I’m sitting in the waiting room at the Doctor’s office and realise that I’m not reading magazines anymore because I’m on my iPhone. Whilst on my iPhone I’m writing notes, answering emails-work related, Googling things I need to find, mapping directions to my next meeting, rechecking my inbox, reading tweets – work related again, BUT…. I’m not reading magazines, seeing the advertisements, or catching up on pop-culture whilst waiting.

I’m also not agitated or annoyed with the fact that I’ve been here waiting for over a half-hour though I was on-time for my appointment (now that I’ve typed that I’m a bit concerned about the time delay). Additionally, I’m writing this article, which wouldn’t have occurred otherwise in this time and space.

I do miss the advertisements (really) and the magazines but don’t want to stop what I’m doing.  Im busy and my iPhone is assisting me to get things accomplished and has in fact inspired me to write this article.

In today’s media consumption competition my iPhone wins.  But what about everyone else?

This is who else is here and what they are doing:

•            Man 65+ reading paperback he brought with him

•            Lady 50+ reading the Virgin Blue magazine from the selection available

•            Lady late 30s rummaging in her bags and now staring out window

•            Man 35ish filling in the obligatory forms

•            Lady late 20s reading Cosmo with a New Idea magazine in the ready position

Me and my iPhone aren’t the norm!  There isn’t another iPhone in site, nor another device for that matter.  People are reading magazines, filling out forms, sniffling and sneezing, but not online!

The waiting room isn’t filled with iPads (good idea though), it has my beloved magazine, there for one and all to peruse….where the adverts get to live on and on for many to view, skip, leave the page open to, or ignore.  But I must say the waiting is palatable for some more then others as the magazines are a bit old.  Oh, it’s my turn…..gotta go and thanks to my iPhone I didn’t feel like I was waiting!

LoyaltyDeck is a new offering in the loyalty management space, created by LoyaltyTech as a software as a service solution. Developed to compete with large, expensive & complex loyalty management tools, LoyaltyDeck provides all the benefits of the established options but at significantly lower cost and with increased usability.

The brand was developed to grow in to a suite of products using the ‘deck’ nomenclature. The icon is based on a stylised deck of objects and incorporates an arrow motif representing forward movement and connection with the intended audience. A complimentary colour palette for future iterations of the brand has also been developed so that the suite will inherit the icon, deep grey and typography of the master brand while differentiating each product through its name and colour coding.

E&L also worked with LoyaltyTech to roll the brand out to other key collateral such as the LoyaltyDeck website, brochures, posters and trade show presence.

Visit loyaltyDeck.com

Hello,

At the beginning of April, E&L Consultancy celebrated its first anniversary. During our first year we’ve completed a surprising variety of projects for clients big and small.

• We’ve created new brands and refreshed old ones
• We’ve strategically helped the traditional go digital
• We’ve brought the school of business into the twenty first century
• We’ve connected third world entrepreneurs with much needed funding
• We’ve helped launch revolutionary new products

Entering our second year we’d like to contribute to your success as we build on ours by continuing to deliver world class marketing & creative without the big agency overheads. We hope you’ll keep our services in mind should you or a colleague need digital strategy, marketing or creative services.

What exactly does that mean?

It means we can help businesses of all sizes effectively reach their customers and find greater success through:

• Engaging brand creation – positioning, logo development, brochures, sales presentations and more
• Social marketing strategy – identifying where you should participate, developing your tone of voice, creating your assets, managing the conversation
• Digital business and media strategy – redefining and/or reaching your audience cost effectively
• Digital assets – website design and usability, facebook pages, advertising campaigns etc.

Our size allows us to be nimble, our experience & partner relationships ensure we deliver great quality, and our passion for what we do means you’ll get a bespoke solution that’s in step with this ever changing digital world.

We look forward to discussing your upcoming requirements.

Call, email or tweet us for a chat.

