Every year, as we arrive in Austin, we usually head immediately to our favorite spot, The Boiling Pot, for some spicy crawfish and Shiner Bock. And every year, our guest list continues to grow. We didn't have any trouble finding Hoosiers in Austin this year as we were pleased to have over 40 of our friends join us to kick off what ended up being a very memorable and engaging week. With everyone's hands and eyes cemented to their iPhones for the remainder of the conference, the menu at The Boiling Pot seemed the appropriate choice to start it off, forcing us to put down our phones for some real socializing and interaction.
The gang over at SmallerIndiana, have posted all of the video content from the Bigger Ideas Conference. If you missed the event, head on over here, to catch-up on what you missed out on.
The last several weeks here at Kristian Andersen + Associates have been a very busy time indeed. Last week, as we wrapped up our work for ExactTarget’s Connections User Conference, we decided to treat ourselves to a new office toy – a Nintendo Wii and a copy of Rock Band 2. Perfect for unwinding after a hard day’s work, or simply to make complete fools of ourselves when the mood takes us.
I’d already been playing Rock Band for a couple of months, the guitar being my instrument of choice. I’ve managed to work my way up to playing on Hard level, and even on Expert on a few of the more simple songs. Late Saturday night I had the…
A couple of weeks ago I was scanning my way through several hundred missed Tweets when I stumbled across this link to a 1920s Coca-Cola Logo Wall Painting guidelines document. It fascinated me to think that even back then, so much time and effort had gone into standardizing the drawing of the Coca-Cola logo, and other details such as brand color consistency. From the four pages on display it was clear that the basic structure of a brand guidelines document hasn’t changed all that much in the 80 years since this one was put together, and it reminded me of parts of the brand guidelines (graphic standards) documents we offer at KA+A as a key part of our brand
Recently we were informed by a client, with whom we had been working for several months, that they were moving their account to a design shop, located in a very large city on the east coast. It wasn't ugly or contentious, there were no angry words, or overt slights – it was all quite civilized. But that didn't temper the sting of rejection. This particular relationship was, by our standards, extremely short-lived. Of course, we've had client relationships die slow deaths of attrition. It's a fundamental law that in this profession, client/agency relationships will come and go... and oftentimes come back again. But this experience was something all together different. The terminus of a less than ideal working relationship typically brings…
What is a logo? Most people will tell you in simple terms that it is a mark of identity consisting of a symbol set alongside a company name. But logos can be much more than that, or much less depending on how you look at it.
The word logo is an abbreviation of logotype and is derived from the Ancient Greek word logos, meaning simply “word.” A logotype – a logo whose design is based on typographic elements (e.g. words or letters, numbers, punctuation, etc.) – can often be a much more effective identity solution than a traditional symbol-based logo, particularly when the aim is to build name recognition. Some of the most successful logos of all time have been purely typographic: Kellogg’s, FedEx, Google, Microsoft, 3M…
It’s a term that, for me, conjures up feelings of nausea and disgust as much as “root canal” and “Microsoft PowerPoint.” It is a practice wrought with numerous flaws and ethical dilemmas, its concept undermining the core principles of brand design, the very industry in which it operates. For small start-ups with limited funds, design crowdsourcing may be a perfectly affordable and even suitable solution to their design needs, but for established companies hoping to grow their brand, it is wholly inappropriate, and an ill-considered solution such as this, could be detrimental to their brand in the long run.
Crowdsourcing is “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined
I created this a while back for our studio tour, part of AIGA Indy's Studio Tour Series. The original animation looped seamlessly, starting and ending on the same screen, which had a pretty hypnotic effect. I could probably watch if for days.
Over the past several months, we've had the opportunity to consult on a variety of projects with FormSpring, from developing a new identity to designing a new website that just launched this weekend. FormSpring enables organizations of all types to easily build online forms to collect data and then leverage that data through a comprehensive suite of tools.
Learn more about the smart way to collect and manage data here.…
Tomorrow the team from Kristian Andersen + Associates saddles up and heads to Austin, TX for a few days of pixels, podcasts, angry academics, lonely gamers, geeky tech-moguls, mexican food for breakfast, and Shiner. Stay tuned for daily dispatches from the front lines…
A couple of weeks ago I was scanning my way through several hundred missed Tweets when I stumbled across 
Tomorrow the team from Kristian Andersen + Associates saddles up and heads to Austin, TX for a few days of pixels, podcasts, angry academics, lonely gamers, geeky tech-moguls, 