Brand smacked. Or how a teacher sometimes needs to learn a lesson.
Brand smacked. Or how a teacher sometimes needs to learn a lesson.
So much to be grateful for --and shocked that -- brands like Substack, Flipsnack, Unsplash, and Anchor are free.
You’re reading this on Substack. Odd name, isn’t it?
A few years back I had no clue as to why people were gung-ho about Substack, or how it might become the tipping point of newsletters. There’s a huge backstory to how Substack is a lifeline for underpaid journalists, if you like to read more on this.
Prior to this, I messed around with Mailchimp. Gaaa! It was like trying to needle a thread with your small toe. (Sorry, Mailchimp!) The simplicity of Substack couldn’t be overstated. It feels like typing into a Google doc, with more bells and whistles.
In my previous missive (on Disinformation) I mentioned it was an experiment for my class. While my high school students are creating their own newsletters filled with school news, my 7th graders in my computer and tech class are in the throes of writing and editing their eBooks as their capstone project. (The picture above is clickable.) Here’s a link to one eBook. Like you, my high school students are my beta testers. So thanks for participating!
I’M NOT INTO BRANDS. But I do pay attention to brand names. Let’s talk about the 2-syllable ones. In my opinion, brands with two-syllabic names cut through the clutter. Facebook, Twitter, Quickbooks, Tesla, Odel, Substack… you get the idea.
Here are four of my favorites that are a boon to educators.
Flipsnack. An peculiar name for a platform that lets you turn a PDF into an eBook which lets you flip the pages like a real book. (With a page-turning sound effect to boot!) This week my students' eBooks will be uploaded here. You’ll be shocked, I think.
Unsplash. Another 2-syllable rock star should you need copyright-free images. It’s my go-to website and has really professional photographers contribute, and they fall under the Creative Commons license.
Canva. A website with a suite of tools that let folks look like they know more about design than should be legal. It’s free. In schools, we use Canva for posters, documents, and book cover design. I even use it as a basic video editor when I’m too lazy to use Adobe Rush.
Anchor. My favorite for podcasts. A quick-and-easy tool. Once you’ve populated the fields with options you need, it feeds podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google etc. It even tracks listenership. Just starting out? You could record directly into Anchor.Fm.
Speaking of brands, I tell my students this cautionary brand story. (My Sri Lankan subscribers: you would relate.) When showing students how to design their own logo, the principles of white space, contrast etc, I show them some exemplars. I then show them terrible logos, and what you shouldn’t do. One of which on display is the YES FM logo that I had been involved in creating for the Maharaja’s MBC network.
Fun fact: Some 30 years ago, I sat across the table from the art director whom I shall not name, (that person may have a completely different opinion of this) in the bowels of Phoenix O&M. The account manager hovering above us like a surveillance drone prodded us with client pet-peeves and must-haves. We were putting the pieces together like Mad Men working on a jigsaw puzzle thrown at us by our boss. The robotic head came first. I was hung up on the wavelength thing. The word YES was sketched in blocky letters. Nicely done; let’s italicize it a bit. Good! We took it to the client, a young whippersnapper who must have just got off a plane from a US college. It didn’t go well. They hemmed, we hawed. We caved in to add a subtitle, a background, and… the kitchen sink. We refreshed the jigsaw, and it got approved. Voila! Cluttered logo!
That's my story, and it’s sticking to me.
Postscript: One day, during a class observation, my principal sitting at the back of the room listened to this spiel about the logo. After class, he talked to me saying he loved the approach. But, he said, he thought the YES FM logo was actually cool. Am I completely wrong about this? If you’re into brands, please tell me so before I’m called to the principal’s office.
A teacher needs to learn a lesson of two, sometimes!
My next podcast ______________________________________________
I’m adding some finishing touches to show #35, recorded live in front of a student audience. Here’s a link to them on Apple podcasts.
Correction: In my previous newsletter, I misstated that Baskin Robbins logo had the number 33 in its logo: Should have been 31. My son, Aaron, a journalist who fact-checks everything he reads pointed this out to me. It was a mistake. I apologize. (There’s a strike through in the post with the correct number.) By the way, the old logo was phased out with the one on the right. I still like the old one.
FINALLY. On the topic of brands, especially two-syllable ones, I once owned a website called Brand Buzz. Long story. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version. I almost got sued because the name Brand Buzz belonged to the WPP agency, the network of agencies under which are JWT, Y&R etc. They hadn't registered the domain and I had unwittingly tread on their calluses. We settled. I covered the details in the preface of my book, Chat Republic.
And my point is? Two-syllable names sometimes get you in (and out of ) trouble!
Not sure if that guy, Musk, can see the writing on the wall of his two-syllabic acquisition proving him to be a ginormous wrecking ball. I’ll leave that topic for another newsletter. Thanks for reading this far! Truly appreciate it.