Here are some branding concepts I was hired to create for a new restaurant called STACKED [Food Well Built], brought to you by the founders who created BJ’s Resturant & Brewhouse
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Secrets To Success
Appreciated this video I saw today via the interwebs by designer Brandt Botes. Very motivational. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with business owners and people who have the desire to start their own business but are paralyzed by the risk and overwhelmed with questions. Brandt asked for advice from other creative entrepreneurs about starting out on your own (secrets to success). Love these responses!!!
Logo: NonProfit Effect
A recent finalized logo for a npo consultation company called “NonProfit Effect”.
Flatland Waterfowl
I’ve been extremely excited to be working on this project! It may seem a bit out of the ordinary from the outside looking in, but the great outdoors (and specifically hunting, fishing and camping) have always been a huge part of my life since I was a boy. I even lived in Kansas for several years and got hooked on waterfowl hunting. This last winter I booked a few hunts with Flatland Waterfowl in Kansas and had an amazing experience with Zach and Phil (owners and hunting guides). It was truly a pleasure hunting with these guys, and an honor to help them grow their business with a fresh new website. I’m already looking forward to next winter for another round of hunting trips.
Get Up Kid: Film
Had the pleasure of working on a recent film project called “Get Up Kid”. Here’s the artwork for the film – Above: Movie Poster, Below: Landing/interactive splash page, and DVD artwork. I also did all the photography for the project. It was really cool to be so involved in each aspect of the process… from concept (there were about a dozen really interesting ideas to explore), to shooting the images, to putting it all together for the final product. It was a great project to be apart of. Watch the film teaser at the bottom of this post.
Get Up Kid Teaser:
Book Cover Concepts
Here’s one (of about a dozen) book cover options/ideas/concepts I’m presenting to a client. The topic of this book is obviously dealing with forms of anxiety, but the authors (both Drs) address the issue from a more phycological background as opposed to what we’d normally think of doing… getting our hands on whatever prescription drug will fix my problems (which is sadly the norm). So the inspiration for this concept was to wrap the book in an overized “prescription drug inspired type of a label” – which is honesty where a normal persons mind first drifts too when confronted with any life disrupting disorder < give me drugs to fix me and I’ll be on my way > so this concept playfully uses that all-to-familiar looking label (in this case, I’d call it our “hook”) to get the [book]shoppers attention. To have them stop, think, look at the label and ultimately read the back… and then they’d purchase the book, right? That’s the goal at least, and I like this concept the best… it’s attractive, eye catching, makes a statement, and just begs to be picked up (all ingredients for a successful book cover design)… so I’ll present it FIRST in the line-up to my client tomorrow.
Branding 101
Okay, lets talk about branding. If you need the basic definition of a brand, click here. Effective branding is a very important (and often overlooked) part of any successful business… it goes much deeper than me designing you some sweet lookin’ logo, it’s a holistic approach coupled with an ever-growing strategy (that definitely involves the creation of said logo, but that’s really just scratching the surface of what branding truly is). Lets explore.
WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT:
Branding is more than just a simple logo thrown on a nicely printed business card or flashy website… there’s even a difference between the words “brand” and “logo”, and the other word thrown around, “identity”. There’s a lot of talk (and confusion) about those three words, so lets break it down… in normal people language :) … here’s a helpful analogy about meeting me for the first time to describe what exactly is A) a logo, B) an identity, and C) a brand…
Patriot 3 Maritime
I’m in the process of branding “Patriot 3 Maritime” (aka, P3M – which is an east coast based tactical equipment company with a researching branch in Maui, HI) and have spent the last several months creating HUGE trade show displays, banners, apparel, print collateral and micro-websites for P3M to begin promoting a few of their wickedly awesome products on a global scale… one of which, is their underwater propulsion systems known as “Jet Boots” (think “Rocket Man” underwater and you wouldn’t be far off from reality). I had a chance to test these units for myself during my last trip to Maui, and they are unbelievable!!! P3M has many other products and lots of media that we’re frantically working on, but here’s what I can show you now. I’ll keep you posted.
