Insta-logos: the trail of Instagram copycat logos

You may hate or love Instagram's new logo — there's definitely enough commentary out there from every level of expertise imaginable — or you might not care about it at all. While there is much debate as to whether it is a great, modern logo or a total design fail, one thing is for certain: Instagram is so big that it really doesn't matter. No one is going to stop using Instagram because they hate the garish, childish icon. Conversely, I doubt Instagram is picking up any new users who fell in love with the simplistic, flat, colorful bauble.

Instagram is a giant owned by the landlord of the entire land of giants, Facebook. No matter what the logo looks like, the app is already an indispensable tool for the masses. This kind of power is inevitably trend-setting and creates followers who jump on board hoping it will gain them some of the riches that flow in the wake. While imitation is a form of flattery, I say it's just unoriginal. Photo Collage Editor and Life360 followed Instagram's unveil with copycat logos. Even if they are all under the same corporate umbrella (which as far as I see, they are separate companies) they are still completely different brands.

I've spotted these "flattering imitations" because I use the apps... maybe there are more out there. Have you seen any? Post in the comments if you have!

A lesser-known founding [fonting] father

Mr. Caslon's first name isn't Adobe. It's William and he is, essentially, one of our founding fathers. Though I'm speaking for those of us in the graphic design community and not of the rest of the United States per say, William Caslon did end up influencing the image of that famous document to which we owe our freedom today.

During the last days of June 1776, the men we know as our founding fathers (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and the rest) wrote, re-wrote and revised a document that finally became known as our official Declaration of Independence on the morning of July 4th. Later that day, Congress ordered the first printed text of the Declaration. This printed version (referred to as the "Dunlap Broadside") was set primarily in Caslon typefaces. 

William Caslon (1692-1766) created what is cited as the first original typeface of English origin. Today there are many revivals and variations of the Caslon typefaces, all of which are solid standards for designers and printers to turn to for printed communication. Personally, I find nothing better for body copy and many design choices, as exemplified in all of my Little Black Mask marketing materials being set in Adobe Caslon Pro. 

So on this 4th of July I not only honor our countries' founding fathers — who I thank for their incomparable bravery, genius, perseverace, sacrifice and vision — but I also tip my hat to William Caslon, an engraver, a craftsman, designer and artist who helped shape the way we see the printed word today.

Trendspotting: retro-ish logo fonts

How much do you believe in coincidence?  The following logos have recently cropped up independently of each other:

These companies are not connected by ownership, so it's just a total "coincidence" that they are retro script words. They are similar though — all three are photo/video sharing sites, each with a twist of their own. To be fair, the above Instagram logo is not their latest. They have since redesigned their logo. It's Soooo different now, see:

Of these three, I'd say the Instagram one has the least longevity. Somehow they went backward into future of the 90's with the redesign. It's not as clean and mod as the first and it's not far back enough to be cool. At least the other two have customized to indicate their product — Pinterest with the pinpoint on the P and Vine being one connected vine. 

I don't know exactly what it is that causes creative industries seem to come up with multiples of one theme at the same time,  but I wouldn't call it coincidence.

I confess: I do not know the 5 secrets to instant entrepreneurial profit and eternal success…

… and neither do they. 

There aren't 7 SEO techniques you can implement in your website to ensure you 10 new customers every 30 days. There are not 3 lessons you can learn from General Patton that will guarantee you will exude leadership skills that inspire your employees to sell for you in their sleep. Google+ will not make your business the next Google, and neither will Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. There is not one white paper you can download that will change your life as soon as you read it.

I have a very short romance cycle with buzzwords. About the same amount of time a pear is good. The first time I hear one, I don't know it's a buzzword yet. It's still a word that sounds really smart because a small group of people use it in a specific way. For a little while, I feel cool if I know one before everyone else does. I seem really smart and on-trend if I use it while describing something to a client. But that's it. That is the peak after which the buzzword gets more popular and starts being compulsively spewed out of the mouths of the masses. At that point, it's lost its value to me and becomes merely another common word. It's over.

