Two of my favorite things in this world are: (1) the world itself (Planet Earth) and (2) guerilla marketing. So, when I stumbled across a way to sustain one by doing the other, I was super ecstatic!
There is a fairly new “natural media” called clean advertising, which works by literally cleaning your ad or message into almost any dirty, smut-caked wall or walkway. Think of it as reverse graffiti—a way to make earth-conscious, artistic advertising.
Clean advertising is created with custom, high-pressure washers that selectively remove dirt, creating a contrast between the dirty surface and the good-as-new original color of the pavement. One of the great things about clean advertising is that it can be highly targeted around events or toward a specific demographic.
Clean Advertising done by Curb, the world’s first natural media company.
Just when you thought sustainable guerilla advertising stops there, just wait until you read the next sentence! Other simple, yet brilliant methods gaining popularity include snow tagging, water art, mow ads, solar art and one of my other favorites—moss art.
It’s time to clean up AND have fun doing it!
What are your thoughts on clean advertising? Have you come across any yet?
Sometimes taking care of business in the business-to-business business means people can get wrapped up in other peoples’ business. More specifically, we tend to focus heavily on what competitors’ or partners’ communications look like—browsing through trade magazines or other places that our own ads and messages may appear. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But, looking outside of your business is where ingenuity happens.
So, I suggest you remove the horse blinders on your business-to-business projects and look in all directions for inspiration and ideas. Here is one that caught my attention lately.
Children’s Books
Some of us parents have an excuse to read them again and again and again, for others this could be your chance. Often these books are printed with really extravagant techniques using special papers, inks, even sound and animation. Sure, your client is a widget company that might question your sanity when you use the animated teddy bear in their annual report. They might not mind, however, if you took the same technique and used it to show how their widget works, moves and behaves in a visually engaging way.
So, where do you find inspiration? Any good children’s books you’ve read lately (I’m always looking)? How many times can you use “business” in one sentence? Please share in the comments.
I consider myself fortunate that my job allows me to feed my obsession with paper. Recently, my attention has turned to tree-free paper options—as they are becoming more affordable and honestly, more interesting. It seems the days of high-priced, tree-free papers are fading fast, as more companies are creating unique alternatives to wood fiber paper.
Some common and more popular sources of tree-free paper are kenaf, bamboo, jute and bagasse (sugar cane). These options are so common in fact, that there are crops grown specifically for the purpose of making paper (a great resource I’ve found for tree-free paper options is www.conservatree.com). While these are great options for making tree-free paper, my excitement really lies in some of the more unique sources for paper making.
In my opinion, elephant dung is one of the more fantastic options for making paper. I’m not sure why I find this so intriguing; it just is. The elephant’s diet is very fibrous, which makes it great for paper! A few more wonderful treeless options include abandoned birds’ nests, and my all time favorite, rocks.
My only struggle with these tree-free paper options is trying to find an appropriate way to tell a client we’d like to print their project on poop!
Photo courtesy of MrElliePoo.com
Are you printing with any unique tree-free papers? Please share some of your favorite wood fiber paper alternatives with me.
I love typefaces (also known as fonts for those of you who aren’t designers)! One of our designers, Renata, found this image of the Periodic Table of Typefaces. The piece displays the most popular and nicely designed typefaces and the designers who created them.
But wait, it gets even better! You can purchase prints, T-shirts (drooling at this point), download wallpaper for your computer, a book cover and even decals for your walls! Great job these guys did on putting this together. It’s a creative way of showing the history and design of typefaces.
So at this point you’re probably thinking, “So what! What’s the big deal about all these fonts? PowerPoint and Word have a great selection of fonts that come with them—like Comic Sans and Papyrus.” So, as I shake my head I say this, selecting the right typeface is so important. Not only are typefaces a work of art, but they also set the tone of a piece and help tell your brand story. Using Comic Sans may not be the kind of typeface you want to use as a professional business (unless you’re a comic book company).
If you’re not sure what typefaces are good to use, then that’s where the periodic table of typefaces comes in. If you’re still not sure, then call Canyon and we’d love to help you select a typeface and talk brand strategy!
Take a closer look at it, all my favorites are on here—Helvetica, Gotham, Avenir, Trade Gothic, Clarendon…etc.
I’d also like to hear what your favorite typeface is (and notice there’s no Comic Sans or Papyrus, so they don’t count).
