If your a driver or passenger, it’s getting that way that probably 1 in 10 cars you pass have a ‘my family tribe’ (or whatever they’re called) sticker plastered on the drivers rear windscreen. Seeing them daily now, I am beginning to wonder why is it that these are becoming so popular and a social phenomena.

I think I may have come up with some interesting answers touching on, branding, social media and viral marketing. I trust you agree, and hopefully you can take some of these ideas and mix them into your own product or brand…

Let us know your thoughts in our comments section.

1. Personal Branding

Probably the most obvious is personal branding.
Family orientated people love their families, or at least these people want other people to think that they love their families, are shouting it out to the world that they either have a family, they are part of a family or they just ‘like’ families.

They are branding themselves with the message of ‘hey, I am not alone, i’m part of something bigger’. It’s a personal brand in that it communicates the values of the driver to the world, just like Coca-Cola comminicates it’s values to the world on our TV screens at night. (all though not too much lately) NB. Isn’t is funny how Coke are branding your name on their cans!

2. Social Media

Social media is breaking down the barriers and fear of sharing information. Some-time, not too long ago, it would have been unheard of to let a stranger know who is in your family; or at least that you had a family; or you are part of a family; or that you just ‘liked’ families.  We are getting used to sharing our lives on-line and this naturally blurring the boundaries when sharing off-line, even if the participants are not entirely aware of what they are sharing.

3. Viral Marketing

Probably the most clever element of why these stick creatures are taking off… is because the marketing is built into the product itself. We don’t even really know what these stickers are called or where to get them, but if you really want a tribe of characters I bet you will find a way to get a hold of them.

The actual sticker is it’s own advertisement, it has no name the marketing is in the product. Heck if you really wanted some you could probably make one yourself… there only stick figures! The product is simple and straight forward, uncomplicated and too the point easy to communicate. So much so that it does not even need an explicit name. The product is customisable and therefore flexible, so anyone can pick and choose a family that resonates with ones own brand. It opens up the purchasers imagination and hooks them.

I think these three elements, although highlighted in this particular product, is really the future of product design and marketing. These tools are becoming the new ammunition in the war of capitalism. We are already seeing these elements used individually in the marketing of products and services but not so elegant and complete as our stick figure counterparts.

Too celebrate these new trends we thought we would create our own range.

We’re giving away one of each to the first 3 legitimate comments.

Today being 11.11.11, we were inspired to write this article about the power of naming your business! 11.11.11 is quite a wonderful name in that it is easy to remember, it has meaning and it is beautiful to look at cementing in your minds eye.

What’s in a name really depends on having the right goals in place when choosing your business name and therefore logo…

Creatively, there are no limitations or restrictions to picking a good business name. We all have creative free will over choosing a name that describes our products or services. Where this gets tricky is that our names are competing with other names in the offline and on-line environment so we need a strategy behind our names to help customers remember our name against others!

99% of the time new start ups come up with a business name them selves. This is an exciting time for most start-ups and there passion to start the venture can lead start-ups to create names that are not completely strategic or creative, limiting long term benefits and future creative opportunity.

When we work with our clients on choosing a name it psyborg’s goal that the name be distinctive, memorable, easily spelled and pronounced, suggest the product or service our clients’ are offering and distinguish our client’s from their competitors.

From our research, training and vast experience in logo design we have found that when choosing a name it is important to ensure;

• The business name is able to receive trademark protection? (Although we may not necessarily register it)
• Is the proposed business name available?
• If the business will have a website, is a similar domain name available?
• Is the name available for registration on various social media networks as a username. E.g: www.twitter.com/businessname , www.facebook.com/businessname , www.linkedin.com/in/businessname etc
• Is the name and logo short and simple! The shorter and simpler the more memorable! The prospective customer will view it only for a fraction of a second, and within that short time the name should be stamped on the viewer’s mind – or ‘branded’ as they say!
• Have we used a coined word instead of a common word. A coined word has its own identity and is likely to enter the viewer’s mind faster and stay there longer, it can also differentiate itself when performing internet search enquiries
• Is the name associate-able with the product/services the company is offering
• Does the name conjure up positive emotions and fire the imagination with new possibilities… this can help with creative direction in advertising
• Can the name be used as a Verb – Think of Google! Now we say ‘Google It’ rather than ‘Search It’!
• Is it better to use the name itself as the logo/icon as it is more memorable?
• Is the size and shape of the logo easily translated onto social media applications Twitter and Facebook restricting the name and logo to a small size so that it is meaningfully visible on social media pages

When we work with client’s to help them choose there business name we ask them these questions;

1. Briefly describe what you want to achieve by offering your product or service?
2. Who is your target audience and what do they want or expect?
3. How is your product, service or organization positioned in the market compared to the competition?
4. Who are your competitors and what are they doing?
5. What elements of your company, product or service are differentiated to your competitors?
6. What type of emotions would you like conjured up when a user considers your product or service?