For some reason the rest of the world doesn't realize this.. Instead, for years, if anyone just says one of these buzzwords, they are looked upon as an expert. It doesn't even have to be used in a sentence! They don't even have to know what it means or where it came from! It just has to be uttered. While the majority of the population is being wowed by these experts, I'm itching all over from the merciless assault of buzzword overuse out there. Make it stop!

In the past 24 hours these headlines came straight to my inbox/feed/stream:

•  5 ways to succeed as a startup in an industry awash with competitors
• The 1 Question That Inspires Innovation
• 4 ways to harness the power of co-creativity
• 5 Ways The Kardashian Family Built A $65 Million Brand
• How to manage a team of robot workers
• PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, on the 5 C's of leadership
• 3 ways for CEOs to avoid overconfidence
• The best apps for building a business
• 6 Google+ Myths Debunked
• 25 Questions To Ask Before You Outsource HR
• Five Things Hollywood Teaches us About Product Design
• 4 social media case studies from the tourism industry
• 5 key questions to ask about your social campaigns
• 6 Creative iPad Uses For Small Retailers
• Top 5 Legal Issues Of A New Company
• 100 Websites You Should Know and Use

I know, I know, you're wanting the link to a couple of these because they just might contain THE answer. Well I'm not providing them. These headlines are just to illustrate the weight of the world that is on my shoulders. Realize that the reason all of these came to me is because I actually subscribe to the sources. They really do have something smart to say, even if it isn't going to change my life. I have to keep up with trends and technology because it's what I do for a living. Besides, some of these articles might have the next buzzword in them, before it becomes an overused and sales-pitch-ish.

I confess: I hate false [eyelash] advertising

In the world of makeup, beauty (on the surface) trumps reality. Makeup's number one mission is to decorate. Why be plain? With makeup we can accentuate the best in ourselves and cover up the worst. Like fashion and hair, it's an accessory – an accent – to our image. It allows us to look different with different moods and events, too. Who wants to look exactly the same all the time? That's all fine as long as there is some kind of integrity to the image we make of ourselves. Unfortunately, there is a point when makeup crosses over from being decoration to being disguise. Why don't we see beauty in our natural selves? Because of advertising.

Yes, advertising – that insidious, brainwashing, sales pitchy, repetitive, starburstish, spammy, manipulative, interrupt-your-entertainment, get-in-front-of-you-hundreds-of-times-a-day industry that I am in. Of course, it doesn't have to be that bad. There is a manipulative and brainwashing power behind advertising and design strategy, but if used for good, well, it's all good. That's why it's so important to self-regulate. Advertisers have big a responsibility to be honest.

My latest pet peeve is mascara ads. What the hell are they thinking? What the hell are the consumers thinking if they believe a little bottle of mascara is going to give them eyelashes like this? How are we supposed to choose mascara based on that misinformation?

Dishonest advertising is more than just a con to get your money… it can be damaging to the health, wealth and happiness of society. When people begin to identify more with the ads they see than they do their own reality, self esteem plummets and their wallets empty out. When people begin to want what they see in ads more than what they have in real life, their life becomes one big failure in search of the unattainable.

Three cheers to the U.K. for cracking down on L'Oreal and Maybelline for running these misleadingly-airbrushed ads of Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington (read more here).  It's a giant slippery slope that starts with something simple like covering a blemish. Who doesn't want to smooth out their skin a bit? Heck, if I could Photoshop myself every morning, I would!


The answer lies not so much in refraining from using makeup as it does in creating only honest advertising. Decorate but don't lie. Emphasize but don't lie. Communicate the strengths and leave out the weaknesses, but don't lie. I'm all about honest propaganda for a good cause!

I confess: I have better taste than you

No, not YOU! You have great taste! You're reading my blog! Don't be silly.

