Design Study
Spotify changed their icons recently (a). Immediately, I thought of Adobe’s CS Suite (b and c). Adobe for many years has used icons similar to Spotify’s. And Adobe probably got their inspiration from Pantone (d). Spotify didn’t go far enough. I would propose version (e). Notice how the category name stands out more. Notice how […]
Plan Ahead
Optimism in business is not always the best basis to make plans. A local supermarket decided to put in a coffee shop within their store. They made a partnership with Tully’s, a coffee company based in Vermont. The coffee was fine. However, the location was not. Another very similar coffee shop opened in the same […]
A Simple Twitter Tip
Avoid tweeting truths that people already know. I tweeted here about that kind of tweet: Sometimes I get tired of tweets like, "Be a good person and your future will be better." — Paul Merrill (@paulmerrill) June 28, 2012
Break Rules for a Reason
Mitt Romney wrote me a letter. He wanted money. I’m not a fan of Mitt, nor am I a fan of Barack. I’m just glad that we have a choice. But that’s not the purpose of this post. Mitt’s writers decided to put the date at the top of the letter like this: “Wednesday Morning”. […]
Wasted Advertising Money
Sometimes I’m just amazed at how a company will waste their promotional budget. TK Asian Antiquities is a dealer of ancient Asian art. They paid for a twenty-page ad in the June 11, 2012 issue of Fortune magazine. Whatever they spent was too much. Four pages of the best content from that ad would have […]
Facebook vs. Twitter
Which social media platform for your business? These days, I’m recommending Facebook. The image you see is a poll taken by Details magazine (June/July 2012), tracking which of their readers tweeted about or liked a particular city in response to an article. Facebook had nearly ten times the responses than Twitter. Admittedly, Details readers may […]