Amazing behaviour of the dolphins. Just amazing. Offtopic.

Professionals know that a brand reaches its audience through many channels, and consistency of expression plays a major role in its effectiveness. From brochures and web sites to annual reports and magazines, comprehensive guidelines ensure seamless brand communications. Here are examples of the identity building blocks and applications guidelines of a typical program.

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Newspond looks like Digg, but it’s not Digg. It’s an AJAX’ed “self-sufficient news engine”.

Newspond uses an AI brain to discover and sort news as it surfaces all across the internet. And unlike other news aggregators, it doesn’t just relate news stories. It reasons, using every possible piece of data about what people are doing with a story. How strong is the discussion surrounding the story? How many people are reading it? What kind of sites are reporting it? Newspond looks at it all and assigns a Buoyancy Rating, a measure of the precise upward force the internet is exerting on a story.

Here is the developer’s blog and here is my profile on Newspond.

Smashing Magazine reissued another article revealing 45 more excellent blog designs. That is, indeed, a great source of inspiration.

1. Expansion

The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope

2. Contraction

A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus

3. Publicity

The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising

4. Advertising

Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy

5. The Word

A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer

6. Credentials

The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity

7. Quality

Quality is important, but brands are not built on quality alone

8. The Category

A leading brand should promote the cateogry, not the brand

9. The Name

In the long run a brand is nothing more than a name.

10. Extensions

The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything

11. Fellowship

In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands

12. The Generic

One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name

13. The Company

Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference

14. Subbrands

What branding builds, subbranding can destroy

15. Siblings

There is a time and a place to launch a second brand

16. Shape

A brand’s logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes.

17. Color

A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor’s

18. Borders

There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders.

19. Consistency

A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years.

20. Change

Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully

21. Mortality

No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution

22. Singularity

The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.