We've been doing some work on a business website recently - Resulting Ltd is the company that we do our consulting work through which includes Instant Impact Workshops.

Because Resulting has always been a vehicle for a number of different services, we have never really needed a website to attract and catch customers.

Now, we have decided that it would be a good idea so we've set the wheels in motion of having a site built, getting copy together, thinking through the SEO strategy and - the hard bit - establishing a good visual identity.

We played with lots of concepts - modern stock photography sites are a great source of inspiration but they can suck you in for days.

We settled on Graffiti (the word originates from the Latin noun for 'scratched words').

Why?

It is colourful and striking.
It evokes rebellion and youth
It is a great metaphor for leaving your mark on something
It is constantly evolving and changing

All messages that are congruent with what we do.

But the clincher for me was something I remember from Malcolm Gladwell's excellent Tipping Point...

When violent crime hit an all time high in New York in the 80s. The Police Chief and Mayor decided that they would reduce crime by changing the context in which crime took place.

The New York Subway was rife with crime and the Graffiti and Fare Hopping were synonymous with the Subway.

Every night, they painted the Subway rail cars white. The Graffiti artists would turn up the next day to spray on their art on a nice clean canvas (it is a 2 day process - outlines on day 1, colour on day 2).

The next night, the cars would be painted white again. Obviously to great frustration.

They took on crime by challenging the context and environment in which crime occurred.

They realised that the best way to change people and their behaviour was to change the context in which they behaved.

And it worked.

Context and Environment should be your first port of call when making changes.