I'm speaking to those other people, the ones who smell like Old Spice. The ones who can't discriminate between a great story and its shallow, more expensive sequel. Yeah you guys. (No, not YOU dear blog reader. You know who I mean by now, right?).

Yes, I have better taste than you. I like independent, cerebrally thrilling and ironically funny movies. The movies you like will never become cult classics and you don't even know why that sucks. I like design where form follows function and melts your soul with beauty. You think the name of your company is a headline and and that nothing stands out if it's not bolded, in quotes or in a starburst. You don't even know that quotation marks aren't "attention-getters."

It's not just me that has better taste than you, the reader of this blog has better taste than you, too. Lots of people do! Alas, there are more of you than us, which is why mainstream stuff, by definition, isn't very deep. It has to please the masses and go with the flow. For the most part. Thank God, once in a while someone breaks out of that mainstream mold.

For example and more evidence of my fabulous taste, I love the Old Spice campaign starring Isaiah Mustafa. He is stunning to behold and plays the role perfectly. Hilarious concept, great filming, groundbreakingly communicative and social, that campaign actually got me to almost buy some Old Spice for my son. Almost. Until I smelled it. Oh well. Still, I'm a huge fan of the ads now and their sales have gone way up because of people like you, which is cool for them. 

Maybe it had run its course already. Maybe Weiden + Kennedy hadn't thought past the year's brilliant campaign. Maybe people like you were disappointed that they didn't get chicks any easier while wearing Old Spice. 

I don't know the reasoning, but Fabio happened.

I finally clicked the "New Old Spice Guy Fabio" ad tonight because it's stalking me. They've spared no expense with the Facebook ads, apparently. I was hesitant because I'm neutral at best in my opinion of Fabio. He doesn't do it for me but I thought maybe they could really dig into the cheese factor. So I watched some of the commercials. They're like a bad mix of Sprockets and Hans and Fronz skits on Saturday Night Live. Are you kidding me? *Sigh. They sort of, brought the concept of Isaiah's ads along but Fabio can't carry it. He's dropping it left and right. Choppy. Confusing. Cheap. What is happening in this one??:

I wish everyone out there had great taste like me and you (yes, YOU this time!!) – then we wouldn't have to waste our time on sub-par stuff unless being sub-par made it cool.

3 examples of excellence in social media + advertising

In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. ~Andy Warhol

Do you think social media is cutting-edge? Think it hasn't gone mainstream yet? Think again. Three brands that are making positively brilliant use of social media in their advertising strategies happen to be three of the most white-bread, mainstream, non-exciting brands ever. These brands might make you think of childhood in middle-class middle-America, but they wouldn't make you think of cutting-edge social media campaigns, would they? Think again, again.

The beauty of social media is the conversation. Twitter turned five last week. Five years ago, there was no way these middle-weight giants would be taking consumers' chatter and turning it into national commercials AND publicly mentioning these consumers by name. These middle-of-the-road brands are playing the game perfectly and running a great race. Most importantly, it's real. 

Take a look at some of these commercials, and then go tweet something about your favorite brands. You never know, you might get your 15 minutes of fame thanks to a Twitter mention via a television commercial that plays on YouTube and goes viral internationally. It could happen. 

Wheat Thins. Surprising tweeters in their real life, bringing the brand to them.

Agency: The Escape Pod

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Making a commercial out of a tweet, as artfully as possible with a lightning-fast turnaround.

Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Old Spice. Holding conversation with real tweeters with "The Old Spice Guy's" surreal machismo.

Agency: Weiden + Kennedy

and the winner is ...

Last week, I won seven ADDY® Awards, Best of Show and the AAF Silver Medal Award. In the wake of these wins, all of the ADDY Galas happening around the country and the Oscars, I explore: what do awards really mean, anyway? To hear many say, they don't mean a thing.

Awards are meaningless to me, and I have nothing but disdain for anyone who actively campaigns to get one. 

