Some might say Pinterest is a craze, obsession, or huge time suck, but it is also a great place to find and explore your creative side. Projects ranging from sewing, cooking, painting, drawing, gift wrapping, decorating, and more all provide creative outlets.

Though we are not all designers, we each are creative in our own way, and it is important that we experiment and step out of our comfort zones. In an effort to explore different creative outlets we’ve decided to dedicate one lunch a week to trying our hand at creative projects – that have nothing to do with our work. Pinterest is where our initial ideas will come from, so we’re calling this craft time “Pin Buster Time” and we’ve already identified 3 projects to try.

Today was project one. A necklace made from t-shirts. We all brought in a t-shirt of any color from home. The proper tools were provided by our very own crafty/do-it-yourself girl Sarah. There were the daring ones who brought in t-shirts in bright colors and the safe ones (and possibly more practical ones) who brought in various shades of gray, because, well, gray goes with everything, right?

In doing this, not only did we discover that DIY projects are not as time-consuming and difficult as we think they are, but we also found that taking time away from our desks to explore new creative outlets is a great way to fill us with new energy to put towards the rest of our day.

If you have any crafty ideas you’d like us to try, let us know, and we’ll add them to our list.

A logo is not a brand. But a logo quite often represents the brand. It is the entry point to all of your products or services. That’s why it’s important that your logo is an accurate representation of your brand positioning, personality and mission.

What should a logo communicate?

• A logo should be simple and easily read without being boring.

• A logo should reflect your brand personality.

• A logo should embody your brand strategy.

• A logo should be flexible and have the ability to work in a variety of applications, from business cards to websites and packaging.

• A logo should look different than other logos.

Since your logo needs to do a lot of work, it needs to be thoughtfully designed. I believe in order to truly see the pure design, and not be influenced by extraneous elements, that all initial logo designs be created in black and white (and maybe shades of gray if necessary). This will allow you to judge the design for it’s unique qualities and emotional appeal.

Once the design is perfected, color can be added. By making this a different step in the process, you eliminate the need to worry both about design and color options. You’ve selected a design, now you’re selecting the color. It’s kind of like building a house—first you build the structure, then you decorate.

Now take a step back, look at your logo and see if it is communicating properly.

While writing this post, Ozzy Osborne’s – “Changes” keeps going through my head (Yes, webbies have impeccable music taste).

Personally I’m all about change, especially if it’s for the better. There is nothing wrong with switching things up a little bit, but one of Google’s latest changes made me realize that I might be a bit of a control freak.

Google announced a week or so ago that they are making some changes to the Google Analytics data. In an attempt to “Make Search More Secure” Google will hide search queries from Analytics. When a Gmail user is logged in to their Gmail account, any search query they use on Google will not be shown on your Analytics report.

What does this mean? Less accurate data from Google Analytics regarding which terms people are using to find your site, which in turn makes it harder to see if your organic SEO efforts are paying off. Google says it’s an attempt to protect the user’s privacy, but ironically enough, the only thing analytics ever showed was the search phrase, no other information about the user has ever been made available.

And so the SEO cat and mouse game with Google continues…

It occurred to me recently that the hyperlink is the foundation of the Internet. There would be no Internet if the pages or items weren’t linked together.  Consequently the navigation on any site is easily the most important factor! A site can be the most innovative design ever created, but without threads to tie the pages together, it’s worthless.

When we start a web project here at Willow, one of the very first things we do, even before the designers create beautiful pages, is to create the site information architecture. Utilizing sitemap tools, we create a list of all the pages that will be included in the site. These pages are carefully sorted into categories and the logic of the navigation system is carefully thought through.

Once we have the basic structure figured out, it is up to the designers to make it visually interesting. There are a plethora of sites that have navigation showcases. And when you look through these, it will become clear that the sky is the limit when it comes to navigation design.

Vertical navigation

Horizontal navigation


“Unconventional” navigation

Navigation can add a lot of work to the design and development process. But with solid pre-planning and good organization, the work can be fairly easy and you end up with a website that is remarkable and outstanding.

Google. Do you even remember when this word was not a part of your vocabulary? Whether it’s used as a verb (Did you Google that topic?) or a noun (I found it on Google), it’s part of our everyday lives and there’s just no ignoring it.

So how does Google do it? How does it constantly stay in front of us and not get old? One of the fun ways that I’m always reminded of it is through Google doodles. According to Doodle 4 Google, Google doodles are “the drawings that are designed on, around and through the Google logo on [their] home page.” These doodles were started in 1998 by Google founders Larry and Sergey to celebrate their attendance at the Burning Man festival. The idea was then handed off in 2000 to then intern, now Goolge Webmaster, Dennis Hwang to celebrate and mark worldwide events and holidays. You may recall the Mars Rover landing doodle or the more recent and one of my favorites Les Paul 96th Birthday doodle.

Since the Google doodle’s birth, over 300 doodles have been created in the U.S. and over 700 have been designed worldwide. There is a doodle team at Google dedicated to to deciding which events and holidays that will receive recognition via the Google logo and a team of designers create the doodles. However, the idea room for these doodles does not have a closed-door policy. The team is very open to outside ideas from Google users and the public and welcome submissions from them.

Now to what I think is absolutely amazing about the Google doodle concept. Being a marketing professional and a brand manager for various clients here at Willow, I find it crucial that brands and logos stay true to their original form in order to maintain their brand recognition. (You can read more about my thoughts on this in this post.) So you would think that this idea of changing Google’s logo every time an important event is recognized would make me cringe, but it doesn’t. And the reason for that is because Google doodles have become a part the the Google brand’s DNA. Users expect it to happen. In fact, there are crazy people (like me) who will go to Google’s home page first thing in the morning just to see what today’s doodle is.

An article by Google on this topic says, “having a little bit of fun with the corporate logo by redesigning it from time to time is unheard of at many companies but at Google, it is part of the brand. While the doodle is primarily a fun way for the company to recognize events and notable people, it also illustrates the creative and innovative personality of the company itself.”

So what’s your favorite Google doodle of all time? Or what is a corporate brand that you’ve found that does a great job of having fun with their logo while still maintaining it’s true identity?

Sources:
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/history.html
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/doodler.html
http://www.google.com/logos/