After having attended ‘The Mighty Meet-up’, hosted by Fifthring earlier in the year and discussing crowd sourcing design websites and competitions, I have done a lot of thinking about the evolution of branding, logo design in specific.

We are currently in an era of design where less and less time and consideration are put into logo design with websites offering a ‘quick solution’ logo for as little as $100! The result is just that – a quick solution in a rapidly evolving field - which operates around extremely tight deadlines, seems perfect right? The more important question is are the big iconic brands of the world moving in that direction?

It seems more and more marketers devalue the specialized expertise involved in creating trademarks that reflect, enhance and enable positive business outcomes. For me a logo serves many purposes, however the most important has to be to provide differentiation between brands. Established brands often understand and value the process of having a strong brand, however smaller start up companies and local businesses often struggle to see the value in this, hence the booming work and presence in crowd sourcing design services. Trends change so rapidly in design that a logo needs to be timeless, of course, logos do evolve over time but generally with minor tweaks throughout the years to refresh the brand image and keep up with the organization which it represents.

All the ‘classic’ logos tell a story. Today's replacement logos say as little as possible. It's an interesting turn and an ever-evolving one. While the brand and the ‘brand experience’ reign supreme, it no longer seems to originate with an original logo, perhaps there will be a turn of events and once the market is saturated with generic, cliché, $100 logos the savvy business will turn back and look for something more unique.

One interesting observation of recent is the removal of type in logos amongst global companies (Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Mcdonalds to name a few). I have been trying to put my finger on the reasoning behind this, one huge advantage of having a symbol only logo is the benefit for global presence free of language barriers, perhaps there are further advantages.

What are your thoughts? What is the future for logo design and overall brand image? Does it move in trends? Has a logo's job description changed? Does our media-centric culture and highly exposed consumer negate the need for a story communicated from the top down?

(download)

Click here to download:

the-logo-s-job-description-DvozxCxsonacCwyBxmqj.zip (104 KB)

Happy Holiday’s, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings…

At a certain time of year, in various countries, it is customary, depending on your culture, to send a greetings card. But in our multi-cultural society, this tradition is becoming evermore complex. Who believes in what and what offends whom?

Well this year, Fifth Ring is not taking any chances, and neither should you. Our DIY (Design It Yourself) greetings card is the most politically correct e-card ever! With over 6,000 combinations to choose from, you can make, share and send your PC love around the world.

We’re dreaming of a nonspecific, culturally sensitive, gender generic annual event (on your respective culture’s calendar). Just like the ones we used to know.

Click here to develop your very own “Merry Political Correctmas” card.

Enjoy!

During November through May in Houston, you could walk outside and potentially face three different seasons. T-shirts, sweaters and an umbrella may be used in the same day. Just like it’s hard to define the seasons in Houston, it’s also hard to define “public relations.”

In 1982 The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defined public relations as, “Public relations helps an organization and publics adapt mutually to each other.”

PRSA has attempted to update the definition of PR since 2003, but all the attempts have failed to come to fruition.

One of the reasons for failure was the inception of social media, which changed communication processes, particularly PR drastically. What was once a monologue is now a dialogue. Facebook and Twitter have made the conversation directly between company and consumer, or company and company.

PRSA has once again started the process of changing the definition of PR in September 2011.

“The sooner PRSA develops a definition that people will buy into, the better it is for PR and for the people in PR,” said Dan Tisch, chairman of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management, in Stuart Elliott’s article in The New York Times. “Often PR is seen as spin and that hurts.”

PR has evolved in so many ways since PRSA originally developed their definition. What does PR mean to you? You can make a suggestion at PRSA, prdefinition.prsa.org, or tell us your thoughts here.

Written By,

Jeremy Joseph

Fifth Ring Houston PR Intern

At Fifth Ring, we’ve been told that we’re great at what we do. But there’s always room for improvement. So we’ve been taking advantage of our excellent business connections to run a series of internal lunch n’ learn sessions, designed to both inspire and educate us.

In the latest gathering, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ivor Smith and Jeff Burns from Fifth Dimension, a company set up in 1999 to deliver a range of training, exhibition, promotion, teambuilding and entertainment services to clients in the UK and abroad.

Death by PowerPoint the Fifth Dimension team most certainly is not. The team engages its audience, from schoolchildren to board level management, by enforcing various messages through illustrative tricks known as the Magically Enhanced Training™ System.

