Groupon is one of the hottest internet companies on the web today and this is due to the fact they are a steward to their brand. We feel the foundation of a great company is brand design. The way you communicate each element of your brand through design determines the initial impression and lasting memory you leave with a customer.

Here are some tips:

1. The brand initially starts with the name. Try not to use “Deal of the Day” or “Daily Deal”. Deal in the title is OK, but keep it short and simple.
2. Try to have a mascot or at least an icon that people can associate your brand with.
3. Keep the design simple. You don’t want to distract from the purpose of selling the deal.
4. Make sure the deal title, main image, and buy button are the 3 most prominent focal points.

Here are some sites we found that we weren’t too fond of:

The next two are from the site Media Web Connect. They have created their software on a template system and the design customization capabilities are minimal. Also its hard to see the buy button on the sites and there doesn’t seem to be any guidance with design standards and color choice.

The following two are from the site Tippr. Tippr runs their own daily deal site and is licensing their platform out to 3rd parties. We like their site, but their 3rd party sites seem to be the same template and brand. Usability is clear, but the design is pretty plain.

Here are some sites our clients designed on our platform that we love:

IDineDeals.com is from the Rewards Network. They implemented a very clean design with a clear focus on the offer each day.

Another one of our clients Morgan’s Deals implemented their brand with a great sense of style leaning towards the female demographic.

The design is clean and the messaging is clear. These are the key elements to a good e-commerce and daily deal site.

Another one of our favorites is by DiscoverSD here in San Diego. They call their program the Hookup and have an excellent sense of brand. Their program is a weekly deal and each week they feature the coming weeks deal upfront. This builds the momentum and ensures a strong day of sales each week.

Deal Current is a  private label daily deal software solution for media partners.

Read more about Deal Current and we appreciate your feedback.

What are YOU doing for Halloween? Come to the Peek-a-BOO Party at the beautiful Pearl Hotel in San Diego. Our friends at LandMarK events are putting on a great night of drinking, dancing and of course – costumes! So if you don’t want to fight the downtown crowd, join us for a night no lines, no cover and all fun.

Here are the deets:

WHEN: October 31, 2009 > 8:30pm – 12:30am
WHERE: The Pearl Hotel
HOW: No Cover – Thank the Pearl Hotel
RSVP to: info@landmark-events.com

PLUS – Share your best Halloween Photo of ALL-TIME in our Halloween Photo Contest! The Pearl is giving away a 1 night stay and a $100 for food and drink to the photo with the most votes. The Winner is chosen by the public, so submit your photo today and tell your friends and family to vote here.

This was Michelle and I last year and we have some great costumes lined up for this year!
Hope to see you @ The Pearl.

-Mel

Horizontal Navigation Menus: Trends, Patterns and Best Practices – another helpful article from smashing mag

FFFFound iphone app – Don’t know about you, but im getting this app RIGHT…. NOW…. FFFFound is one of my favorite things in life.

Six fonts that piss people off – funny article about typefaces that cause RAGE haha

Poster Cabaret – buy gig posters and artist prints – a good collection

Practical Tips for Taking Design Inspiration without copying – we are so saturated with the media and internet today that it’s hard to define your own style – good tips for newbies and oldies

NEW Design contests from Veer – $50,000 in prizes – holla

Remembering 9/11 – NBC’s photo gallery from the service today

SAN DIEGO NEWS

8th Anniversary of Ray at Night – art, music and good people THIS SATURDAY – see you there

Art Walk by the Bay: Sept 12-13

2009 San Diego Music Award WINNERS

Have a good weekend everyone ~

Incredible Retro Work of Mathiole – holla at a local SDSU student – REALLY beautiful work

Typedia – an encyclopedia of typefaces – a typographers dream!

25 Sites with Lighting Effects – A 3-part post with a great collection of beautiful web design – good inspiration

8 ways to drive a graphic designer man – absolutely hilarious

Marketing Rules and Principles for Freelancers – good tips from Smashing on how to market yourself

20 Fresh & New Design Galleries – really good source for new inspiration – unique because they include inspiration sites that are specific.
EX: inspiration for portfolios/website footers/shopping carts/html5/type/blogs and more…

20 awesome Illustrators for Inspiration – i love the illustrators – their brains work differently

<Funny things for your lunch break>

Don’t Judge My Hair – a.ridiculous b.funny c.disturbing  d.all of the above.

Photoshop Disasters – see hideous photoshop mistakes on real ads – funny
Can you see whats wrong with this photo? Let’s hold hands…

We hope everyone has an amazing Friday -

Subscribe to i can read here.

-michelle
@mybell
@dailydesignfix

It has been a while since we threw a killer party. We know you miss the fun and we do to and we have two reasons to party this summer. The first is the 1 year anniversary of Collar Free launching. The second is that Pat is turning 30!

Come join us for a night of food, wine, friends, and fun!
We are hosting the event this year at Syrah. Syrah is an awesome wine bar in downtown gaslamp with a cool atmosphere inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Syrahwineparlor.com

Hope to see you there!

