http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); ]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry121008-161245 AJ Dimarucot that involved creating a personal brand for one of the NBA's more recent rising stars, Jeremy Lin.

I immediately thought that this was one of the better athlete brands out there (even thought it was only a personal branding exercise), because it was quite a versatile mark and it held meaning in so many layers. Not only was AJ able to marry Jeremy's initials with his number, he was able to add a final touch by adding a cross using the composition's negative space. Genius, considering Jeremy Lin has been very open about his faith.




Other well designed athlete brands:



Lebron James
I've mentioned Jame's brand in a previous post and I still think it's one of my favourite athlete brands around – especially with regard to the intelligent rebranding after dropping the 23 in honour of Michael Jordan. Click here to view my last post regarding this equally effective change.



Roger Federer
Not only is he one of the greatest to ever play the game, he's always been known as one of the classiest tennis players playing today. From the way he carries himself on and off the courts to his fashionable taste on and off the court, this mark is a well designed, simplistic and articulated mark that's highly representative of Roger.



Chris Paul
To be honest, I didn't even realize Chris Paul had his own brand but it makes total sense considering he's a key part of the Jordan brand. I'm a big fan of this mark because of its simplicity and how well it integrated CP with his number 3 with a smart use of negative space.



Vince Carter
For very similar reasons as the previous mark, I love the way VC has been incorporated with his number 15, this time to create a very abstracted and unified mark. Oh Vince, if only you had stayed in Toronto – your career could've taken a completely different turn. In any case, you put our city on the map and you will forever be remembered for your contributions.



Derek Rose
Simple and straightforward. This logo plays on Derek's nickname D.Rose by incorporating the D into the petals of well … a rose. It's always great when a designer is presented with a name that lends itself easily to a nice visual.

These ones garnered some well deserved headshakes:

I don't want to get into any detail with any of these – just look at them and you'll understand.



Carmelo Anthony



Steve Nash



Russell Westbrook



Deron Williams


Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative
]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120923-200401
A few minor items to remember:

1. Always use the latest applications and plugins. Most updates address security vulnerabilities.

2. Protect your shared hosting account passwords and change them regularly.

3. Check your hosting company. Recently, shared hosts have been targets of hackers because of the sheer volume of their accounts. Make sure they have your best interests in mind and provide 24-hour backups of your data, plus server-side security like firewalls.

4. Protect your dynamic website's configuration files using htaccess which is a password protection scheme used by Apache Web Servers.

5. Applications like the popular Wordpress CMS have third party plugins that can scan the content of your website for intrusions.

6. Backup your clean website and database and make sure whoever is authorized to access the site has a secure environment.

Keep up to date with the Internet and especially it's security: http://www.brecorder.com/it-a-computers/206/1241617/


Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120816-163647

One of Mystique's newest website developments. Visit the new Oloir Interiors website featuring furniture, fabrics, drapery and assorted interior design accessories, serving Toronto and the GTA.


Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120813-002004

With the London 2012 olympics officially coming to a close today, I've come to realize that I don't feel as repulsed by the London olympics branding as I did when they first unveiled their identiy – in fact I think I'm actually starting to warm to it.

I think once I got a chance to see the brand across different platforms and mediums, be it television broadcasts graphics, printed materials and signage – it really started to fall together. Don't get me wrong, the 2012 portion of the logo is still quite hideous but now it seems more fun than anything. They custom typeface they developed has also grown on me too, it's just quirky and fun – perfectly suited for the atmosphere of olympic games.

Now I think, with a little openness, consistency and time and space to show the true breadth its communications, a brand can thrive and succeed, even if it is quite hideous at first sight.

With that regard, here are some rebrands that I was initially rather disappointed with but I'm really starting to warm up to because they are finding their way. Click on the logos to check out underconsiderations 'Brand New' blog posts to see how these brands have been applied.







Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120801-162737

Many businesses up to date with social media have themselves a fancy business page. Your business page may consist of a cool cover photo with a logo for a profile picture and albums with photos, work samples, employees, contact info and the like. But is all this information really getting through to your target market?

Facebook uses a fairly simple algorithm to determine what gets through onto the news feed or Edgerank as Facebook likes to call it. The news feed is called Edgerank because every piece of content is known as an “edge”. So pictures, videos and links are all an “edge” and all rank high compared to other edge content. But that’s not the only thing. A status with lots of likes or comments gets noticed for its “edge” and thus gets ranked appropriately.

The news feed algorithm is based on these three things: Affinity, Edge weight and Recency.

Affinity is basically interaction. The more you interact with someone, the more you see him or her pop up in your news feed. This is the same for a business. However, this is only one way. If you as a business creep on users that have liked your page it does not mean they will see your business posts more in their news feed.

Edge weight. This is essentially looking at all Facebook content and favoring certain items that are typically more interesting, cool, interactive etc. These items as listed previously are pictures, videos and links. BUT, every Facebook users edge weights are different so don’t just stick to those three or you may never reach a potential customer.

Recency is the third part of the equation. If it’s old it has a smaller chance of being seen in your target markets news feed. The newest content at the moment that the user is on Facebook is more likely to be viewed.

How does knowing this information help you be a more social media savy business?

Make sure to post relevant, target market appropriate content that will get your users to interact with you. That way you’ll start showing up in his or her feed more. Words like Where, When, Why and Would are all great for getting likes and comments.

Mix up your posts. Post videos, links, photos, status updates and anything your target market would find interesting. The more varied your posts are the more reach you have as a business.

Finally, post content at times when you think your target market is most likely to be online. That way your recently added content is smack in the middle of their news feed.

Staying on top of your social media marketing can be quite the feat, and Mystique would be happy to help!


Carolyn Jobse
Production Coordinator
Mystique Creative
]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120716-103355
Click here to see all 12



Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120702-225336
The Unibrow.



Now in our day in age, a unibrow is not the most favourable look one can don. But what's great is, Davis has turned this normally negatively viewed attribute into a positive. He's fully embraced the look, and not only that, he's taken full advantage of it from a personal branding perspective. He's even gone as far as trademarking some catchphrases such as "Fear the Brow" and "Raise the Brow" for all sorts of merchandising opportunities.

Gotta give Davis' business sense, he's already thinking long-term and he has yet to play his first NBA game.

---

Here's a CNN article regarding his trademarks.

Here's an interview from the Jimmy Kimmel Show of him discussing his look and his brand.



Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative
]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120626-104026 What is a LinkedIn Company Page?

It’s a centralized location where millions of LinkedIn members can go to stay in the loop on company news, products and services, business opportunities and job openings.

For a business, it’s the opportunity to:
• Tell your company’s story
• Highlight your products and services
• Engage with followers
• Share career opportunities
• Drive word of mouth at scale

For millions of professionals, a Company Page is a place to:
• Explore companies of interest
• Get the latest company updates and industry news
• Research products & services
• Learn about job opportunities

Here's a step-by-step on how to set one up:

1. Log into LinkedIn and click on Companies.

2. Check to make sure that your company does not already have a profile by searching for your company in the search box.

3. Click the Add a Company link.

4. Fill in your company name and your email address at the company. The email address must be at your company's domain name.

5. Click the box that verifies you as an official representative of the company and click Continue.

6. LinkedIn will send you a verification email to the email address you input in step 4. Find this email in your email inbox and click on the verification link in the email.

7. The link should lead you to a screen on LinkedIn.com asking you to confirm your email address. Click Confirm.

8. LinkedIn will ask you to sign in again under your primary LinkedIn email address (which is the email address you use to log into LinkedIn – it does not necessarily have to match the company email that you entered in step 4). Fill in your log in information and click Sign In.