Growthwise are a young and vibrant accounting firm located in the heart of Newcastle, servicing a vast range of innovative and dynamic clients. Steph and her team are a pretty innovative bunch… they are savvy with social media, cloud computing and provide interesting methods of helping their clients grow. Growthwise run an innovative program known as the ‘Ninja Program’ where they educate their clients through different levels of achievement known as the L-Plater, P-Plater and Black Ninja classes. Each Ninja progresses through various skill sets as they grow and eventually graduate to a Black Ninja.

Growthwise came to psyborg® with this vision and requested that we create a visual metaphor to help explain these concepts and processes presented in social media, the web and in their own environment. With a core message of ‘Think, Learn, Grow & Kick Arse’ we created a Superhero vs Ninja concept showing the world that these are not your ordinary accountants.

I designed the staff members as superhero’s and created some ninja characters for the three levels of clientèle. The caricatures were used as social media avatars for the staff at Growthwise, on the Growthwise website; assisting in explaining their programmes, email newsletter templates and as environment graphics on the office walls.

In designing the office graphics we tailored each room so that the elements of ‘Think, Learn, Grow & Kick Arse’ would be represented whilst portraying the different stages of growth.

Think

We chose to use ‘Think’ as the board room environmental graphic. This is the most subtle of the graphics and is neutral in tone, used to promote thinking, brainstorming and discussion. This is where new clients visit first so we wanted to ensure these graphics were conservative… we did not want to scare away new clients.

Learn, Grow & Kick Arse

We then introduced, each ninja in the remaining three conference rooms in the hope of injecting some spirit in the conversations to be had. We combined these four designs with a green futuristic stripe linking all of the rooms, the website, email newsletter templates and the Growthwise brand. We also ensured that the superhero characters were not used in the office graphics as we did not want the staff looking at them selves all day.

The wall graphics Daniel created have certainly made an impact with our clients. Not only do they liven up the room but they are a talking point for our clients. When going into a room with LEARN plastered all over the walls it’s hard to forget what you are there for. We have had some fantastic positive comments from clients who are now talking about our *walls* to others. It’s also been great for introducing new clients who understand very quickly what we are about… helping clients think, learn, grow and kick-arse. – Steph Hinds

An Engaged Office

This concept and execution goes a long way to differentiate Growthwise as an innovative and forward thinking accountancy & business advisory firm. The environmental graphics give energy and colour to the office instantly communicating personality, technology and their vision. The graphics promote action which is at the core of business success. A huge thanks must go out to Steph and the Growthwise team for collaborating with psyborg® on this project as their vision and attitudes have been rewarding and we are enjoying learning about the various reactions and new directions this creative approach is taking.

The trouble is with these kinds of seminars or conferences is while you are there you get pumped up, you learn heaps, you get all fired up. But as soon as you leave you start to feel the fizzle kick in and the fade of a memory. I had a sense that this would occur, so prior to the conference Josh and I organised to present our learnings to our local business chapter, BNI Tower, in Newcastle. So this is the premise behind my title, “when you teach, you learn”, or it probably should read, “when you teach, you really bloody learn!”. With this in mind we knew that we were going to have to front up and present to twenty odd people and put our money where our mouth is.

So we absorbed it in and we let the important stuff, or the stuff we really engaged in float to the surface, and that’s what we chose to teach. Josh and I then pulled together a 10 minute presentation summarising what we had learned and what we got excited about so we could teach to our fellow business comrades. We also made sure we were having fun so we took the mickey out of some of the speakers in good hearted humour… ensuring it was fun, helped us to stay passionate and made us want to continue and learn even more.

Anyway to cut a long story short, we basically took messages from Tony Robbins and relayed this to our group in a fun and stimulating way that got us excited and produced heaps of laughs, which hopefully got our group excited also. The result being that the concepts taught were firmly planted in our own minds and I am sure that we will use these concepts further for our own development. We also learned more about ourselves in pulling together the presentation under pressure and then relaying to a group, learning more about public speaking, comedy, timing etc.

psyphone wallpapers for your iPhone

Did you know that you can assign a photo or design for your lock screen or for the home screen of your iPhone?

