
If you want to get your phone ringing and increase your sales the solution is simple. Don’t try to reach everyone, this is a huge marketing mistake, again… don’t try to reach everyone, it is important to find your ideal client, try to be specific at this point, keep in mind facts such as area, gender, age, income, etc. After your niche is identified it would be easier for you to create the right content to attract the attention. For example, I like sports cars and I’m thinking to replace my car by the end of this year and for sure there are thousands of people like me in this city, if you are a dealership owner in Los Angeles and you have sports cars in your inventory, you just have to create the right content to get the attention of “people who like sports cars in Los Angeles”.
How to implement this strategy to your website?
Now that you know and efficient way to get new prospects and clients attention, you should start implementing this information into your website, keep it clear and easy to read, full of compelling headlines, great stories, and fact-filled content. News-style websites has been proven to get 500% more responses than complex layouts, that’s why when print was in style, editorials worked so well…because they were advertising sections that actually had a bit of content, too.
To get a response, first you need to attract readers. So try this simple tactic to increase your response rate by 500%, I have created this post Just to get in touch with you and more people interested in increase their products or services sells using their website, this is more efficient than an Advertisement promoting my website design services, if you are reading at this point is because I have fulfilled my purpose and your website could be one of my next projects
Creative logo design for a new sportswear brand:
This is the second time that I have the complex task to design a logo for a clothing company, in this case this will be a new sportswear brand called Beat the Sweat, beyond than a nice logo, my idea is to design a professional concept that could be easily compared with famous brands in the same field. Is for that reason that I have started the design process doing a research based on great logos such as Nike, Adidas, Oakley, etc.
Research
After some time browsing sportswear brands, I have concluded that most than a regular logo, I must focus my creativity in creating an element that Identifies the brand, even without the name, for example, Adidas is recognized by three stripes; Puma is recognized by a Puma Jumping, Oakley is recognized by a thick vocal “O” and so on, additionally since the logo will be applied over different colors and materials, it won’t be necessary to work a specific color palette to achieve a solid brand recognition, basically I’ll be focused in creating a unique and memorable shape.
If we analyze the samples underneath, these brands have created its identity using simple and solid shapes, specially arch and stripes and the most important aspect is that all of them are communicating movement in a graphic way.
Logo Conceptualization
After some brainstorming my idea was to design a balanced and symmetric concept and at the same time try to maintain a connection with the brand name “Beat the Sweat” after some sketching, I noticed that the initials BS could be simplified to find common aspect between them, I have tried to explain the process in the graphic underneath, if we see the negative space (pink areas) in both letters is very similar, the only difference is the top right shape, it is pointing to the left while the three others are pointing right, but not big deal, we still have a balanced concept.
Rendering
Now that I have a clear idea about the concept, it is time to experiment with different alternatives and shapes basically I tried to represent the brand initials BS, using the same shape duplicated four times and pointing to the same direction except the top right.
Typography choice
After the brand symbol was created I have started an additional exploration to select the right font to represent the brand name.
Logo Construction
After some days creating different shapes and doing some typographic exploration, I have created the perfect shape to represent the brand, here you can see a detailed construction process to make sure that the shape is perfect in proportion and balance and at the same time this could be a great guide to recreate the logo in case that it needs to be reconstructed in the future.
American Airlines new logo. Thumbs up or down?:
This morning one of the biggest Airlines has woke up the world with a new logo, this is the first rebranding since 1968. The new look is meant to make the outside of American’s planes “reflect the progress we’ve made on the inside,” said CEO Tom Horton in a video announcement. The look is meant to be light, vibrant and modern, he said.
Personally I think the creative team did an excellent job, if we remember the previous logo, it was part of one of the most iconic identities in the aviation industry around the world, if we compare both elements we can see they have abstracted the concept, it contains the eagle, the star, the “A,” and refreshed shades of red, white and blue, giving to the brand a modern and fresh look.
Behind the Scenes – Creating American Airlines New Look, Logo and Livery
