Clients often contact me asking for a logo, and my immediate response is to ask how they (plan to) define their brand. If I get a blank stare or silence back, I know we’re going to have a lot of work to do. If they respond with a few key phrases or words that help me to define what they are and why they exist in the world, I know we’re going to have fun. If they say that they never thought of it before, I know that we’re going to do some important but necessary work. This is the beginning of the end of our branding planning for a new blog venture called Central Jersey Good Eats, which strives to make people aware of good food and related topics in the central part of New Jersey, be it gardening, cooking, eating out & visiting restaurants, food photography, farmer’s markets, and anything else you can think of. We feel like we have a plethora of things to talk about related to food in New Jersey, and through interviews, techniques, tips, reviews, and other journalism, we plan to share it all. Before we even began thinking about visual representation, we developed a Strategic Plan, vision and mission, ( http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad-YsRMv5bPqZGNrZm05ZndfNTY1ZnFmcnh6ZnM&hl=en ) which we are able to use to help us to make decisions about visual representation and other decisions, because answers are either brand centric or brand divergent according to the plan. The plan answers why we still will exist in the samw world with Yelp! If you live in Central Jersey, keep an eye out for new articles and stories about good food where you live.
