noises from dog n’ moon.

Here in the hallowed halls of Dog n Moon HQ, we’ve been having a discussion lately. Actually, let’s call a spade a spade: we’ve been having a debate. The point of contention?

We have been asked to sell coffee (more than once), plumbing, concerts, musicians, musical instruments, continuing education, faith & salvation, electronics, furniture, carpet, child development aides, arts & crafts, ideas, inspiration, and a whole host of other things. In each case, we spend time trying to learn the product as if we’d created it ourselves. Then we try to learn the market for which it was built. Then we spend some time trying to pinpoint the demographic to whom the product would most appeal. And then we decide on the best language to use. These seem like Advertising 101 to me. But if we unpack that last one, I think it’s more complex than we initially thought.

For instance, let’s take two products- a banana and a university- and compare the ways that we might sell them.
For starters, each one has obvious benefits to the user. The banana is rich in potassium which helps muscles recover after a workout. Besides being rich in B6, fiber, vitamin C, and magnesium, bananas are also considered a “good mood food” because of the natural serotonin and norepinephrine that could be of benefit to sufferers of depression. In the case of the university, those who care to find gainful employment will be more marketable after receiving a degree. Average annual income (based on the 2007 U.S. Census) goes from $32,500 for those with a high school diploma up to $53,000 for those with a bachelor’s degree. Obviously, Master’s Degree and Professional Degree holders would do much better financially.

Secondly, we’d consider the market.
To oversimplify, bananas are for just about everyone, college is for just about everyone.

Third, we pinpoint the target demographic.
In this case, to manufacture a close race, let’s say our target is people who are in a point in life where they’d like to make a change. Our core message will be, “You are unhealthy/unmoving and x (x = banana/university) will make life more rewarding for you.”

Lastly, we consider the language.
This is where we define the personality of the campaign. It’s also where client/agency relationships get stressed, where agencies earn their money, where superstar ad guys and girls are created, and where the romance of advertising lives. We could attack a banana from a dozen angles. Heck, there’s the first campaign by accident. What of we mocked up hundreds of gladiators going to war using bananas for swords. It’s the only weapon you’ll need to win today’s mental and physical battles. Or we could take the clean and clinical approach: 10 out of 10 doctors prefer bananas to apples each day. OR something clinical but clever: An apple a day keeps the doctor wishing you ate more bananas. As for the university, we could do the same thing. We could extoll the virtues in a clinical way, or we could appeal to the youthful rejuvenation that comes with being inspired by education and possibility.

Here’s where the snag hits. There is a culture that tells us that universities are sacred ground. Universities are gateways to core virtues like success, responsibility, integrity, and virtue. The result of that is that university clients often feel like any ad campaign that is taken lightly would do harm to the virtue and sobriety (irony alert) of a 4-year accredited school of higher education (pun alert).

We have pitched ad campaigns to multiple universities before and we have almost always come back to the office with the same feelings. Each time, we’ve felt like the school is too close to the product. The people who are coming to college are either a) teenagers or b) people who are ready to do something drastic to make a life change. These fields are fertile for some unconventional messaging. Having said that, I would argue that one of the main goals of advertising is to get potential customers to engage. NOT to list the entire feature set of a product in bullet-list format on the first advertisement. Remember that the relationship between ad and potential customer is similar to that between two people dating. On the first date (first ad), you want the other person to see intrigue and beauty (inner or outer). You want him or her to believe that life would tangibly improve by continuing the relationship. And then you want him or her to be willing to meet again, to engage (not get engaged, unless in this case the product is AOL…). And dating experts would agree that one of the fastest ways to kill a potential love connection would be to say too much about yourself on the first date. So an ad campaign that is outside, quirky, and full of possibilities might be just what the doctor ordered.

As for the debate around here, I will admit that my personality leans towards the quirky side. Bright orange patent leather chairs are the perfect piece of furniture and I will save up to buy a pair of vintage flared bottom jeans on ebay (even though tapered jeans are all the rage right now). I believe that people want to be moved. People want to be lifted from the normalcy of their own lives and their senses would prefer to be tickled by words and imagery that extends beyond their everyday conversations with family members and coworkers. The whole point of advertising is to offer people possibilities, no?

