Perish or Thrive

During a recent drive to New York, I went through Mattapan to escape weekend traffic out of Boston. Mattapan is predominantly a black urban poor neighborhood that only has buses linking it to the rest of Boston. A drive down Main Street shows a mix of family and independently owned small businesses except for the new Bank of America. For those of you that do not know, Bank of America bought Fleet two years ago and they have finally completed the rebranding signage in all the branches.

I was struck by the stark contrast of the shiny, red BOA signage. It felt out of place among the hand painted signs of local businesses. Would this big brand perish in a community of locally owned businesses or would customers flock to BOA for a change in landscape? Time will tell. I know in white, liberal communities vandalism would have happened. In Central Square and Santa Cruz, the windows to Gap, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble were broken as a symbol against gentrification.

Battle of the Brands

Danielle, a friend from ARM advertising, called excitedly to tell me about the Million Dollar Homepage. An entreprenial Brit named Alex Tew has thought of a clever way to get money for college. He is selling pixels. For $1/pixel ($100 minimum), he is selling banner ads to companies with hopes of making a piece of internet history. And it's working, he has already made $200,000.

It's interesting to see which brands/ads are compelling and which just register as noise. With a 5 year shelf life, companies will have to think hard about what makes them stand out from the clutter.

To victor goes the spoils

Kellan came across this great blog post on branding for bxc. Quark, an aging layout program, has launched their new brand identity as part of a campaign to fight Adobe's massacre of all competitors. Adobe bought Macromedia back in April and retired Fireworks, Freehand, etc.

Unfortunately, in this age of globalization it is obvious when you do not do your homework. Quark's new logo bears a resemblance to a dozen companies.

Granny's revival

I love this time of year! Fall fashion is in full force. With Fashion Week and Back-to-School shoppping, clothes are on everyone's minds (even if you are not a fashionista).

There's a growing trend more interesting than "black is back", independent labels are naming their fashion collections and jewelery lines after their grandmothers. Bucking the tradition of naming a fashion house after yourself, Isabel Harvey, Bourne and others are donning their grandma's names. Is this connected to retro/vintage chic or is it in memory of their favorite fashion icon?

Not sure, but Anabelle Teal does have a nice ring to it.

Little Girls in Pretty Boxes

I can't say that this ad did not grab my attention, it did. After 5 seasons, America's Top Model needs people to tune in to the fact that a lot has happened since Yoanna won. (Anyone else notice that Yoanna is the new host of the Style's Network "The Look For Less"?) But there is something about little girls in pretty boxes. Is this irony? Playing up the objectifying process of becoming a model, or is this just suppose to be hot?