~Bill Murray 

Awards are only a publicity gimmick. 

Tony Randall 

Awards are so unnecessary, because I think we get so much out of our work just by doing it. The work is a reward in itself. 

~Natalie Portman

On one hand, they are totally right. After all, the work itself is satisfying. Hopefully we all have a better motive to do good work than awards. Hopefully we're saving the world one project at a time and loving the process. 

On the other seventeen hands, however, they are wrong. For entertainers, artists and designers, what we do has to be well-received or it doesn't work. Awards highlight work that works. I don't mean people's choice awards, like American Idol, I mean awards that are judged by experts. These judges have the privilege of honoring and celebrating great work. In doing this, it encourages more great work to be produced year after year. They give deserved recognition to many who are often underpaid and unsung.

“This award is meaningful because it comes from my fellow dealers in celluloid.” 

~Alfred Hitchcock 

There's more. Awards help validate a smart and talented artist's position, thereby educating clients. All too often, businesses hire creatives to do their design work but don't trust them enough to let go of the reigns. They often dictate unreasonable parameters, then make choices based on their personal taste or untrained opinion. One of the biggest challenges to creating solid, effective work can be the clients themselves. Awards can also help to get more clients, too, by increasing the credibility and visibility of the recipient.

Awards sell tickets, and they're a clever publicity stunt. 

~Tony Randall 

It's easy to say that awards don't mean anything, but if you work your ass off and are rewarded with an award, you can't honestly tell me you aren't thrilled to get it. Natalie Portman's quote above doesn't foreshadow her tearful and joyous reaction to winning the Best Actress Oscar this year.

"This is insane. I truly, sincerely wish the prize tonight was to work with my fellow nominees. I am in such awe of you."

~Natalie Portman

What I feel most for my wins this year is validated. I am especially proud that the Best of Show award was for an inexpensive yet highly conceptual, one-color piece. It demonstrates that a great concept doesn't need a giant production budget to succeed. In a town like Ocala, that's valuable because it means small businesses can have stellar creative, too.

“To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.” 

~George W. Bush

#Fail #Learn #Succeed

I started 2011 out with a self-imposed assignment to blog every day. I had been pretty irregular with my own blogging, which completely goes against my own advice. I figured if I blogged every single day for a year, the habit would become well-formed and I could then back down to once or twice a week without even breaking a sweat. To the people who said, "How will you ever do it? You don't have that much time, Jessi," I answered that I would be able to post quickies some days. I wouldn't have to take time for every single post, thoughtfully writing insights and creating original illustrations. 

I made note of my analytics before I began so that I could track my progress, weighing-in my blogging muscles periodically. On average, during the month of January, my blog visits doubled. Comments began to appear where there had been none. Daily blogging was definitely boosting buzz. 

There was just one problem, though. I wasn't actually doing it every day. Right from the starting line, I had trouble with it. I hadn't done work ahead of time and created a lot of posts - I wanted to do it as honestly and real-time as possible. Some days it was no problem, but other days found me wrapped up in life and work more than allowed for the hour or two it sometimes took to blog. I missed days. My Klout score actually went up and down, reflecting this. 

The main flaw in my thinking lied with the "quickie" posts. When it came right to it, I couldn't do it. A quick sentence or two or three seemed no different than a tweet to me. Why would I waste a good blog page and readers' valuable time on a quick albeit insightful post? Why make someone click a link just to read what could be said in a status or a tweet? It didn't sit right with me, so I never did it. 

For a while I thought I would catch up but before I knew it, I wasn't just skipping a day here and there. The idea that I was behind stopped me from posting out-of-time, creating a growing snowball of white blog space.

It's February 19 and my experiment is failing so I'm stopping it before it becomes #epicfailure. I'm not about to wait until December to admit that I'm not going to blog every day in 2011. It's not worth my time and it's not worth my readers' time. So, I'm going back to thoughtful posts without quickies, but with a strategy change. This time I am going to be my own client. Once a week, more if something timely happens that needs commentary, my blogs will consistently appear. Oh, and I've added an email subscription button, to make life even easier for you, dear reader.

