What your iphone would have looked like in the 80's

I love Apple's focus on design. Sleek, clean and easy to use. A book published late last year and written by Hartmut Esslinger, shows early prototypes for the objects we know so well today. He should know because he founded Frog, the design company that worked with Steve Jobs in the early days of Apple. Some will be familiar, some may be bizarre, but it's great to see where the computers, tablets and phones started from.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/5757414/apple-prototype-tablets-phones-laptops-from-the-80s-photos

Turn downtime into uptime

Make every hour in your day count by giving your clients the most and the best.

With any project there are lulls. Waiting on client feedback, waiting on vendor estimates, whatever. We all try and maximize our time to fill those lulls with other billable work and switch gears to move the next thing forward. But what if all your projects are on hold for an afternoon?

Go see a movie and enjoy the break? Good sometimes.

Get on the phone and start e-mailing and prospecting new leads? Better.

Work on ways to strengthen the relationships you already have? I think Seth Godin would say that’s the BEST.

Ideally every job would be under budget, you would bill every hour in the day to something, and you would be constantly in new business mode, but there’s a lot to be said for making your work the best it can be and striving to satisfy your clients so completely that they can’t wait to work with you again.

How far is too far with Law Firm Branding?

I firmly believe that companies should always try and stand out and be distinctive with their branding. But how much is too much? Often, there's a fine line between being distinctive and being inappropriate and customers will decide if it's been crossed.

Here's an article on the branding update for Peabody Nixon.

I love the energy, boldness and friendliness of the updated identity, but does it look like an international law firm? No, but if the goal is to redefine what an international law firm should look like then the answer will someday be "yes."

I applaud Nixon Peabody's willingness to stick their necks out and be different.

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/11/a-law-firm-gets-a-rebrand-fit-for-a-tech-start-up/

Here's a link to the firm's website as well. It's worth a look. It's very different from what you'd expect from a national law firm at least today. You might feel differently tomorrow.

http://www.nixonpeabody.com/index.aspx

By the way, Lee says she HATES the look of their new website and the green is assaulting her eyes. Check it out and see what you think.

It's okay for your law firm to be different. Just ask your clients.

This is an excerpt from an interesting article titled: Learn From the Big Guys: Tested Marketing Tips Work for Law Firms, by Janet Ellen Raasch from the National Law Review's Website.

The article quotes branding consultant Gerry O'Brion.

All too often, law firms believe that their brand is what they think it is.  Rather, they must understand that their brand is what clients think it is. 

The article is long but worth the read and has some simple analogies that I enjoyed, particularly this piece about finding a point of differentiation.

O’Brion used the example of an auto repair shop that branded itself as servicing all makes and models of cars, with little success.  When the shop realized that much of its work came from servicing Audis and VWs, it changed its message to specialize in these makes of car and business tripled.  Customers wanted to go to a shop that specialized in solving their particular problem.

“Successful branding boils down to just one thing,” said Gerry O’Brion.  “You must be different from your competition in a way that clients value.  Big brands thrive by continually refining their understanding of what their customers value and by consistently delivering their messages in a way that stands out from the competition.  Law firms can do the same.”

You can be an attorney.  You can be an attorney representing all businesses, everywhere.  You can be an attorney representing hospitality businesses in Colorado.  Or you can be an attorney representing restaurant clients in Denver.  If you are a Denver restaurant owner, which lawyer will you choose?  The sharper you focus, the better your brand and the more-profitable your business.

See? I told you it was good.