You don’t hear Red, White and Blue and think, “Ah yes, France.” That’s a fact. You automatically think of the United States. Everyone thinks of the United States. Red, White and Blue has been our color palette since the American flag first came onto the scene. However, our America is miles different from the America of the 1770s.  

 Despite current efforts to flatten the heterogeneity of our nation, our diversity shines through. We’re in an era where multiculturalism is celebrated and, more importantly, needed. So, why have presidential candidates of yore always stuck to using only Red, White, and Blue in their campaign like we need help remembering what our flag looks like?  

Maybe a simple answer is: We weren’t ready for it. Please consult their brand specialists because that’s not our department.  

Today, we have the most diverse batch of presidential candidates we’ve ever had. Female Democratic candidates are shaking things up: the political landscape, and yes, you guessed it, the political color palette.  

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When businesses first started using the web to connect with customers, they didn’t have to create beautiful web pages. They didn’t need to cater to mobile devices. If loading a website led to the sound of your dial-up ringing for a few minutes, customers were willing to wait. 

But times have changed and our internet speeds have gotten faster. The days of walls of Comic Sans text and multi-colored rainbows tabs are long gone. Now, having a visually appealing website that your customers navigate seamlessly can be the difference between them choosing you over a competitor. 

Your customers know what a great online experience is and if you’re not providing that, it’s time to make some changes. If you’re struggling to improve your website’s user experience, we’ve made a list of a few things you should consider when undergoing an overhaul. 

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Look, we’re not telling you how to think…but we’re gonna tell you how to think.  

 Okay so, we’ve all been told to ‘think outside the box’ before. In some way or another, Mom, Dad, your teachers, your clients, even your design team has told you to come up with a solution to a problem that nobody has thought of yet. So, how are we supposed to do that?  

 Two words folks: Design. Thinking.  

Yes we can hear you saying, “Okaaaay, Oblique Design, what does that even mean?”  

 Obviously, we’re here to tell you!  

 (Bear with us for a sec, this is about to get real cut and dry) 

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Within our industry, working remote is becoming more and more common. Many of Oblique’s industry contacts and freelance partners work from home and have found it increases their overall productivity and job satisfaction. We ourselves have some experience with this and  wanted to  share our tips for working remotely here. 

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Picture this: It’s Friday morning and your marketing team is approaching an end of the week deadline, but no one is quite sure where things are in the approval process. While the deadline slowly approaches, emails are sent back and forth, delaying the process even more and increasing the hours allotted to the project. It looks like the project is being managed, but things don’t seem to be moving forward.  

Your review process doesn’t work. It hinders productivity. It adds stress and leaves your  team   feeling bogged down with emails and meetings. Even small changes take hours to complete. 

If your approval process feels broken, you’re not alone. Many companies, both big and small face these problems. Here are four ways that you can improve the efficiency of your creative process: 

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Color. It assaults our eye wherever we go. It evokes emotion within us, it makes us ask questions, and it draws us in. Color can strip us of our defenses and make us want something we previously decided we didn’t need. And here’s where it’s important to pay attention: Color can be ammunition for businesses, taking consumers prisoner and demanding that they pay attention to the services and products being offered. If businesses want to make sure they have to best weapons in their arsenal, they must pay attention to the current trends, the aesthetic components that consumers are craving. Sound a bit intimidating? Don’t worry! We have you covered with this on-trend color guide that will have consumers eating out of the palm of your hand.  

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What do you think of when you hear the word rebranding? Slapping a new logo on your website? Shifting a few words around in your company’s description? Or do you think of a complete overhaul? If rebranding is something you are considering for your business, here are four mistakes you need to avoid.

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“Never make your customer feel stupid.” 

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  We believe most of the time it happens unintentionally, but customer relationships sometimes take a wrong turn because of a poor tone of voice or ill-advised choice of words. At Oblique, we value our clients and continually work on building strong relationships. Why work with a branding and design agency, or any company, that makes you feel inferior? 

When you put it that way, it really seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? 

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Digital nomadism is such a hot trend right now and we at Oblique get why. Who doesn’t fantasize about traveling the world, experiencing different cultures and getting paid at the same time? Doesn’t the idea of working by the beach one day and cozying up in some remote cottage the next sound amazing? We certainly think so. But we have to ask ourselves,  “Could our Colorado branding agency pull it off?”

Photo credit: Lindsay Hickey @lindsay_hix

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Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

At Oblique, we work with clients and partners of all kinds, many of whom have started their own companies. It made us wonder if we’re seeing a fundamental change in the workplace through the lens of advertising agency design work, so we decided to do some research. (more…)