Branding

They say all good things must come to an end, friends, and as it turns out, that time has come for Nyman Ink. After countless newsletters, websites, brochures and fundraising campaigns (not to mention all the other stuff we’ve done), more than 60 awards and a full 22 years in business, we’re creatively exhausted and ready for a break. Two decades is a long time to keep going at full speed, and while we’ve loved every minute of it, we think it’s time to give it a rest.

Nyman Ink’s doors will officially close on Friday, August 31, 2012. In the meantime, we’ll be wrapping up our final projects and tying up loose ends.

But, fear not. We don’t plan to leave you high and dry. Though our physical office will be no more, our website, www.nymanink.com, will remain up and running to allow you to keep accessing all of our free resources, from whitepapers to blog posts. And though we’re getting out the design and marketing biz, we know you’ll still need great marketing professionals to help you with your future communications needs. With that in mind, Judy Nyman, our founder and fearless leader, will also remain available in case you need a referral or have any questions. When the doors close, Judy will be reachable via email at jnyman [at] nymanink [dot] com and by phone at 416-587-5847.

We sincerely thank you for 22 wonderful years of business, friendship and referrals. We don’t know where we’ll end up next, but we wish you all the best of luck with your future businesses, ventures and plans.

It's been grand.

Sincerely,

Judy Nyman, Bonnie Jackson, Nicola McHughen, Jen Selk, Scott Hamel

The Team at Nyman Ink

P.S. For the time being, our blog, website and social media accounts will remain available online, but we will not be updating them.

I came across a post over on Bored Panda the other day and I thought it might interest those of you intrigued by the process of branding and logo design. It's all about the ideas behind some of the world's most famous identity visuals.

I have a friend who volunteers for a not-for-profit organization. When I asked her if she felt that achieving that NFP’s goals (that is, living up to the organization’s mission statement) was as important as it might be at a for-profit corporation, she laughed. “That’s a no-brainer! What kind of organization doesn’t want to accomplish its mission?”

Then I asked her what her non-profit’s mission statement was.  She was stumped. Not a good sign. I’m sure she had and has a good idea of what her chosen not-for-profit does, but she wasn’t really able to put it into words in a clear and concise way.

If you turned on the news any time this past week, you probably heard that Joss Whedon's comic book film "The Avengers" opened with record-breaking numbers this past weekend. In fact, the film raked in approximately $200 million in its first couple of days on screen (smashing the record of $169 million taken in by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on its opening weekend last summer). As such, I've got "The Avengers" on the brain. And with that in mind, I wanted to share with you a little bit of design that fits in with the comic book theme.

It's been awhile since the Nyman Ink blog discussed branding, so today I thought I'd bring you a piece modified from one by the experts over at Fast Company. Just a couple of weeks ago, Fast Company blogger Mark McNeilly wrote a piece entitled 9 Principles For Great Branding By Design, which contained some helpful insights I thought worth repeating.

Pantone is, without a doubt, the world's most significant arbiter of what's cool in the world of colour. And makeup is all about colour. Still, I was surprised to hear that the iconic brand would be partnering with cosmetic retail giant Sephora to launch a Pantone makeup line that will highlight the 2012 colour of the year: Tangerine Tango. 

Belinda Lanks, a senior editor at Co.Design, wrote a fun little piece about branding recently that I thought would be worth sharing with you. It falls under the "fun information you probably didn't know" category. She titled her piece "Salvador Dalí's Real Masterpiece: The Logo For Chupa Chups Lollipops" and in it, she reveals that surrealist master Salvador Dalí not only designed the iconic logo for Chupa Chups, he did it at a cafe table, in less than an hour.

The Design Taxi daily newsletter almost always features something fun. Most recently, they called attention to an amusing new Tumbler entitled Hipster Branding.

Every January, I start thinking about the Super Bowl. Not because I enjoy American football (I don't), but because I enjoy seeing the commercials that run during the Super Bowl broadcast. In the marketing/advertising world, these commercials make a major impact, and it's always smart for those in our business to keep an eye on what runs, and what works on Super Bowl Sunday.

Saw an interesting piece floating around the blogosphere today. According to a California-based not-for-profit — the Maya Archaeology Initiative (MAI), which describes itself as "a project of the California-based World Free Press Institute, a non-profit with a history of defending free expression and challenging repression of cultural heritage issues” — Kellogg’s "is taking legal action against the Maya Archaeology Initiative (MAI) ... claiming that the use of a toucan in its logo infringes on Kellogg’s Toucan Sam character and games."