The Blog

Welcoming guests and clients to Birch Studio, we offer water to drink:
“Would you like some water?”
“A water would be great, thanks.”
We say “some” water, they say “a” water. It’s such a slight turn of phrase but it illustrates the power of a single word.
“Some” is served in a glass and “a” water is served in a bottle. Right?
The first has an inherent sense of grouping. The second has a distinct individuality about it.

We use terms like “some”, “they”, “those”, “this” and “we” to identify something in general. They refer to a certain amount or group of something. But they are not defined by name. They are referred to in terms of groupings, in a sense. (more…)

This article is not a tip on what I’ve done as the Creative Director of a Birch Studio, but some information about excellence in general that will hopefully give you license to enhance your own creative skills.

I was just reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. He provides historical facts about many of the world’s top talents – Canadian ice hockey stars, world-class violinists, The Beatles, Bill Gates – which show that in order to master a pursuit, one needs to practice with dedication for many hours over a very long period of time. He puts the number of hours roundly at 10,000. He writes about pianists: (more…)

How blue is blue? Does it have a tinge of green in it? Can it be more like the ocean at midday? Maybe it’s more of a cornflower blue. A little less saturation and then more toward the purple…

In a creative or web development process, there are many things to communicate, some clear as day, some vague as the night. As a purchaser of creative services, you need to know that there is a large nebulous area between your decision to hire a creative firm and your final product. As much as you know what you’d like to see in a project, it is only a faint precursor of the outcome. Even if mind reading were an option, there are oodles of details that simply can’t be worked out before a deep dive in the project. (more…)

The American Consumer Satisfaction Index out this month shows that Sprint Nextel’s rating jumped 11% from 2009 to 2010. The increase for the telecom industry over the same period was an average of 4.1%. This is wonderful news for Sprint Nextel, but it turns out that it only brings them up to par with their main competitors. Two years ago, they were at the lowest point of customer satisfaction in their history.

That made me wonder: did they do anything special which they can continue to build momentum with, or did they just stop sucking? Birch Studio’s first step into any project is research, so I figured I should research this as well in hopes of learning something. As one might expect, there was a slew of press around this and quite a few differing opinions. The original source of my data, ACSI, is a significant arbiter of information in the US economy so its reports carry quite a bit of weight. (more…)

Have you ever noticed the phrase “New Look! Same Great Taste” that lots of redesigned food packages boast?

You’ve seen it a hundred times. Most likely you never had trouble finding the product in the first place, but nonetheless, the text is there. (more…)

I’ve recently had the opportunity to name 1) a business and 2) a child. As abstract as names are, they matter. With a business, there is an expectation – actually, a necessity – that the name be unique. With a person, the trend is just the opposite. A quick browse through all of the names you know will prove that most people don’t open that door to newness. Is it out of tradition or fear of something untried?

Naming a business, one typically performs due diligence to find out what the business stands for, what it does and whom it’s trying to attract. Working with the deductive and creative sides of the brain, possibilities come up that have the ability to make sense. (more…)