Where was I? I was sleeping like a baby without an ounce of shopping anxiety.

If you've ever waited tables, Black Friday traditionally is a lot like working at Sizzler on Mother's day: lines out the door, crazy people, running out of product, a lot of apologies and my favorite — parking lot rage.

It's not a fun day for employees or shoppers but it's the day that kick-starts the holiday shopping season nonetheless.

With all of the in-store and pre-television/radio ads, Black Friday becomes one big blur of who is selling ... Continue Reading

It's very interesting to see how the malls are marketing this year to get people through their door. We just visited our local mall and 9 stores out of 10 had major discounts or FREE posters in nearly every window.

Nearly ... Continue Reading

So there I am in the Starbucks drive through for the usual morning wake-me-up. I get to the window and the barista says "Your coffee was just paid for by the car in front of you." (who by this time has fled the scene)

She proceeds to tell me that every car in front of the next car is doing the same — it's this game they play to see how many cars will pay for the next. That day I was the 44th car in a row to follow suit. My ... Continue Reading

Well, it’s here. We are in the final week of November. If you live in the good ole U.S.A., that means we take time out as a nation on Thursday to give thanks for all of our blessings. For most of us, it means we get together with family and friends and eat a huge feast. It may even be the only time of year we get together with certain members of our family. This got me thinking about all we are thankful for in our marketing design business.

One thing that is ... Continue Reading

We've all done it, we've all learned our lesson and now don't do it. The word "spec" should be added to the 7 dirty words list made famous by Howard Stern.

Speculation work is a huge design industry abomination where potential clients/buyers approach a firm or designer with an enticing project — often an RFP that request work be done BEFORE a contract has been signed or payment has been received. The kicker is the work you create is ONLY paid for if it makes the cut. Not only are you putting ... Continue Reading

For the second consecutive year, LogoLounge has recognized Effusion for brand design excellence.

OK so we're tooting our own horn, but we're proud of what we do here and being recognized in your industry to what a panel of international judges judging over 30,000 logo submissions and considering your work "solid design" is worth a mention. Below is one of the two logos that made it into the book.

You can say what you want about perfectionists. While Effusion has been accused of pixel paranoia and designs having to be perfect before they are sent to any client, Axel on the other hand has taken perfectionism to a whole new level.

Mrs. Butterworth has nothing on Axel who has taken his own sweet time (about 15 years) to produce his fabled album Chinese Democracy.

It was an industry joke, "yeah we'll see that album when Hell freezes over."

Dr Pepper banking on this joke bet in March of this year that ... Continue Reading

When you think streamlined/concise content, this trickles down to the very essence of your brand — yes your logo.

In the beginning when we first started our company, we were open to creating what we refer to as the "FrankinLogo" — meaning, we presented 4-6 logo concepts and let the client decide what they liked best, if that meant creating a hybrid of 2 or 3 logos then so be it. Well, what we came to find was that this method seemed to yield the ugliest logos that consistently never ... Continue Reading

What seems second nature to designers isn't all that intuitive for clients when it comes to creating the right type of content for a brochure, website or something as simple as a logo.

We refer to "content overload" as "Kitchen Sink Design."

Here's the scenario, a client comes in and is ecstatic about their rebranding ranging from their logo to a new website, brochure, the whole nine. When we discuss the project scope and what we're looking for in terms of content (this is before the design process actually starts) more often than ... Continue Reading

You can love 'em or hate 'em but when it comes down to marketing genius and pushing the right buttons to get a brand noticed, you don't have to look any further than Marilyn Manson. As the self proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar", Manson has been indisputably among the most notorious and controversial entertainers since the mid 1990s due to a strong realization that niche marketing his band was what would set him apart from all the wanna-bees.

Drawing upon artistic influences like Alice Cooper and KISS, Manson takes his image to ... Continue Reading