Holy Trinity Parish is one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Indianapolis. My Slovenian grandmother along with her parents and grandparents were members. For Slovenian American history it’s a wonderful landmark for the city.

Since Holy Trinity is like family to me and they do pay for my services normally, every once in a while they ask for me to help out when the budget just doesn’t have the stretch it needs for posters. The events that Holy Trinity have been putting on lately are used to raise money and awareness for the restoration of Bockhold Hall (the event hall used at Holy Trinity parish) and to keep the parish going throughout the year. In my eyes it’s a good cause.

This is an instance where as a designer I can give back to the community with a pro bono project.

I can’t afford to donate my services all the time, so deciding what are important community contributions I want to make, drive my choices for pro bono projects. What can make the deal worthwhile for me is negotiating with the client for the following four things (number four should be yours no matter what):

1. Credit for the work created. The logo of my company is branded onto the piece along with web site listing. Often the organization/client will have you listed as a sponsor so don’t forget to ask about sponsor listing on any other printed event materials (programs/tickets/t-shirts)  as well as on the client’s web site – especially if promotion will be occuring several months to a year before the date of the event.

2. Tax write off. I keep track of the time and place a dollar value to the project, then let my accountant know that I will be writing it off as a donation. (Donations = tax breaks)
NOTE: Beware of how much time you spend on a pro bono project and set expectations with the client that you cannot go over “x” amount of hours or revisions to finalize the project. Your time is still money, so if you need to push back and ask them to make a priority list or keep their revision changes to two rounds-be polite but communicate this in the beginning of the process.

3. Free admission to the event. In exchange for doing the poster I also get tickets to the event, which by the way has the most amazing sausage you will ever eat in your lifetime.

4. Portfolio work. You have a wonderful piece to show off in your portfolio.

So really giving back to the community can be a win/win situation if you have these four items.

I’m working on slight upgrades to my identity. That includes short run business/promotional cards. It’s fun to update your brand’s identity from year to year. You just have to decide how much you are willing to change. A slight upgrade in color or logo appearance keeps the recognition of your company consistent.

However, there are examples of identities completely revamping  their  appearance  (like brand identities for food, soft drinks or equipment). It can work against the company brand, depending on the strategy. The strategy for Pepsi products is to refresh/re-invent their soft drinks for more consumption. Which does not seem to be working since Coca Cola is still the top soft drink in the world and their logo and bottle shape has relatively been the same for over a hundred years.

For creative agencies, there is a little more freedom. Some agencies like Space 150, redesign their identity every 150 days. Re-branding does have environmental and brand equity questions about whether it’s worth it for paper resources, design-work and promotion to do it so often. Space 150 does this as a way of showing off their specialty in reinventing brands and their client list is impressive as a result. Either way, if you want to grow steadily with your brand identity, make gradual changes until you feel you are ready to launch an all together different appearance.

This can also coincide with any changes within your services.  For instance if you have been a print designer for a number of years, but recently your clients are more and more relying on your e-commerce and social media web development for campaigns and websites. At this juncture you may want to rethink how your logo and brand identity reflect your evolution.

My suggestion is to keep it simple.

Think of the following three to help you simplify:

1. Color
2. Fonts
3. Message/service visual representation

(ONE) Choose a simple color scheme to identify your presence. You can be subjective to a point with chosing colors. If your service is pet grooming and you love purples, pinks and oranges – choose one of those colors and pair it up for contrast with black or white. This way you can play with the negative space black/white create and add a bright color for quick attention. For Cleis Design, I’m in love with black and a this crazy blue (PMS 7459c). Choosing Pantone Colors at the beginning of this process will save you the time of having to convert web or cmyk/rgb mixes.

How many colors you choose is up to you. Just remember more than two colors and you may have to start thinking of what these colors represent for your business, services or market and how you visually will use them. Larger corporations often use multiple colors to represent service distinction (one or more services can be identified selectively by color) or sector organization (this is used if you happen to own several different companies/franchises that offer different products/services while carrying your brand name). More than two colors and it gets complicated, possibly manageable..but complicated.

