Podcast: Marketing & Branding from a Graphic Designer's Perspective
This week’s podcast (yes, we’re just calling it that now) is a little different. We’re going to be talking to a good friend of Frontside Consulting: Travis Roof. He’s the designer of the Frontside Consulting logo and an expert in graphic design and branding. Joe and Travis discuss the designer’s perspective on marketing and branding.
You can find out more about Travis at www.roofriderdesignco.com and on Instagram and LinkedIn
Joe Kim (00:00)
All right, today is gonna be a little bit different. I'm gonna introduce everyone to Travis Roof, who is a long time friend of mine and actually the designer of the Frontside Consulting brand logo. whether, if you're familiar with Frontside Consulting, you are familiar with his work, which is actually kind of really cool. Travis and I know each other from...
our time over at evo.com, we were both working in the marketing department. We kind of are on the other side of marketing in a lot of ways. So I was always on the kind of data-driven nerdy numbers and spreadsheets side of marketing, and Travis was always kind of like more creative side. I think the thing that's really interesting is that, you know, I think both of us appreciate the other in that regard.
for each of our respective sides of the marketing machine. And I wanted to just have a little discussion, a little bit different than we normally talk about, to talk about, like, hey, this is the creative side of things and the brand marketing side of things, which is what Travis works on a lot nowadays. So yeah, I think the first question I had for you, Trav, let's see.
yeah, will you kind of just tell me about like your overall kind of background in graphic design, how you came to be a graphic designer and, you know, what it is that you enjoy about it.
Travis Roof (01:39)
For sure, yeah. Well, thank you for having me, Joe. It's an honor to be here, first of all. My journey into graphic design, kind of felt like I accidentally stumbled into it. know, struggled my way through school and into college and then decided to commit to a graphic design program. And as soon as I did that, just kind of hit the ground running and never looked back. I've been fortunate to work with great people and great companies along the way.
with you at Evo. And then while I was there, a headhunter from Amazon came after me and I went and worked for them for five and a half years. And recently I've broken off to do my own thing and have been running Roof Rider Design Co. over a year now. And just working on brand identities and visual identities and graphic design work.
Joe Kim (02:30)
Cool, cool. And what was the division that you're working with at Amazon?
Travis Roof (02:35)
I worked for two different divisions there. I started with Treasure Truck, which was an experimental program that Amazon launched. And it lasted up until the pandemic because it was based around in-person experiential events. And when people are restricted to their homes, that makes it difficult to have in-person events and also to differentiate buying something through Treasure Truck versus buying something from Amazon. And we were just one in the same. so...
Joe Kim (02:55)
Yep.
Travis Roof (03:05)
they ended up canning the program. And from that, I switched over to working on the fashion design team and did motion graphics and some UI design for them. So yeah, kind of just my time there. On Treasure Truck, I should say is that I helped build the brand from the ground up, worked with an amazing team, but focused on creating an illustration visual language, color, uniforms for the staff.
signage for physical events. Yeah, videos that played on this truck that would show up to deliver people's packages, all sorts of stuff. kind of a little bit of a jack of all trades over the years, learned a lot of different skill sets, but now focusing more on the visual identity side of things.
Joe Kim (03:53)
Nice, yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about the Treasure Truck as a brand? Because, you know, obviously Amazon, excuse me. So Amazon is a brand that many, many people are familiar with and it has, you know, there's a particular look and feel to it. It's pretty utilitarian. How is the Treasure Truck part different and how did you...
Was it like you differentiated from Amazon as a brand or was it like, hey, we're Amazon and.
Travis Roof (04:20)
Yeah.
Yeah, Treasure Truck from the get-go was kind of an attempt to be a human side of Amazon. And the slogan was, make every day a little bit special. And so kind of our mantra and the design team was to surprise and delight customers. And so through that, we would create this atmosphere in person because the business model was you.
order something from Treasure Truck. There's only one item that you go and pick up at the physical truck that would drive around to different locations within your city. And so what you get there, it'd be kind of a carnival atmosphere. There'd be bubbles coming out of this big delivery truck. There's a video screen playing on it, music. There's games that I also designed. And yeah, so it was really trying to put a human face to Amazon and not just be a package that shows up at your door.
Joe Kim (05:16)
interesting. So that you're definitely saying like, maybe from like a logistical perspective of like, we're operationally efficient, we're Amazon, we're gonna get you this thing to you very quickly. So this is a pretty big departure into, hey, we want customers to feel a certain way when they engage with the Tricher Truck brand. Is that correct?