9. Once you've signed in, LinkedIn will redirect you to an editable version of your new company profile. Here, you can edit information about your company. We recommend the following settings:
a. Set Company Page Admins to Designated users only. Otherwise, anyone with an email address at your company would be allowed to edit your company profile, and you do not necessarily want that. Make sure you add at least one designated user (type your own name into the box) or else LinkedIn will throw an error.
b. Upload both a standard and square logo. When you create the square version of your logo, make sure that you find a way to crop a nice part of your logo out that will work well as a 50 by 50 image. Don't just resize your current logo to 50 by 50 if it ends up squishing any part of the logo.
c. Write a company description that is keyword-rich. The unpublished character limit for a LinkedIn company description is 1500 characters. You want to write a description that is as close as possible to this character limit without going over. Make the best use of the space that you have.
d. List your company specialties. This is a great place to use keywords that are important to your business that you know potential customers will search for.
e. Fill in your company's Twitter ID.
f. Fill in your company's blog RSS feed URL. This will enable your company's blog posts to appear on your LinkedIn Company Page.
g. Under News Module settings, keep "Show news about my company" selected.
h. In the right column, fill out Company Type, Company Size, Company Website URL, Main Company Industry, Company Operating Status, Year Founded, and Company Locations.
i. Click Publish when you are done.

10. Note If you get the error "We're sorry, but there was an unexpected error. Please try your request again." and clicking Publish again does not work, open a new tab in your browser, navigate to the Companies page on LinkedIn, search for your company, click edit, and re-input all of the information by copying the info from your original browser tab.

11. Once you've set up your LinkedIn Company Page, you can add Careers and Services. We highly recommend adding a list of your products and/or services. Adding just one product or service will add a new tab to your company page called "Services" that will allow LinkedIn users to see a list of your products and services. To add a new product or service, go to the Services tab and click the "Add product or service" button and fill in all relevant information.



Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120619-143501
We know that communicating with your customers isn’t as easy as it looks and picking the right platform is even harder.

To help you make the best decision, here are the pros and cons of both email and social media marketing. ]]> http://www.mystique.ca/blog/index.php?entry=entry120618-160106

Toronto’s city council has banned plastic bags throughout the city beginning in January of 2013. What does this mean for Toronto businesses and what will they ever do? The answer is adapt. A business that is too stuck in their ways and refuses to adapt will eventually cease to exist. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and a business must adapt and change to the changing world around them. Toronto is an increasingly environmentally friendly city with Green Bins being implemented in the early 2000’s. This ban is simply the next step forward for a large city with a green thumb and a plastic bag problem. Businesses need to think of the positives associated with this ban on plastic bags.

1) People love “Green” businesses. You look better in a consumers eyes because if they buy your products they feel better about themselves. If they feel better about themselves they now associate that good feeling with your products.

2) Larger businesses can work out the kinks of a plastic bag ban much earlier than their competition in other cities. Your business is now a first mover. When the ban is implemented in other cities, and it will be, you will be two steps ahead of the competition. If you’re a smaller company you can benefit from the increase of options for plastic bag alternatives that large companies will create.

3) If you previously had your company logo plastered all over your plastic bags your company will no longer be associated with the trash on the side of the road. Remember people generally don’t see who littered the plastic bag, they just see your company logo and environmentally destructive trash.




4) Brown bags have many advertising options. A great idea is to print coupons or other promotions directly onto the brown bag. Since it’s paper, customers can easily cut out the coupon. This is just not possible with plastic bags, plus they can’t hold themselves up like brown bags can, making your branding more visible.

5) Reusable bags are an amazing way to advertise. It’s a walking advertisement and because it’s a cool reusable bag you can count on customers using it multiple times which increases your brands exposure. Brand exposure is worth much more than the cost to supply a reusable bag.



So there you have it, there are some really great reasons for not using plastic bags. Research your customers, the options your company can afford and move forward, because kicking and screaming isn’t going to help your overall image or the planet.

Need some help? Give us a Call!


Carolyn Jobse

Production Manager
Mystique Creative
]]>