Quote of the Month
“To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” – George Kneller
A splash of excitement to the palette…
A splash of excitement to the palette…
Pantone Colour of the Month
PANTONE 16-4725 Scuba Blue
An invigorating turquoise, PANTONE 16-4725 Scuba Blue conveys a sense of carefree playfulness. Even though a cool shade, the vibrancy of Scuba Blue adds a splash of excitement to the palette. Scuba Blue offers a feeling of escape as it is reminiscent of a tropical ocean. This stirring and energising shade takes us off to an exotic paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.
Pairs Well With:
PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue
PANTONE 14-5714 Beveled Glass
Powerful and clear…
Powerful and clear…
Font of the Month
Conto Narrow
The Conto Super Family is a powerful and clear typeface for complex corporate typography. The 64 fonts gives you a wide range of flexibility to fulfill every typographical need, from essential reading text, captions and tables the Conto Family works well for large advertisement or packaging. Conto is simple, serious and elegant without loosing its independence.
Nils Thomsen started to draw Conto in 2008. It is inspired by the lonely streets of North Scandinavia and the dark forrest around. While cycling through the nature and drinking water from rivers, the idea of a simple geometric typeface was born.
Brings a smile to the mind…
Brings a smile to the mind…
Trend of the Month
Naive Logo Design
There is a renaissance of creating figural logos that have the spontaneity and whimsy of a child’s drawing with the insight and subtle design nuances of a mature rendering. The innocent nature of these solutions brings a smile to the mind. It assures us the product or the owners of the mark are not too full of themselves and likely have a sense of humor.
How do you “show up”?
How do you “show up”?
Have you ever wondered why some people have the knack of always “showing up”, fully attentive and bursting with energy, even knowing full well they’ve just walked out of a meeting which, more than resembled a hurricane…
Last week, a colleague introduced me to the work of Dr Adam Fraser, one of Australia’s leading educators, researchers and thought leaders in the area of human performance.
He really got me thinking; every person we come into contact with truly deserves the very best from us, whether that’s our most junior employee right through to our companies’ CEO, but most importantly our partners and children do too.
Dr Adam’s insight on how to reflect, rest and reset, creates what he describes as the “Third Space”… I encourage you to watch Adam’s video; it might just change how you walk in the door tonight and greet your family, it certainly made me think!
The Third Space: Managing how you show up
Click here to view Adam’s video.
I’m keen to hear how Adam’s engaging message might have made you think differently… please do share your insights – jo@jfm.co.nz.
Go well,
Jo
Dr Adam Fraser
Dr Adam Fraser
Discover how creating the “Third Space” could work for you; take a moment to view Dr Adam’s keynote presentation.
Click here to view presentation
“Work harder, Work longer” was an adage that was easy to subscribe to before your business was at full capacity. But this old business model just doesn’t cut it any more. The greatest challenge in business within the next decade is not the amount we have to do, as this shows no signs of lessening. Instead it’s the way we transition between tasks.
Your job as a manager, your job as a leader, your job as a sales person is to adapt your behaviour to meet the needs of the next role/environment/task. However too often one setback, one bad meeting, can derail a persons day by having a domino effect that robs them, and your company, of energy and focus.
Dr Adam’s cutting edge research with Deakin University explored hundreds of people with demanding jobs, ranging from palliative care nurses to sales people to surgeons to leaders to Special Forces soldiers to elite athletes. What the high performers all had in common was that they used the Third Space to overcome setbacks and assume a mindset to get the most out of what is coming next.
The Third Space is the transitional gap between “what the hell just happened?” and “what’s next?. High performers use this space to decompress, jettison the negative and bring new focus and energy to the next task at hand.
Discover how creating the “Third Space” could work for you; take a moment to view Dr Adam’s keynote presentation.
Established brands – to change or not to change the marketing message
Established brands – to change or not to change the marketing message…
As an established business in the hands of new owners, Tom and Jaimee Kearney, Canterbury Feed Assessment faced a crossroad in terms of its marketing message.
Do the new owners “not rock the boat” by continuing to speak with existing customers as if nothing has changed in the business, or do they communicate the fresh enthusiasm and increased opportunities they’ve just added into the mix?
In learning about the personalities and business goals of Tom and Jaimee, the team at JFM created a strategy for communicating the best of both worlds to new and potential customers. By continuing to use the existing brand name the business doesn’t alarm the current client base too much, but by adding a shortened version of the full business name to a prominent position in the brand identity, there’s an immediate suggestion of a fresh dimension being added to the already trusted platform.
Direction set for an optimal communication strategy, creating the look and feel of the updated brand identity was a challenging balance between reflecting the scientific nature of the business, its (literally) down-to-earth connection to the land and the personal style of the new owners.
The strategy dictated that the brand identity would combine the capital letters of the brand name AND the supporting full name to help explain the shortened version, it was also essential to make sure any new logo didn’t fail by becoming too complicated to view at a glance. The final result is a balanced eye-catching logo and icon combination which is easily understood and certainly gets remembered for all the right reasons.
Business Opportunities
Business Opportunities
“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
Richard Branson
The power of colour
The power of colour
Colour is the catalyst that can spark the sale, define the space and create the magic and the mood.
When designing any product, knowing what colours to use is critical to your success. Brands and colours are inextricably linked because colour offers an instantaneous method for conveying meaning and message without words.
Colour is the visual component people remember most about a brand followed closely by shapes/symbols then numbers and finally words. For example, the real McDonald’s is easy to detect in the image above. Many of the most recognisable brands in the world rely on colour as a key factor in their instant recognition.
See for yourself and take the “Recognisable Brands Test”, click here.
Why Colour Matters
Research has reinforced that 60% of the time people will decide if they are attracted or not to a message – based on colour alone! Colour increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent. (Source: University of Loyola, Maryland study)
An example of Colour Branding Natural and Universal Colour Symbolism for Brands FedEx’s two different colour schemes are the best examples of the “universal” symbolism of colors. Green communicates ground services; orange communicates the high energy and speed of air transportation.
Handmade style…
Handmade style….
Font of the month – TT Souses
Souses — original fontfamily, which are made by hand. Universal typefaces formula of 10 fonts: Thin, Light, Regular, Bold, Black and Italics. The handmade style of the fonts is an advantage that will create loyalty to your products & company.
Perfect for:
Animation, packaging, logotypes, movie titles, children’s products, ecology, cafes, menus, posters, interiors, outdoor advertising. Optimised for the websites, mobile applications and printing materials.