Travis Roof (05:32)
Correct.
Yeah, yeah, that's spot on. Yeah. So instead of having something come to you as people have grown accustomed to Amazon doing, this was a big ask and a big lift to get people to show up to a truck and make it worth their time. that partly was due to the high value items that were sold on the truck, but also the in-person atmosphere that I described earlier.
Joe Kim (05:56)
I see, see. So something that I see a lot, running an agency and having worked in brand, the thing that I have always seen is that...
Organizations with really strong brands, they tend to be set up for success much better than brands that don't have like a really strong, or organizations that don't have really, really strong brands. Like what would you say is kind of the treasure truck brand? Or like how would you describe that?
Travis Roof (06:27)
Yeah, the Treasure Truck brand was kind of throwback to Americana a little bit, kind of that circus atmosphere that I was telling you about. The brand colors were red and blue and white and yellow. yeah, kind of really nostalgic colors.
Joe Kim (06:36)
Mm-hmm.
I think I remember
the truck kind of looking like a box of like animal circus cookies, if you remember those. Yep.
Travis Roof (06:48)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And we were lucky enough to have Kyler Martz, a really famous Seattle area illustrator and tattoo artist. He did all the artwork for the trucks around for every truck. were in, gosh, what was it? 31 or 32 cities, I want to say. And the eight cities in the UK and for each city, he did all of the illustration work that was on the side of the trucks. So yeah, that was, that was kind of part of it. A lot of it was hand drawn, the visual language and style.
And that was one of the reasons why they brought me in there because that's a big part of what I do. Everything I do, I try and have it be based in illustration and start with it being hand drawn first. But to speak to your question more about do brands succeed when they have a stronger or gosh, whoop. Womp womp. Yeah.
Joe Kim (07:24)
I see.
We'll edit that out.
Travis Roof (07:47)
Yes. Well, I guess you just asked about the treasure or treasure truck brand, not about like brands in general, but yeah.
Joe Kim (07:54)
Well, no, I
mean, that kind of is, you it was going to segue into my next question was like, do you see? It's one of those things where I kind of feel like you know it when you see it, but like in your mind, from a creative perspective, like what is like an effective brand and how does that kind of present itself from a creative perspective?
Travis Roof (08:13)
Yeah, that's a good question. An effective brand when I see it, something that...
it's clear and what there there's a it's conceptually driven. I think that's you know, that's mandatory. It's got to be based in concept.
Joe Kim (08:32)
Can you say a little bit more about that when you say it's conceptually driven? What does that mean?
Travis Roof (08:35)
Yeah, you know, like, gosh, what's a good example of that? You can say something, what was that sound? Did you hear that beep? Was that just me? I don't know what that was. All right. Okay, restart.
Joe Kim (08:50)
I didn't hear it.
Well, let's back
up and say like, you know, like the when we talk about big brands and effective brands like Nike is like one brand that comes to mind for me. If you were to say like, like conceptually, like what are they as a brand? Maybe we can kind of back into that.
Travis Roof (09:04)
Mm-hmm.
Sure,
yeah, if we wanna talk about Nike, mean, their slogan, just do it. So it's about action, that's the concept is, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and grab it. And so all of their design is driven, no pun intended, but to move their design forward and convince the customer that this is a brand that's about action, about being athletic, about cutting edge.
Joe Kim (09:20)
I see.
Travis Roof (09:42)
taking risks and being on the forefront of a trend. So yeah, that's an example of something being conceptually based.
Joe Kim (09:45)
Mm-hmm.
So what you're saying is that you have to clearly communicate what your values or your value proposition as an organization, excuse me, is as grand and communicate that as clearly as possible through creative means.
Travis Roof (10:00)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Mm-hmm, yeah, and it's not just visual. When you're talking about brand, it's more than I can even describe, because it's the logo, the colors, the tone of voice in the writing and the copy that's used. It's the visual language and photography. If there's any supporting illustration elements that can give it a whole other language as well. Also,
Yeah, it's customer perception. There's just so many things that go into building a brand.
Joe Kim (10:41)
Whereas like channel as well, right? So like, think famously Lambert Green, he says like, we don't do television ads because like our customer is not like sitting around watching television.
Travis Roof (10:51)
For sure, yeah, I haven't heard that myself, but it makes sense. You gotta know where your customers are and who your target clients are. And if you know where they're gonna be, then that's the place you wanna show up.
