August 2005 Archives
August 23, 2005
top: Pocket folder produced using two hits of metallic silver, overprinted with black and grey.
bottom: Sell sheet produced on digital press, with panoramic photo composited from two wide angle images.
Sometimes a client’s marketing needs are so obvious and urgent that I simply start right in. Allied Builders needed a printed brochure for their presentations. I convinced them that they would be better served with a pocket folder and a series of “sell sheets” demonstrating their expertise in specific types of projects. By printing these sell sheets on a digital press, using a consistent design template, it is cost effective to update Allied’s inventory of sheets as new projects are built. This way, Allied will always have an up to date presentation.
The pocket folder is especially nice because it was printed using a unique combination of metallic inks, with a halftoned photographic image printed over the metallic. This creates a shimmering effect that people find intriguing. The folder also does double duty, being used to deliver quotes and other important documents.
I also developed a new tagline to go with Allied’s existing logo, “from the ground up”. Indeed.
August 23, 2005
I decided to do a “rolling” launch of this latest version of Cleanpage rather than waiting to get everything absolutely perfect ahead of time. I figure that any mistakes I’ve made — typos, missing words, poor phrasing — can easily and quickly be taken care of. And having lots of friendly eyes looking over the site is probably the best proofing method possible. Of course, my excellent editor and proof reader Ann Stevens will have the last say on what goes.
Many thanks to Michael Barrish, who coded the page templates and set up the Moveable Type blogging system. He is one of the best interface designers in the whole frickin’ world. Michael also helped me with frankpetronio.com, which shares many design and code elements with cleanpage.com. His advice has been extremely valuable.
In this redesign I am trying to strip away as much the “design” as possible. I want my website content to be easily read and viewed by as many people as possible, which is why particular attention has been placed on accessibility. This in turn has dictated many of the design and coding decisions. I want the website design “to get out of the way.”
Using a weblog system for the front end of my websites makes it easier for me to make frequent updates. Having fresh content online gives visitors a reason to return. And hopefully, once people return time after time, they will form a business relationship. This is also a selection process — people who spend time on my sites are interested in my work — so if they do contact me about a job, they are already motivated. Granted, I won’t find many people who will fall into this scenario, but those who do will be high-quality clients.
August 21, 2005
Marketing for the sports and recreation industry is probably the secret dream job of most marketing and advertising people. It has to be more fun than selling valve actuators, right?
Q & A ad for Terry Cycling’s bike seat with a “comfort” hole
In 1999 Terry Cycling, a women’s specific bicycle manufacturer, came to me for help launching their expanded line of saddles “with ergonomic holes.” Their ideas were being exploited by larger bicycling companies and they needed to answer the competition to hold their market share. My campaign, using question and answer analogies (of a concrete block, a razor blade, and an ornamental cactus as the “questions”) was so successful that they sold out of their production six months ahead of schedule.
Billboard for Park Ave Bikes
Park Ave Bikes is a small chain of regional bike shops. After experimenting with a variety of media, outdoor billboards proved to be the most cost effective way to reach customers. The “Get Fit” campaign worked on several levels, from promoting the exercise benefits of cycling to the careful bike fitting procedures that distinguish Park Ave Bikes from the big-box Walmarts and Dick’s.
Frozen Granular, a micro-website built to speak to the top fifty ski industry executives.
In 2001 I teamed with Nelson Kunkel, of nthology (located in Vail, Colorado), to break into the ski industry market. We had determined that ski advertising was alienating its prime audience. Because most ski ads focused on the “extreme” rather than the experience, mere mortals were becoming too intimidated to go skiing.
We built a “micro-site” for the purpose of getting our message out to the top fifty ski industry executives. To get these executives to visit the website, we sent them a series of provocative postcards:
One of a series of postcards sent to executives to get them to visit frozengranular.com
We did snag Fischer Skis as a client, at least until their European bosses reined them in and imposed German ads for an American market…
One of our ads for Fischer Skis
I found mixed success with the sports and recreation industries. Many of the companies are struggling, and key people turn over too frequently. And most of the smaller companies rely on formulaic “its the way we’ve always done it” strategies. Ultimately, it is probably wiser to sell more valve actuators and enjoy sports and recreation for their own merits.