Andrews Hobbs Design

Closing and Opening

2011-01-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

Andrews/Hobbs Design Co. Inc. is closing as of December 30th 2010. A victim of multiple forces. The phone number above doesn't work. And the email address while still existent is rarely checked. However, Duane Hobbs is still available either for direct hire, or as a contract consultant. To reach him use: DFHobbs@gmail.com

Duane's Deck

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Building a retail brand from the client out and customer in.

2010-12-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

Brand Strategy for Retail

Project date: 1990

“Domaine feels like a place you'd like to move into: i.e., pay the rent and stay.” John Hinterberger, The Seattle Times

Retail brands are defined at the point of purchase. Retail design, signage, display, product selection, return policies, customer service training, all do more to define the brand than the advertising does. The development of a new retail housewares/home furnishings store in a competitive market requires finding a niche unexplored by others. Duane visited every kitchen and housewares competitor in the market area, and identified their strengths and weaknesses and how the market was being served. Along the way noting the ideal way to display nearly every kind of product offering.

Then Duane partnered with his client to source an Architect/Project Manger, a Construction Manger, and various consultants to produce Domaine, a 2,963 square foot up-scale kitchen/home store. He performed a name generation process. Developed a market profile and roughed out a initial marketing plan to guide his design efforts. He created the initial space plan. Developed design themes, and worked with the experts on fixture details, and interior signage. Duane also sourced key material suppliers and helped with initial store management hiring.

The solution:

By hiring one person with a broad skill set the client saved money.
Duane's broad background helped coordinate the design thinking of Architect/Draftsman, Cabinet makers, General contractors, Display designers, Signage makers, Logo designers, Product buyers, into seeing the project as a whole.
Duane's client orientation helped the client be more involved in the design process and communicate visual ideas to others in the project team.
That process helped the client define a vision of what he wanted and we could better match that to a gap in the marketplace.
The discovery process provided the inspiration that every store has similar product selections, the difference is the environment.
Duane defined the store as "packaging the customer walks through".
Designed ideal fixtures for product presentation, and a "place for everything" feel.
Developed neutral color pallet to let product stand out.
Created finishes for a very polished look.
Opened to a rave review in the Seattle Times, and survived significant market changes over the course of 20 years.

COMPONENT PROJECTS

Competitive Research
Brand Strategy
Space Planing
Store Design
Fixture Design
Name Development
Vendor Sourcing
Hiring Process

Pro-bono Brand Development

2010-09-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not counting the days until retirement. Or living for the weekend. I love what I do. And I often say "If I won the lottery I'd still do this".

Finding opportunities where I can make a difference is important to me. That's one of the reasons why I volunteered my skills through the Taproot Foundation to Seattle's Lighthouse for the Blind. And one of the reason's why I often sit down and discuss branding and marketing topics without asking for anything in return.

For very small businesses I will sometimes charge "what you feel this was worth to you". It's more gratifying to receive the equivalent of a weeks profits from a entrepreneur just starting out than thousands from a going concern.

For individuals working on understanding "personal branding" I just meet for coffee and share a few simple models for discovering their brand and applying that knowledge.

Anyway, that said. There is only so much pro-bono that I can afford to do. So the standard is to provide a sliding scale depending on the revenues a non-profit has and the scope of the work that needs to be done.

One secret for success is to contact me (or any professional really) as early as possible to get the best value for the time to be spent.

Developing a consistent vision for the blind

2010-08-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Brand Strategy Development

Project date: 2010

As his first project as a volunteer with the Taproot Foundation Duane lead development of Brand Strategy and Key Messaging for Seattle’s Lighthouse for the Blind.

A dynamic new president had been charged with increasing the visibility of the organization. There was also recognition that the organization needed to improve their marketing messages. Our team was tasked with developing Brand Strategy and Key Messages inline with general Taproot guidelines.

With Robin Staples as Account Director, Carrie Zheng as Marketing Manager, Anne Geurts as Copywriter, and Britta Michalove as Project Manager, Duane lead a discovery process that included developing a survey, interviewing representative stakeholders, and auditing the organization and competing brands.

We uncovered inconsistent naming, unneeded communication tools, and an organization that while remarkably clear in its values and mission, was unclear in how to communicate that focus.

We discovered an inherent inspirational ideal shared by all stakeholders of wanting to make a difference in the lives of the blind, and the shared belief that nothing makes more of a difference than helping someone help themselves.

Our process and deliverables gave the organization a better understanding of itself and its relationships with stakeholder groups, and provided a guide for communication when talking to those groups. Now Seattle Lighthouse has tools to prioritize future marcom projects and an understanding of its chief brand asset: it’s pivotal position in changing the lives of Seattle’s Blind, Deaf-blind, and blind with other disabilities through skill training and the development of work opportunities.

PROJECTS

• Brand Strategy
• Key Messages
• Marcom Audit
• Naming / Identity Brief

Looking good in photos.

2010-08-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

Let's say you are trying to make yourself look as good as possible for a dating site. Trying different outfits, maybe thinking about where you have your picture taken.

Maybe you should think about the camera.

OKcupid explores how to appear most attractive in your photos. (and BTW iPhone users get more sex)

A brief history of graphic design in America

2010-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

A great resource for designers looking for inspiration (or for what NOT to do), and for clients looking for designers (or at least what good design looks like).

