A Day in Paradise

So here’s the deal! A couple months ago during the Iranian election, I got frustrated at everyone who was acting like posting whiny tweets would make everything better.

In those days Twitter was waaaaay too depressing, so as a balance to these killjoys I created a bot which searched for clever tweets and retweeted them (after changing the word “election” to “erection”).

Hilarity Ensued and before I knew it I had over 700 followers! Then after 6 months of fun Twitter blocked my account!

Following is the letter I wrote to twitter.

Hi! I had an account (@erections) which provided hundreds of followers with fantastic & hilarious (if I may say so myself) tweets.

I log in today to get my dose of pre-pubescent humor and find that the account was blocked!

Please re-instate my account & bring balance back to the twitosphere!

PS. I realize that my bot was posting a LOT – if you want me to tone it down I can. Thanks!

PS. I have all my tweets so if Twitter doesn’t give me back my account I’ll have to post them elsewhere :S then maybe I’ll create a “Best of” twitter account.

I posted this article on hedge fund logos on my hedge fund website blog. I thought I’d cross post here.

As anyone who works in the design industry knows, is that not all  logos are created equal & not all logo design companies create the same types of design. Our team at HedgeCo Websites has specialized in creating web designs and logos for hedge funds for the last 5 years. In that time period we’ve worked with hundreds of hedge fund managers to create logos and web site designs for their various funds.

One of the things that is often overlooked is that the choice of the design firm is almost more important than the design itself. Science has proven that if someone throws enough logos at you, you (eventually) will find one that you like. Even though you may find a logo that you like, the fact is that it will not portray your company the same way a logo designed by industry professionals will.

We are very proud of our work and, obviously, hope that you select the HedgeCo Websites team to help you with creating your hedge fund logo as well as your website and general branding efforts. Having said that, we have put together a few tips that will help you when choosing the designer to create your hedge fund logo.

Does your Logo designer understand your core audience?
Your logo and branding efforts identify you and your hedge fund to your investors. You need to work with a designer who understands what investors associate with, and what imagery/designs/typography they will respond positively to.

Our team has seen cases where a hedge fund manager works with a designer who is not familiar with the hedge fund industry to create a logo which may have been liked and approved by the hedge fund manager, but contained imagery or symbolisms which portrayed a negative image with perspective clients. Once a hedge fund has committed to a logo, it’s expensive and difficult to re-brand themselves.

Does your logo designer understand your strategy & hedge fund goals?
To understand the specific needs of a hedge fund logo and branding, the designer must understand the strategy that the hedge fund employs. A logo for a forex hedge fund will use different typography/imagery than a logo for a natural resources fund. The designer’s color palette will change from the Grays and Blues of wall street’s funds, to the greens and blues & yellows of natural energy, and the maroons and browns of Natural Resources Funds, and obviously in between.

Your Logo must be part of a larger branding effort.
Does your logo designer understand the bigger picture and branding needs of your hedge fund? Are they looking ahead and creating a logo that will work well in a 2-color business card, or integrate with a website?

One of our clients requested that his logo be formatted so that it not only looked good on his letterhead, business cards and website, but also on the sail of his yacht. Thankfully due to the flexibility of our designs, we were able to work with the fund to create a branding effort to work well with all their advertising efforts.

The colors that are chosen by your designer are critical to the success in branding your fund. Are the colors they are choosing meant to reflect well on the entire branding effort of you firm, or are they just throwing a design in front of you which will make you happy enough to approve the design and get them some quick cash, leaving you with a quick design that you will not be happy with in the long term.

In Conclusion
At the core of the issue is finding a designer who communicates with you through every phase of the project, then based on his understanding of the industry creating a logo that portrays your company’s goals and strategy.