Branding: When color means brand

About a month ago I was at a neighborhood festival showing my art. I was directed to a small section called the "village" where there was a small live music stage and space for vendor tents, tables and art displays.

In front of me was a white and green canopy, which is rather ubiquitous in recent months at events such as this.

Honestly, this color combination got me confused for a couple of minutes. Was this Cricket Wireless, or Clear Wireless? They both have been heavily promoting at fairs and events like this, using almost the same modus operandi. The former is a cell phone company with an add-on mobile broadband Internet option; the latter is a WiMAX broadband Internet service. And they both use a very similar green-and-white branding schemes.

This is rather unfortunate. How many people are readily able to tell them apart when they see a green-and-white tent or a sandwich board sign?

Granted, they are not using exactly the same shade of green. Clear's green is approximately RGB (127, 195, 86), while Cricket's green is RGB (64, 181, 77). But how many people can distinguish them apart, especially when they are not next to each other? To excerbate the situation, Clear and Cricket are in the same industry, further contributing to confusion.

What can we learn from this?

1. Be very specific about color schemes when you are thinking of a branding makeover. Just like your alma mater has very specific school colors, your business must have specific colors that reflect who you are. A trivia: Portland State University and the University of Oregon are both green, but the former is RGB (101, 136, 26), the latter RGB (17, 111, 74).

2. Avoid confusing color schemes. When DHL rebranded back in 2004 following its merger with Seattle-based Airborne Express, many thought their delivery workers were from McDonald's. Within or without your specific industry, people perceive a certain combination of colors and associate it with something you don't want. Come up with unique combination of colors. Using a color wheel to find which colors complement one another. Haphazard combination of random colors can have a devastating effect as some colors are never meant to be seen together.

3. Have a corporate-wide guidelines on branding, including appropriate use of colors and typefaces. "Green and yellow" would be too vague and your employees may have a very different idea about green and yellow than what you might. It is also possible that employees and contractors might take an artistic license and modify your brand in such a way that it would no longer bear any resemblance. If you must, create a list of acceptable alternative colors -- especially one that uses only "web-safe" colors (i.e. 216-color palette) and for monotone colors (this would allow you to save money on printing and advertising expenses every once in a while). Ideally colors should be defined precisely by RGB, CMYK and hexadecimal numbers.

Window painting for the holiday season: four things to consider

This is my third year in window painting business, thanks to Mr. Chris Fadness who trained me in this trade in the fall of 2007. Since then I have developed unique methods of window painting art, through trials and errors, and through experiences with many businesses and residences in the Portland metropolitan area. I am fortunate to be in a place where there are not many competitions, but there are a couple of well-known window painters. My methods differ significantly from the ones utilized by my competitors.

Some of the advantages in my method appeal to local business operators who would like some window painting done for special events or holidays. When selecting a professional window painter, instead of doing it yourself, there are several things you want to consider.

1. Why do I want it anyway?
Like trees and wreaths, window painting has become a seasonal tradition of sorts for many businesses. While it is a year-round operation, I receive most inquiries during the months of November and December. This year I have instituted a "peak-season pricing" system (Nov. 20-Dec. 20) to prevent overloading on my schedules.

Window painting is kind of like a temporary mural. It simply attracts people's attention. Humans are often products of habits, and even if your business may be at the same storefront for decades but many people just walk by in front of your shop and never notice you exist or what your business is. Window painting often brings people out of the routine and brings their attention to your business. Often I design the painting to lead passers-by to wonder about your business (for example, a winged angelic car pulling a sled for a Subaru dealer), so they would think about what my clients do.

It also builds a sense of community. Window painting adds your business to an overall neighborhood scene, and gets people to talk about you as a positive part of your neighborhood. Even though it may be just a bit of warm-fuzzies it promotes, but business involves a lot of customer's emotions, and warm-fuzzies can greatly enhance your holiday season earning capacity.

2. What kind of paint is it?
Some window painters in the area use permanent paints (such as acrylic or even house paints) for window painting. While this is great for permanent signage, it is a pure nightmare if you are just looking for seasonal or temporary decorations. Removing permanent paints off your windows involves heavy scraping (can cause damages to the windows -- just as the owner of the Postal Annex in South Portland discovered last year) and use of toxic chemicals (paint thinners, if inhaled, is poisonous and smell of the chemical can linger inside your building for some time) that can be harmful to the health of your employees and customers, as well as to the environment.

