Imitation Isn’t Flattering… It’s Annoying!

Good news and annoying news…

First, the good news: First Capital Enterprises has a new web site thanks to Westside Media, a web design firm we partner with often for branding projects. We wrote about First Capital several months ago here.

And now that annoying news… The Obama administration and Congress passed the big economic stimulus package, and the name of their plan is The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. One thing we like about Mr. Obama is that his people (and maybe the man himself) understand the value of professional branding expertise. His campaign was nothing short of stunningly beautiful.

I was reading this post at Under Consideration telling the story behind the logo for The Act… when my jaw hit the floor upon seeing the logo for The Act…

This logo, according to the article, was probably designed around March 2009. Compare it to the logo we created in September of 2008:

Ok, so it’s not an exact copy, but it’s close.

The point of this post isn’t to rattle anything or anyone, but rather to point out that creating a brand image isn’t easy. If it was, every logo would look like everything else.

Catching up…

We awoke last Friday to the somber realization that May had arrived, and this blog had been sorely ignored, which sort of makes us look inactive… or, as is the case, too active to keep up with bloggin for the time being.

While the recession rolls on, we continue to see small businesses who thrive when they take chances, and reap the ROI. We’re humbled and thankful that the small businesses we serve chose us to be part of the ride!

Our “Refresh & Engage” campaign is winding down. We briefly shifted from an email campaign to a Craigslist campaign, and the two will come together this week. So far, so good. If you’re not getting our emails, please get in touch to get them!

In other news, D&A Design is (finally) on Facebook. Simply search for “D&A Design,” and we’ll pop up.

In the coming weeks we will be showing work we have created an acupuncturist, more work from Dinovite, a very unique service for small business owners, some email blast design work, and a logo or two… lots of work to wrap up!

But we’re never too busy to start a new relationship, so if we can be of help – even if just a conversation – please let us know…we’re happy to talk any time.

Breaking Ground

No… we’re not breaking ground on a new office… yet.

Instead we’re really happy to write this post because it means that a multi-touch point campaign is in full-blown launch mode for Chicago-based affordable home builder Breaking Ground.

Breaking Ground approached us in late 2008 to create some branding elements that would be used to promote their brand, their services, and of course, their homes!

They already offered very useful home-buying seminars that walk buyers through the steps of the process – what to expect. They also already had impressive home sites for would-be buyers to see, along with floor plans and testimonials to attest to the kind of quality organization that Breaking Ground is.

So what did they lack?

A visual reference to sum it all up: Branding. They lacked the visual elements for their prospects to see and know “That’s Breaking Ground…” Enter: D&A Design. We created a very simple, straight-forward messaging campaign using a visuals that had been loosely used in the past. We simply re-purposed and polished what they had, and the process was cost-efficient and fast.

Bottom line: Breaking Ground is a company that had everything in place, working like a well oiled machine, but they just needed a face for it all. The branding D&A Design created is simple the face that prospects can now see and associate with this great company.

Here is what we created:

• Transit Media: Signage used in Chicago transit (trains, buses, etc.), specifically on the south side routes.
• Home Site Media:  Signage hung on the fence surrounding a Breaking Ground home site.
• Billboard Media
• Magnets:  Given out to prospect buyers to place on their refrigerators – or wherever – to be reminded of Breaking Ground every day.

It all ads up to an effective campaign that Breaking Ground can re-purpose when a new advertising opportunity arises. Instead of trying to be clever each and every time, they have strong, consistent branding to use over and over on multiple touch points, multiple media – which is also very cost effective.

2008 Wrap-up

Though D&A Design began informally as a sole prop in 2006, it was early in January 2008 when D&A Design became an LLC. Andrea and I put everything we could into making D&A Design a solid design and branding shop for Cincinnati and the midwest, and Year One was full of positives from our perspective.

“On paper” 2008 might have been a year to NOT start a business, at least to those whom don’t posses the drive to do what business owners do… which is pretty much everything! “On paper” 2008 was a year of huge changes in our country, the world economies, and there were all kinds of uncharted rocky areas for financial institutions, which impact how our clients and prospects buy our services.

