Okay, I know that I posted something on Facebook the other day about doing a NCAA tournament-style bracket deciding the games based on the teams’ logos. I actually spent a little time on it and, once I really got into it, realized that many of the team logos consist either primarily or solely of letters. I guess I never really thought about that, but it’s true. Sure, there is some design element to the logos, but it’s kind of boring.

So what I am going to do is the same sort of thing, but with corporate logos which gives me a lot more to work with. There are a few different ways I can do this and I’m still sorting it out, but I’ll get it started either next week or the week after. I know this isn’t a terribly exciting post, but I wanted to mention it just so that nobody thinks I completely blew it off. Stay tuned.

Today’s lesson comes from the pages of one of America’s great creative minds—Woody Allen. Sure, his best days are behind him, but that’s only because his early work (read: Annie Hall) was masterful.

Woody Allen was quoted once as saying, “80 percent of success is just showing up.”

Often when I am speaking to high school or college classes, the question of how to be successful designer comes up. And more often than not, I quote Woody’s wisdom because it is an absolute truth that applies not just to filmmaking and graphic design, but just about any other path in life you choose to follow.

The best example of not showing up is something that happened recently in my attempt to have a print project quoted by a printer. I am not going to name the printer, but I will tell you that it wasn’t F.P. Horak, McKay Press or QRP. Those are the three printers I use most often and I don’t want anyone to think that I’m talking about them.

This particular project, I thought, was a good fit for another printer in the region. The printer in question threw up every single roadblock they could come up with along the way. Honestly, it was as if they didn’t want my work.

My first step was to find their website to get contact info. The Google search took while because I wasn’t 100% sure of their name (they have gone through some ownership changes). With the correct site located, I clicked through to look for contact info and trouble ensued.

Their site is a wide-awake nightmare. I couldn’t find the information I was looking for, contact info was buried, sales department names and e-mail addresses weren’t available, etc. I didn’t want to fill out a form to wait for a response because my experience with these forms is that response time tends to be slower.

I was able to locate a phone number, though, so I called which led me to a pain-in-the-ass phone tree. If you don’t know the name of the person you are trying to reach, you’re directed to a general mailbox. Since I couldn’t find any sales rep names online, I would be stuck in the general mailbox which often isn’t much better than filling out the online form, where response time is concerned.

I call back and hit zero a few times and get through to a live person. I explain that I need a quote and she isn’t sure who she needs me to get to. After some confusion on her part, I just ask for a customer service rep and says she’ll connect me to the person I need to talk to. The call goes through to an extension which promptly hangs up on me. I call back again and ask if I can speak to a living, breathing customer service rep, but because I don’t have an account manager, she can’t direct me to a CSR.

Finally, in frustration, I give up. The job was a perfect fit for them and it will be printing elsewhere. It isn’t the hugest job in the world, but it would probably be somewhere between 5–10 grand every month or two. How many jobs like this do they lose in the course of a week? There were several opportunities along the way for them to save the interaction, but they managed to miss at every step. All they had to do was show up, but they phoned it in and missed out on a decent, little revenue stream.

There is actually a humorous postscript to the story, too. About one week after being unable to get a quote, I actually get a call from the sales manager wanting to sell me on doing my printing with them. I told him that I was surprised to hear from him and told him all about what had happened the prior week. He is both grateful for the candid input and assures me that is not the way they do business. He asks if he could send me some material to look at about them and maybe set up a meeting. I understand that every business has bad days, so I tell him to send the info and we’ll get together after that.

Five weeks later and guess what…nothing ever showed up.

Chuckleheads.

RadioShack recently decided that they are a little too cool for their own name. Wanting to distance themselves from their pocket-protector past of selling diodes and cathodes and other stuff that ended with -odes, they needed something fresh that would really sell their new forward-thinking product lines of laptops, cell phones, etc. They enlisted the creative firm of Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners of Sausalito, California (read the end of the post for a quick note about BSSP). Together, RadioShack and BSSP came up with the company’s new creative platform—THE SHACK. I don’t know about you, but does ‘shack’ conjure up new and innovative?

Lee Applebaum, RadioShack’s Chief Marketing Officer says, “We’re contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand. THE SHACK speaks to consumers in a fresh, new voice and distinctive creative look that reinforces RadioShack’s authority in innovative products, leading brands and knowledgeable, helpful associates.”

To me THE SHACK does not communicate innovation or contemporary or fresh or new. It says Clampetts. It says Ma and Pa Kettle.

Contrary to other reports, RadioShack isn’t actually changing their name. They’ll still be RadioShack, but now we’re supposed to call them THE SHACK (sort of like Sean Combs—aka Puff Daddy, aka P. Diddy, aka Puffy, aka Diddy). Here is the splash page to THE SHACK SUMMER NETOGETHER event coming up in less than 24 hours.

Referring to RadioShack as THE SHACK is okay, I guess, but it seems like they’re trying just a little too hard to be cool. It’s kind of like a dorky kid in school wearing parachute pants and an Izod with the collar popped at the same time. Give it up, kid, you’re not fooling anybody. Is there is some sort of hierarchy of cool in retail electronics sales? I figure that Best Buy is probably as cool as that sort of thing gets, but even then, bright blue shirts and khakis? You have to ask yourself, when you’re looking up at Best Buy on the cool-0-meter, how far from the pack have you wandered?