(TWO) Fonts, use consistently one or two fonts. And for clarity, choose one of the fonts from a sans serif family. As much as I love the ornate scripty/serif fonts, legibility is extremely important, so a nice Helvetica, Arial or tons of other unique sans serifs will mix well with presenting the most important messages and services you offer. Make the Sans Serif your dominant font and either use another style from the same font family or only use your serif font strategically (and minimally) to break up large chunks of information on a web site or in a brochure. Always create a style guide (branding guide) to help you and others you work with understand when to use these fonts in relation to emphasis.

(THREE) Message/service visual representation. Create a simple icon, type treatment or visual representation of who you are or what services you offer. You don’t have to visually represent all three, you can expand on the service portion within your support materials (web site/printed materials).  If you are unsure, ask yourself the following questions:

Who are you and what do you represent?
Take the time to list what kind of business you are and what do you want to tell people about your business/self.

Are you literal about representing yourself?
Meaning, if for example you were a landscaping business, do you want to be represented by flowers or garden shears? Or are you open to creative interpretation like abstract shapes, objects that can be worked into type treatments, flourishes or fonts from classic time periods that refine your identity.

Once you have figured out these three elements out you can keep expanding and evolving. Just remember keep it simple.

Events

1.Christmas at the Zoo: Closed on Christmas Eve and Day.

The Indianapolis Zoo
1200 West Washington Street
Admission: $9-$14 or kids under one are free
12noon-9pm

2. A Very Voodoo Christmas: Free Yats-that’s all the Melody Inn has to say and I’m there. Promoted as a “New Orleans style Christmas party for misfits and wayward souls.” DJ will be handy to mix industrial/techno/goth and secret santa gift exchange. Bring a themed gift in hand-maybe that voodoo doll you made of your ex-boyfriend will come in handy.

Thursday, December 24
The Melody Inn
3826 N. Illinois St.
Admission: $5

Tuesday, December 22
It’s cowboy santa time-giddy up!
Eiteljorg Museum
500 West Washington Street
10am-6pm
Admission: FREE

Wednesday, December 23
Indy Motor Speedway Museum
4790 W 16th St
8am-5pm
Admission: FREE

Quick Links

1. The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media: OUCH-No punches are spared here and I love it!

2. The best books of 09 for Graphic Design Freelancers: It’s time to update my library and spend some time at the public library ordering these books.

3. Time Tracking: MOLESKIN to the RESCUE!

4.How to handle a problem client: We all run into a difficult client from time to time, good advice on how to stand your ground.

5.Prince goes fine art: Prince’s lead designer, Anthony Malzone,  has some giclee prints full of Princ-ey goodness-if you have a $1,000 to spare you can get a piece of his limited edition royal purple-ness.

6.GeoSpatial Holograms: Projector phones are here, and it’s not just for the military.

I took some time this weekend to address and mail out my holiday card. I felt a quirky, 5″ x 7″ card would be fun and a little different from the normal holiday fold over card. As well as it gave me an opportunity to promote to different groups and businesses who and what is Cleis Design.

I had a blast coming up with fake holidays as well as researching real holidays. I’m ready to kick off 2010 with a bang!

As 2009 nears it’s untimely end, I’m updating my portfolio for 2010. One of the new pieces I am adding is the redesign of The SESN Newsletter. The neighborhoods surrounding Fountain Square are featured bimonthly inside this 12 page newsprint piece.

The previous design for the newsletter needed to be updated to reflect the bohemian and retro atmosphere surrounding the SouthEast Side of Indianapolis. Since we only have color on the front and back cover of the newsletter, it was important to update the fonts and use bright colors/photographs that pop against the gray newsprint. Topaz is my favorite font so I often incorporate it into my designs, something industrial and retro like Topaz works well with ubiquitous fonts like Arial and doesn’t compete with a dash of Bodoni.

A newsletter should be fun and appear interesting to it’s audience, so regardless if you have an audience of readers that are children or hipster/artsy people in an urban neighborhood keeping the layout clean, bright and organized will help your readers find the information they want to know quickly.

For instance, always create a table of contents. If your newsletter is longer than two pages, highlight the main stories by placing a table of contents on the cover (if it doesn’t compete with the design) or on the first interior page of the newsletter.

I’m getting ready to start the next issue and let me tell you I’ve got some ideas for 2010 to keep this newsletter going with interest. Maybe some finger puppets or poster inserts-who said newsletters have to be boring?