But if we did things based on how they look “on paper,” life would be really boring and entrepreneurship would mean nothing.

In 2008 we began working with more than a dozen businesses and entrepreneurs. We worked on brand identities that had a legacy and needed to be refreshed, and we also created brand identities from scratch, as we brought to life the dreams and visions of ground-breakers. D&A Design didn’t set out to win awards (we will write about that at some point – our take on design awards is the source of many-a-lively conversations among our peers!), and we didn’t set out to only work on projects that were “sexy” or trendy.

There were a few businesses that approached us with opportunities that just didn’t fit our business model, and we communicated it in honesty, linking them to businesses we are friendly with. We were also rejected by more than a few prospects after pouring many hours into upfront meetings and proposed plans to address their needs. But the week of Thanksgiving 2008 we sat down and wrote a Thank You card and note to each business that rejected us, thanking each of them for the opportunity for the pitch. I think that’s a nice tradition each year… assuming we continue to see a few rejections now and again

D&A Design created lots of brand identities, web sites, email blasts, consumer packaging, outdoor signage, printed sales materials, direct mail pieces, brochures, etc. But the thing we created that we value most are the relationships with some outstanding business owners whom help make up the back-bone of America.

It has been nothing short of a pleasure to work for and serve each of our clients, and we anticipate prosperity for each business we will work with in 2009!

Designing for The Business of Service Blog

We are very happy to plug not only some design work we created, but also to plug the blog itself, written by Scott Miller.

This was a fairly simple task for the design portion – to take the direction of creating something simply but that also communicated the conceptual message that this blog is for a very specific audience – we won’t get into that… you need to go check this blog out, and bookmark it now!

We took notes from Scott, and began concepting. After our first round of ideas we sent a quick batch of ideas to get a sense of direction. Advice was provided, and from that great direction ignited a total of 9 concepts/variations for Scott to try out and choose from. There were so many directions this could take visually, so we wanted to explore them to varying degrees.

A little time and effort later, we had a great header for this blog for Scott, and we’re confident that it is going to be a small cog in the wheel of this blog’s success.

Wyoming, Ohio Business Association Site Launches

We are very happy to announce the launch of the new Wyoming, Ohio Busines Association (WBA) web site!

When D&A Design joined the WBA in January of 2008, no web site existed, though it was a standing goal to have one. Seeing a perfect opportunity to lend our expertise to the goals, we began collaborating and brainstorming with a web site committee about how this site would function and look.

The WBA has an existing brand identity, with decent equity to Wyoming residents and business owners, so D&A Design simply used the look/feel of the logo, along with the color palette, to create a web site that was simple and beautiful.

When it came to the functionality of the site, we worked with Global Cloud, a fellow Cincinnati business with Wyoming, Ohio roots. Global Cloud has developed one of the best Content Management Systems (CMS) D&A Design has ever worked with. We cannot recommend Global Cloud enough to a business that sees their site as a evolving tool where content is updated regularly and with great ease. For the WBA site we merely scratched the surface of what Global Cloud’s CMS is capable of.

This first phase of the WBA site is designed to start off with very basic information. The long-term opportunities exist in that Wyoming, Ohio does not have a site like this, that lists Wyoming-only businesses. As a small city located next to the city of Cincinnati, residents pride themselves for working with Wyoming businesses. When we at D&A Design located our business and home to Wyoming, we actively looked for a resource like this, but it simply didn’t exist online. So we are both professionally and personally happy to have designed and helped launch this new resource for Wyoming, Ohio.

As it stands, the WBA now has a site that can be managed by WBA members using the Global Cloud CMS, and onto a site that D&A Design created. We really enjoyed working on this project, and look forward to helping the WBA realize this site’s potential.

D&A Design Joins the West Chester, Ohio Chamber Alliance

To start 2009 off, D&A Design has joined the West Chester, Ohio Chamber Alliance.

The question we started with was “which area chamber should we work with???” In Cincinnati there are many choices. We interviewed leaders at the many chambers in the Cincinnati area, and West Chester made the most sense for our business as a starting point.

The main reason was our proximity to West Chester itself. While we are a Wyoming, Ohio business, both West Chester and Wyoming are in the “northern hemisphere” of the Cincinnati area. Add to that the fact that the West Chester area is the single-fastest growing area of the state of Ohio, and it made for a solid case to join.

We’re looking forward to the many networking opportunities, and maybe even a committe to be involved in (if they’ll take one of us

New Branding for EZpay

SPS EZpay™ is “the solution for putting school fees online for parent access and easy payments over the internet!.” This service allows parents to pay for their kids’ meals and other school-related fees online instead of sending cash or a check with the kid, and using a teacher’s valuable time collecting it. This service is a huge benefit for parents, as well as school administrators. EZpay integrates into the processes that schools are currently using instead of asking them to bend to EZpay.

When D&A Design talked with the folks at EZpay about who they were, and what kind of persona the brand should cast, words like simple, clean, the best, top-notch service, and efficient came up a lot. So when D&A Design began the conceptualization phase of creating this refreshed brand identity, we decided to cover a lot of ground.

We began by evolving their existing logo (not pictured) into something just a step or two beyond where they currently were in terms of their visual presence. We used school-themed typography, but as we evolved the logo more and more during conceptualization, we gravitated toward the logo above. Intuition told us to include it in our initial idea offering, and it was immediately picked at “The One.”

A few rounds of color exploration gave us the new brand identity, which in turn gave us great direction for creating this new brand’s envrionment. First up was to create a simple tri-fold brochure self-mailer/leave-behind for selling.

Once the new brand environment was created and applied to the simple brochure, D&A Design then handed off all digital assets to EZpay’s web site partners so they would have everything they needed to construct EZpay’s new web site. We kept all lines of communication open through the process with the web partners to make sure they were aware of what was happening so that the EZpay branding goals would no be held up by getting them up to speed once D&A Design’s work was complete. The end result will be a great brand that is consistent at all points of touch.

Temporary Tattoos For Kids!

When Cincinnati-area commercial printer, The Printing Plant, approached D&A Design about designing the  packaging for a line of temporary tattoos for kids, we were as pumped up about it as a kid might be when they sport one of these cool tats the first time.

Tattoo Celebration is a line of temporary tattoos that will be made available through major retailers nation-wide. The line is made up of images and characters that boys and girls will really enjoy wearing. Our initial set includes a group of cute pandas, lovely princesses, impressive aliens, and ferocious dinos!

D&A Design was originally approached for the branding aspects of the consumer packaging, but at one of our first meetings we asked about the illustration work, too. We did so because we had just the right illustrator in mind for this work, one of D&A Design’s illustrators whom has a strong background in creating kid-focused branding.

We managed the project from both design and illustration ends, and since our client is a commercial printer we also had the luxury of handing off our finished work directly to the folks whom would produce the final pieces.

There are plans for many more sets of Tattoo Celebration, so keep your eyes peeled at a store near-by for these unique creations!

D&A Design Creates Updated Brand Identity For First Capital Enterprises

First Capital Enterprises sums up who they are by stating that they provide “vocational and habilitation services to Ross County, OH, adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.”

Under the banner of First Capital Enterprises (FCE), they have many services that benefit both their surrounding community and the adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

D&A Design, working in tandem with Westside Media, created a new brand identity that captured FCE’s essence, as well as create an identity that could be applied consistently to the many services offered under the FCE name. FCE began this process many months before D&A Design’s involvement by undergoing a strategic planning phase where they examined who they are both internally, and the community at large. What came of this was both a plan to follow for growth, as well as a fantastic tag line that casted their vision for anyone to grasp: “Capitalizing on Ability.”

D&A Design first explored how the new logo might look from several different angles. The logo chosen was one that was very straight-forward, simple and clean. The color palette we chose used colors that were both basic but professional, inviting but not cartoonish.

The color squares that capture the various elements to FCE’s essence, also serve as sub-branding indicators.

The new brand identity D&A Design created allows FCE to implement it at their pace, especially in terms of applying it to their services and giving those services a sub-branding visual treatment. FCE has a plan in place that D&A Design worked in tandem with, and we will continue to reach out and be their partner as this brand strengthens and the plan is implemented over time.