Seems to me that with the imminent release of improved iPhone multitasking, I say improved because it’s always been there, just blocked from developers to protect battery life, it’s time for a live home screen.

One of the criticisms that’s often hurled at the iPhone interface is that it’s fairly poor at providing ‘at a glance’ information. Wake from sleep, for example, gives you time, date, and… that’s it. Unless you count the wallpaper of your pet/child/significant other as information. You need to unlock and dig in to individual apps for meaningful info.

But it seems like an easy fix would be to make all those little app icons work much harder for us by having them react to live info. Weather is an obvious one, it’s an optimistic little icon, suggesting it’s 22 degrees and sunny ALL THE TIME. Well, it’s not, so why doesn’t it tell me that? Facebook tells me the number of new events but no info to let me decide how important those events are, same with mail and messages and any number of social media apps.

What I’d love to see is a kind of mash up of the current iPhone home screen and OS X’s widget dashboard. A configurable area that gives you ‘at a glance’ info about what’s most important to you.

Mine could look something like this:

Easy, I’ve got my latest messages, weather, FB updates & upcoming appointments with just a glance at my phone. Oh, and the time and date too. Now that we’ve got our icons working harder, all that’s left to do is work out how we make them into delicious little cup cakes.

Happy Birthday to us today!

A year ago we officially started up our agency aptly choosing April Fools Day. Not because we thought it was a joke, nor because we are are joke playing hoaxers. Rather because it felt fun, light and memorable.

The little we knew about what The Fool stands for in mystical, symbolic and tarot definitions appealed to us for our new venture: beginning – starting something new, being spontaneous – feeling uninhibited, having faith – believing, embracing folly – pursuing a dream.

These definitions also felt appropriate for our industry and the work we do for our clients. The areas we specialise in are evolving constantly. To be successful we believe that being able to swiftly change direction, take leaps of faith, believe in our ideas, have a bit of fun and to always be open to something new is essential. We also, of course, believe it is imperative to be business minded, relevant, appropriate, authentic, effective and results focused.

Having completed our first year we can proudly say we have ticked every box. We have had the good fortune of working locally and internationally on 32 projects for 14 clients. Today, as we enter our 2nd year, we look forward to doubling our luck, minimising our challenges, staying on top of our game and having lots of wonderful clients, partners, and collaborators to keep us on our toes as we all, like The Fool, leap into the unknown.

The Fool

In medieval courts, the court jester or Fool was someone who was not expected to follow the same rules as others. He could observe and then poke fun. This makes the Fool unpredictable and full of surprises. He reminds us of the unlimited potential and spontaneity inherent in every moment. There is a sense with this card that anything goes nothing is certain or regular. The Fool adds the new and unfamiliar to a situation.

The Fool also represents the complete faith that life is good and worthy of trust. Some might call the Fool too innocent, but his innocence sustains him and brings him joy. In readings, the Fool can signal a new beginning or change of direction – one that will guide you onto a path of adventure, wonder and personal growth. He also reminds you to keep your faith and trust your natural responses. If you are facing a decision or moment of doubt, the Fool tells you to believe in yourself and follow your heart no matter how crazy or foolish your impulses may seem.

It seemed fitting to be sending the site for our favourite French bistro, Le Pelican, live over dinner with friends last Sunday night with a glass of red in the other hand. We chose Sunday night for the update as it’s the lowest traffic period for the current site and there was likely to be disruption during the switch, we weren’t expecting the dinner party to coincide, but it all worked out thanks to the wonders of understanding hosts, a MacBook and wireless internet.

The site builds on the branding we previously developed and is built on, WordPress, our small business platform of choice, to make updating a breeze.

Jeff and Ally intend to keep us entertained with recipes, special events and news, so if you’re a fine food fan jump on the site to sign up for the newsletter, join their Facebook fan page or follow Le Pelican on Twitter.

With the branding complete and implemented across stationery, signage and now online we’re sad to say our work is almost done, just some search engine optimization over the coming weeks and some social media advice to keep us coming back. Fortunately we don’t need an excuse to come back and enjoy the fine food and wine at the bistro. I can almost taste Jeff’s house smoked salmon now.