Fifth Dimension’s creative approach involves shock tactics and spellbinding sorcery, such as hiding a 6-inch spike under plastic cups (with near impalement a very real risk), to highlight the importance of intervention in health and safety, or rope tricks underlining the benefits of teamwork and communication. This unique twist, which relies heavily on audience participation, was far from what any of us expected with regard to the serious messages that were being conveyed. 

It was both entertaining and enlightening and we would recommend them to anyone looking to inject some humour and enjoyment into their events or functions.

As Operations Manager here in Aberdeen, it is not often that the chance to travel crops up (certainly not travel that requires my passport) – that tends to be left to my more client facing, business development or just plain jammy colleagues.

However, having recently introduced a new Operating System into our offices in both Aberdeen and Dubai, it was time for Houston to join us now that things had settled down a little. One small problem though – they don’t have an ‘Operations’ person on site to help with the set-up, training and introduction.

It was a tough decision to make but I stepped up to the plate for the sake of the ‘team’ and it was down to me to make the trip across the pond. The things I have to do for this company.

It was by sheer coincidence (honestly…no honestly) that my travel plans coincided perfectly with Thanksgiving and no sooner had I landed at George Bush Intercontinental and been escorted to my hotel that I was being picked up by Ed Davis, our Houston big-gun, top-dog, PR Yogi (that’s an in-joke) and taken to his place to spend the evening with his family and friends – all very lovely people it has to be said.

“Wear elasticated pants” was my only instruction prior to being picked up and, once I realised that it needed translating somewhat, I relaxed and ensured my belt had an extra couple of holes if required. They were required.

Turkey and all the trimmings welcomed me and my first Thanksgiving was a hugely enjoyable one with chat, watching football (well, the kind where they never really use their feet…and it’s not very ball shaped) and to finish things off, pie. Three pies to be exact - apple, pumpkin AND pecan. I’m still recovering.

So, within hours of arriving I had experienced the famous ‘Southern Hospitality’, and it has to be said it continued to the moment my trip was over and got back to the airport.

With our colleagues in Houston, namely Angelica, Heather, Jeremy (and Yogi of course) we have a fantastic team of talented professionals who not only made me feel very welcome but I could tell were going out of their way to ensure they were meeting all of their clients needs. They were obviously being as well looked after as I was.

I was hugely impressed by not only how well they all worked as a team but more generally how well they coped with such a busy workload and took it all in their stride. I’ve always known our Houston office to be a very successful one (indeed award-winning) – now I could see why.

It was not all play though (my timesheets will attest to that!) and I got down to the business of getting them up and running in the new system. It took a while but we got there in the end and they know that I am just a Skype call away as they settle in over the coming weeks and months.

When I managed to get away from the laptop either in the office or back at the hotel, food, unsurprisingly, played a major role. To be fair I was warned, but even I was surprised by the portion sizes. It was a real mixed bag – everything from Eggnog Cupcakes and Crab Nachos through to Beaver Nuggets (don't ask) and a hugely enjoyable BBQ ‘tour’ (yes, we did a TOUR of various BBQ joints at the weekend).

I even found myself one evening with Ed and his lovely wife Leah enjoying some delicious cuisine - but rather strangely, there I was, a Scotsman in Texas at a Japanese restaurant eating sushi called ‘The Crazy Irishman’!? Go figure, as they say.

So, with the job done and a vastly expanded waistline it was time to jet back to the UK (before I had to pay for an extra seat). Personally I’d like to give a huge thanks to the whole team over in Houston and to Ed in particular for his culinary 'guidance'.

If you get the chance to visit, take it.

If you get the opportunity to work with these guys, do it.

If you’re thinking of ordering a starter AND a main, think twice.

Andy

(Ed, Me, Jeremy, Heather & Angelica)

Fifth Ring’s Gary McGovern has won the inaugural ‘Creatives Behind the Lens’ photography competition.

Organised by Corbis and arabianEye and open to all non-professional photographers working in creative industries across the Middle East, the competition, which originates in France, made its regional debut last month.

In second place was Samer Lahoud of Leo Burnett Dubai, followed by Rayyan Aoun of JWT Riyadh. The social media winner was Ashraf Majiet of Tonic. Judges for the event included Ali Ali, creative director at Elephant Cairo, Grey Dubai’s creative director Alisdair Miller, Seyoan Vela, ECD at JWT Dubai, Ramzy Haddad, ECD at Y&R MENA, and Benjamin Benser, director of creative photography at Corbis Europe.

“With over 200 entries, response to the contest was tremendous, with the quality of submissions proving that there really is a huge passion for photography in the region amongst creatives”,  said Celia Peterson,  partner at arabianEye.