Archive for February, 2009

in a recent post, i featured the “elevator gig” skit from the flight of the conchords hbo comedy series as an example of how NOT to promote your band or business. in this video, a best of murray hewitt collection, our lovable screw-up (a.k.a. band manager and promoter) ruminates on best practices for a meeting, how to be more professional, how to create the right image for your business, and much, MUCH more! i figure this is perfect fodder for a friday (enjoy).

i’m always surprised by just how many bad biographies are out there. part of me knows that this is because of how difficult a process it is – probing, uncomfortable for many and based on honesty and objectivity. when you’re presenting a biography, you don’t want to choose other forms of writing as your model – ie. a resume, timeline, profile, or letter. you want to create something resembling a chapter in a play. you want to take the reader to a specific moment in time and describe in meaningful language what is going on there. a biography is an important publicity tool, so i’m offering seven valuable tips that you can’t overlook when pursuing one for your print or online kits. if you find yourself lost during this, please call me at 202 494 4326 (i can help for $225 to $450) or get started with me.

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“do not travel far to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.”
– doggen

“the closer you stand to the lighthouse, the darker it gets.”
– japanese proverb

“of all strategies, to know when to quit may be the best.”
– chinese proverb

“where beauty is, there is ugliness; where right is, there is wrong; knowledge and ignorance are interdependent; delusion and enlightenment condition each other.”
– ryokan

for five years in the late 90s and into the early 2000s, i was partner in a washington dc firm called zinc. we targeted branding work. zinc was regularly selected over larger, more established firms. why you ask? because i insisted that we specialize in logo design. i developed innovative services that laid the foundation for better logos – influence point analysis (ipa) and brand development scripting (bds). it didn’t hurt that i went to school for drawing and only hired designers who were experts illustrators and understood communications.

over the 15-year arc of my career, i’ve completed nearly 100 premium designs. i’ve partnered with sole proprietor start-ups, non-profits like counterpart, center for community change and habitat for humanity, mid-size companies like bovis lendlease and digitek, and large corporations like pfizer and mitsubishi. while each market has distinct challenges, the basic principles of sound marketing, branding and communications are shared by all.

whether you’re starting a business and this is your first logo, or you’re rebranding an exisiting business, please don’t start the clock ticking without arming yourself with my “8 paths to a stronger logo” tip sheet. if you’d like me to create your logo, then lets’s get started.

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