Current progress of the Olympic stadium, still under construction.

Yasmine Raffoul shared with us the rules put in place to maintain the integrity of the brandmark as well, as their paced roll-out of campaign materials, weekend events and newsworthy bits to keep the citizens of England engaged with the process of the games coming to their country.

Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots for the 2012 Games

In addition, we learned more about the two mascots developed for these Games. Initially several agencies came to LOCOGO to pitch their ideas about an Olympic mascot. Big agencies - some with heavy backgrounds in toy development. And, some of the initial concepts were typical objects found in and around London; tea pots, London cabs and even a pigeon. Fortunately none of those were selected. The agency who won the contract had put together a focus group of children - who easily identified with these two characters. Each are designed of a shiny metallic surface to reflect what they’ll be learning on their journey as they travel around England, learning about sport. The single eye acts as a camera to record their learnings and neither actually speak. They squeak and whir allowing for the children to use their imaginations to speculate on their conversations. Their names come from historic references of two men; one who was responsible for starting what we now know as the modern Olympics (Wenlock) and the other who started the Paralympics (Mandeville).

It was very interesting to learn that the games are being managed, in terms of campaign roll-out, much like politics. London is the first city to introduce their brandmark as early as they have, and they are trying to slowly build messaging and awareness campaigns - so not to over saturate or peak too early. Which would dilute the value of the brand and the enthusiasm for the Games.

So in this weeks’ assignment, the students are to create a communications campaign that celebrates on of the lesser known sports in the London Games. By this we mean that they can’t select swimming, track & field or gymnastics. Their campaigns need to make the public aware of that specific sport - and ideally, encourage a younger audience to want to participate.

They’ll be presenting their ideas on Friday, up on the 23rd floor.

Eric Chimenti and myself in the lobby of London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).

On Monday, the students heard about the planning and details that went into the masterplan of the Olympic Park - as well as the big ideas for the Legacy Plan of that same site, as it gets built out over the next 30 to 40-years.

The students were divided up into three work teams - each presenting their own concepts to our group. The balance of our week was spent refining a single concept from each team that would be presented to EDAW/AECOM on Friday.

A trip to The Design Museum midweek allowed for them to recharge their batteries and continue working on their presentations.

Thursday evening became a LATE Thursday evening as last minute polishing of designs and presentations took place. Nevertheless, Friday mornings’ results proved that their time spent was well worth it. Our three teams each presented their conceptual designs to EDAW - and received great feedback on both their design ideas and their presentation ability.

When the presentations were completed, the students were able to ask questions about how graphic designers fit into a firm like EDAW/AECOM and how the company valued its importance.

It’s now our 3rd day in London – and my first opportunity for communication. Indeed, Mind The Gap.

This year’s Chapman University trip has started off much better than expected in terms of my students, their efforts to create good, solid communication design solutions and the added help I have with Eric Chimente, Department Head for Chapman’s Design School. Our only hiccup has been the access to the internet – which we rely on heavily for general communication with clients, family and our ability to continue working while here in London.

The students began their designing their first week, while we were still at the University.  I had assigned them to create an INFILL campaign using the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics logo. We had them begin by sketching big idea concepts, and then refining them to a single campaign that would either speak to tourism of London or the encouragement of sport. They performed beyond expectation in both their design solutions and their presentations. For me, it made me breathe a bit easier knowing that they would proudly represent Chapman University.  After all, last year’s Uni students set the bar high in their presentations to the design firms that we will be visiting on our trip.

Saturday’s travels were as travel days are; tiring. Nevertheless, we did our best to get out and see a bit of London. I drug Eric to Primrose Hill to eat at my favorite pizza restaurant: J’s.  Of course, it was absolutely fantastic pizza.

Sunday, still a bit rough around the edges, the group took the bus tour around London. BTW – I hadn’t mentioned that the weather is incredibly hot – and quite humid. So we endured the heat, enjoyed the overview of the city – and headed back to the hotel to clean up and look for a place to watch the World Cup.

We found a classic English pub, not the touristy type, and settled in nicely with some traditional British eats.

Darrin Duhamil, owner of REVO, sees these “kits” – the jerseys and matching bib shorts – as a great opportunity to extend his brand.  After all, when team riders are climbing up Saddleback or spinning along Coast Highway, they’re often surrounded by REVO’s ideal audience – fellow cyclists.

Mike Heindel says the REVO team is very pleased with their new kits.

