Branding for Charmnote

Year-end is always a busy time for Wit & Words.

It's the time that companies begin to think about revamping their profiles, websites and brand. Perhaps it is also when they find they have some leftover in their marketing budget to spend on copywriting services. I'm more than happy to help them find a way to use the remainder...in a value adding way, of course.

This week, while most were merry-making throughout the Deepavali and Awal Muharram holidays, I've been delving into several projects. One of them brings me back to the time when I was involved in the spa industry.

Charmnote Asia Pacific is the manufacturer and distributor of eco-friendly cleaning products. They've recently created two retail product brands, for household cleaning and pets, which they wanted Wit & Words to help craft brand stories, product packaging content and fragrance names. It's quite unique to find such a variety of fragrances for cleaning products. Usually it's just lemon, lime or floral.

So I've spent a few days sniffing the miniature amber bottles (pictures above) interspaced with a whiff of coffee grounds (in the green cup) to clear the nose in between. 

A naming project is always nice to have in between heavy writing ones. Although less words are required, sometimes it takes even more time to  find the right direction and meaningful words that say a lot with very little. It certainly challenges the creative mind, which I firmly believe requires occasional prodding or it just dies a boring death.

TAMBI needs YOU!

Oh, I love this!

http://www.tambi.my/

It's an outright appeal by Malaysian, obviously Indian, comedian, Kavin Jay, to advertisers to feature more Indians in their ads.

'Manipulate us!', 'Exploit us' and 'Sell to us!' he says.

Brilliantly stereotype jokes aside, it's true that the Indians are seldom represented in the media (unless it's near Deepavali or election). It explores the problems of Malaysia's biased society in a very, very funny way. I hope the message is not completely lost on the viewers.

Created by Creative Juice (who also brought us my favourite Nandos Ads), this campaign (simply because I lack a better word to describe 'this nonsense') is cheeky and sassy, and I'm happy to say wholly local production!

Entrepreneur Mindset

A fellow business owner once said to me that the most important thing a business owner needs is hope. Those profound words have replayed in my mind many times. Indeed. Most SMEs 'wrap up' their businesses within the first five years. As a start-up, you may falter, you may despair, you may consider giving up, but dammit, with hope you'll carry on!

And so I take a moment to give myself a boost of hope. 

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), the founders of several renowned multinational ad agencies started out as copywriters.

| See the List here |

That's Hopeful.

To add to that, Google recently performed another crawl and my website ranking has gone up again.

We must remember to celebrate even the small successes.

Bodyform Brilliant Comeback on Social Media

Bodyform is a sanitary pad company in the UK.

They created this video in response to a man's sarcastic remark on their facebook page, angry that their advertisements lied about periods.

His remark included: 

"There was no joy, no extreme sports, no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack"

Bodyform's comeback was much more clever in its sarcasm and brilliantly funny:

My favourite parts are the 80s test subjects 

and the phrase "the blood coursing from our uteri like a crimson landslide".

(We'd never see such marketing ploy in Malaysia. We're too 'polite' and safe).

Berita Tan & Tan 2012 completed!

It was a 6-month labour of love. Working hand in hand with the client, our work on Tan & Tan's revamped annual newsletter is complete:

To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here.

Logos Are Pictograms

I've been thinking about logos lately. 

Essentially, they are pictograms that summarise

the name and business/product

of the company. 

I stumbled upon this website - Logo Faves 

which have a great collections of 

clever, cute and beautiful logos.

Here's some of my favourites:

These designers were just brilliant 

at capturing the whole business in one tiny icon.

DOs and DON'Ts of Logo Designing

I'm late in posting this logo, but I wanted to do this after Independence Day to show a little respect to my country. Or am I just reopening old wounds?

The Don'ts 
(1) use multiple font types, sizes and colours
(2) have too many elements (in the example below, they are the '1', 'M', 'erdeka', '55', 'Janji Ditepati' and the flag.
(3) overlap the elements
(4) repeat elements (Malaysian flag pattern within the '1' and an undulating flag)

The Dos
(1) check if the individual elements will be clear and aesthetically pleasing when in black & white or grayscale, for news print, or colourless collaterals (the flag would not survive the transition).
(2) check if it is still clear when scaled to a small size, for it is such on advertisements, t-shirt embroidery, sponsorship acknowledgement, etc (the flag would be unclear, the multiple elements difficult to decipher).

When the design was revealed, it received so much negative response and even sparked competitions and voluntary designs for the logo that should have been. The government eventually denied that the above was the official logo and used the '1' (only).

Pity. They could have a good laugh with the citizens, announce a nationwide competition, since it had already gained some traction, and get the entire country involved. Another marketing mindset we must always have - there may be an advantage lurking in a disadvantage.