Now, go fail at something. It's fun!

Advertising is Alive and Wall in Knoxville • 22/365 •

I had the privilege of judging both the Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN ADDY competitions this past weekend. It was a long and tough judging weekend because there was a lot of good work. Here in Florida (AAF District 4), ADDY entries have been down, reflecting the economy in general. Up there in AAF District 7, though, they are up! I was encouraged to see that, as well as inspired by the work I saw. I'll be happy to share about some of the highlights once the official announcements are made. In the meantime, there was another observation about advertising that I made. The art of "wall advertising" - which I rarely see where I roam - is alive and well in historic Knoxville. Many old signs and murals are still there, and some of the newer ones look like the old ones, only fresher. A sign is more than just a locator, it's an ad. I almost wonder what the city looked like back then. Sort of like Tokyo without the lights?

I had a couple of hours before my flight on Sunday morning, so I took a wall-advertising-photo-tour. Here are some highlights:

Internet didn't kill the video star, it made video a star • 17/365 •

Evolution is here. Advertising as we once knew it is dead and we are now at the point where even the old school mad men are hip to the new ways. Two-way conversations are in, one-way ads are out. While print is suffering in this time of change, video is blossoming! Traditional broadcast might be in trouble, but video is king of the world on the internet! 

No longer do you have to try to explain something on a page. You're not limited to type and photographs, illustrations and paper. Print's boundaries are gone, and so are even the boundaries of one-way TV commercials. Need to say more than a brochure or business card can? Website. Need to say even more without having people read for an hour? Video on your website. Need to draw people in? INTERACTIVE video on your website. Fantastic!


Enjoy one of my favorite examples of interactive video advertising:

When did kids start buying auto insurance? • 16/365 •

Did I miss where kids started buying auto insurance plans? Are they whining and asking their parents to go with the "cool" insurance agency? Just how much say do children have in the insurance buying process? None that I know of. Auto insurance is a serious business, pretty boring and mandated by law. I asked my kids which company they preferred once, and I actually got an answer. They had definite opinions. Isn't it remarkable that they even know the names of insurance companies? It's the advertising. It seems to target children and teenagers more than adults. It entertains more than it informs. Personally, I find it impossible to make a buying decision based on the advertising, fun as it is.

Have fun with these commercials from three of the top auto insurance companies. I'm waiting for them to come out with the "auto insurance happy meal deal" where they give a free toy with every purchase, and maybe a lollypop or a sticker just for getting a quote. Just don't make the free toy something distracting to Mom or Dad while they're driving, okay insurance peeps?

"Cool Infographic" is not an oxymoron • 10/365 •

"You might be a geek if ... " 

"...If you get excited when new infographics come out."

"...If you really wonder what Yoda would say about it."

I don't know how I ended up talking about analytics and infographics. I especially don't know how I ended up liking them! Alas, what could be more interesting to an analytical, visually creative person, than to breathe life into mountains of dry data by giving it color, form, even motion?

Infographics are da bomb. I'm going to start making some. Next week, maybe. For now, here are two of my favorite sources ... just in case you wanted to get smart and look at coolness at the same time:

Good Magazine

Since issue one, they have featured "Transparency," where not only do they shed light on important topics, make them digestible eye-candy, but they invite a guest designer to create them every month. Sigh. I love you, Good Magazine.

Fast CoDesign

Just like Fast Company, Fast CoDesign never fails to be entertaining, informative and hip. If loving them is wrong then I don't want to be right.

On a final cautionary note, as with everything in our universe, there is a dark side to infographics as well. Please don't believe everything you see/hear/read. Consider the source. A lesson can be learned from this one Sarah Palin's "target map" infographic removed from her site right after the tragedy in Arizona today. 

Yuck. Bad timing. What would Yoda say?