On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon. This historic journey required countless tasks of impressive intellect and skill, perhaps the most significant of which was simply not missing the Moon altogether. Four days before the monumental landing, the crew of
Every company has a brand, whether they make it a priority or not. Simply defined, a brand is what people think about you – the impressions they have when hearing or seeing your name. In most cases your brand is reflected initially in your logo mark, then supported by your
Have you noticed? As you’ve used your smartphone or tablet, you’ve probably discovered that many of the websites you visit reformat from their desktop version to fit smaller screen sizes. This “right-sizing” of websites is more than just a trend. It’s here to stay, thanks in large part to Google’s
It’s true for nearly every company, school and nonprofit we work with: most of their customers (or students or donors or volunteers) come from positive word of mouth. In fact, it’s not even close. Word of mouth beats the socks off of paid advertising. So, it’s worth asking the question:
It’s a strange to think of a city as a brand. There’s no storefront, no salespeople, no products on shelves. While you may not get a receipt, choosing a city for your home or business is one of the biggest “purchase” decisions you can make, and the greatest competition is
I know that the Information Technology (IT) field is infamous for a strange love of acronyms and abstract terms most of which are confusing and unknown even to some of us using them. Admittedly, they help to raise the shroud of mystery and disguise over what it is that computer scientists actually do; we
It’s been several years ago, but I remember like it was yesterday a conversation I had with the Head of School at a small, private school in Greensboro, N.C. “We would like to talk to you about some public relations projects. We might freshen up the logo a bit,” she
You look at the clock … 1:07 am. Half asleep, it’s time to call it a night. As you close your laptop, you slump back in your chair, head spinning. Despite hours of hard work, you feel more overwhelmed and frustrated than when you started. Unanswered questions flood your mind.
It’s not quite the new year yet, but North Star is making a resolution for 2014. No, we’re not going on a companywide diet, and we’re not doing a group membership to the gym (although it’s worth considering). But we are making a resolution we’ll definitely keep. As of January
Branding is a curious word, an anachronism in our information age, commonly used but seldom explored. It reaches far into antiquity when ownership was recognizable by a mark, permanently seared into the surface of an object by means of glowing metal or fiery wood. Farmers and merchants; stonemasons and carpenters
