While its great that your business is versatile and can offer so many different services, emphasising and promoting your specialty will allow people to see you as an expert in your field.

If you were looking for the best bamboo in your area, and you saw a sign saying “Timber R Us: Teak, Bamboo, Oak, Pine & Cedar” next to a sign that said “Bamboo 4 You” Where would you go?

You would definitely be more inclined to have a look at “Bamboo 4 You” first, before the other. This is because your customers will think that you focus all of your effort, including skill development, on that one specialty, and therefore they will benefit.

By being an expert in your field, you add authority and respect to your business.
It’s best to promote your specialty with strong full flavoured branding.

The team have been told they’re going out for a surprise later that night. The team discuss ideas all day. Is it the Harry Potter exhibition? Perhaps we’re going to go out to dinner? Maybe, there is no surprise and we all have to work late towards a deadline. We go back and forth all day, but cannot agree on anything.

Four o’clock arrives. Each team member is given a blank envelope, and we’re told to open it together. 3, 2, 1… OPEN!
As we open the envelope we see that each one holds a ticket to the newly opened Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

So at six o’clock we leave our studio, and make our way through the rain and traffic to the gallery.

Max, Rachel, Putri & Mike ready for some Picasso fun!

The exhibition showcases seven decades of Pablo Picasso’s art. Every phase of his extraordinary career is represented, including masterpieces from the Blue, Rose, expressionist, cubist, neoclassical and surrealist periods. It’s a fantastic opportunity to view all his work without having to pay for a flight to Paris!

Pablo Picasso once said “I paint the way some people write their autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary…” and as we walked through the exhibition, guide book in hand, that is exactly what we felt. The exhibition is amazing! It has a great selection of 150 paintings, sculptures and drawings are there for viewing throughout 10 rooms.

Some highlights include “Man with a Guitar” and the “Portrait of Dora Maar“.

The gallery handed out big sheets of cardboard cut outs that could be constructed to create our own cubist sculpture. So this is our attempt:

We call it "Let's leave cubism to Picasso!"

It was a great night for the entire Spicy Broccoli Media team. We left feeling cultured and very inspired (so don’t be surprised if we start designing cubism-styled websites!).
The exhibition is in Sydney till 25 March 2012 and we encourage everyone to go have a look!
For more details see: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/picasso

Sarah writes about her experience on the night:

After the VIP Pre-event which was very posh, the Awards ceremony at Town Hall followed.
Hosted by Amanda Keller and supported by Principal event Sponsor Telstra, the event will be an unforgettable evening of celebration, networking, exciting live entertainment and fine dining in the historic splendour of Sydney Town Hall.
Date: Friday 18 November 2011?Time: 7.00pm-11.30pm – potential to be a long evening, let’s hope there’s some fun stuff mixed in there!
Pre-dinner drinks commence: 6.30pm
Venue: Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall – this was such a beautiful venue with the interior details in the  “English Renaissance” style.

Dress: Black tie – so nice to see my hunky hubby look like James Bond!

Intermixed with the awards and speeches was both a delicious meal and entertainment. There was an amazing pianist, a guitar virtuoso (the kind with really long white fingernails, so obviously very dedicated to his art), the Australian Children’s Choir, a violinist, and a dancer. The other entertainment came from the hilarious guys from Ensitech (www.ensitech.com.au) who were sitting at our table. For example, in one of the finalists videos, one of the ways the featured company was environmentally friendly was with a ‘bloody big water tank.” To which my neighbour leaned over and said “that’s an engineering term, I’ll explain it to you later.

It was also so amazing to see my video on the big screen:

Mike Baird MP, the NSW Treasuruer was one of the guest speaker and gave Spicy Broccoli a plug in front of the whole room. Thanks Mr. Baird!

Luckily, Young Business Person of the Year was the second award in the agenda so I didn’t have to sweat it out all night wondering if I’d have to go up on stage and make a speech in front of 500+ people.
Turns out I was runner-up which is still amazing. I talked to someone afterwards whose friend was on the judging panel and said it was sooo close between me and the winner. I am honestly just stoked to be a finalist. It was a real wake up call for me that at least some of the things I’m doing are on the right track. And it’s encouraging that small businesses with big ideas get noticed.

You can see more photos on our facebook page here.
Congratulations Sarah. We’re so proud of you!!

Think of single scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s simple, and safe. And also very common.

Now think of that scoop of vanilla ice cream and add choc chips. Then some pieces of warm brownie, drizzled with hot fudge sauce. Add some whipped cream and finish it off with a bright red cherry. Now you’re getting somewhere.

All those pandas with their single vanilla scoop are now looking at your sundae. It looks good. One panda wants to try it and after falling in love with its full flavours, they instantly tells their friends about how great it is.

When it comes to your branding don’t be scared to stand out from your competition. Be proud of it. Being different is what makes you memorable.

The truth is that everything single thing we do every day has an impact on the planet — good or bad. Whether you believe in climate change or not, it’s important for everybody to take care of our environment.

Right now, you could be rolling your eyes because you’ve probably noticed that green is everywhere these days–in the news, politics, fashion, and even technology. Everyone is plugging eco-friendly this, and recyclable that products. Your friends are telling you they’re switching to organic foods. There’s even a TV network called Planet Green where you can even enjoy eco-friendly entertainment 24 hours a day! While it’s easy to let this all wash over you, we’re hoping that you support us in our own efforts in going green.

The work we do here at Spicy Broccoli Media isn’t very eco-friendly. We’re on our computers all day, drawing on paper, printing out our designs for proofs, sending items for big print runs, driving to meetings, talking on our phones to clients etc. All this adds up and sadly, this leaves us with quite a big carbon footprint.

