Tired of the generic colours of your favourite computer or MP3 player? Colorware will change it for you.

An interesting niche business. This is the 21st century version of a car body customising business.

What similar niche can you identify in your industry?

I have a lovely long Friday lunch with Justin McMurray last Friday. Our conversation revolved around these core needs of the human species.

The Internet is an ideal medium to satisfy all of these needs. It has opened up more avenues for individual expression than ever before, it offers anonymity (or at least a very good proxy of anonymity), and it allows everyone to be potentially heard by the …

When you think design + computers, you may be forgiven for thinking only of Apple. Design is about thinking things through, and working in a disciplined, methodical manner with a clear and unabiguous focus in mind. The final stylistic outcome can vary dramatically.

A counterpoint to the Apple’s “look at me” style is IBM/Lenovo’s long-standing Thinkpad line of laptops.

Those who know me will know I have long been a …

While shopping for a new television, I discovered that some retailers are putting actual facsimiles of their paper catalogues online (as opposed to other retailers who have searchable, database driven web catalogues).

While I can understand the cost-saving and ease of repurposing paper-based content with a scanner, the Internet and paper are two completely different media and requires different approaches to ensure usability and legibility.

Legibility is first and foremost my concern. With paper, you get much higher “resolution”; with type remaining legible at down to 4 points in size. By way of comparison, Word’s default font size is 12 points. You can also see the entire page on paper, whereas you will likely need to scroll to see the same amount of info on a screen.

This is the shopfront of a large electrical retailer in central Sydney. Every time I walk pass this shop my first impression is always “oh, they’re shut.”

The blue strips are actually and intentional “design feature” - sticky vinyl applied onto the fixed glass panels. The shape of the holes and the regularity of the pattern strongly suggest a shut gate.

The actual doorway …

Walking off a packed train into this gushing forest of brown liquid is not good! Snapped at Sydney Central station. The same imagery is also available for your enjoyment at other quality locations city-wide.

Is this the first time a Coke ad showed the actual product? As opposed to showing desirable and “valid” people in the throes of enjoying life, with the product…

The Origin of Brands: Discover the natural laws of product innovation and business survival. By Al and Laura Ries. ISBN 0-06-057014-8.

Categories, not product features, are what matters. Categories will always diverge. Create and own your category to win. Al and Laura draw an interesting parallel between brands and Darwin’s evolution of species. Definitely one to add to your library and refer to often.

A good logo should only have one gimmick. A gimmick can be: different colours , changing colours with a simple motif , a single styled letter amongst “plain” letters , a unique typeface used for the whole name , a graphical treatment of the name , or a strong symbol .

Amateur looking logos are often …

Does your business purport to care for customers? If so, are you spending more money producing glossy ads than you do the material that supports, enables and empowers your existing customers? This blog post raises some very good points about how businesses treat existing customers vs new customers. (Thanks Stil)

These signs can be seen all over London (UK), attached to the appropriate objects of course. I love them for their simplicity and directness. They sure beat the ones found here in Sydney which says “Danger: High Voltage”. I would venture that death is a more commonly understood concept than “high voltage” and its effect on living tissue.

Which bits of your business communications can you make …