Let’s try a test. From where you’re sitting right now, close your eyes and picture a figure coming to take you to the future. He or she is on a soft and billowing floating carpet. It stops in front of you and he or she extends a hand to help you on board. What words are used to assure you that the future is brighter? Is it something fantastic? Is it something inspiring? Is it something that MAKES YOU WANT TO GET ON THE FREAKIN’ CARPET? I think yes. As a small business owner, manufacturer, advertising agency, freelance designer, PR Department Mgr. (Hi, Chalise), you have the opportunity to be the figure extending that hand to others. When the carpet stops, you have one chance to to say the right thing to the passenger you’re trying to collect. You have one chance to say something worthwhile. You have one chance to get them to engage. Which words will you choose?

It has been since December that we’ve posted an update. We figured a quick glimpse into some of our work is long overdue. Not only have we been busy as usual with design, but plenty of other creative ventures as well. The only bad part of the last 6 months has been an April 1st hard drive crash that left us empty handed and brought business to an absolute standstill for weeks. You can imagine how NOT funny it was to have to explain to clients that, “no. This is not, in fact, an April Fool’s joke”. But, alas, three weeks and $1,900 in data recovery later, we were back up to speed with an arsenal of data backups to make sure we never have to experience that again. Our deepest apologies to all of the clients who were affected. We are doing our best to make it up to you in the second half of 2009.

Heading into the summer, we are trying to make sure that this blog doesn’t go dormant and then wake with a hail of artwork twice a year. Additionally, we are in the preparatory stages to expand what we do at Dog n’ Moon. We are excited about the next 90 days and look forward to sharing it with you.

In closing, we are reminded again that the reason we continue to come to work each day at Dog n’ Moon is because we believe that the world doesn’t have to be mundane, boring, pedestrian, or lifeless. We have exactly one chance to live life and we aim to inject some creative fire into the minutiae of life. From the way we wake each morning to the way we interact with those around us- and certainly to the way we do business and communicate with our customers, life deserves to be as rich and dynamic as we can possibly make it.

Happy Summer to all of you,
-the Dog n’ Moon collaborative team.

Normally, we wouldn’t quote a Bon Jovi song from 1987 but- well… yes. Yes we would.

The last update to the Dog n’ Moon World Headquarters blog was in June. It’s now December and we’re fresh off a Fall Tour to 19 US states over 8 weeks. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to keep the home fires burning. Ironically enough- a flight from DC landed just in time to get home, swap out clothes in the suitcase with fresh ones, and get evacuated from the SoCal Wildfares that were dangerously close to DnM World HQ. 

Initially when we started Dog n’ Moon, it was a small graphic design outfit mainly doing personal websites and business items like cards and letterhead. But over the last decade or so, we’ve been fortunate enough to meet some amazing clients and colleagues that resulted in positive growth for the company. Now, not only do we continue to do visual design, but we have become quite adept at exercising the creative muscles for product launches, worldwide ad campaigns, and local environmental design. We still call ourselves a “boutique agency” and nobody here drives a fancy car or wears fancy suits, but we have had the blessing of being able to manage and drive a number of campaigns that span the globe and extend scope of what creatives do for a living.

Case in point, next month marks the 2-year anniversary of our relationship with Taylor Guitars, based in El Cajon, CA. Our duties with them involve some print work and tradeshow assistance, but mainly doing in-person point-of-sale advertising. It’s one thing to build an ad and pay to have it run in a publication for six months. That kind of advertising takes strategy and skill and a healthy dose of creativity. However, grassroots advertising to support an established brand is a unique way to do advertising on the fly. The good news is that it’s not sales. We are not responsible for turning a conversation into a transaction. That removes the listeners’ fears of agenda-based cordiality and opens up the opportunity to creatively discuss a product’s benefits and feature set. In addition to giving us opportunity to travel, it also teaches us to be better communicators. In advertising, it’s possible to see the viewer as the last link in the chain- and to put too much weight on the brilliance of the message or medium. One-on-one conversations remind us that advertising is simply a conversation in print, but no less needy of clarity, patience, goodwill, and brevity.

Yes, it’s Christmas!- however in California, the holidays look suspiciously like the Spring… and the Summer, and the Fall.

Here are a couple of quick projects that came across our desks last month. Merry Christmas to all and have a blessed New Year. (yes… yes, this does mean that we probably won’t post updates until Q2 ’09…)

We were approached by Azusa Pacific University to create an invitation for a symphony that featured pieces by a Finnish composer. The look was to be relatively sophisticated and had to obviously signify the importance of these Finnish pieces and their creator. This is where our creative side kicked in a little bit and can obviously become a little “case study lite”. A diet case study?.. case studette?