Joe Kim (11:03)
Right, right. And we kind of think of it as performance marketers more in terms of where are we physically finding the customer. Well, maybe not physically, but digitally, where are we finding our customer and how do we speak to those customers as clearly as possible. So from, let's see, let me go back to questions here.
okay. So what do you see, you know, being on the performance marketing side of things, you know, we're really interested in like, what is the thing that kind of gets people to buy or like take an action? Is there anything that you kind of see that regularly from like a creative perspective, like, this is the thing that like gets people like take action?
Travis Roof (11:48)
For sure. In general, think there's kind of a few things that I notice. Clear visual identity. So when you see it, you know who it is because that's gonna, if a customer knows who you are before, you know, in a split second, if that trust has already been built in your brand, then they're more likely to take action and click through something or buy a product.
Joe Kim (12:09)
Yeah, like the shape of
the Coke bottle, for example, right. Yep.
Travis Roof (12:12)
Exactly, yeah, yeah,
the arches of McDonald's or the red of Coca-Cola. I mean, there's little things that subconsciously that you connect with immediately that you don't realize. So a strong and clear visual identity, I think is a good thing for getting people to take action. Some of this stuff is like, well, copy comes to mind. So clever writing.
Joe Kim (12:37)
you
Travis Roof (12:38)
hiring a good writer to, come up with your writing is going to really benefit a business. I've been fortunate to work with really good writers in my, in my time and they can do way more than I ever could. I'm, I'm by no means a writer, but I like personally, I like to have a little humor in what I do. And if I see something that is going to make me smirk or smile, give me a little chuckle, then I'm more likely to take action on it. So that's something I also think.
Joe Kim (13:03)
So that kind of emotional
connection with the customer.
Travis Roof (13:06)
Yeah, exactly. And then similarly to, you know, inspiring copy, you also have to have inspiring imagery. So if you are selling products that could leverage photography, then having good photography is really going to separate you and help you separate from the competition as well as drive action on your business. Because if you just have generic stock photography, people are going to see right through that and it's not going to drive any action.
Joe Kim (13:33)
Right, right. You can kind of tell how much effort somebody puts into like a creative side of things, right?
Travis Roof (13:38)
Absolutely. And then
finally, I'd say that motion really can drive action and design. And that could be, you know, an animated logo. could be a motion design. So just kind of little pieces that take action or animate when you interact with them on an app or a website or even just motion within design. So maybe there's a color swatch that leads you towards a button or
something visually that gives an element of motion that's gonna help drive action towards something.
Joe Kim (14:13)
Right. Yeah, I think that's a, those are great points. The other thing that we've kind of noticed from, you know, running, you know, millions of dollars worth of like paid social ads is, and I think you were kind of touching on this with like having a like really clear brand or proposition, but like this kind of concept of the
You know, on social media platforms, really like the ability to kind of stand out and like have a brand and be opinionated. That seems to be something that's really, really important to kind of cutting through the noise. Because, know, obviously you're scrolling through Instagram or TikTok or what have you. There's so much content out there. What are some like really great ways that a brand can maybe with like their, with the creative side of things, kind of like stand out?
Travis Roof (14:54)
Yes.
Yeah. Well, one thing that I've learned recently, is that, I can't remember who said it now, but, if someone has said that if you don't position yourself, you will be positioned. So if you're not ahead of what the perception is of what your brand or product is trying to sell or push, then people will, will label that for you. And then all of a sudden your pigeonholed somewhere that you don't want to be. So coming up with that identity.
Joe Kim (15:17)
Hmm.
Travis Roof (15:34)
and positioning straight out of the gate, think that's really beneficial for helping a brand stand out when,
Joe Kim (15:40)
Cool. Does
an example come to mind for you?
Travis Roof (15:43)
no, sorry.
Joe Kim (15:46)
Now do the following.
All right. Let's see. think I only had one other question.
okay. I'm not sure if this is gonna really apply, but like, do you see any commonalities of like really, really effective brands? I know we've kind of touched on some of these, but maybe from like a more tactical level, like...
Right, I mean, we're kind of touching on brand as like, you know, like the McDonald's logo or the Coca-Cola bottle. What is something, you know, that works in that way as a brand marketer that like, you a smaller business might be able to leverage?
Travis Roof (16:35)
hmm, that's a good question. I can kind of speak to some commonalities that I see in my own process when I'm building out brands for people versus kind of talking about the bigger brands. Is that all right? All right. yeah. So in my process, things that I've noticed that really helped me succeed with a client is, communication is obviously really important.