Added Applbaum, “When a brand becomes a friend, it often gets a nickname.” Yes, this is true, but you gave yourself the nickname. Do any of you have a friend who demands that you call him by his new nickname? Is there anybody less cool than the friend that gave himself a nickname? That isn’t how it works.

Most importantly, let’s not forget to acknowledge the 7-foot, 1-inch elephant in the room—the world already has an internationally famous brand using the name.

Nothing personal, Shack, but you will NEVER be as cool as Shaq.

Author’s note: I hadn’t heard of BSSP before today. Or, rather, I may have read about them but didn’t really know anything about them. If you have a few minutes (seriously, you’ll need some time) take the time to check out their site. It’s REALLY slow to load, but it’s well worth it. There is a lot to see at their site so be sure to stop by and check it out.

Burger King is no stranger to controversy in its advertising. Cripsin Porter + Bogusky have pushed the envelope a few times, but they actually are not responsible for the ad above.

This ad is for the BK Super Seven Incher, a new sandwich available in Singapore. The King used a Singapore firm to create the ad above, which uses clear sexual imagery and language (“Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled…”). I have to admit that I find the ad kind of funny, but I can also recognize why people are all up-in-arms over it.

With all of the hubbub over the ad, I think that we’re missing one thing—who in the hell needs a 7-inch Burger King hamburger? Isn’t that, like, 2000 calories or something? That’s just stupid.

As a bonus, here is one of BK’s previous close-to-the-egde ads, created by Montreal’s Bleublancrouge.

I’ve been putting this entry off for a few weeks, but my morning mail brought with it a reminder of one of the hardest aspects of the business—losing clients. (It’s worth noting that as I am typing this line I am listening to Okkervil River’s On Tour With Zykos, a great breakup song.)

One of my favorite clients to work with in the past year is the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. I was fortunate enough to do most of the SBSO’s work for the 2008–2009 season which gave me the opportunity to work closely with several people including Dan McGee (executive director) and the late Patrick Flynn (conductor and music director). Working with Patrick on the creation of the original materials was a hell of a lot of fun, if for no other reason than because I got a chance to hear him tell stories of working with Baryshnakov and his experiences working with advertising agencies. He was a very colorful character and because I was a creative professional, treated me like an equal. It’s not often that you get a chance to collaborate with someone like Patrick and I will always be grateful for the opporunity to do so.

For his part, Dan McGee is a consummate professional. I’ve worked with many non-profits over the years and with each non-profit, you encounter a wide range of people sitting in the ED’s chair. I’d rank Dan up there with any ED I’ve ever worked with for his enthusiasm, professionalism and for just making you feel good when you’re in the same room. Dan always had a warm handshake and a great, big smile for you. And if there was someone nearby didn’t know who I was, he was my biggest advocate and a shameless promoter for 989 Design. That’s the sort of thing that always means a lot to me. When the people who sign the checks feel strongly enough about the work you do to tell other people, it is equal parts flattering and gratifying.

Earlier in the year, Dan asked me to put numbers together for the 2009–2010 contract and offered that it would take a lot for them to move to another studio, but going into review is just something the board requires. I knew that any time a client goes into review, even if it isn’t a reflection on the work you’ve done, there is always going to be the chance that after the review that the client will move on.

I can remember my dad telling me a story about loyalty and that you “leave the dance with you brung ya.” Would that it were always so simple, but in reality there are other forces at work. In the case of the SBSO, a non-profit working very hard to maintain a standard of excellence in the face of tightening budgets, the current economic environment forced them to have to find every opportunity to get the most for their money in marketing and advertising. At the same time, the recession is impacting many other agencies in the area to a point where they are letting people go and discounting their work just to keep work coming in the door.

So there I was caught between the Scylla and Charibdes of tightened marketing budgets and discounted competitive work. I had a bad feeling about it and as it turned out, my instincts were right on. Another agency came in with a great price and the work went to them. Dan told me who the work was going to and they are an agency I have a lot of respect for. They produce some really fine work and I completely understood the reasons the decision was made.

To say that I understood, though, doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt because it did. I don’t mean financially (although, I guess that is always a part of it), but it felt like I was being dumped. When you say that you lost a client, that isn’t really the case. You didn’t lose them, they lost you.

It’s really hard to describe the feeling of losing a client. Remember in high school when you’re going with a girl and holding hands and kissing one day and you see her the next day and she’s holding hands and kissing somebody else? It’s a lot like that, it really is. You start questioning what you could have done differently/better/etc. It really is a lot like a breakup. Current conditions dictate that it wasn’t the right fit at the right time, so the board made a choice that made the most sense for the SBSO. I genuinely understand and respect the decision. Even more, I respect Dan for taking the time to personally let me know about the change being made and ensuring me that it wasn’t a reflection on my work and my time with the SBSO. He didn’t have to do that and I will always appreciate the fact that he took the time to do so.

So what happened today to spur finally writing this entry? An envelope arrived in the mail with the 2009–2010 season program. To belabor the analogy, it was like receiving an invitation to your ex-girlfriend’s wedding one month after breaking up. For about five seconds, the disappointment and doubt that comes with losing a client swept over me. After the five seconds, though, I was able to really look at the piece for what it is and you know what? My confidence in the other agency was well-founded. They did a fantastic job and produced a really great piece that is both attractive and clearly communicates what the 2009–2010 season is all about. I think that the piece will be very effective for the Orchestra and hope that it brings many new patrons to the Temple Theatre next season.