My window painting method is designed specifically for temporary or seasonal use, and requires no scraping or dangerous chemical for removal after your sale or the holiday season is over. While the paint becomes opaque (which means one can see the design from both inside and outside, keeping your shop from becoming dark) and solid without discoloration for about six months once it is dry, it can be removed with lots of warm water and typical household window cleanser (such as Windex). Also it saves you money as you would not need to hire a professional cleaner to get rid of the window paints.

3. Use of negative (transparent) spaces is part of the art.
Many window painters try to literally fill up the entire windows with paints, sometimes with big block of white or black paints. As trained artists know, what is not painted is as important as the painted areas. For a storefront window, the negative space serves an important role of keeping your windows function as windows. If your business needs visibility through a window for security reasons, it makes no sense to fill it up with paints. Likewise, especially some of the permanent paints used by a few window painters can block light and make the space inside semi-dark all day long (which may require extra lighting indoors, resulting in a higher electric bill and carbon emission).

4. Original designs are kings.
It is your storefront. It deserves to stand out from the crowd with a one-of-the-kind, only-one-in-the-world design specially made for you. It is also important to know that some painters, without authorization or license, paint copyrighted cartoon characters or something that could easily be mistaken for them. You could be held liable for any copyright infringement.

Would you like to see how it is done? Would you like one done for your storefront, office or home (a great fun for kids -- I had a client who asked me to paint fairies and a snow princess -- my original creation inspired by the Renaissance style, not the Disney kind -- on her daughter's bedroom window!) this holiday season? Stop by at the Postal Annex on Southwest Boundary Street between Corbett Avenue and Macadam Avenue, on Thursday, November 19 between 9 a.m. and when done (probably by noon). Any client who makes a reservation there and then will receive a 20 percent discount.

Read more about Sarah's window painting and signage services

Working professional artists' cooperative in Portland, Oregon

The Working Artists Network is being reorganized this fall as a cooperative, and is recruiting members from all disciplines and genres of art. Members come from performing arts, fine arts, commercial arts, music, literary arts, etc., and there is a plan for also establishing a genre-specific subgroup within the co-op.

Members receive many useful and valuable benefits, such as health care discount plan, workshops and preferred professional service discounts, as well as a powerful voice to promote their art to the Portland city hall and to the world (through its export program).

The co-op's three-tiered membership starts at only $5 a month. To learn more about this exciting opportunity see http://workingartistsnetwork.com/. Mention that Sarah Morrigan sent you when joining.

See live window painting in action on Nov. 19

I will be working on a relatively large window painting project on Thursday, November 19 from around 9 a.m. till done (in about 3 hours) in Johns Landing, South Portland.

This is a chance for those who would like to see how it is done. I will also be giving out 25% discount on anyone who stops by and makes a reservation for their own location on the spot.

The method I use for window painting eliminates the need for toxic chemicals or possible damages to the windows. The non-toxic paint, durable for about six months once dry without discoloration, can be washed off with soapy water and typical consumer window cleansers (such as Windex) albeit with some patience, so there is no need for paint thinners or other volatile chemicals that can harm people's health and the environment. It also reduces the possibility of damages and scratches to the windows.

It will be at the Water Tower Postal Annex on Southwest Boundary Street between Corbett and Macadam on November 19.

How to make your own stylish business card with free software

As many new business operators soon discover, there are simply never too many business cards once they get serious about promoting what they do and have to offer. From local networking groups to coffee shop bulletin boards, there are many places where handing out or exchanging business cards is a must in creating leads and gaining clients.

Some business operators would still like to make their own business cards with their own computers and printers for a variety of reasons: scalability in expenses, flexibility and speed.

Read more at http://biznik.com/articles/stylish-do-it-yourself-business-cards-on-the-cheap-and-quick

Recommended software:

• Scribus


• Inkscape

What else you need

• Pre-perforated business card stock paper such as Avery 8879; or


• Nice hard card stock paper and paper cutter (desktop rotary cutter is good).


• This template