Typepad tell me that they "are escalating the issue" - so, for the time being, this blog remains image free prior to July 10th. Let's hope they dig out the little gremlin soon.
So today, because I'm feeling as though I'm only partly here, I'm going to send you off to have a look at some other interesting things - the first of which is, quite literally, the most interesting:
Ben has posted a few observations about the 'graphics' or 'branding' (or maybe it's the 'identity') that his team created for Russell's Interesting 2007 conference. I missed out on the conference itself (because I was too slow off the mark in sending off for a ticket), but I had a very small third-hand involvement by way of helping out Anne with her 'I Like' postcards.
Ben has some really interesting observations on how this whole conference was 'branded', and I think this makes for illuminating reading when set against the debacle that was the launch of that London 2012 thing. 'Branding' (whatever that word really means) is all about reaching out and engaging with your audience, and this demonstrates how it can be done extremely effectively, yet with minimal resources. And perhaps it's the minimal resources that are the key: because with minimal resources comes humility. And that's precisely what the 2012 Olympic thing lacks: humility.
A while ago I had an A-Level student email me to ask if I could explain what branding was. She'd been set a design brief to invent a 'brand'; she'd asked around some friends who suggested that she designed a logo for an airline or a colour scheme for an up-market car manufacturer; and she was stuck - she didn't know what to do, and she didn't understand what 'branding' meant, expect that it was something that had to be 'designed'. So I advised her to stop worrying about cars and planes, and to start with something closer to home. To take something that she was personally interested in - and, purely as an example, I suggested this might be making jam. Now she had to imagine that she was taking a stall at her local market where she was going to sell her jam. So, if she wanted this venture to be a success, she had to start thinking about the jars she was going to use, what labels she was going to put on them, how she was going to produce those labels, what the lids would look like, what tablecloth she was going to use, and how she was going to display her jars. And because her starting point is taking something she's interested in, it's that succession of smaller decisions which will create her 'brand', and if she cares about what she's doing, and really wants to sell that jam, then her 'brand' will be successful.
And next you should head over to David Airey's blog, where he has some interesting points to make about blogging mistakes to avoid. Easier said than done though, David: as you'll see from the opening lines of this post, I'm suffering from having made mistake #1 (maybe).
And finally, on a lighter note, you should head over to The Serif where today is officially 'what are you working on, right now' day. You'll find me there, just below the great Michael Johnson who's looking for HTML code in his stickies (you see, I do know my place in the world).
I hope they fix the problem sooner rather than later, and that it's not a long escalator.
It didn't take me long to move from WordPress.com (similar hosting to TypePad) because I thought it was limiting.
Other than the current problems, how do you find working with TypePad?
Posted by: David Airey :: Graphic Designer | 01 August 2007 at 04:25 PM
Hi David, thanks for the comment. I'm just 8 months into this blogging thing and I chose Typepad, basically because that was the platform that Richard (AceJet) and Ben (NDC) were using. They were my mentors as it were. And in that respect I've been pleased with Typepad.
But I didn't know when I set out that 'davidthedesigner' (a name chosen on the spur of the moment) would become my 'identity' or a separate 'brand' in it's own right. So if I'd known then what I know now, then I MIGHT have chosen a different route.
But I am inclined to the same view as one of your commenters that the whole blogging process is organic, and that issues that arise are, in a way, bound to arise.
I have used Wordpress as a platform for a client's blog, but that experience hasn't convinced me that I'd be making the right choice by migrating the whole of my blog to that platform. And a pointless one, of course, until I get my pictures back.
Posted by: davidthedesigner | 01 August 2007 at 04:49 PM
One of the big advantages I see to WordPress is the 'subscribe to comments' plugin.
Had I not returned here on the off-chance that you replied to my comment, I wouldn't have known that you took the time.
Posted by: David Airey :: Graphic Designer | 02 August 2007 at 05:32 PM
A good and valid point, David. I'm tempted to return to this whole discussion (via posting, not commenting) at some point. But that would be rather academic until Typepad manage to get my pictures back.
UPDATE: And it's interesting to see that Anne over at I Like ( http://www.ilike.org.uk/2007/08/links_for_20070801.html ) agrees with you.
Posted by: davidthedesigner | 02 August 2007 at 05:37 PM