The Little Printer from BERG: How a smile can mean everything
Posted by marcrubinassociates in branding, graphic design, marketing on 07. Dec, 2011 | 0 Comments
This is a great example of how design can affect your perception of a product. This Little Printer provides a personalize mini newspaper printed on a roll, but delivers it with a smile.
The other day, Paul Stonier shared with us the video below and it sparked a great conversation. We all fell in love with the little face and how it transforms the object from a utility to into your little assistant. Just imagine the product without that face. The body of the rest of the product is incredibly pragmatic. There is some nice simplicity to it, but the interaction would be very cold.
This product also speaks to why it’s important to involve design and branding into the stage of product development. In most cases, a company would come to a design firm with the product already developed and have the firm brand the product as is. Therefore, including something like this smile may have been too late.
There is also something interesting to recognize here; while with everything accessible on our phones and computers, there is less and less of an interaction with paper. There is something very intimate about paper that screens simply have not been able to replicate. The size of the roll helps with this too. The size of the prints are just the right size; not too big to feel like you are at work with a letter size sheet of paper that you are wasting most of the paper with, yet not too small that you struggle with it.
How would you use the Little Printer?
Good Taste
Posted by marcrubinassociates in branding, corporate identity, Featured, graphic design, marketing, publication design, Uncategorized on 18. Aug, 2011 | 0 Comments
A friend recently sent me this piece by Ira Glass, which got me thinking about good taste and what it means to us at Marc Rubin Associates. The famed graphic designer Saul Bass once said, “good design is good taste”, which Mr. Glass’ piece exemplifies.
Good taste is hard to describe. At MRA, we think it’s present in our body of work. As Mr. Glass says, it takes time to develop good taste, and we’ve been working at it for over 30 years. We work hard at staying current and contemporary, and run current trends through our experienced sensibilities (our “good taste machine”) to meet clients’ needs. We’re very aware of the pitfalls of following trends, because of the possibility of being “trendy”, which isn’t always in good taste.
An example of this is the recent Abercrombie & Fitch/Jersey Shore brand clash. A&F asked the JS guys to stop wearing their fashions on-air, because of the negative public perception of the brand the show might be creating. Granted, it all might be a publicity stunt, but it’s the ultimate irony – both brands promote the same buffed male image, but A&F is running like crazy from JS because of JS’ lack of good taste.
Having roots in traditional graphic design, MRA creates brand identities for the contemporary world while never losing sight of good taste. The pioneers of design are the voices of good taste and sophistication we listen to when developing creative solutions.
What do you think constitutes good taste? Please comment, we’d love to hear your opinions!
Kol Ami: Designing With Heart
Posted by marcrubinassociates in branding, corporate identity, graphic design, marketing on 11. Aug, 2011 | 0 Comments
When I heard that Elmira’s Jewish communities, Shomray Hadath and Congregation B’nai Israel, were merging, I immediately contacted them to ask about designing identity materials for the new community. It was an emotional and gratifying experience to design their new logo and sign, and I had a conversation with a friend about the process. Take a look!
A Brand is More than a Logo
Posted by marcrubinassociates in branding, corporate identity, graphic design on 23. Nov, 2010 | 0 Comments
The term ‘brand’ or ‘brand identity’ is often confused with ‘logo’. This is the result of a lack of full understanding of what a brand is. The logo (short for logotype) is the immediate flag and most tangible element of a brand, but it is just the beginning. We’ve said before a brand is a [...]
Design & Marketing:
Words & Music
Posted by marcrubinassociates in branding, graphic design, marketing on 09. Nov, 2010 | 0 Comments
Any brand brings with it a story…
Our job is to communicate its message or tell its story to provide opportunities for meaningful engagements. We can elevate the brand by expressing the message in a pure and consistent way. In doing so, it allows us to shape a level of consensus across a market.
That message needs to be distinguishable, memorable and have a concept to it. In order to successfully reach that level, it requires a hand-in-hand relationship with marketing and design. I often say that it is “words & music”; marketing provides the words and we provide the music. In other words, the combination of verbal language with aesthetic language brings the strongest expression of your narrative.
The brand exists within it’s consumer’s heart and soul. Our job is to get it as clear as possible in the marketing language so that we translate it in a visual language… Read More
