Be Aware 10
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A perfect score. Be Aware ten has arrived…
Donovan Beery: A Bit Off-Topic This Time
While growing up, I found that Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, in particular, had unique shaped buildings, making them easy to spot. The building’s shape seemed to be an extension of their identity, making it more effective than a sign alone could do. The shape of the windows alone gave it away. Years later, I see the downside of having an identity that is so consistent. When you eventually sell the building, and it becomes a different restaurant like the one I ate in this weekend, or even worse - a tobacco shop or quick loan center. Every time people drive by these places, how can they not think of the original company that made the shape of the building so unique?
Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World
As the President of AIGA Nebraska, I think it’s prudent that I use my time to highlight a piece of design that’s particularly good because of its content. Last month, AIGA Nebraska published a handy brochure called the Business Resource Guide. As its cover states, it is, simply put, a guide to why “good design is good business.” It’s a guide meant to explain the value of design, which was developed for the business community at large. The piece covers topics from why design makes good business sense to the ethics of design, and includes a comprehensive “Client’s Guide to Design.” It explains to the business community that design is an invaluable tool which will help them achieve their goals.
AIGA Nebraska has a large quantity of the Guides available for free distribution. I’d like to encourage all of you to request as many copies of the Business Resource Guide as you can use, and distribute them to colleagues, clients, potential clients, and the general business community. Simply send a request to president@nebraska.aiga.org with your mailing address, and the number of copies you would like. Boxes of 40, or smaller quantities, are available.
Travis Gray: TypeWatch
Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography
Jurgen Kreckel is the man to talk to if you are in the market for a medium format folding camera. His site, certo6.com is a gold mine of information about these beautiful old cameras. For my birthday I got an Iskra that was refurbished by Jurgen, and it is truely a beautiful machine. It has a coupled rangefinder, a film counter, an outstanding lens, and it folds down to a size that almost fits in my pocket. It is amazing what an old folder can do all without any batteries.
David Kadavy: Design and Technology
Google recently launched Google Analytics, which is extremely sophisticated, and free, web analytics software. One of Analytics features is the ability to track the value of a site visitor based upon monetary values given to certain site goals. Now it will be relatively easy to estimate the ROI of a site redesign, or even a layout change on a page in the site that is critical in generating revenue.
Comments (7)
Adrian said:
Kadavy, I am pretty excited about Analytics, too. It has the potential to be an amazing tool, but I am not real happy with it so far. The reports I have gotten are incomplete due to the massive amounts of people who signed up when it launched. But, they say that the holes will get filled when they catch up with all the data they have gathered. Have you had any similar problems?
Posted on December 2, 2005
Bennett said:
Donovan, Suzanne and I just had a conversation about that a week or two ago. These repurposed restaurants are constant reminders of that restaurant’s failure. I’ve rarely (if ever) seen a successful adaptation of a Pizza Hut building. Maybe their branding shouldn’t be so permanent. Are new Pizza Huts still using this building and window shape? If so, they might want to consider something more morphable. They might want to reconsider the Venturiesque “Building as Sign” model. It might just end up being someone else’s sign.
Posted on December 2, 2005
kadavy said:
Adrian: my analytics haven’t been perfect, either, but the service shows great potential. Part of the problem is that we haven’t yet set up dedicated pages that are only served when a business goal is met. I have gotten general data that I deem to be reliable, however, it hasn’t properly separated organic vs cost-per-click referrals. I think that if Google can get this running smoothly, and keep the cost of doing so down, it will be huge for their service, making their already incredible AdWords program even more effective.
Posted on December 2, 2005
kadavy said:
Donovan, your observation reminds me of a client we had when I was at an Architecture firm. They were building a museum that they apparently didn’t have much confidence in the success of. Whenever a design was presented that alluded to the function of the building they would say “two words ‘resale value.’”
Posted on December 2, 2005
Donovan Beery said:
Kadavy, that ‘resale value’ explains why the newer Pizza Hut in my area is located in a strip mall. From one extreme to the other…
Posted on December 2, 2005
Kyle said:
Bennett, have the sit-down Pizza Hut restaurants left the midwest now, too? When I moved to southern California 5 years ago, none were in sight—only tiny delivery-only stations and combos of Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/KFC could be found. However, as I keep exploring more side-streets, I see these buildings that look just like the Pizza Huts I knew as a kid. I figured maybe it was a sign of the times, and that companies other than PIzza Hut built them. Who knows.
Posted on December 3, 2005
Bennett said:
No, Kyle, The old school Pizza Huts are still around. Just a few here and there have gone out of business. Usually there will be an Oriental restaurant that takes residence in the abandoned building.
I think it is inevitable in certain situations that a company will go out of business. With the ebbs and flows of economic development, I’m sure at times, businesses find themselves in highly unprofitable areas after a certain number of years. Then again, it could be that sandwich shops (i.e. Subways and Quiznos) are putting them out of business as well.
Posted on December 3, 2005