blog | jay f. miller creative

Places that inspire. Trapper’s Lodge and it’s stony inhabitants.

Posted on August 15, 2011 by jfmiller

Beginning in 1951, John Ehn created haunting pioneer portraits for his Old Trapper’s Lodge that once stood near the old Burbank airport.

John Ehn’s cement and paint pioneers are politically incorrect, sometimes violent, always full of wit and more than a little creepy.

A close up of a female figure. John Ehn's Trapper's Lodge. Like S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden Of Eden in Lucas, Kansas (I might get to those photos soon), John Ehn populated his story-filled setting with lively and foreboding pioneer spirits—complete with their own ominous Boot Hill epitaphs.

Three years after the self-taught artist’s death in 1981, they’d been designated a state cultural landmark, but that was no assurance that they would be protected from city development. An airport expansion soon threatened them and they were miraculously moved out of harm’s way to a grotto 26 minutes away behind the stables at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, just a half hour west of Hollywood on Highway 101 and where they can be seen today.

There are easily more than 50 pieces, and some of the cement inhabitants are on fully decorated and very heavy bases. No one seems to know who undertook the arduous task of moving these heavy characters, or even who maintains them to this day.

Posted in creative thinking, photo blog, places that inspire | Comments Off

Building Brands and Brand Nations. What’s your first sentence?

Posted on August 3, 2011 by jfmiller

Has there ever been a book you couldn’t put down?

It’s a great transformative moment when a story captures our imagination so much so that we willingly allow ourselves to be taken on a grand, new adventure. We become invested. We enter the author’s world full of anticipation.

There are books that we immediately become absorbed in. Others we forget quickly. What causes us to become absorbed in a book rather than abandon it?

In his recent book, How to Write a Sentence, and How to Read One, Stanley Fish suggests one reason is a great first sentence.

Think of your brand message as the first sentence in your book.

It should be absorbing. It should be promising. It should convince your prospect to press on further.

Your brand message is the inspiring idea that gives your prospect a sense of what they will experience. It captures the essence of your brand, and as Stanley Fish describes, it gives it “lean”.

Your brand message gives your customers a way to think about your product in a different way. It tells your story. It gives your story promise for what is to come.

Posted in book review, brand identity, brand strategy, Building Brands and Brand Nations., creative thinking, ideas that inspire | Leave a comment

Building Brands and Brand Nations: Falling in love. Part 1.

Posted on June 17, 2011 by jfmiller

You’ll never argue yourself into someone’s heart.

Intellectual arguments alone have rarely proven to be compelling communication strategy. Relying on them can be a complacent and (dare I say) lazy and ineffective tactic.

Now more than ever, you must create a brand that people can love.

That’s the powerful message of Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands and The Lovemarks’ Effect, two books by Kevin Roberts CEO of Worldwide Saatchi and Saatchi. The first book appeared ten years ago and its’ principles have proven a relevant as ever. Lovemarks has become a website, a phenomenon, and a brand nation itself.

It’s about transforming a brand into something consumers love.
And that’s exactly how you build brand nations.

To do this, you must capture your customers imagination. You must engage your customer’s right brain with your brand. It’s the most effective way to build your brand.
And in fact, it’s what your customer expects.

A tall order? Yes. Does it take expertise? It takes thinking in highly creative and divergent ways to make a lovemark that inspires and intersects your brand with your customer’s world.

And whether your business is large or small, it’s this kind of creative thinking that will be your business’s true marketing advantage.

Posted in brand identity, brand strategy, Building Brands and Brand Nations., digital design, Small Business. Big Business. Your Business., web design | Leave a comment

Building Brands and Brand Nations: Becoming Believable. Part 2

Posted on June 12, 2011 by jfmiller

The first part of this series is about the importance of your customer’s beliefs.
This second part of the series discusses the role of belief in building brand nations.

Building brands is about creating belief and meaning. Building brands is about intersecting your brand with your customer’s beliefs. You create meaning by connecting your brand with your customer’s beliefs.

Respectful intersections like these are hard to come by. We’ve all experienced hollow, exploitive and superficial messages that, while executed professionally, seem more about a company’s desperate self-interest then a sincere desire to offer true value. Like a singles’ bar come-on line, the message seems disingenuous. The message loses credibility.

On the other hand, done thoughtfully and with repsect for a customer’s beliefs, an elegant intersection between your brand and a customer’s belief can lead to effective communication that has great legs and can be translated into many mediums so that the message takes on whole new facets and creates even deeper meaning for it’s viewers.

Intersect your brand with a prospects’ belief in a respectful way. When done well with care and sensitivity this intersection can help realize your product’s true meaning and communicate it’s value respectfully to your customer. And with this, your brand becomes believable.

Becoming believable is an important aspect of building brands and brand nations for big businesses, for small businesses—for your business.

This is the second of two parts. The first part examines how important belief and meaning is to our lives, while this second post is about what belief means to your brand.

Posted in brand identity, brand strategy, Building Brands and Brand Nations., creative thinking, Small Business. Big Business. Your Business. | 1 Comment

Building Brands and Brand Nations: Becoming Believable. Part 1

Posted on May 12, 2011 by jfmiller

Belief systems are among our strongest motivators. For each of us, our beliefs are at the very core of our being. We are invested in them. And regardless of how flawed in logic, “It is these beliefs for which we stand”, and we convince ourselves that our beliefs—at least for the moment—are justified and rational.

Beliefs are not easily shaken. Our beliefs feel original within each of us, and although we most likely acquire our beliefs through many influencers, we feel like our beliefs have originated from deep within the core of our very being. Because of this, it takes something pretty big to shake our beliefs, and when beliefs are shaken, it takes awhile for us to adjust.

Beliefs are like statements of policy, like our own private policies about how we wish to live—as well as how we believe others should live. We all know beliefs that have proven helpful and promote the greater good, and others that have been far more troublesome, to say the least.

Nevertheless, our beliefs define who we are. It’s how we assign meaning to our lives. And that’s why it’s so important to talk about your customers’ beliefs when building brands and brand nations.

This is the first of two parts. In part two we’ll discuss how to effectively understand and use beliefs while building brands and brand nations.

Posted in brand identity, brand strategy, Building Brands and Brand Nations., creative thinking, Small Business. Big Business. Your Business. | 1 Comment

Places that inspire: Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright in Marin, Part 2

Posted on April 14, 2011 by jfmiller

As promised, here’s Part 2—a sampling of my photo exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commission and his only civic building—the Marin County Civic Center.

Check out Part 1 if you missed it—complete with photos of the Wright models on display.

Posted in architecture, creative thinking, photo blog, places that inspire | 2 Comments

Places that inspire: Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright in Marin, Part 1

Posted on March 11, 2011 by jfmiller

If you’ve ever crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on your way north, chances are you’ve passed by. On a good traffic day it’s less than half an hour away on Highway 101.

It’s the Marin County Civic Center, a sprawling, low-slung building with it’s blue roof and golden spire, set deep into the hills of Marin.

It was Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commission and his only civic building—and it’s celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year. I’d passed by a number of times, but this time I had the presence of mind and a little extra time to stop and explore.

This post is part one. It hints at the original models and historical documents on display at the civic center that describe how the project got off the ground—and how it nearly met a terrible demise.

Watch for Part 2, a photo essay that explores more of Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commission.