look after your brand

There's one downside to being involved in the design world, and that is having an unavoidable eye for details..

Give me a menu at a restuarant and I will be mentally cringing at the 7 different typefaces and lack of design consideration that has been given to the main piece of communication between the restaurant and the customer before I can even try and take in the actual offering.

Flyers drop through my door, and I cannot help myself but note how if the vendor had just spent a few moments thinking about their ideal audience and then a few pounds having the communication designed appropriately it might have hit a mark (before I then drop it in the recycling bin)

It will therefore come as no surprise that this typographical abomination caused me to squirm uncomfortably until it had passed out of view. What was interesting on this occasion was that my travelling companion (who by his own admission is to design what Jade Goody is to haute couture) spotted my flinches and acknowledged the heresy that was evident outside the ferry window immediately and required no convincing that this was not good brand portrayal and he too read it as "Norf-olkline" as the font metrics are completely wrong. (it acutally looked worse, if that is possible, outside the lens of my camera as the kerning between the o-l-k is also all wrong)

Norfolkline must be aware that this particular ferry has been "decorated" in such a way, but I am intrigued as to how it came to be so - it surely cannot be down to cost-saving, though I can understand that could be why it has not been corrected since. Maybe there is an opening for a position as Brand Manager!?

Ok, so, in the scheme of things and in comparison to world peace and global warming, this hardly needs a mention, but my point is that, with a small amount of care, the right communication to the contractors doing the painting, or a tiny amount of education as to what the company's brand stands for, this would surely have not happened?! I know that it's not what's on the tin, but what is in it, but we dont buy premium baked beans from a dented, scrawled wrapped can, do we..?

If a company cannot look after their own brand or present their products and services to to the best of their ability, how am I supposed to feel that they will they look after me as a customer?