As Normal as Paper Gets
I recently had a client (who we were designing some print collateral for a trade show they had a display at) ask me the following:
“Why aren’t you designing our new brochure to fit an 8.5×11 plain piece of double sided paper… like we’ve done for years and years [printing on both sides of a plain sheet of paper]… it has lot of room to put all our info on it… but instead you want to put it on a smaller sized piece of paper and make it a folding brochure? Please explain”.
It was actually a really great question, why compromise “real estate” or why branch off from “the norm” that’s got the job done in the past? Here’s my response:
“… I’m less concerned with size of the brochure and more concerned about presentation. People remember things that are different from the norm, and 8.5×11 is as NORMAL as paper gets :) So when you present something on “abnormally sized” paper in an abnormally new way, it will have value not only b/c of the content that’s on it (the design, the photos, the info that ultimately makes the sale), but it will have value in the marketplace because it’s different than everyone else’s 8.5×11 printouts… and that’s what good branding is all about… standing out among your competitors. Being memorable and recognizable is priority number one.
INTERN: Chris Easley
Meet Chris… my graphic design intern! Chris is a crazy pixel pushing nerd who fantasises about typography and swiss inspired design… not really ;) He’s way more interesting than your stereotypical designer. Chris is a gifted designer and a well rounded artist (music, design, photography). I’m very excited and grateful for Chris’ time and talent in helping me manage various daily tasks around the office, and I’m looking forward to teaching him what I know and helping him thrive in the design industry.
CHRIS FACTS & FIGURES:
Name: Christopher Robert Easley
Reside: Lovely SD!
Born: Yokoska, Japan
College: Newbreak School of Ministry and Full Sail University (what what?!?!) ;)
Hobbies: Being awesome, drummin, strummin, chillin, reading, friends
Design Program Skills: learning in progress ;)
Favorite Design Blog: abduzeedo.com
Favorite Designer: Rod Johnson (great friend too!)
Favorite Photographer: andybarron.com
Favorite Musical Artist: Thrice
Manliest thing ever done: punched a fish from the shore. EPIC
When you go to Starbucks: Ice Water! or the new Pretzel Pepperoni Mozzarella sandwich! so awesome
One hour to yourself: currently Dexter season 1 :)
One place to hang, it would be: wherever the friends are
One thing I have an opinion about: Spirituality
Five things I can’t live without: Bible, ipad/ipod, drums, SD hat
Chris time includes: loud music, reading, deep thinking, prayer
Guilty pleasures: Garth Brooks
Favorite TV Show: man… thats hard. right now Dexter, House and Community
Upcoming Travel/Trip: Nicaragua in November, idaho at the end of the month
Three things you do before you hit the sack: surf the web, read, listen to music/watch an episode of a show I’m following
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShotbyEasley
Gotta Start Somewhere
I was thumbing through my portfolio storage box the other day and ran across a few print pieces that brought some real perspective to my design career. The above image is a photo of the FIRST print piece I ever professionally (for hire) designed, back when I was a student. And the image below shows a series of print pieces that quickly followed the creation of the first “sunflower” piece for the same client… I’d like to think that the client LOVED the first brochure so much that they quickly hired me for the rest, but it’s probably more accurate to say they hired me b/c I was charging like $7 an hour at the time, so they kept coming back b/c I was over-delivering professional looking print pieces while charging about 100% less than what these products were worth :) But hey, the student version of me was stoked at the time (I was actually getting PAID to design), and everyones gotta start somewhere, right?! It’s also fun to look back at these old print pieces and see the “common threads” I have as a designer… “clean, organized, and professional”… it was revealed in my work back in the year 2000, and it’s seen in most anything I design today.
Rebranding
Featured here (above) are the logo results of a rebranding exercise for one of my clients here in San Diego. What exactly is Rebranding? It’s defined as the following:
- Rebranding: The creation of a new name, term, symbol, design or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated (new) position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors. This may include changes to the brand’s logo, name, and marketing strategy… with the aim to reposition the brand or move the brand upmarket.