For starters, we worked to maintain a high level of consistency with the REVO brand look and feel.  So we prominently featured the capital R that acknowledges the iconic signage on the storefront, the inclusion of “espresso” along with “bicycles” that differentiates the shop, and a unique color palette that stands out in a sea of black, white and red schemes.

As we moved to include the required sponsor logos, however, we had to check ourselves and intentionally hold back from turning these kits into display advertising.

After all, while REVO certainly wants to spread its message, we owe it to the team riders as well to create a kit that they’d be proud to wear.

Nobody, including us, wants to be treated as a billboard.

By balancing the needs of the client with the tastes of the audience, we believe we’re able to promote the REVO brand in a genuine, non-pushy way that invites participation.

REVO Cycles' new jersey and bibs.

We had helped develop a solid brand campaign for their newest progressive lens.  In her post-launch synopsis, Bernadette Hiskey said the Zeiss Individual campaign was a huge success, and shared these highlights:

• It was a strong year for customized lenses, despite the poor economy.  We ended the year approx 15% above an aggressive plan.
• In December we were awarded the OLA “Best in Lens Design” 2009 Award of Excellence voted on by the independent laboratories across the US.  The marketing campaign played no small part in the win.
• We just finished clinical trials with UC Berkeley are pleased to say we have strong results demonstrating patient preference, so are moving on to peer clinical publications now.
• Our first ZEISS TV spots for Zeiss Individual are now on air in 4 regional markets.

It’s great, of course, for a client to take the time to keep us informed and share this great news.  It’s also a reminder for all of us that while our work may wrap up with the launch of a brand campaign, for our clients much of the heavy lifting is just beginning.  We need to keep in mind that our designs and our messaging are meant to connect powerfully with an audience and achieve very real marketing and sales objectives.

As Bernadette shared her praise and appreciation not only for us but also for the lab operations teams and sales people — “You’ve all scored a knockout!” — we were reminded that our efforts truly are part of a team effort whose success depends on the collaboration of many many people.

Following up with our clients and measuring campaign results give us the opportunity to really recognize the value of our branding efforts.

Part of our strategy was to convey that the true heroes are not the frames -- but the Zeiss lenses. Our solution was to photograph our talent both with and without the frames, and then accurately create the lens shape for each individual face. Architectural measurement lines were added to the graphics to emphasize the Zeiss brand attributes of precision, accuracy and performance.

Gold medalist Clara Hughes, right, and fellow Canadian Cindy Klassen, who won the bronze, after the Ladies' 5,000-meter speed-skating event in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

We typically see the branding of products and services – or at least that’s what we’re most familiar with. Of course, there’s the branding of events – such as the Olympic Games, as well as the branding of place – such as cities and countries.

Today’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting article regarding the Canadian athletes going to the 2010 Winter Games. Essentially stating that the Canadians are changing their host-like attitude to one of Olympic domination. “Own The Podium,” is their new attitude – or the one that they’ve recently created an entire campaign around.

The Own The Podium campaign’s focus is to draw in funds to hire top-notch coaches and psychologists to assist the athletes in full-time training.  As well, the monies are going toward helping the athletes not have to work part-time jobs while training for their upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

To read the full article – click here.

Real Life designed a symbol that was easily identifiable from a distance – and has the ability to quickly remind people to simply, “hide their stuff and lock their cars.” Students from Dana Hills High School were enlisted to set up scenarios that would truly convey a visual message which are now running in print ads around town.

CHALLENGE: Thefts from unlocked cars represent the most frequently committed crimes in Dana Point, yet are easy to prevent. Dana Point Police wanted an awareness campaign around the message: “Hide it. Lock it. Or lose it.”

STRATEGY: Development of a comprehensive website that carried the message, along with related advertising efforts to raise awareness.

CREATIVE: Brand identity included an iconic symbol that is easily recognized to serve as a reminder to protect valuables from theft.

RESULTS: While currently being launched, Dana Point Police are optimistic that these crimes can be dramatically reduced.

Click to see the site.

As we were developing the Hide it campaign we knew that we needed to speak a different language to get the attention of  the younger audience of Dana Point.  To the point, the high school students at Dana Hills High School have had their own challenges of petty thefts.  Many of which are unattended backpacks, which have things such as cell phones, iPods, credit cards and cash.