I only ask that none of my clients point to one of these images and say: "I want something like that, only different." Good design solutions are like fingerprints they should match you and you alone.

Autonomy, mastery, fun, purpose

2010-06-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Many businesses seek to motivate their employees by expecting the employee to adopt the employers sense of purpose. Replacing their values with the organizations values. This video shows why it's better to align the company and employee values and purpose.

Many philosophers and social scientists have pointed out that life is about finding and expressing your purpose. Not someone elses: yours. Making a difference, having fun, doing something cool, being good at something. Finding that which makes your contribution, your life, irreplaceable.

Think of how your organization could apply this understanding.

A revamped view of social media

2010-05-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Social Media Video by Erik Qualman - Reveamped (Statistic sources are on his site)

A small businesses payment system

2010-05-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Getting paid is one of the most critical parts of being a business. Presenting an attractive offer, to a qualified buyer, at a competitive price point, that you can make a profit with is all irrelevant if the check bounces or if you have to send things to a collection agency.

This little piece of technology offers to make things pretty easy for little businesses to compete with bigger ones. Click on the image to check it out.

One approach to Promotion on the Internet

2010-02-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

A short presentation I put together in about 2 hrs for a small business that wanted to get started with advertising on the internet.

At it's most basic, while it does require a few different skills to do well, advertising on the internet isn't complicated. (I'll add the caveat that a whole lot of strategic and planning work should come before one gets to the point of advertising. But that's a different presentation.)

Small Business Digital Marketing Basics

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Never doubt the power of the mind

2009-12-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

Why Branding Matters

2009-12-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Building on my last post a bit:

Your brand is "who you are" to yourself and the world.

Your values, what matters most to you, your personality and even to a large extent the icons associated with you can and should change very little over time.

Your brand can and should be remembered long after your organization is gone.

But your organization can take the inspiration of its values and the strength of its personality to develop new missions for itself in line with those values.

And of course it can develop new skills to pursue those missions.

If "who you are" doesn't matter. Those missions won't matter.

That's why every branding project begins by establishing who you are.

What is an organization v. 1

2009-11-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to model organizations so I could understand their problems and how to address them. I'm currently working with this three part model:

An organization is a Brand, on a Mission, with the Capabilities to fulfill that mission.
A Brand consists of a set of Icons associated with a personality that has a core message that reflects it's values. (Think of an organizations values as it's inner reason for being. And the Mission as the expression of that reason for being.) One may try to control this definition, but the fact of the matter is a brand is a sponge that over time absorbs the meaning that make it "what it is". Rather than try to tightly control ones brand it's best to try to first understand it, and second be a catalyst for strengthening the best parts of it. (I'll write more on this in another post)

The Mission is the expression of "what to be" or "what to do" that exists as an outgrowth of an organizations values and as allowed or limited by its capabilities. It's the aspiration. Values the inspiration.

And Capabilities can be operational or social or both. The intellectual, physical, political capital that can be employed toward pursuing the Mission.

Branding is far more than the logo

2009-10-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

But often that's where things start.

A lot is asked of a logo. It has to encapsulate what an organization is today, and what it will become tomorrow. It needs to be about personality, capabilities, and values.

Coydan Construction needed something simple. Something that could be applied to things large or small. Something that could be used without calling up a designer every time they needed to do something. Here's what I gave them.

Coydan Logo/Symbol

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Coydan Application

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Why you need three legs.

2009-08-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

For a person it's awkward.

But for a platform to put a message on, you can't get more basic than these three supports for your marketing communications effort.

The three legs of the marketing communications table:
It presents it's message as simply as possible, and no simpler. And does it in a way that is interesting.

It is true, and truer to you than anyone else. Thus being credible & ownable.

The product or message "fits" in the customers life. Thus, being relevant.

There are more complex versions of what one needs for effective marketing communications. But this is as simple as it gets, and no simpler.

Add a leg or take away a leg, and it's hard not to construct a "wabbler". Something that needs a shim here or there. Or BOTH here AND there. It's easy to create something that doesn't quite support what it's supposed to support. Or doesn't support anything.

Simplicity, truth, relevance.

Know your audience

2009-07-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

I got my start designing for publishing. And the key to a successful publication is knowing who is reading you and why. That idea corresponds nicely with knowing who your customers are and understanding why they are your customers. Is it something you are doing right? Is it something someone else is doing wrong? (While you're at it, knowing why your competitions customers aren't your customers is a pretty good idea too.)

In addition to getting basic customer and market knowledge, I also learned the problem of a unsuccessful publisher is often managing growth, cash flow, and debt. So, if anything, when I advise companies my advice is aimed at slow smart growth.

I provided design or production, art direction, and either produced directly or managed the production of a number of publications.

Nautilus Typegraphics: (The Cross Sound Merchant), The Seattle Source, Wine Brothers Publishing: (The Monthly - Puget Sound & San Francisco editions), the Freedom Socialist, RCM Communications/Martin Publishing: (Cad Evolution, CAD Interface, CCS CAD Digest,Robocad’s ICON, etc.)

Located convieniently near you

2009-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a modern era "digital nomad" and like it. While I have an office in my home, I usually meet people in their offices, in coffee shops, and online. And even though I insist on being small, I collect good people from around the globe to put the right skills on your project.

My hours vary with what else I am doing. So, all meetings are done by appointment.

View My unofficial office (and coffee break) in a larger map