Posts filed under ‘Our work’
Generic Brand Names
Many words we all use in basic conversation were once or are still a trademarked brand name of one company or another. Sharpie, post-it, wite-out, band-aid—all of these are nouns that we use to refer any number of items: permanent markers, adhesive note paper, correction fluid, and self-adhesive bandage.
Of course if you go onto a web site or read a brochure from a competing company who produces one of these products under a different name you will see the generic name and not the brand name of the other company. Avery uses the term “permanent marker” for their line of Marks-A-Lot® indelible markers, but of course if you asked someone to hand you a sharpie and they gave you a Marks-A-Lot® marker you probably wouldn’t say “no, I wanted a Sharpie® brand marker.” (more…)
Add comment February 26, 2013
An Idea Leads to A Change
Each morning, before I go to work, I take an hour and ride my spinning bike. I love this early morning exercise time—it is an hour of the day when my mind clears and I have no interruptions or distractions, and creative thoughts flow freely.
The other day I began to think about some work things: how to energize our blog posts, how to utilize our letterpress, how to present new design to our clients, old technology, new technology—sounds random but that’s how my mind sometimes works. Anyway, I came up with an idea that I’m really excited about, and here it is. (more…)
Add comment January 15, 2013
The Power of the Infographic
In my last post, I talked about the idea of C2CB presentation tools. For those who ask “what is C2CB” and don’t want to take the time to do a little hunting, I’ll fill you in.
Client to Client’s Boss communication. Internal selling of ideas to other team members. If you didn’t read it, it’s a good one, check it out. If you did, you know what I’m talking about.
The first project I’d like to share is an infographic that was actually used to convince our client of an idea, which she passed through to her team for buy off.
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1 comment December 18, 2012
Presentation Tools for the C2CB Audience
Here at HB Design, we spend most days strategizing, concepting, designing and implementing amazing solutions for our clients. Most of our solutions target B2B, B2C or even internal client audiences, but there is one other area where our expertise can really make a difference: C2C communications. That’s client to client. Or maybe I should call it C2CB (client to client’s boss). Whatever the name, we find that our clients need excellent presentation tools to communicate ideas internally, to help them sell ideas to their boss or bosses’ boss before moving to the next step. We’ve helped our clients sell quite a few great ideas this way.
Intra-client presentation is a very important but often overlooked part of the whole design process. We obviously need to communicate our ideas to our clients clearly, but often, they need to sell our ideas internally. And that internal sell can be difficult. Our clients often need to sell to an audience that may not understand marketing and design. They usually have very little time. And often we aren’t at the presentation, so they are getting the information second hand. The old telephone game. That’s a lot for our clients to overcome.
With good internal presentation tools, clients understand our intentions and then have the means to pass that understanding through to their team. It’s an often overlooked, but very important, part of the design process. (more…)
1 comment August 20, 2012
What is a design system?
Often in our work we are asked for things that sound simple, but in fact aren’t.
(Or would be simple, but wouldn’t be a truly good solution.) And many of those challenges relate to design systems, and whether or not the client has one, or even thinks they need one.
A solid design system gives you the visual building blocks needed for building your messaging and brand with consistent identity and tone.
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2 comments March 16, 2012
Stay With It
HB Design recently designed the identity system and marketing materials for a national pilot program that targets engineering students.
STAY WITH IT was developed alongside the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to interest, engage, and motivate engineering students to stay in college, obtain their degree, and use the vast network provided by this program.
(more…)
Add comment February 20, 2012
