I’ve been a bit lax in my logo reviews of late (and I know you find this upsetting) so here’s a very cool update for those of you of the golf persuasion (like me).

The Ryder Cup is a long standing bi annual golf tournament featuring the top golfers from the United States versus the top players from Europe. Its a long weekend full of some great golf.

And there may be no sport more dependent on logos given all the golf shirts and baseball caps sporting thousands of golf related logos. The Ryder Cup really is the sport’s Oscars and this updated tournament logo fits that bill perfectly.

I really enjoy the tournament and I think this new logo is a home run. But I’d love to get your impression as well. Are you more fond or not so fond of it?

Tags: branding, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

OK then smarty pants, identify what THING these logos were placed on?

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, commercials, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

The current Comedy Central logo versus the proposed Comedy Central logo as of January 1, 2011

The unfair thing about printed network logos, like the versions above showing how the Comedy Central logo is expected to change on January 1, 2011, is that motion graphics can give you lots of visually interesting choices that a flat logo can’t.

But in my opinion (and really, isn’t that the only one that matters 😉 a logo needs to hold its own when it is flat, on paper because that will be one of its uses.

This new logo for Comedy Central falls flat alright, it’s bad. It’s one of those logos that make you look at it and say “somebody got paid for that?!” and then ask “I wonder how much somebody got paid to design that?!” In either case, it is not a complimentary question.

Upside down C’s, an inverted word? Really?

Maybe this a joke…a really great joke. That’s GOT to be the reason because this can’t be a real logo for a national cable channel.

Go ahead, tell me how wrong I am in my assessment of this design. Where’s the mirth? Where’s the vibrancy? What about this logo is visually arresting or interesting? Help me here.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, logo design, marketing, tv by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
12 Comments »

I can’t remember when I first signed up with Voices.com but I think it was 2004….pretty early into their creation. I tried it for a couple of years and then went back to my free listing. I wonder if they will be starting an old timers or founding members club soon? 6 years is like 60 years in web years.

All along the way, the company has always worked hard on their customer service. And über-web geek David Ciccarelli (co-owner of the company with his wife Stephanie) has always tweaked and improved the site.

But alas, the software program they were using had conniption fits if I tried to use an apostrophe in my last name or my company name on a title page (some computers and web browsers even today show a diamond with a question mark where apostophes should go…makes me think no Irishmen or Italians were involved at the start of the internet). David himself some years ago tried a work around with me on that challenge but no go with that software version.

Instead of O’Connell, it might be listed as the very inelegant OConnell or even worse Oconnell (ugh!). And did you ever watch somebody try to pronounce audioconnell? As audio’connell they seem to have a better time with it. Certainly not end-of-the-world stuff, all this, but it still makes you wonder whose alphabet and symbols these early web lords were using when they started the interweb? Oy!

Well I was on the Voices.com site recently and low and behold I saw some O’Connells WITH apostrophes in their names! As I am not a paid subscriber I wouldn’t expect to know of any such updates when ever they happened (maybe they themselves missed that minor update tweak) but I did get on the phone to Voices.com make sure I could make the update with no problems.

I had the good fortune to speak with Scott at Voices.com who (true to company form) was very helpful in making sure there wouldn’t be any computer glitches. He could not have been nicer.

So NOW when you search Peter O’Connell on Voices.com I’m the first listing. When you search O’Connell on Voices.com I am the LAST listing (although I am ((puff, puff)) the most often listened to of all the Voices.com O’Connells) but I think my last place listing there is because mine’s just a free listing which is understandable.

I even tried using the K. as in Peter K. O’Connell in the listing change with Scott, which is what I use professionally, but we went back to just Peter O’Connell in the page title because the upgraded software evidently didn’t like middle initials or periods and dropped my search results way down in both types of searches.

Whoa is the poor period! Flummoxed is the lonely middle initial! What ARE the Peter K. O’Connells, the Michael J. Fox’s and other short, middle aged voice actors to do?!

Work around it like we always do! But at least I got my apostrophe. Alls right with the world.

Tags: branding, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voices.com by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
6 Comments »

Evidently great minds think alike…and sometimes so do I!

It seems to be marketing and branding review time in VO land.

I think you’ve probably seen my post on redesigning my business cards. I didn’t believe it would garner that much interest but John Florian now has it up on Voiceover Xtra!

“So I got that goin’ for me…which is nice.”

But I was not the only person redoing their voice over business cards.

My pal Connie Terwilliger also posted about updating her business cards too, making a point to leave space on the backside so people could write notes if they like (ah, white space is going to be so “in” in 2011).

Then I caught a post by the lovely and talented Anthony Mendez who just did a blog about the nicely done refresh on his logo.

Anybody else out there cleaning up their branding act for the new year?

Tags: branding, commentary, logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

FRONT - top card old business card design, bottom new business card design

BACK - top card old business card design, bottom new business card design

1. Be consistent, you moron!
The old cards didn’t really match the overall look and feel of my branding…I know better than this so how could I be so dumb?

2. Less is more because the old more was unreadable!
It was a few years ago and I thought every detail of my business had to be on one card…all that stuff basically confused the heck outta people or made the card unreadable and useless. Not good.

3. White space is your friend!
Font vomit and logo diarrhea is not your friend yet the old card had both of them and none of the white space. Ya gotta give people’s eyes room to read and even relax a bit with a card, they’ll probably retain more info that way. Still not sure if the main logo and the secondary logo will throw people off or if it won’t matter much to anyone.

4. Oh, you do voice overs too?
Somewhere in the old card, you might be able to tell that the president of the company may have, at one time in his career, actually performed voice overs himself. In the new card, especially on the front, that should be clearer now. Titles are for suckers and it appears at one time I was a sucker for titles.

5. If you are creative, show it!
It took me some time, but on the back I created a design to show the company, everything the company offered and tied in the logo all without making people’s eyes bleed.

Extra points: In a year or so I’ll do another blog post on how I have come to hate my new card design too.

It also seems like all the cool people are redesigning their business cards this time of year 😉

Now these are my takeaways, but your opinions on the old versus new business card may be vastly different…and that’s OK, I want to know what they are in either case.

Please share.

Tags: branding, commentary, logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »