New Name, New Blog

I have a brief announcement to make that has big implications:

D&A Design is changing its name to Brand Shepherd
(effective immediately).

We have put a lot of time, thought, and energy into renaming and rebranding our little corner of the design and branding world, and we feel that now is the right time for this change. With the name change comes an all-new web site, too. We invite you to take a look: BrandShepherd.com.

For those who want a detailed explanation we’ve tried to answer any and all questions here.

Probably the most practical information to share concerning this blog is that our new web site will also be home to our new blog. Please update your RSS feed and bookmark.

We do plan on keeping this blog up – it still attracts a lot of visitors for the content we’ve posted.

We are very excited about having a new name for our business that more accurately communicates what we’ve been doing all along.

Cheers!

Dan

Big News On The Horizon

This year is shaping up to be a year of significant changes for us. In the coming weeks we’ll have news regarding our business that we believe is going to help us better serve the businesses we work with.

I don’t mean to be cryptic here, but here’s a video that is fun and relates (conceptually) to the big news to come.   Stay tuned!

New Northern Kentucky Advertising Opportunity

Small businesses in Northern Kentucky now have an especially targeted method of getting the word out about what they do. DoorsDirect™ is:  ”the one-stop-shop for the design, printing and distribution of direct to door marketing. We specialize in multi-ad door hangers.”

D&A Design worked with owner David Clegg to design the DoorsDirect logo, as well as the template for their Colossal Door Hanger™. The Colossal Door Hanger has allotted spaces on it where small businesses can buy single, double, etc. ad sizes. The door hangers are printed in full color, front and back, on a sturdy card stock.

Distribution is the key for DoorsDirect – they offer 10 zones in Northern Kentucky, and each zone has 10k homes that will receive a door hanger. It is literally direct, targeted marketing!

To the right is a prototype we designed for DoorsDirect showing what ads might look like on the door hanger. We used D&A Design clients as advertisers, and it’s worth pointing out that while we’re sure they appreciate the added exposure, the deals offered on each ad are our own creation.

We wish DoorsDirect all the best as they work with small businesses around Northern Kentucky (and soon across the river in Cincinnati!) to get the word out.

Cheers!

Dan Crask joins Board of Directors for Dog Rescue

As if getting to design a great web site for Frankie’s Furry Friends wasn’t enough, Dan has been asked to join the Board of Directors! He gladly accepted. The role is mainly that of a consultant as it relates to FFF’s design and marketing, but just being part of an organization that we really believe in is an honor. As we have written in previous blog posts, our resident Design Dog – Jake the border collie – is a rescue dog. After experiencing Jake’s turnaround and new lease on life we doubt we’ll ever adopt dogs from anywhere other than a rescue. There are just too many great dogs out there in need of a forever home!

Cheers!

We are different.

When we say we’re different than a lot of design shops it sometimes lacks context. Consider this excerpt from an AdAge story about how PepsiCo has put their $25m Tropicana account up for review context:

“After the rollout of that packaging — which scrapped the iconic image of an orange with a straw sticking out, and was the brainchild of controversial design guru Peter Arnell — sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line fell 20% in a matter of a few weeks between January and February 2009, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars.”

The scrapped packaging work was beautiful…to designers.

The buying public rejected it. Why? Because someone decided to put lofty design standards above common sense.

When D&A Design says, “We listen, think, create, and serve,” we are setting ourselves aside from design shops like the group that made such a huge blunder with Tropicana. To be blunt:  There is no such thing as objective “good design.” There are no standards that a designer can look to and know his or her design meets. We are in the business of aesthetic opinions, personal tastes, and what’s best for the brand.

We certainly wish PepsiCo and their design group success, and hope they’ve experienced a wonderful teachable moment.

As for us, D&A Design will continue to Listen, Think, Create, and Serve. It’s a process that has served us well; it’s why we ware different, and why our clients like that we’re different.

Cheers!

Sneak Peek: Morgan County CVB logo

We’re giving a sneak peek of a new brand we’re working on: The Morgan County, Ohio CVB.

This logo has been released to a few small advertising opportunities the CVB has received, so we thought we would offer a look at the tip of an iceberg.

For this project, which has been in development since late 2009, we have started from scratch: Nothing of previous branding was kept for what we’re working on now.

Our process continues to serve us well: Listen, Think, Create and Serve. We began by listening with our ears, as well as spending time in Morgan County – really absorbing the area to get a feel for what we would be designing. We then created a bunch of tag lines, and developed those choices into what you see above: “Morgan County, Ohio:  Front Porch to the Great Outdoors™

From there a large set of logos was developed, and working meeting was held to work through finalizing the decision to the logo you see above. Two weeks later we met again, nearly a dozen of us, to work through color. D&A Design is very hands-on in our creative process!

Now we are hard at work wrapping this up – creating a beginning ad template, stationery, digital assets, and guidelines for brand children… lots of future show-and-tell to come.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a very relaxing weekend getaway we would be remiss if we didn’t suggest you look into visiting Morgan County, Ohio.

Cheers!

Cincinnati Enquirer Writes About Frankie’s Furry Friends

Just received word that the Cincinnati Enquirer published a nice story about Frankie’s Furry Friends. Take a look!

Dog Rescue Gets A New Web Site

We’re happy to announce the launch of Frankie’s Furry Friends, a small dog rescue here in the Cincinnati area! Frankie’s Furry Friends is a dog rescue that helps small dogs find forever homes.

About the site: This site was built on the WordPress platform, which is an open-source Content Management System (CMS). A site built on such a platform allows the site’s owner(s) to maintain it with great ease. If you can use MS Word, you can use a CMS web site.

Also… once a year we will be taking on one pro bono project where we donate all of our design and branding time/expertise to an organization that we support. Our dog, Jake the border collie, is a rescue dog, and we are strong supporters of no-kill shelters and rescues in general. Frankie’s Furry Friends is 2010′s recipient of our time, design, and expertise. We couldn’t be happier for them.

It has been our pleasure and honor to contribute our time and expertise to Frankie’s Furry Friends. We know they will be a place where little doggies find forever homes.

Take a look and if you’re so inclined please consider adopting one of Frankie’s Furry Friends.

Talking about web design with the Glendale, Ohio Chamber of Commerce

A quick post this lovely spring day to say thanks to the Glendale (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce. I just returned from speaking about web design at the Chamber of Commerce’s bi-monthly training session (lunch & learn) about the “Basics of Web Site Design,” and had a great time.

What’s more, I was thrilled by all the engaging questions afterward! I love when a group of small business people get together and talk about design. I’ve yet to be in a group where the questions weren’t very specific, and the conversations afterward are always energized as well. I love being a small business guy.

No new dates are on the calendar just yet for a future speaking engagement, but when one comes up we’ll try and do a better job of making it known.

Cheers!

dan

Website Refresher: Half Day Cafe

We are really happy to write that the little café that serves wonderful and interesting food here in Wyoming, Ohio has a refreshed website: Half Day Cafe.

Several months ago we began talking with Half Day Café about their goal to refresh their web presence, and since both our businesses operate from the Cincinnati area village of Wyoming, it seemed like a logical fit. For the past 2 years D&A Design has been taking clients to Half Day Café for meetings when we can, and so refreshing their website was a joy to do.

The new site includes a Contact box on every page, updated photography, imagery, and their new Sunday Brunch menu.

Go take a look at the site, and please also put Half Day Café on the radar to grab breakfast, brunch or lunch. You will thank us later