A taste of things to come?

I was in the supermarket recently and I walked down the soft drinks aisle and was warmed to see that Coke have repacked their famous beverage. It was like going back in time to better days. In what is probably a brave departure for Coke, they've stripped the bottle and can design back to basics. Red background, white type and a swoosh.

I think this is fantastic. And I say this for two reasons. Firstly; The packaging to date with it's bubbles, and swooshes, fizz effects, water droplets, drop shadows and 5 colour printing was in my mind more like a tutorial for Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop than a classic piece of packaging. All that pizzazz never really added anything to the brand and every new design seemed to be utilising every vector and layer trick in the book.

Secondly, years' ago I worked at an agency that dealt with Coke and regularly we had to adapt artwork from their supplied files and it drove me mad. It would be returned marked up showing how we'd missed off a miniscule bubble here or water droplet there - as if the future of absolutely everything hinged on this oversight. Added to that the files were so large they would take an age to process, so that the simple addition of a bubble required the processing power of a small nuclear facility. The lights in the office would visibly flicker when you pressed 'save'. I remember swearing under my breath for a return to the days of simplicity. And now those prayers have been answered – I should stress at this point that we don't work with Coke, and their decision wasn't influenced by my prayers (or maybe it was, they say he moves in mysterious ways). But all said, I'd just like to say, well done Coke.

I think over the next year we'll may see a trend emerge with this return to simplicity from other brands. Personally I say bring back the the old Pizza Hut logo, that was proper. I might even consider eating there again.
Do we really need highlights, drop shadows, water droplets reflections, shadows, pizzazz, jiggerypokerey, dancing clowns and pokerdots on our logos and brands? Does a static logo need
to appear as if it's in motion, bursting with energy implying excitement – yes I am still talking about Pizza Hut? These are questions worth asking. If the logo/logotype doesn't work in one colour, will the addition of whistles and bells make that much difference? The Coca Cola Company don't seem to think so.

Great News

We are pleased to announce that we recently secured work with a major client after pitching for it early last week. We are keeping the details of this brief until we have more information. But we are looking forward to working closely with them over the next few months.

Good Service?

I got an HTML email from a software company the other day – I won't name them – where they offered me an upgrade patch.

Okay, I may have sped read the email, but I clicked on the link and downloaded the patch and installed the software. I was then asked for the serial number of the software. I dug it out and entered it, but it wouldn't accept it. Puzzled by this I contacted their support service, who got back to me telling me I needed to pay $50 for the latest version of the software.

Puzzled further, I asked why I was on a mailing list that was sending me a patch for software I didn't have? Clearly they knew that I owned version of it, but not the one that needed patching. At no point had they communicated to me that a newer version was available, in fact the first I knew about it was when they sink me a link to the patch, which I assumed was for the version I already had...

This bothered me for a couple of reasons. First, it felt like a cheap scam trying to fleece me. Second, knowing that the product needed patching before I knew it existed put me off the idea of buying it completely. Their communications basically said: "We've got a faulty product, but here's the fix, er.. it costs $50 and er, um... it's new."

Then to compound things, when I pointed this out to them, the senior person dealing with it sent me an email saying they thought the email comms I was complaining about were innocuous... I replied stating that I was not impressed in the least bit with that as a reponse. He replied, sorry I didn't mean to send you that email, it was meant for a colleague...

They immediately issued an apology, an explanation and a discount voucher. However, I'm reluctant to take advantage of the discount because even with money off I'm left with the impression that the product isn't quite right and that the apology was issued for the customer service email gaffe and not my original complaint.

I think there's important lessons for everyone there.

Back in business!

Apologies for not updating the Blog. Christmas just takes over, and before you know it it's new year and well, then it's nearly the middle of January... anyway we've actually only had a little time off over the festive period due to work commitments – but we're not complaining.

The early part of this year is already looking busy, which is fantastic news. A few of the clients that we picked up via the Deal Generator website have come back for repeat work which we put down to our attention to detail, not just to the work but to the working relationship.

Other projects are still on-going, including the website for a property development company that we started last year and may have mentioned before.

We are also pleased to announce that we are working on an extensive branding exercise for a web-based business, details of which we'll post when we have completed the initial stages of the project. All the signs to date are very encouraging so... watch this space for updates.

And of course, if you, dear visitor, are interested in getting a quote from us for any up coming projects, then please contact us via the website.

sign of the times

Farewell Woolies. With only two weeks to go until Christmas it seems that every child's favourite high street store is soon to be no more - with closing down sales starting now. See the BBC website to find out the latest.

Woolies will always have a place in my heart because of its Pick 'n' Mix. What will you remember?

All about blogging... from the experts

Click here to see Arianna Huffington (of Huffington Post fame) talk to Jon Stewart about blogging on the Daily Show. Looks like an interesting book for aspiring bloggers like me.

The Blog is Back

We've been a little remiss lately - not blogging as often as we ought. Really bad when you look back at previous posts and see how we boasted about our Alexa ranking - and now we've crept up over the 1 million mark.

Watch this space and we will be keeping you posted about what's been going on in the world of Hughes Design.