Recently, Bullzeye Design has been asked to help the local chapter of the Make a Wish foundation create some event invitations for their “Wish in the City” Event being held on August 3, 2012 at Mohegan Sun.  We enthusiastically agreed to help this great cause!!

Our local Make-A-Wish Chapter grants approximately 70 wishes a year for local children who are living with life threatening illnesses. It is their belief that the magic of the wish process allows them experience life with hope, strength and joy!  While they have an in-house art department that can assist when needed, the committee feels it’s necessary to bring in a new and fresh point of view for this very special event.   That’s where Bullzeye Design comes in. It is our intention to make this Wish in the City stand apart from many of the areas other fundraisers.

Please stay tuned to see these fabulous invitations. You can learn more about our local Make a Wish foundation at www.wishgreaterpa.org.

Keybridge Accounting is a new client that we have, and Lyz knows exactly what she wants. Clients like Lyz are really fun to work with, and from conception to completion she played a very large role in the project. I truly believe the evolution of her logo pushed me to think outside the box and find ways to combine her ideas with my design style. The overall result is a mesh between both of our personalities.

This is the final design

When Keybridge first came to me, Lyz sent me some sketches of what she thought the logo could potentially look like. These are so fun!

Original client sketches

There are 3 types of logos I will design: text-based, iconic, and illustrated.  After talking to her for awhile and seeing these, I decided that an “iconic” logo is what we were going for. You can read more about the types of logos on the services page. Once the process for designing a logo begins, typically I will give a client 3-4 different options to choose from. Unless you have a full color scheme picked out, I will typically design the logos in 1 single color. From these choices, the goal is to narrow it down to the one the client MOST likes, and then we work with that (to make revisions, tweak colors, etc.).

Each round after the initial presentation may result in 1-4 more concepts which you will again choose from. It really depends on what the revisions are for. For example, if you aren’t sure about the color scheme it doesn’t make sense to only provide one option, so I may present 3 or 4 color options at once. But, if you are just concerned about the thickness of a font or a line, it may be possible for me to tweak this with only one option to present.

This seems to work for most of my clients, but if it doesn’t I don’t really cap the amount of logos I will mock up (as some designers will). As a general rule of thumb, no matter what company you are working with, it’s important to find out exactly what their design process is so that you can actively participate and give input at the right times.

In the case of Keybridge Accounting, it took about 4 rounds of revisions after the original presentation of logos (marked as Round 1).

1. In Round 1, she chose the logo to the far left to work from, but thought it might be too whimsical for an accounting firm, and that it may be too difficult to tell that the letter “K” was also the top of the key.
2. In Round 2, I gave a few options that made the logo look a little more professional, and tried a different “K” design for the key head.
3. After these options, Lyz decided that it may be better to not incorporate the K with the key so much, and also went exploring online for some fonts that she liked and some color samples she liked. This is typically more information than my average client will provide me, but I went with it and sampled all of the fonts and colors, trying to make it work with some new key options.
4. These were much more to her liking, and we decided on the purple and orange combo, but pumped up the intensity of the purple. I also matched the weight of the rest of the font with the K  in two different options.
5. After seeing the 2nd option in the 4th round, she was pretty much set with this as the logo. We just tweaked the curve of the K ever so slightly so it wasn’t so vertical.

As you can see, there was a lot of tweaking to be done throughout this process. It really helped to morph a simple sketch on notebook paper into a BEAUTIFUL, unique logo for Keybridge. I’m very happy with the result and hope to work with them again in the future.

Sr. Ruth’s reaction to the new website launch: “The site looks fantastic! I strongly believe there will be lots of great enthusiasm, energy and passion for IHM because of these seeds of new life. I am deeply grateful for all of your hard work, guidance and wisdom for the project.”

1. Your Competitor’s websites. This is probably a no-brainer, but it’s nice to find out what your competitors are doing online. Are you keeping up? Are you ahead of their game? What features do they use that you can see incorporating into your website? For example, do they have product reviews, a news blog, a rotating slideshow? Contact us to get help implementing the features you see. If you’ve already invested a lot of money into your website or marketing materials, updating your site piece by piece may be a better solution for you than a complete redesign. For example, your bathroom is old, so do you sell your house? No, you renovate your bathroom and put your own twist on it. The same thing can go for your website.
2. Big names in your business. If you are a small boutique selling children’s clothing, maybe check out what Babies R Us is doing on their site. What would work for you on a smaller scale? Use these larger companies as models for your business plan. There’s a reason they are successful. Find out why.
3. Websites you enjoy/follow.  Are you a fan of Martha Stewart’s blog, or ESPN.com? What features about those sites make you come back for more? Getting your customers or visitors to keep coming back to your site is KEY. What are you doing to make them come back?
4. Website galleries. Sites like CSS Mayo have complete galleries of inspirational websites. You can filter results by category, or even search for a keyword. If you are looking for logo design ideas, check out Logo Pond. Communities such as deviantART will give you many ideas. Artists upload their own creations in this exciting community.

Not so interested in being online? There are plenty of ways to get ideas without ever logging onto your computer. Every day, in every way possible, I’m finding inspiration. Whether it be the color of someone’s roofing, a cool billboard along the highway, some graffiti under a bridge, the spread of food at a local buffet, there are millions of ways to find ideas related to color & color combinations, pattern, texture, layout, and scale.

1. Visit an art gallery. Take a stroll around your local gallery. If you are in Scranton, like I am, a great way to discover art is on the first Friday of every month. “First Friday Art Walks” are held at galleries and businesses all through the downtown. Paintings, photography, scultpure, music, and performance art fill the streets. It’s a great way to become inspired.
2. Check out an antique or second-hand store.  Lots of the items in these types of stores are unique and interesting. Also, many of these store owners have to get “creative” when organizing the items and fitting everything. Take some tips from them. Look at groupings of items. What colors and patterns work together?
3. Go to a Record Store. A record store is a great place to get inspired. Check out the album artwork on different genres of music. What are their similarities and differences? Is there a particular genre of music that you are drawn to, just by looking at the artwork? A trip to the local Gallery of Sound can help you get a better grasp on your design styles and tendencies.
4. People Watch. This is one of my favorites. Find a nice park bench downtown on a sunny Saturday, or sit in the mall in the evening. Watch what people are doing. What are they wearing? How are they acting? What is drawing THEIR attention? These people can be potential customers. Sometimes at our local mall I sit next to the Old Navy entrance. Old Navy always has interesting marketing, so I watch how people react to their newest setup. Are they paying attention? Is it working? When they leave the store, do they have those items in their bags? It’s definitely an interesting afternoon (for me, at least!).

These tips should help you get the creative juices flowing. Once they start, get in touch with us and we can help make your vision a reality. Have fun!

CreateAthon is a 24-hour, work-around the clock creative blitz during which marketing, advertising and public relations firms provide nonprofit marketing services on a pro bono basis. Since the program’s creation by Riggs Partners in 1998, 73 agencies have participated in the CreateAthon network, holding CreateAthon events in their respective markets. It’s an effort that has impacted more than 1,100 non-profit organizations, delivering 2,500 projects valued at more than $11 million.

Just as importantly, CreateAthon has impacted the lives of creative professionals far and wide. Just ask anyone who has lost a night’s sleep to CreateAthon. They’ll tell you they’ve gained much more than what they lost in 8 hours.

Stay tuned for updates on the redesign, and visit nepacat.org for more information on how to support this cause.