Download the psyphone Lock and Home Wallpapers here (zip 65kb)

Follow these steps to save our psyphone wallpapers to your iPhones Lock and Home screen;

1. Download the psyphone wallpaper files including the iPhone Lock Screen (iPhone_Lock.jpg) and iPhone Home Screen (iPhone_HomeScreen.jpg)
2. Uncompress the zip file and save these two files to your pictures folder on your iPhone (while your iPhone is connected)
3. The photos should now be on your iPhone when you disconnect
4. To set your Lock Screen, on your iPhone, choose the psyphone image (iPhone_Lock.jpg) photo and tap, then tap Use As Wallpaper
5.  Drag the photo to position it and pinch to zoom in or out, until it looks the way you want
6. Tap Set, then choose to use the photo as wallpaper for your Lock Screen
7. To set your Home Screen, on your iPhone, choose the psyphone image (iPhone_HomeScreen.jpg) photo and tap, then tap Use As Wallpaper
8.  Drag the photo to position it and pinch to zoom in or out, until it looks the way you want
9. Tap Set, then choose to use the photo as wallpaper for your Home Screen
10. Your Done

Download the psyphone Lock and Home Wallpapers here (zip 65kb)

Did you know that psyborg® creates unique, engaging and interactive Flash games, widgets and applications taking flash beyond the website experience. psyborg® has been having some fun with this and has created Psyball, a fun and interactive ball that sits on your desktop.

You can have hours of fun throwing Psyball around and if your good enough you can even play a round of hand ball against your desktop wall.

To install simply download the zip file by clicking on the link below, unzip and click on the psyball.exe file.

To stop playing just hit the ‘Esc’ key.

Click here to download and install psyball (2.3Mb zipped exe file)

psyborg® has created a list of additional functions that will assist your Google searching needs.

Did you know that other then entering a key word or phrase into Google that you can also enter other interesting terms and symbols that can help to maximize your search results. There is definitely more than meets the eye.

Case Sensitive!
Most search engines are not case sensitive, hence if you enter Psyborg, psyborg or PsYbOrG you will get the same result.

Quotation Marks (” “)
By placing quotation marks around phrases of 2 or more words you actually search for the phrase rather than the two individual words. For example by searching for “Fantastic Design” compared to just Fantastic Design, you increase your results by capturing the exact phrase.

Definition
If you would like to find out a definition of a particular word, you can type in define and then a space before your word. The search engine will result back with links to definitions of that word.

Who Links to You
Did you know that by typing link: and your website domain, you can find out what other website’s have links to your website. For example if I type in link:www.google.com.au I can find out all of those people linking to the google site.

Currency Conversion
Google also has a built in currency converter. Simply enter the details of your conversion and hit search. A conversion will be returned! An example of an entry maybe: 2,500 AUS in USD.

Built in Calculator
Did you know that the search field is also a calculator. You can enter your mathematical equations and google will return the results. For example 5+2*52.

Weather Search
If you type in weather and your area, google will also return with today’s weather information as well as the week forecast. It will also return other web links that can provide further information. For example give Weather Newcastle a shot.

Using the Minus (-) Symbol
You can use the minus symbol to negate a particular word in your search. For example if you were searching for Pearl Drumkits but you did not want the Pearl Necklaces you could type in ‘Pearl – Necklaces’. This would search for all Pearl references but not return anything to do with necklaces.

Using the Plus (+) Symbol
You can combine characters by using the + symbol to string various characters & words together. This ensures that the combination of the characters are searched rather than the individual separated characters that are usually overlooked. For example searching for ‘Star Wars Episode + 1′ rather than ‘Star Wars Episode 1′ will assist your search in looking for the exact phrase rather than the four separate words & characters, as 1 would usually be overlooked.

psyborg® top 5 tips to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

1. Meta Data
Every page of a website should have the minimal Meta Data present on each page. Meta tags such as the ‘Description’ and ‘Keywords’ tags are hidden, HTML programming tags that enable search engines to discover how your website is described and what search key words are applicable.

2. Ensure your content text is real & relative
The actual content text on your website should be real text and not an image. If you can highlight the text with your cursor it is real text. If you have a flash website it is advisable to have a ‘text version’ of the site so that search engines can scan & read this version.

If images are used, ‘Alt’ tags should appropriately describe the image. It is also of benefit if your content text repeats the words from your meta data as per tip 1.

3. Site Map
Essentially a site map is an index page with links to every page on your website. This page helps search engines index every page on your website in an efficient and effective manner as some search engines specificaly look for the sitemap file name.

4. Title Tags
Each new page on your website should have a different title tag briefly describing and differentiating the page you are on in comparison to all other pages.

5. Links, Links, Links
The more external links to other sites you have and the more external sites linking back to your site, the more popular your site seems to search engines, thus helping your ranking in comparison to other competing websites.

To help ensure that this does not happen to you, psyborg® has developed a top 10 logo usage tip list, assisting you in the correct application of your logo.

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your companies logo.

