Having listened into a few brain-storming sessions I thought I would share with you a few of the key buzz words in our studio at the moment which made me 'chuckle'. They are all real words and Eric and Hayley promise not to use them in their next presentation:

After monumental errors, nosediving share prices and the humiliation of nationalisation, the banking world has changed forever. So will their corporate identities, marketing and advertising adapt to fit the new realities?

It might seem that logos, commercials and colour schemes should be the last thing to occupy the banks right now, but surely campaigns and brands developed for a very different time (ie before last week) can no longer be appropriate? Ever since the early 90s, banks have been attempting to project a friendlier, less formal image. (In fact I was involved in the early 90’s of the Scottish Widows rebranding and seen this first hand – affectionately we christened this ‘the propeller’). Heraldic devices and serif type were ditched in favour of rounded edges and updated typography. It was all about innovation and modernity as banks started to project themselves as dynamic global brands, reflecting a shift in their management style and business aims.

So what happens now? In the UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB have had to be baled out and part nationalised. Similar schemes have been introduced throughout Europe and in the US. The way we think of these institutions has changed completely. Instead of projecting themselves as friendly, casual, everything on a first-name basis, (Howard and the Halifax..) perhaps we’d like them to start acting a little more like they actually know what they’re doing? A bit more sober? A little more buttoned-up rather than dressed-down? I came across a great quote from Landor which explains. ‘Unfortunately this spirit of “innovation” is now more typically characterised as reckless risk-taking.”

Dynamism, innovation, modernity - these aren’t messages that we really want to hear from our banks at the moment and as we have a few live FS briefs in the studio at the moment, EC Design and Marketing are keeping our eyes open and ears to the ground so we understand this complex issue and overnight market shift.

Our banking institutions need to re-establish trust and confidence. Time to bring back the pin-stripes, PMS Blue 280 and the heraldry type logos?

I don’t think I want Howard to be my friend any more…

It was predicted to be a giant among the many Internet browsers, but Google's Chrome has failed to impress users. At time of writing, the percentage of Internet users on Chrome is only 0.78%*, 6 weeks after its release.

The initial release had crashes, video playback issues, and very odd quirk when writing in a blog or comments field (see Computer World blog).

The latest version released this week promises to be more stable, and as Chrome is still in the beta stage Google predicts a much faster uptake in the months to come. However, at this stage EC are not re coding or testing Chrome compatibility until the number of users increases.

The broadening browser market is a test for web designers and developers, as each browser engine parses their code in a slightly different way. However, as new browsers or browser releases are developed with this is mind, we may be getting closer to a standardised browser engine, or at least a series of browsers which follow the same rules. We hope it does as this will reduce client costs as we have to test less and less for compatibility.

*According to netapplications.com

Labels: browsers, web design

The iPhone is the perfect platform for companies that wants to get “friendly” with their customers that are on the move! We are increasingly being asked to advise on iPhone friendly websites and how they work.

Most websites are still viewable (but are NOT “friendly”) on the iPhone, because the user can zoom in so that text is legible, however this is not ideal for the user when they have to scroll across the screen a great deal more. You have to build your site specifically for mobile media. It is best not to exceed 320x480 pixels, which is one reason for having a separate website specifically for the iPhone.

The main reason for adopting a website dedicated to the iPhone is if your current site is purely flash based, or contains any Flash elements, such as Flash banners or embedded videos it will not be viewable on the iPhone or any other mobile devise. Also users are now wanting information on the move and companies need to be seen to be technologically savvy.
At EC Design we have tackled the issue of mobile friendly websites and believe companies should be seen as “early adopters’ to this new technology. If you are thinking of becoming an early adopter of an iPhone site, here are some useful tips:

• The iPhone site should mirror your main site visually for design consistency
• Design no larger than 320x480
• Correct page size code - add a meta tag (<meta id="viewport" name="viewport" content="width=320;">) in the header section of your website code, makes your webpage compatible and friendly with iPhone browser
• Minimize the code to as much extent as you can
• Remember less is more
• Prioritise key information
• Contact details should be prominent

Labels: HTML, new technologies, web design

We are being increasingly asked by our clients to set up blogs on their websites or ask us if it’s a good idea to let staff air their views. We think blogs are great and make strategic sense and we have listed below a few tips to get the most out of them

Make the subject matter easy
Pick topics that your company knows about and can write about regularly and would be interesting to your clients.

Capture the imagination
Use good and relevant headlines for your post titles. These will be picked up by the search engines so make them relevant to you.

Be strategic
As a business you need to be commercially aware on how your posts will be interpreted.

Choose the correct blog platform
Blogger and Wordpress are free for hosting and domains. We recommend Blogger for its ease of use.

Write for the search engines
Being an expert in your topic will raise your profile.

Don’t become a grumpy blogger!
Sounds simple, do not use blogs to moan and always have a ‘gate keeper’ to monitor.

Ensure you blog often
This will keep your views and ideas up to date and will improve your Google rankings.

Labels: blog, blogging, design strategy

As you may have noticed on our main website, we are advertising for graphic designers and account handling staff. We have had quiet a few C.V.’s in from designers and the majority of them have been dull and the work seems to be very much the same. Don’t even get me started on poor typography!