project: Book It Inn pre-press

This is the front cover design for the ‘ Book It Inn’ print brochure. We’re in the midst of doing minor edits to the content and working with the printer on the details of pre-press.

Seen at the bottom right corner, is the logo I designed for this company.
See the post about the logo here.

Check out the print brochure
The content was written by Oriane Delfosse and the images were provided by Daniel Ewald Architecture.

In a few weeks, I’ll build out the website… stay tuned!

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project: Lola Kimoni

This was an especially great client to work with because, not only is she great, her product is gorgeous! “A Kimoni is a little wrap / a little kimono. Like the sari, it’s one rectangular piece of cloth, and comes in one size to fit all.”

The project: Lola wanted to her logo redesigned and needed a brand new brochure website.

Since her product is for warm weather / beach ware, we worked with blue hues throughout the site (and it’s her favorite color!). The background images on the left and right side are “paintings” I created specifically for this project. This kind of customization is what I enjoy the most — although it takes a little more time, the results are well worth it.

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project: Book It Inn Final Logo

This is the final design for the “Book It Inn” logo.

Steps in refining the logo: (1) The shape of the wings  were redrawn because the original drawings looked more like feathers vs. wings.  (2) The color of the wings were going to be colorized but we decided that the final brown-gray outline was a more elegant choice that reflects the kind of brand we’re trying to achieve for this company. (3) The font for the name went through many iterations (tested at least 3 dozen different fonts). We decided the final font would be “Optima,” where we used lower-case “n” for the word “inn” to illustrates arches (a nice detail in architecture).

project: BOOK IT INN Logo, color samples

Being a consultant I get the opportunity to learn about different types of businesses. During this present recession, one business in particular that peaked my interest is real estate.

As in any recession, businesses have to come up with creative ways to survive a slow economy. Fractional Ownership – a percentage share of an expensive asset (like real estate) – benefit entrepreneurs during times like these. (By the way, Fractional Ownerships are not timeshares…)

My new client project, Book It Inn, is a start-up, where my clients have been independent real estate consultants for 30 plus years. Their business has two parts: To transform properties into Fractional Ownership Real Estate, and to manage and promote these properties for short-term vacation and private events.

This startup project includes: coming up with a name for the new company, brand and marketing images and strategy, website, blog, book and (later) a mobile app.

Phase One: Brand Development

For the first phase of this project I was asked to create a name brand and image. The first two general considerations in naming and designing the brand: demographics and trends.

Being that this business will be targeted to less conservative real estate investors, and to renters that are hip to alternative choices (like Bed and Breakfast Inns), the name and brand had to speak to both perspectives. Also, as the trend now is to book your vacation details online, a snappy and easily understood message should be the name of the company.

Combining the idea of B&Bs, the trend of online booking and the terminology for “book it,” meaning to do it fast, the name Book It Inn was born.

The tagline: “The world is a book, book a piece of freedom,” was inspired by a famous travel quote by Saint Augustine — “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

The double meaning of the wings representing travel for the vacationer, and freedom for the real estate investor that may feel captive by this economy (or simply wants to spread their wings with alternative business strategies), works well in this brand. Additionally, the business message is to relay a more personalized service that reflects an old-time feeling of reliability and comfort.

Stay tuned for the next phase, the website and book.

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A Million-Downloads of Your iphone App – Is it possible?

In a previous post I talk about how my friend asked me if I would promote their suite of iphone apps. His main goal was, how to get a million downloads. This prompted a mini research project and post; one that I hope is useful information for developers.

One Million Downloads

The 10 billionth download from the Apple App Store took place on Saturday, January 22, 2011. Of the approximately 400,000 plus iphone apps available, how many individual iphone apps were downloaded at least a million times?

In the last ten months (April 2010 – January 2011), the top-five iphone app stories that sold / downloaded at least a million times were: Cut the Rope, Dominos, Motion Portrait, PayPal and Bubble Ball. To reach one million downloads; these successes took between 3 weeks and 3 months for two reasons:

The first and most obvious reason, these apps were launched by companies that are globally recognized, have a large budget, or have an established stake in the game industry — like Electronic Arts’ Chillingo, “an international marketer, publisher and distributor of video games.”

The second and most inspirational reason— the human-interest story about a 14-year boy and his mom from Spanish Fork, Utah. The boy went to the public library and found a SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) and spent a little over a month coding Bubble Ball while his mom helped in the design stages; his app surpassed Cut the Rope on January 24, 2011.

500,000 Downloads

In the last seven months (June 2010 – January 18, 2011), the top-five iphone app stories that were sold / downloaded at least 500,000 were: Argos, Pocket Frogs, Thumbplay Rocks, Bento and GoDaddy.

The time span for reaching 500,000 downloads is longer; between 5 days and 17 months, where the app that sold in 5 days was for the update release for the already popular game, Pocket Frogs. Again, established companies with big budgets launched these apps.

The Average Downloads

One article in particular that shared the actual sale numbers provided real insights on the realities of developing and marketing mobile apps.

Iphone App Sales Exposed (May 2010)
“… 96 developers who provided in-depth sales data and pricing metrics. The average total number of units sold was 101,024 copies within an average period of 261 days.”

My Two Cents

I come away from this research with three strategies:

One, create a bunch of apps you think will be purchased at least 100,000 times. Making sure that your ROI (return on investment… time and money… developing and marketing the app) is worth the effort.

Two, get a suite of apps developed and find an established distributor that will market your product (so that you get to do what you love… develop).

Or three, check out this guy that knows the business of mobile apps (or someone like him). If anything, educate yourself about the general landscape for business development and marketing – it’ll help refine and further your vision, while also prepares you when you’re looking for the right partner to execute marketing strategies.

Nicholas Lovell
http://www.gamesbrief.com/about/

What price an iPhone app? 19% less than last year (January 10, 2011)
http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/01/what-price-an-iphone-app-19-less-than-last-year/

A lecture he gave at Edinburgh Interactive 2010: Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8BejCxzuc4

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