Yeah OK, I get that a new Twitter background is NOT that exciting a topic for a blog, what with everybody using TweetDeck and the like; nobody ever sees one’s Twitter home page.

Well somebody might and if you click on my page you’ll see it now.

Why is it important? Well I had my last Twitter background page designed JUST before Twitter switched to a new page layout (bast—-!). So I went a year ignoring the ill fitting background page just to spite Twitter.

Twitter called me recently and asked if I would update my background page and apologized for changing the page layout right after I’d gotten the design done.

So being the forgiving type, I said sure and now alls right with the world.

Please Tweet to everyone about this exciting news. Why? Because you can!

Tags: branding, community, logo design, marketing, social media, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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So word came down on Twitter today (isn’t that where all news comes from that isn’t already on Facebook…what newspaper?!!) that heritage AM station WBEN/Buffalo was going to be simulcast on another station in the Entercom cluster, WLKK-FM (107.7). The Lake, as the station was known, hadn’t really moved the needle among listeners or advertisers.

So now WBEN will be heard on AM 930 and FM 107.7 – with this news came what seems to be a new logo. Variations of the old WBEN logo have been around for a decade or more.

The new logo – if it is indeed the final version – is bad. Vague city scapes and big call letters (meant to infer how the station covers or engulfs the city with its coverage) never work. They also reproduce badly in newspaper ads and on the web.

I listen to the station and I don’t have to look at the logo so I suppose I shouldn’t care – except it’s a logo and I notice these things. You’d hope a station group as big as Entercom would have a bit more graphic moxie to produce (or even steal from another one of their stations in another market) a logo better than this one.

Maybe this new logo is just a draft.

Kinda like this one I whipped up pretty fast:

Tags: branding, broadcasting, buffalo, logo design, radio by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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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
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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
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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
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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
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