When I approach a rebranding project for a company I’m not just trying to make something that looks “cooler” or more “relevant” (although, in most cases, a new coat of paint often does LOOK better), but at the core, rebranding is about helping change (or reinforce) the publics perception of who you are and how you continue to do business in their community. It can show your audience that you are indeed forward thinking, progressive, open, professional, committed to your customer in the “new age”, and striving for better customer service/communication/care. Effective branding can “show” those things to the public. Branding encompasses everything from the “look & feel” of a business to how it’s customers experience its service. It’s “heard” in its tone and voice (how it refers to itself in marketing campaigns, and how it’s talked about among the community), and “seen” in it’s logo, print collateral, website, advertisements, employee to consumer interactions… etc.
These 3 questions should always guide any rebranding effort:
“1) What you’ve done, 2) Who you do it for, and 3) Why you continue to do it”.
The visuals (fancy logos, print and web stuff that I create during a rebrand) should always reinforce the companies history as being successful and add value to its positive public image – nodding it’s hat to the old (respecting and maintaining where it’s been), while moving in with the new (taking those foundational principles/phylosophies and repackaging them for a new generation). Amazing graphic will never revitalize a corrupt or dieing company. Branding is much much much more than just looking good, it’s about being good at what you do (understanding yourself, undestanding your competitors and understanding the ways you communicate and interact with your customer) – and your businesses IMAGE is an important part of showing your customer that you’re advancing and marching strong in the always changing and always new marketplace. People these days (anyone: from the corporate world to the general public) like movement, they like to see progression and know that the service or product they’re buying is the best out there and that it’s doing all that it can to continue to be the best (facelifts, upgrading, research, develop… etc). Effective branding is a very important (and often overlooked) part of any successful business…. I won’t dive into the “branding topic” quite yet :) I’ll save “Branding 101″ for another blog post < update: CLICK HERE to visit the new blog post: “Branding 101″
Emote360 = full nonprofit status
If you’re just tuning in, here’s what you need to know about emote360 for this blog post to make sense: 1) emote360 is a nonprofit organization (npo) who helps other npos with their multimedia/marketing needs 2) We believe that the greatest causes in the world deserve the greatest marketing 3) I helped found emote360 along with other awesome friends who are all deeply invested in the work of emote360 and all believe wholeheartedly that our gifts can change the world… and believe that yours can as well – Emote360 was birthed four years ago from that principle.
After more than three years of running through the gauntlet of the government qualifications that grant nonprofit organizations their 501c3 npo status, we (at emote360) have officially gained the full nonprofit status!!! Finally :) Thanks to Benjamin Edwards and Aaron Pratt (best emote360 crew ever) and our amazing board of directors for seeing that legal (and logistical) process through to completion… you guys are amazing! So WHAT THE WHAT does this mean? Emote360 has been operating under normal temporary government issued nonprofit criteria (accepting donations, doing projects, traveling abroad, having board meetings, jumping through hoops for the IRS… blah blah blah), so now that 501c3 process is complete we’re legitimatly recognized on all levels as a fully functioning non-profit organization (npo). Kinda lame that it takes three years for npos to jump through those hoops, but we’re stoked to be here and are looking forward to what the future holds.
WHAT WE’VE DONE SO FAR:
Emote360 has worked hand in hand with other non-profit organizations to assist them with their media needs. Our goal is to help them tell their story to the world via multimedia – accomplishing two things: 1) building awareness for their cause, and 2) ultimately raising donor support to help their vision grow. Bottom line, we provide revenue generating multi-media for nonprofits to assist them in changing the world. So far various members of our team have traveled ’round the globe dozens of times with various organizations (Africa to Asia, Europe to S. America, as well as local projects here in the States). We’ve done a lot of research, continued to learn and be educated about the great causes of our time, built media-specific tools for nonprofits, and have equipped them with revenue generating and awareness building content.
WHAT WE’LL DO NOW:
We hope to do more of the same (above paragraph) in the very near future, and we’d like even more of it to be completely pro-bono. AND we’d also like to place an emphasis on helping other artists (photographers, designers, film-ers… etc) find ways to give back by using their unique talent/gift. That’s our goal in this next season of emote360′s life… to do more great awareness building media work, and inspire other artists to do the same. Done correctly, there could be a lot of positive change goin’ on in this world.
So that’s where we’re at. Thanks for reading, we’ll keep you posted on future emote360 projects and ways for you to be involved. Keep using your gifts and talents for good…. go change the world one small step at a time. Cheers.
Visit website: Emote360.com | Visit blog: Blog.Emote360.com | Vimeo videos: Vimeo.com/Emote360
Themba International
At this beginning of this year I took a very inspiring trip to South Africa. It was a media gathering/creating venture for a ngo called Themba International. Jeff Johnson is the founder and was kind enough to take me and my wife along as he returned to his “home away from home” to continue researching eco friendly ways to help the people of South Africa. We traveled with a small media team who’s goal was to capture imagery and create multimedia that would tell the story of the South African people living in a township called Thembalethu. The stories, imagery and content are meant to challenge the viewer to “Consume with Conscience” and provide opportunities for the viewer to be about positive change in their communities in The States while impacting and providing jobs for communities in South Africa (thus the creation of a new Themba modo: “We Are Knit Together”). While in country, I branded Themba, started working on some print collateral and the website, and helped scripted/produced several informational videos. Our media team was filled with outstanding individuals, Jeff’s vision for Themba is right on, and the people we connected and shared stories with were inspiring beyond words.
Crazy ole Social Media
I work with a lot of nonprofits, most of which are far behind the times (some are surprisingly with it, but I’d say a large majority are like “Twit-what” “Face-Space-who”, “Interweb-how”). I ran across this video the other day and was pretty shocked at the stats (and so was the latest npo I was working with). Social Media is pretty much here to stay and has become a crazy-amazing tool that businesses (and nonprofits) are really starting to utilize. They can get real results, from real people, around the globe, almost instantaneously. A lot businesses abuse this service (there is proper etiquette that needs to be understood to get real results), but done correctly (and authentically), Social Media can really make your marketing dollar go farther than traditional means (tv, newspaper, yellow pages… etc) and, in my mind, Social Media is a tool that is 100% necessary for npos to start using. After all, npos are just simply trying to “Tell their Story” – with the hopes of creating both awareness and advocates for their cause. Social Media is a great way to communicate that through a more “personal” and authentic level which will help your advocates (“evangelists” for your cause) spread your story like wildfire (to their network) – peoples network (and how quickly you can tap into that network) is the power of Social Media. It’s changing the game when it comes to marketing and advertising.
The Classical Academies
The Classical Academies was one my first all-encompassing rebranding opportunities. It started with a simple logo (above) the summer before I got married and has continued to this very day with projects of every kind (“branding” isn’t a logo or some quick fix, it’s a long term media strategy). Over the years we’ve done everything from logos, countless print pieces, event advertisements, fundraising materials, photoshoots, interactive websites, blogs, and countless other projects for their three different schools in San Diego, CA.
The Congo Benefit Project
I just got done with a pretty sweet project and I wanted to share the process with all y’all. It’s a DVD / CD combo called “The Congo Benefit Project” - It has 6 videos about what’s happening in the DR Congo and 15 original songs by a variety of bands… this whole piece is basically ONE BIG COLLABORATION of like-minded artists who want to use their talent in a meaningful way and “give back” to their global community. Artists like Benjamin Edwards (photography), Beth Fischer (video), Conor Miller (audio engineer), all the fine folks at Antioch and World Relief NEXT… plus a host of recording artists from the west coast. I have the honor of packaging everything up and sending it to the wonderful print guru JC Nore. Everyone involved are all topnotch folks that I LOVE LOVE LOVE working with (and thankfully, we do a lot of projects together), and the rad thing about this piece is that all the proceeds directly benefit projects that will help the many hurting people in Congo. Find out what’s happening in Congo by watching THIS VIDEO that our emote360 crew produced.