Visit the new site

Vitamin L is a nutrition and wellness practice that offers a personalised approach to nutrition, specifically designed to meet your current and future health goals. It’s all about regaining your vitality and getting the most out of every day. We developed the Brand in close consultation with Vitamin L’s founder who wanted to reflect the vitality of the service and a fresh new way of living a healthy and energetic life. We developed a personal, genuine and infectious tone of voice for Vitamin L’s communications and a visual brand that uses movement and citrus colours to reflect these traits.

To get Vitamin L started we also developed a simple WordPress based web site. WordPress is a great platform for small business as its massive range of plugins means it’s extremely cost effective to develop. Its simple and powerfull cms features also mean that once it’s built small business owners can update the site themselves with minimum ongoing costs.

Visit VitaminL’s new site

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I have to admit, I walked past this restaurant for years, having placed it firmly in the “old school European restaurant my parents would have dated at category”, based purely on the signage design. I was missing out. When finally dragged in kicking and screaming something about crimes against typography, the experience was truly amazing and totally out of step with my assumptions. This was a contemporary French bistro to rival any in Sydney.

We had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful chef/front of house team, Jean François (Jeff) and Aly, and were invited to work with them to develop a new brand that better represented what Le Pelican is all about. Here’s the result. It’s a far more contemporary approach that also pays homage to Jeff’s Basque influences (The pattern is based on the Basque Cross) with a little revolutionary fervour thrown in. We love it and we hope the new brand positions Le Pelican better so it can claim its rightful place as one of Sydney’s finest dining experiences.

With the brand now in place we’re currently working with the team to update their web site and social media strategy. Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you’re keen to try it yourself, and you should, they’re at 411 Bourke Street Surry Hills, 9380 2622.

Gallery

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Mesh Marketing are a boutique Sydney-based agency that provide personalised communications, sales and marketing strategies for high-end brands and clients. Working closely with Mesh, E&L developed a slick flash based site that is clean, elegant and subtly inclusive of the ‘attention to detail’ that Mesh ensure they provide to all of their clients. The site builds upon the existing Mesh brand with unique design elements, animation and interaction archetypes that reflect their upscale style and personality.

But it’s not just branding and eye candy, we implemented some advanced flash techniques that ensure search engine compatibility. These have ensured the site’s ranking has moved from somewhere in Siberia to page one on key search terms.

Visit Mesh Marketing’s new digital home

There’s no room in my life between my phone and laptop for a third device. No need, no niche to fill, unless… just maybe, hiding behind the iPad launch is real game changing potential.

That potential could be in digital magazines.

Real, rich, beautifully designed magazines with long form content, photography, video, social media, interaction and on demand digital delivery. That sounds like something I might just go for and I’m guessing many others will too. My laptop is just too uncomfortable to lay back on the couch and page through the latest Monocle or GQ, and the iPhone screen is just too small.

There’s been a few attempts lately to demonstrate how magazines could successfully cross over into digital:

The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc.

Mag+ by Bonnier R&D

Both look to me strikingly similar in form & functionality to the iPad, the only missing element is the publishers getting their content together. The monetisation is there with the iTunes Store/App Store model. The technology is ready (connected, multi touch). The device price point is reasonable. Even better, as far as gadgets go, the iPad is pretty green, if it can also replace the felling of thousands of trees for magazine production its sustainability factor gets a big thumbs up.

So, no surprise, it’ll be content and consumer take up that will shape this particular potential future of magazine consumption. The rest of the ducks seem to be in a row and the potential is damn exciting. For advertisers, for content creators and for all of us who like to curl up with a good magazine.

UPDATE MARCH 2 2010

Seems Condé Nast are conspiring to make me buy an iPad… Apple iPad versions of Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour magazines are on their way, according to Brand Republic.

Read the story