Last Friday was the CD release party at the Mel for the new Punkin Holler Boys ten year/best of album. I was approached back in April to layout the digipak, and what a fun time!

Ralph Jeffers, John Scheetz and the rest of the gang were a joy to work with. It’s not often that a Hee-Haw inspired Bluegrass band asks for a CD design, so when they asked me to design it they already had a theme based on a joke about tin ears as a misnomer for TEN YEARS.

{When I’m busy I tend to get a little messy, so now it’s time to do a little clean up.}

It’s been a whirlwind spring into summer. I am ready for Memorial Day Weekend  to relax and to get back into my normal routine.

To give you a brief summary of what I’ve been up to these past few months, let me give you the top three projects I’ve been working on.

1. {PLEASANT RUN GROCER:} I’ve been helping set up a branding system and support materials for a local Food Co-op. I’m a strong believer in knowing where your food comes from and maintaining a healthy diet. So when the opportunity came up to design a logo, collateral materials and be a part of the slow food movement, I jumped on board.

2. {GIRLS ROCK! INDIANAPOLIS:} Then there’s designing a web site for the AWESOME Girls Rock Indianapolis. New site will be fully launched and available soon. I’ll have a post with more details later this week.

3. {INSTALLATION NATION}
Lastly, there has been the work I’ve been doing to help the promotion and support of Installation Nation with Primary Colours.

I’ve had quite a few projects slipped in between these three main items, but wow what a whirl. You can expect more posts and detailed developments as soon as I catch my breath, do a little clean up and get back on my day to day work trek.

I’m quite sure I’m insane for doing what I do, but you know what-I LOVE IT.

Girls Rock Indianapolis! approached me to create a poster for their upcoming rock and roll camp. I couldn’t let the ladies of GRI! down, so in order to keep the poster artwork true to the indie roots of GRI! I contacted a fantastic local illustrator, Aaron Scamihorn.

Have you heard of Aaron? If not, you better look him up now!

As an illustrator he has a wonderful edge that keeps his work fresh and unique. The older I get the more I’ve come to realize that it’s better to collaborate with as many talented individuals as possible to come up with a unique visual solution, than to try and hammer it out by myself and miss the opportunity to create something very out of the ordinary. Illustration is not one of my strong talents and I love working with illustrators like Aaron because of two things:

1. No stock photography.

2. No stock vector art.

It’s a great opportunity when you have a client that understands how important it is to keep their identity/message original by staying away from stock photography and stock vector art. Why? Because stock web sites that sell cheap stock images to you and I are also selling the same images to millions of other marketing companies and design firms. It’s not an all together bad thing, but it makes it very hard to advertise a service as being truly unique when the same artwork is used for a feminine hygiene product that winds up being used for a software design guidebook.

It’s not always easy to convince clients to use original artwork/photography…budgets and time has to allow for you to use an illustrator or photographer. But when you do get a chance to use artwork/photography that is created uniquely for your client’s services-it makes all the visual difference.

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 choosing 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.