Joe Kim (16:52)
Yeah, of course.
Travis Roof (17:05)
So upfront I communicate my process. I say, okay, these are the steps that we're gonna take. These are the parts where I want your feedback. These are the parts where we're gonna collaborate throughout and beyond that here is just putting out a timeline and just really being as transparent as possible. And like I said, trying to involve the client. In the beginning, what helps me set up a successful brand for people is
starting with questions, you know, I can have a client come to me with an idea about, I this logo. want, I don't know, a walrus, frying a burger for a burger joint. I don't know what it is, but, yeah. So before I just jump into, they have this idea. I asked them questions. I have a questionnaire that we go through. I do some word mapping based on some of the responses I get in that. And then I follow up with a clarity call with the person so that I say, okay, this is what I've.
Joe Kim (17:59)
Hmm.
Travis Roof (18:04)
collected from you, here's my interpretation of it. Does this represent your brand and what you would like it to be? And so by having all of that already kind of worked out in the beginning, now we can go together, me and the client to work towards a brand identity or visual identity and know that we're on the same page. And as a designer, it's really nice because that now is eliminating rounds of feedback probably in the future because
I know that I'm not just gonna throw something at them. They're gonna say, hey, where'd this come from? What is this about? I'm gonna take what I've learned from the clarity call and brain questionnaire and apply that directly to building out this visual identity to get the results that everyone's looking for.
Joe Kim (18:48)
I see. So something that I've been asking our clients more recently, because we try to understand our clients' brands. So they want to write an ad copy, for example, that we're better representing them. One of the things that I like to ask is,
What do your clients say that they love about you? As like, hey, this is like what we want to sell. Do you have any kind of like your favorite questions to ask your clients when they're kind of defining their brand?
Travis Roof (19:09)
Mm-hmm.
Good question. As far as logo design goes, I think my favorite question, and I might just be speaking to designers only with this, but is what are five brand nouns that describe your business? Because that gives me a really solid base for five tangible items that could represent the brand visually. And so that's a trick that I picked up from another designer.
Joe Kim (19:35)
Yeah.
Travis Roof (19:48)
a while back and yeah, that's been probably my favorite question I asked just because it gives me a lot of clarity and again, gives me something to reference to say, okay, these are the five nouns that we talked about and so that's why I'm showing you what I'm showing you and you're seeing the explorations that I've created.
Joe Kim (20:08)
I see, great, cool. Well, last question for you. What are, and we've got some other projects that we're working on together, but what are some examples of your favorite brands and why do you love them?
Travis Roof (20:23)
Yeah, some of my favorite brands, gosh, I really enjoy currently, I mean, there's some designers that I really like that kind of have their own brand with them. John Contino, he's a guy that's really famous for brand by hand and somebody that I like to emulate where I can where he's doing as much hand drawn as possible so that you know that it's not getting replicated by anybody else. Aaron Draplin.
There's another big guy that once you see his work, know it's his. It's iconic. Everybody knows his work. If they, I should say, once you see it, you're like, okay, that's his style. I know his style. Another guy made by James, and he's a part of Lincoln Design Company, and they're really cool. They're just doing really awesome motion graphics, animation, branding, illustration work. All of these.
I should say those three people are really based in illustration and that's something that I strive to achieve with my own work like I was saying earlier. so, yeah, those are the brands and designers out there that I really gravitate towards.
Joe Kim (21:37)
I see. Yeah, they're pretty niche in the kind of design space. given your background, makes sense.
Travis Roof (21:42)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Kim (21:44)
Nice. Well, I think that's all we have time for today. Do you want to tell everyone? We're thinking find out more about you.
Travis Roof (21:50)
Sure, yeah, you can find me at roofriderdesignco.com or Instagram, Roof Rider Design Co, LinkedIn, same thing, Roof Rider Design Co. You can book a chat with me. I got these time slots that I call howdy chats and you can just talk with me for 30 minutes, kind of free consultation and just we can talk about design stuff. It's no pressure situation, totally free. I just ask.
in return that I'm able to ask questions of you and your business so that I can learn as well. And yeah, so those are the places you can find me.
Joe Kim (22:29)
Thanks everyone for tuning in and for more stuff like this making sure to hit the like and subscribe button and we'll catch you next time. Thanks.
Travis Roof (22:38)
Thank you.