We discovered the word Shwazooki frrom the urban dictionary, meaning “to hide or stash your stuff.” Please, take a look at the new site: Shwazooki.com. As part of the campaign launch we’ve printed up stickers for the students to put on notebooks and lockers, as well as surfboard hang-tags to place on their backpacks as a friendly reminder to “Hide it. Lock it. Or Lose it.”

CHALLENGE: As a complementary campaign to “Hide it. Lock it. Or lose it.,” a specific awareness effort was required to target younger audiences in Dana Point with a similar message.

STRATEGY: Enlist high school students to participate in the development of the campaign, which features imagery and messaging relevant to this audience.

CREATIVE: Development and promotion of “Shwazooki” as a slang term meaning “to hide or protect” your belongings.

RESULTS: Campaign is currently being launched, but “Shwazooki” is already gaining attention and use among teenagers.

Click to see the site.

Since returning from London, and reading continued news on the upcoming London Games – as well as close-minded blogs on their dislike of the 2012 logo. I’ve been very interested to see what will be the next evolution of the 2016 Olympic logo will look like.

Real Life Branding has pulled together some of the more recent Olympic logos – showing you what they originally looked like when the featured city was vying to be selected as the host city. Adjacent to each is the final brandmark used for each city’s Olympic Games.

Since all but the most recent 2012 logo was designed as part of a general design competition – there were really no rules or design objectives that were put in place – other than represent the country in some manner.  When I say rules, I’m speaking of branding guidelines. Something that would have a more concrete purpose to fulfill rather than to just look pretty.

Since I have an architectural background – I would liken this to having a client give me a piece of property and tell me to “design something.” What does that mean? Whereas if that client had given me a 40-acre parcel in Napa Valley and told me that they loved to entertain, typically 8 to 18 guests – that would tend to set up some boundaries.  Imagine this same property and the client said that he and his wife liked the quiet views of the valley and reading books.  Would those not be two very different homes?

It’s been quite humorous to have read blog postings of various designers who criticized the 2012 logo – knowing that they’ve never read the brand brief. As well as having never traveled to London to understand what the culture of the city is like. For this aspect, I’m truly looking forward to the London Games – giving London the opportunity to show off their new brandmark in its best light.

So my biggest curiosity for the moment is to see how the city of Rio will treat this new task at hand? Will they return to the mediocrity of the past Olympic brandmarks?  Or will they forge ahead, continuing the new vocabulary that people like Frank Gehry have given to architecture, and Wolff Olins has given to branding of the 2012 Games?

Here’s the full article:

ORLEANS — Cabot Vineyards has caught the attention of Robert Parker, world-renowned wine critic and editor of The Wine Advocate. Parker awarded a score of 90, for an “outstanding or special effort,” to Cabot’s 2006 Kimberly’s Syrah.

Winemaker John Cabot said he was surprised and pleased by the favorable review.

“Our wines are the first wines grown and produced in Humboldt County to be reviewed by Parker,” Cabot said. “The county’s potential to produce great wines is finally getting discovered on a larger scale.”

TIME Magazine calls Parker the most influential voice in the wine industry worldwide. Parker samples 10,000 wines a year for The Wine Advocate, an international magazine in circulation for more than 30 years. In his tasting notes, Parker wrote: “ The Kimberly’s Syrah exhibits plenty of earth, cassis, roasted herb, and crushed berry characteristics in an elegant, layered, medium to full-bodied, attractive, soft style.”

According to Parker’s scoring system for The Wine Advocate, “90-100 is equivalent to an ‘A’ grade and is given only for an outstanding or special effort. Wines in this category are the very best produced of their type.” Located in Orleans along the Klamath River valley, Cabot Vineyards is the northernmost vineyard and winery in California. It is owned by John and Kimberly Cabot, Humboldt State graduates who started as organic farmers selling their produce at farmers’ markets. They started making wine in 2001 and won their first gold medal by 2002.

“The 2006 Kimberly’s Syrah is made from organic Syrah grapes grown in Orleans that we planted in 2003,” Cabot said. “ The vineyard is very rocky and the grapes are small and concentrated. We also coferment organic Viognier with the Syrah, which aids in stabilizing the abundant color in Syrah. It’s amazing that a white grape can help make Syrah more colorful. The Viognier also boosts the aromatics in the wine with its tropical and floral nose.”

The 2006 Kimberly’s Syrah and other award-winning varietals are available in area markets, wine sho ps, restaurants and online at http:// www.cabotvineyards. com. Seven new wines are set for release next spring.

Cabot Vineyards can be reached at 530-469-3397.