I’ve had some people ask how I create some of the graphics for pieces like this, so I thought I’d explain my process in creating the center spread of this 8 panel package. Here we go: FIRST, I dialogue with our team about the “vision” of this piece and “what it should say” to the person who picks it up in the store… this is vitally important, especially for the cover graphics. Although this is a “cause” driven piece, it’s still a nice “product” to be purchased, and it’s geared towards a broad target audience (all important things to keep in mind while designing). SECOND STEP, I gather all the necessary content (text, imagery, logos… etc). In this case I compiled all the photography from the overly talented Benjamin Edwards (every image in this piece is his documentary photography work that is actually from his ’09 trip to the DRC – even the textures I used were created by Ben… yeah, A-mazing guy and a dear friend). NEXT, I get a template from JC, my print guru that has all the bleeds and folds marked and measured, and away I go slicing and layering images, text, textures and logos (using a combo of Illustrator and Photoshop). The above image was created using all of these items shown below:
All of the text in the final image has a Gradient Overlay, and the opacity of each word is dropped way down. I cut out the shape of the continent of Africa (from some paper texture) and placed it in one of the back layers (in all, there are 16 different layers). I cut out the child, the soldier and the barbed wire and placed them all in there. What brings the entire image together are the two textured layers (blue and orange). They bring the black and white images to life, create some depth and simulate a nice even color tone throughout the entire image (making it one cohesive graphic)… BEFORE and AFTER:
Pretty simple really, just takes time and some knowledge of tools and layers in Photoshop. And here’s a small glimpse at what the “rough draft” 8 panel design looks like (minus the two discs that will be inserted into the package)… in all, this project will be completed in less than 20 hours of my design time. Thanks for reading.
“Clean” Web Work
I wanted to briefly share a few screen captures of some very “clean” websites I’ve been working on. Lately I’ve been challenged to simplify my web designs, focus less on making them flashy & overwhelming, and focus more on making the web experience for the viewer easy and purposeful. For these latest projects, I spent way more time working on the structure and purpose (strategy) of these websites than time spent on designing (choosing images, picking colors and laying down graphics)… which in the end, is a smarter way to approach the creation of a website. Design (look & feel of the website) is the easy part, but the content and organization of that information should always trump swanky graphics. So the lesson: be purposeful and think strategically before you start “designin’ up the place” with sweet graphics and killer colors… that’s what I’ve been learning lately when it comes to web design. Less is more, and “why” is always a good question when placing anything into the structure of a website.
See Jane Advocate
Courtney (my wife) has officially launched SeeJaneAdvocate.com – It’s a regularly-updated online resource that offers busy moms practical, affordable, quick and easy ways to impact the world. Courtney is very passionate about human rights issues (she’s been studying about it on a daily basis for the last couple years), and she is truly amazing at coming up with simple ways for people to be involved (both locally and globally). It’s been really cool to see her passion take on this form (it’s been brewing in her head like crazy this last year)… I’m excited to see how our little busy family can help… Courtney has committed our family to doing every single one of the things she suggests on the See Jane Advocate blog :) It’s gonna be a challenge and sometimes it will take us out of our comfort zone, but quite honestly, that’s right where we need to be… every now and then we all could use some perspective in our lives. We have SO many resources to give, and the need to advocate for peoples basic human rights has never been greater. So hop on over to SeeJaneAdvocate.com and see how you can make helping the less fortunate a regular part of your week… and how you can inspire your kids/family to help out as well :)
Emote360 Featured
Here’s a quick update on some emote360 stuff… for those of you that don’t know, I’m a co-founder and help run a nonprofit media group called emote360. It exists to help other nonprofit organizations tell their story through multimedia (by utilizing the latest in video, photography, audio engineering, graphic design, web development and the CRAZY talented group of artists behind it all)). A few really cool things have happened lately that we’d love to fill you in on:
First, a VIDEO we produced for “The Come Clean for Congo” contest took first place and will be shown at the Hollywood Film Festival this fall. And secondly, Benjamin Edwards and I were feautured in this months issue of PDN (Photo District News) for the international documentary photography work we do through emote360 (featuring Africa & India). Hop on over to the emote360 blog for more info.
On a related note, Courtney and I will be heading to Ethiopia for an emote360 project in November, and we’d really appreciate your encouragement, prayers and support. More info to come. Have a great weekend everybody!
by Gary
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