Blog: Ideas & Inspiration

In the News

“Internet Famous”

It's an honor to work with an organization that has such a stong commitment to film and the arts. For two years we have developed the creative campaign for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival who have allowed us to creatively push the envelope in marketing a film festival. But we are only a small part of an incredilbe team of people that make this all posssble.

To find out more about Scott Banks, the founder of Persuasion Bureau, click here to read the entire interview.


Promotion

3D Portfolio on Viewmaster

We selected seven of our best design projects and magically turned them into glorious 3D pictures. Then we boxed it up in a limited-edition letterpressed package with a View Master viewer. Behold, it's old-school VR at its finest.

Click here to join our mailing list for future promotions like this.


Persuasion Bureau

The Science of Persuasion

This animated video describes the six universal Principles of Persuasion that have been scientifically proven to make you most effective as reported in Dr. Cialdini's groundbreaking book, Influence. This video is narrated by Dr. Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin, CMCT (co-author of YES & The Small Big).

 

Design Icons

Globe Poster

It all began in the mid-1950s with day-glo ink made out of fish scales. Really! Globe Poster of East Baltimore created a signature look for pop-culture's funk, jazz, soul, hip-hop, and rock show posters. Developed as a way to stand out on walls and lamp posts, their "more is more" philosophy worked, and it became the standard for promoting concerts in the last half of the 20th Century. Because sometimes you have to turn it up to 11. Today, original prints have become collectors items and sell numerous places online.

Today the largest collection of Globe posters, archives, and original wood block type is housed of MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art).

Click here to see, read, and listen to more about Globe Poster here on NPR.

Click here to visit MICA's historical collection and preservation of the Globe Poster archives.

Click here to to purchase Globe Poster items from MICA's Etsy site


Branding

“Pawnographic”

Safe to say chess fans didn't see this sexy move coming.

Yes, you just read the words "chess" and "sexy" in the same sentence. The 2018 World Chess Championship logo is a black-and-white illustration of two bodies, a chess board between them, with their legs wrapped around each other.

If you busted out a chess game while reading the "Kama Sutra," it might look like this.

The logo was created by Shuka Design in Moscow for the tournament slated for November in London. "The key visual for the 2018 World Chess Championship is controversial and trendy, just like the host city," the championship organizers said.

"As organizers of the match we've been busy for over a year working with artists and designers to develop a perfect key visual, the image that will be associated with the 2018 match and which will find its way onto mugs, posters, outdoor displays, venue design, media, broadcasting graphics and more."

The posters and coffee mugs might have to wait because people aren't quite sure they understand the logo.

But hey, it's great for giggles. Read More WorldChess.com.


Promotion

“Creepy Treats” Halloween Design Promotion

It may be the Tooth Fairy's least favorite holiday, but we love it. This year we sent out a retro candy sampler to our subscribers in a package designed inspired by old 1950s-1970s Spook Show posters.


History

Pretty Poison

Sometimes there's a look "to die for", but in the Victorian period, wallpaper could – and did - kill. Arsenic was everywhere in the Victorian period, from food coloring to baby carriages. But the vivid floral wallpapers were at the center of a consumer controversy about what made something safe to have in your home.

The root of the problem was the color green. After a Swedish chemist named Carl Sheele used copper arsenite to create a bright green, "Scheele's Green" (also known as Paris Green) became the in color and was particularly popular with home decorators catering to everyone from the emerging middle class upwards. Copper arsenite, of course, contains the element arsenic.

In the US, Dr. Robert M. Kedzie set out to raise awareness about the dangers of arsenic-pigmented wallpaper. In the 1860s Kedzie argued (correctly, we now know) that arsenical wallpapers shed microscopic dust particles that can be inhaled or ingested.

As part of his campaign to raise awareness about poison papers, in 1874 Kedzie produced 100 copies of "Shadows of the Walls of Death" and sent them out to public libraries across Michigan. In the preface to "Shadows of the Walls of Death", he warns that arsenic can kill not only by "sudden and violent destruction of life" but by slow, chronic poisoning, a mysterious and lingering illness that might baffle sufferer and physician alike. Two of four the surviving books remain in Michigan - one at MSU and the other at the University of Michigan.


Recent Projects

Pogo Pictures
T-Shirt

Pogo Pictures came to us with the challenge of creating a t-shirt to give to their clients that juxtaposed vintage style with modern sensibilities. A combination of hand-letteing and victorian design elements did the trick!


Productivity

What the Font

Have you ever seen a font you wanted to use for a project, and wished you knew what it was? Now with just a click on your iPhone you can identify it using MyFonts "What the Font" app available from the Apple App Store.

Click here to visit MyFonts and find out more about What the Font.

Click here to read the review of the What the Font app in Print Magazine.


Recent Work

2018 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

Inspired by a mash-up of classic Hollywood, nostalgic poster art, and old newspaper movie listings, we turned it up to 11 to get the word out for the 2018 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

From print ads to bus shelters. From digital billboards to promos on the big screen. We're bringing the festival to new audiences and keeping it connected to old ones across Atlanta with this unique, neo-nostalgic vibe.

Click here to find out more about the festival.


Persuasion Bureau

Our Philosophy

Seeing is Believing is more than a kitschy tag line, it's a guiding principle. Our designs carry an immediate visual impact that is intriguing and persuasive. Our ideas are based not on theories of what should work, but on successful real-world techniques that have produced results. We set high standards and are confident in our work. We are authentic, and believe every recommendation should be one we would implement ourselves.


Inspiration

Art Chantry

Never mediocre, and always has a point of view. This guy knows how to rock the design world. He's also been a huge influence on our philosophy of design, and even the work we do. Read more about Art Chantry here.


Design Resources

British Pathé Films

It's pretty amazing to have access to this as a history & film buff and a designer.

Click here to view the library on YouTube.