And don’t forget about the awesome discounts at Collar Free! Use code: “anniversary” SHOP NOW

4. You have phone cords running throughout the room
5. Your supply closet doubles as a skype call center

6. The co-founder of your company is your proof reader
7. When they ask for you, you have to say “hold on one minute” and pretend you actually have an assistant answering your calls before you come back and say “Hello”
8. The sales team brings eggs to cook for breakfast
9. You have actually taken a nap in the boss’ bed
10. You use your neighbor’s garage door as the back drop for your photo shoot
11. You have more food in the office fridge than your one at home
12. Your default password is the office dog

13. You drink with the boss on Fridays
14. You never know who will be there when you walk into the office
15. Your web developer keeps a trampoline in his trunk and you take lunch breaks in the park (or maybe that’s only artistic hub)

16. You leave your slippers under your desk
17. You bring your plant from home to live on your desk
18. You recycle birthday decorations
19. You have so many roles your job definition is impossible
20. You wake up wondering what emergency will arise today
21. You’ve wrestled with a dog in the office, unsuccessfully trying to pry a condom from its mouth
22. You keep extra changes of clothes at the office for days you need a run, or get too sweaty making calls

23. Your office cleaning lady cleans your home, and does the shopping for both
24. Every spare wall in the house has a marker board on it
25. You laugh your ass off everyday because you are working with your best friends
26. You don’t remember who comes up with the next big idea anymore – your meetings are electric with ideas bouncing off the walls
27. And sometimes, when everything comes together just right you move at the speed of light

-written by Team Hub – Artistic Hub.com

Feel free to share your start-up adventures! Add a comment and keep the list going…

1. Name: Andy Hixon

2. Location: Manchester

3. Date of Birth: 18/06/82

4. Height: 5.7 (I think)

5. Whats your favorite medium?
Mixed media & Digital

6. Whats your work environment like?
A total and utter cramped mess full of cable wiring and clay everywhere

7. About how long do you spend on your art pieces?
Anywhere from 1 day to a month

8. Whats messages or themes do you portray in your work?
I like to portray the ‘everyday’ aspects of life through a slightly warped visual style.

9. What is your first art-making memory as a kid?
I used to have a fascination with drawing Big Rig Trucks with Felt Tip’s when I was about 6 or 7.

10. What are you doing when you are not doing your mixed media projects?
Usually going down the pub with my mates

11. Something about yourself the average person wouldn’t guess?
Emm… I’m a Left Handed, Half Irish ,Diabetic that can cook an awesome curry!

12. If you could be a color what would you be?
Purple I think

13. What makes you smile?
My girlfriend and her increasingly bizarre scenes of humour

14. Can’t stand:
People that talk too much and really have ‘nothing to say‘ and pretentiousness

15. Can’t live without:
My head

16. Words to live by
Humbleness = Happiness

17. Last passport stamp:
Berlin

18. Most played in your itunes?
At the moment Protest the Hero, Minus, Head Automatica and Cult of Luna

19. Who are the designers/artists who have influenced or inspired you?
There are loads!, but I suppose Dave McKean , Jordin Isip and Henry Moore are the main ones

20. Have you any advice for new and aspiring illustrators?
Yes, don’t follow trends too closely that you see in design/illustration etc, especially if you are studying, gather a wide and varied source of influence/inspiration.  That and loads of experimentation, make a total mess learning your craft and have fun with it but also learn from your mistakes, and most of all and by far the most important thing is to enjoy what you do!
-Andy

Learn more about Andy here:
www.andyhixon.com
www.behance.net/andyhixon
www.myspace.com/andyhixonart

WHO IS ABSOLUT?
Every bottle of Absolut Vodka is created in Ahus Sweden and it’s rich, smooth taste has given it global recognition. Absolut was introduced in the US in 1979 and their bold, yet simple advertising campaigns have won them numerous awards – including a rank in the “Top 10 Campaigns” by Advertising Age in 1999.

WHY WE HUB THEM.
Positivity, creativity, simplicity and community involvement. Their commercials are positive and funny! No 1/2 naked girls riding a bar bull here. No way… OH and their vodka isn’t bad either!

What if we used kindness instead of money? I love this commercial.
See how they are turning the idea into a movement: Absolutkindess.com

They also just launched a new campaign promoting responsible drinking habits called “Recognize the Moment.” Stay classy Absolut.

HOW WE CAN HELP.
Absolut has run a few campaigns calling for community involvement and we would love help out with our voting application. Their “100 Absolutes” competition reportedly brought in 330,000 votes but with our voting application, we could knock it off the charts! (We have had over 839,000 votes for the Eteamz Photo competition in only 23 days.)

We could run a design competition for a limited edition bottle for their favorite charity, event or cause. “Absolut Art.” Their bottles have already become collectors’ items and having a bottle designed by someone in the art community would be a unique addition. See the limited edition “Summer” bottle they created for the UK and the “green” bottle they launched in Greece in 2008. Absolut has also released a limited edition bottle supporting the LGBT community. CA loves Absolut.

We could have the public creating, and voting on their favorite bottle designs. All of the designs in voting, can go directly into an online store to be purchased on-demand as posters. The Absolut website is already interactive and fun and our quick and simple application would integrate seamlessly as a great way to help them break into the interactive marketing sphere.

Don’t want to do bottles? How about posters only?

Their Absolut World campaign is hilarious and it would be fun to open it up to the public to create and vote on their own. These could also be purchased on-demand during the campaign. They have a similar contest running on Absolut World where you can create your own commercial and submit it onto their YouTube site.

Their witty and unique campaigns have a positive vibe which is WHY WE HUB THEM!

-M&M – Design Duo @ ArtisticHub.com