Vivitiv is a Technology Alliance Luncheon Sponsor

There is still time to join more than 800 business and civic leaders at the premier annual event for Washington's innovation community. Don't miss your opportunity to hear from the authority on disruptive innovation at the 2010 State of Technology Luncheon, featuring a keynote presentation by Clayton M. Christensen, bestselling author of The Innovator's Dilemma, Disrupting Class, and The Innovator's Prescription. Register Here.

We are brand sponsors of this event and are proud to say that the Technology Alliance is a Vivitiv client of long-standing.

Logo Devolution Hits Vivitiv

We designed the original 710 KIRO logo way back in the mid to late 1990s. Amazingly, lo these many years later, the basic structure of what we created is still intact. Sort of. Our Original logo is at the top, followed by logo from a few years ago after frequency change and the current iteration at the bottom.

In this day and age it is a remarkable feat for any logo to stand the test of time, what with mergers and acquisitions, new business models, the speed of technology, the faddishness of the marketplace, clueless brand managers and the basic short attention span of the average American. So in a small way I am pleased that the latest KIRO logo still retains the ghostly vestiges of our design. A very tiny pleasure, because what they have done to the mark is downright pitiful.

We don't claim that the mark we created for this once mighty radio station was a classic of logo design, but we are suitably proud of it, it works, it stood out in a sea of radio logo sameness, and it ably served it's purpose to give a strong, local visual identity to the brand. But over the years, the station group was sold off, they switched formats and went from the am to the fm band, losing audience and market share along the way. Instead of calling in Vivitiv or another design firm to create a new mark to address the NEW station identity/frequency head on, the station management instead chose to make incremental changes to the mark that we created. As with other bad decisions for the station, we believe that draining the life out of a logo in order to keep some semblance of brand continuity was the wrong move. Given what is shown here, we are probably giving too much credit to station management, the devolution was probably driven by an unwillingness to spend any dollars whatsoever to have it done right than it was to retain brand equity.

We are proud that the mark we created for 710 KIRO has lasted as long as it did, but we are equally  saddened to see the devolution of both our work and the radio business in general.

Personal Oil Spill Prevention

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to horrify. While the muck pollutes and slogs onward at a colossal pace, there is something that the Average Joe Gearhead can do here in the Northwest.

Are you crafty enough to change your own oil? If so, did you know you can recycle used motor oil at local shops like Jiffy Lube and Schucks/O'Reilly? That's right, just put it in a container, (taking care not to spill any on the ground-it can seep into storm drains and local streams) cap it and take it in to a participating location. Here's a list for King County:
http://www.lhwmp.org/home/HHW/motor-oil.aspx

Gearheads, we designed this logo with you in mind. We salute you!