As a team, as to find ways we could offset our carbon footprint, and do our best to be ‘green’. So, along with turning off our computers every night, buy recycled paper, and printing double sided- we’ve teamed up with Carbon Neutral. So, for every new client we plant a tree in that company’s name at the Carbon Neutral plantation site near the Kosciuszko National Park in NSW.

The tree will be a native species planted to provide benefits such as:

• Reduce soil erosion

• Help combat salinity

• Provide wind breaks

• Improve biodiversity

• Provide habitat for native animals

• Sequester carbon dioxide

It’s not much, but we strongly believe that every small change or action an individual can do towards being green helps keep our planet green and alive.

For more hints and tips see our Spicy Panda Says comic here.

You don’t have to become a super-green-eco-friendly machine to save the environment. Anything you can do in the office, can help save our planet. By changing only a few small things at home or the office can help. Things like not printing emails & documents, if it’s not necessary or taking old printed paper home, to give to the kids to draw on, or shredding it and using it for compost heaps, cat litter, bedding (if you live in the woods) or even as packing material.

There are some very good reasons for making your office an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly place.

• it saves you money! Your paper costs can be halved by printing double-sided. Also refilling your ink & toner cartridges (instead of buying new ones) is much cheaper. Turning off equipment when it’s not in use, instead of leaving it on stand-by can reduce your power bill.
• it’s helping out our earth! By reducing the electricity you use, you help cut back on tones of greenhouse gases produced from power stations. Using recycled paper saves trees (you save more if you’re printing double-sided!) – the more trees we have on our planet, the less carbon emissions need to be offset.
• having a “green” office helps involve your staff. Knowing that their actions can really make a difference will enhance a natural motivation to act in an environmentally responsible way.

If a picture paints words, a font displays emotion.

Imagine you’re a sick panda. You’ve just moved homes and need to see a doctor. In the main street you see a few signs for a few different doctors, which one do you pick?

What emotions did you feel these signs communicated to you??The first would suggest an older business. Perhaps for the more elderly and regular pandas who have lived in the area for a long time. They’ve been around for a while. The second a more trendy, upmarket doctor who would more likely appeal to the younger panda or family.

The choice of fonts also plays an essential part in the success of a logo. Many people think a font is just a font, and they choose a font simply because they like it. As we can get feelings from colours, we can also get feelings from fonts too.

Different fonts convey different meanings, therefore, it is wise to spend some careful time on choosing a right font for your logo design. Think about your target audience, and what they would see and respect. Have a look at logos of products they would purchase. See what the fonts have in common and go

• San Serif fonts has a more contemporary, geometric look. It often evokes a young, fresh, trendy feel.
• Script fonts have the style of more decorative and old-fashioned calligraphy, often with the elaborate flourishes. They can be used to add a sense of luxury to a design and to give a more elaborate feel.
• Serif fonts are ideal for projects that aim to express solidity and traditional values. Serif fonts are traditional style of font, characterised by serifs or ‘small lines’ that extend from the end of a stroke.
• Handwriting font face conveys a fun or casual message. This typeface has various style ranges from those that are very legible through a more stylised or dilapidated designs.Handwriting fonts can also be used to make a message within a design, appearing more personal to the viewer because it extracts a sense of lightness.

Viewers only have so much attention to give, so you need to simplify your overall message to the one thing you do best. It can be tempting to add every bell and whistle to your website/business card/brochure and fill every space with something about what you do. But doing this can actually be ineffective, and can distract from your overall message.

When dealing with us at Spicy Broccoli Media, or other designers – we’ll talk about using white space. White space allows for easier scanning of a website. It reduces the amount of text visitors see all at once and makes reading much easier. It allows for the visual separation of design elements without adding any new elements such as visible lines or boxes. It is clean, looks professional when used correctly, and gives a site an uncluttered and fresh feel.

At the end of the day, you want the viewer to capture your message in the first few seconds of seeing it. If you clutter your message with colours, and other elements you’re going to distract or lose the viewer. If it’s clean and simple and simply says “This is what I do” – you’re going to keep them long enough to make them what to know more about your business.

No matter what your business is, you should be positive in the solutions you provide to your customers. In a visual sense, don’t use images or colours that reflect the problem. Show the solution in action, or the effects of the solution. For example, if you’re a bamboo repairer. On your website, pamphlets or other collateral; Don’t just show broken bamboo, but show how well you fix it! Emphasise the positive outcome you provide. By doing this you convince the viewers mind that “yes, you can do it / solve it / fix it / sell it etc” It also shows your viewer that you are strong, confident and reliable.

From a marketing perspective, you need to solve people’s problems. But from a creative perspective, focusing on the solutions helps people envisage themselves solving those problems in the future.

Here are some examples of video testimonials from design clients that we filmed this week.

They were shot and edited in one day. By animating logos and graphics, an average quality video is lifted and the result is honest testimonials that are fun to watch.

This can grab a prospective client’s attention for the couple of seconds needed to get them interested in your business. A click on a video will most surely keep them there for 1-2 minutes and also reassure them that they are going to have a great experience when working with you.

It’s the simple marketing adage of Social Proof. Like if we walk by a restaurant that’s buzzing and busy, it makes us want to eat there too. “If all those people are enjoying the Broccoli Casserole at that restaurant, I need to have some of that that Broccoli Casserole!” Similarly, showing your prospective clients that other people like your business could be the tipping point for them to have a taste – and once they have a taste it’s your job to provide the quality and consistency to keep them coming back for more.

If pictures are worth a thousand words… Video surely is worth a million words…