One of the first artistic principles that many of us learned in art classes in high school was the idea of closure. We reference it when we end a relationship and we allude to it in other parts of our lives where we need all the pieces to connect and be organized. In art, closure is the process by which our minds fill out the missing pieces of the artwork. You can imply images with half-drawn shapes, you can imply whole ideas with half-fleshed out ideas, and you can lead the mind of the viewer to drink when led to water. To me, this is the fundamental basis of creativity as an idea. We create images that make allusions to a a full range of ideas and we create simple words and pretty pictures that imply a much larger message. Maybe this post has turned into a bit of rambler, but I’m smitten with this thing called Dog n’ Moon and the opportunities for creativity that it brings.

In the designs below (particularly the photo-based one), see how the horizontal cross and royal blue coloring of the national flag of Finland are implied. Whether you’re creating in playful vector art or conservative classic photography, the principles of closure can push you into that creative place that sets you apart from non-creatives. And frankly, one of the most evident differences between creatives and non-creatives is that non-creatives believe that to fully communicate an idea, one must spell it out letter for letter, line by line. 

We’re big fans of campaigns. In short, we want things to match. That doesn’t mean that we always need to be wearing a one-color outfit or that everything in our office is washed in a single print- it means that peace comes from having ideas and elements organized in a logical manner. 

Having said that, you can imagine how we jumped at the chance to design a series of cards advertising an ongoing Choral Concert Series. In the past, these announcements had been made on black and white copies created in-house by an employee who probably had other duties. Convincing the client to go with glossy card stock and a campaign-based creative direction was a coup for us.

Below, you’ll see two seasons of the campaigns. The real compliment is that the first run was so well received that they asked us to repeat the campaign the following year. Enjoy.

I can’t take credit for this idea, since another designer shared with me his theory of “angel projects”. One way to be a designer without losing your soul is to take on an Angel Project every now and then. It’s a project that offers no financial benefits whatsoever, but is fun to work on and offers an extra dose of creative latitude in place of payment. Also, when you’re approached to work on a project with little to no budget, you can say that you’re already working on an Angel Project. Not only does it clearly distinguish between what you’re doing to pay bills and what you’re doing to warm the soul, but it also makes it very clear that this is charity and carries with it a new working protocol (i.e., clients may not call and tear you up since you’re respectfully working a charity project).

Our Angel Project for the past year or so has been Crossline Community Church in South Orange County, CA. They’re fun people, enjoy good design, and allow us to move creatively through the projects. Some we adopt, others we have to forego because of our current workload. (Sidenote: make sure you don’t load up so high n Angel Projects that you’re not able to pay bills and employees…) You can see a smattering of our work for them below.

St. John’s Lutheran Church, in Orange, CA asked us to solve a problem for them. Having been around for more than 125 years, they had a balance of power that needed a refresh so that individuals from within the church could rise up and take ownership in forwarding the goals of the congregation. Imagine if your garden variety large company decided to do away with a CEO and instead create a base of Vice Presidents to run the planning and operations. Neat idea, right? Now, imagine that you have to find a way to communicate this change to the rest of the company… do you do it in an email blast? A memo posted by the water cooler? Or do you spend some of your resources to make it a monumental switch that the rest of the company can collectively get excited about?

I was called in because St. John’s thought the latter was the smartest move. My job was to communicate the new shift in responsibilities and to share with members the rationale and implications of such a shift. We created a piece called “iMatter” that used cell imagery to show how multiple pieces are connected to form a larger unit. You’ll see a handful of variations on the cover below.

This past Fall, we were asked to lend a hand to Concordia University Irvine’s Graduate Admissions Department. In conjunction with a strategic email campaign, we created a couple of hardcopy direct mail pieces, meant to pique the interest of those on the email lists. Of the 4, the last two were comps that were passed over. A wash of color taken from the university’s brand tied it into the look, but it had little “wow” factor. The bright yellow was eye-catching, but in advertising, it’s not just the ability to draw attention. It’s the ability to convert attention into action.

10 weeks of traveling. A dozen states. Hours upon hours of plane flights (there may be a future case study on how JetBlue has the right idea). Lots of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Lots of video chatting with the family. The one thing there hasn’t been much of is posting here at the Dog n’ Moon World Headquarters. We’ve still been working, just from abroad. Please take some time to look through the next 5 posts to see some of the stuff we’ve been working on. And actually, you’re getting to see an insider’s view of the design work that was passed over. From time to time, clients decide to go in a different direction and, because we really enjoy the work that we do, those neglected designs get priority posting here.

Enjoy! And come back soon for periodic updates.