1. EPS Files
If your logo was professionally designed, it should be available in EPS (Encapsulated Post Script) format. This is a vector file type which means that it can be scaled to infinity and beyond without loss of quality and remaining sharp. This is a standard file type that can be used by all printers, publications and sign-writers. It can also be used to convert to other logo file types.

2. JPEG’s and GIF Files
Jpeg and Gif Files are web file types and thus were designed to display images on the screen. When supplying your logo to affiliates it is recomended to provide them with EPS formats first unless otherwise directed.

3. Style Guide
One way to help maximize and communicate the presentation of your logo is to have a style guide created for it. This addresses the rules of application for your logo and can be easily distributed to your affiliates.

4. CMYK or RGB
When sending your logo to your printers you should ensure that it is in CMYK format. CMYK is the color standard for press processes. Alternativley, RGB files are kept aside for on screen use. If you submit your logo file in the incorrect color format you will risk the colors not being published with the correct hue and tone intended.

5. Fonts Outlined
If your logo contains a particular font, you should ensure that the font is outlined, so that it is no longer a font but now a vector shape. This means that the publisher does not need to have your font, thus reducing the potential for error.

6. Colour Conversion to Black and White or Reversed
Depending on where your logo is used, you should have the option of supplying it in Black and White, White reversed or with a white outline. This is particularly relevant for black and white printing or when the logo is used over a photo or shape.

Converting your logo directly to black and white may not represent your logo in the best way as the tonal conversion may not be easily distinguished between shapes and color. A designer should be able to direct you how to best use your logo when converted.

7. Less is More
I find that the best designed logos are the simplest in form but represent the product or service in the most elegant and unique point of view. A logo should be memorable, recognizable and differentiated in the marketplace. The most unified, researched and well executed solutions are usually the nicest solutions.

8. Consistency
The power of your logo is truly recognized through consistency and repetition. You should aim to place your logo on all of your business stationery and communication material in a measured and uniform manner. This will ensure that your customers and potential customers instantly recognize your brand in there minds eye further building on your business reputation.

9. Make your Logo Visible
Although your logo might still be legible at a smaller size, your logo will lose definition and impact if it’s reproduced any smaller than 6 mm. When placing your logo, ensure that it has proportionate space surrounding it so that it stands on its own and does not collide with other design elements.

10. Trademarks
You may want to consider registering your logo as a Trademark ensuring that a similar logo is not already in use and preventing others from copying it and registering it before you do.

psyborg® has made it easy to compress your files with a set of step by step instructions.

Compressing files and folders is now a standard function from Windows XP and onwards.

What are Zip files?
A Zip file is a single file that contains one or more compressed files. Zip files make it easy to keep related files together and make transporting, e-mailing, downloading and storing data and software faster and more efficient. The Zip format is the most popular compression format used in the Windows environment.

Why use Zip files?
Zip files compress data and therefore save time and space and make downloading software and transferring e-mail attachments faster. Typical uses for Zip files include:

1. Distributing files on the Internet: Only one download is required to obtain all related files, and file transfer is quicker because the archived files are compressed
2. Sending a group of related files to an associate: When you distribute a collection of files as a single Zip file, you benefit from the file grouping as well as compression
3. Saving disk space: If you have large files that are important but seldom used, such as large data files, simply compress the files into a Zip file and then unzip (or “extract”) them only when needed

ON A PC

Steps to compress your file(s) and or folder(s)

1. Select a single file, group of files or a folder in windows explorer
2. Right click your selected files or folder and go to the ‘Send To’ ‘Compressed (zipped) Folder’ option
3. A new folder will be created that contains your files or folder in compressed format. You should notice a decrease in file size*
4. You can now attach this zipped file to your email and send it

* File sizes may not be reduced on some Jpeg and pdf files as these files may have already been compressed when saved

Steps to extract your file(s) and or folder(s)

1. Select your zipped file that has been saved to your hard drive in windows explorer
2. Right click the zip file and go to the ‘Extract All’ option
3. You will be presented with a wizard that will step you through the extraction process. Click ‘Next’
4. You will be asked where you would like to extract the files to. Browse your location and click ‘Next’
5. The files will be extracted to your chosen location. You will now have the option to finish and view your extracted files

ON A MAC

Steps to compress your file(s) and or folder(s)

1. Open Finder on your Mac and locate the file that you want to zip.
2. Highlight your file’s icon, or hold down the Command key while highlighting to select multiple files.
3. Right-click your highlighted file(s) and select “Compress” to launch Archive Utility. This will automatically zip your files. If you zip a single file, your new archive will retain the original file name with a “.zip” file extension. If you zip multiple files, it will be called “Archive.zip.”
4. Change your ZIP name if Archive is insufficient. Retain the “.zip” file extension.