We just finished our branding project with Angie Strickler, The Working REALTOR®. At the beginning of the year we created unique graphics for Angie to use in her advertisements. She wanted to position herself as hardworking, reliable, and approachable and a friendly illustration was the best way to get her message across.
We are now excited to announce the launch of http://www.TheWorkingRealtor.com/. Our goal for the website was to make it both easy to find listings, and to learn more about the area.
Several years back we created a new website for The Mercy House. The old website was outdated and sorely lacking meaningful information. As a mission oriented church located in Anderson, Ind. they needed an updated website to keep in touch with church members and the surrounding community. We created an informative website using Drupal, which was the best free content management system (CMS) at the time. Looking back on the website now, it is very drab; but at the time is was rather indicative of the mood of a small, young church struggling to get by.
After a while, as leadership changed, it became more difficult to keep the website updated. It was no longer meeting the needs of The Mercy House and no longer reflected the overall mood of the community. It was time for an update.
When speaking with the pastor about what he wanted there were two main ideas. It needed to be easier to use and update than the current website; and it should have, “Lots of large background images.” The former problem was easy; we rebuilt the site using the up-and-coming WordPress CMS. The latter desire (large background images) was more difficult. When using large background images a designer runs up against a couple different problems. The first is size, if an image is too large it slows down the loading of a website and annoys the visitors. The second problem is that of window resizing. If your image is a fixed size and a visitor opens his browser window to a larger size what does he see? Does he see the image repeat itself? Does he get a stark line where the picture ends?
How do I make it look like a gigantic image while keeping the file-size reasonably small? This is why I love being a designer. It was a tricky problem but as seen below, I finally came up with a solution. The background image is technically the size of an average browser window, however about three-fifths of the image is actually just white. Lots of white reduces the size of the image significantly. It also solves the window-resizing problem. Since the right and bottom edges are solid white all we need is white for an extended background.
While vacationing in Miami the other month, we recently stumbled across Classical South Florida 89.7 FM. Unlike most public radio stations, Classical South Florida is all music all the time. It was wonderful having such a large collection of music available and it reminded us how disappointed we are with our own local public radio stations. Luckily for us, Classical South Florida streams over the web, allowing us to listen to it from Indiana.
Because we listen 12+ hours every day, and it truly increases our productivity, we have decided to support Classical South Florida for the month of November. So for the entire month of November, when you go online and listen to Classical South Florida through the “Windows” link, you will hear a “prepend” about Adelie Design and see a little logo and link to our website.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is over until the show airs on ABC in January. We found out that the selected family was Cowan-Brown family of Bunker Hill. Their daughter Kori, 12, was diagnosed with a congenital blood disease when she was six. Since spending time rooming with a young cancer patient in the hospital, Kori has raised over $35,000 for the American Cancer Society. Because of mold in her home, Kori has had to have several surgeries for growths in her sinuses, and other family members have suffered as well. Hallmark Homes and numerous volunteers have banded together to build this family a new home.
My role in all of this was to make sure all of the sponsors received recognition for their hard work and generous donations. I worked with D Ashley Design + Events to create the “Hall of Heroes.” Over fifty businesses sent me photographs, logos, and statements about why they wanted to help out with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I had less than a week to combine these elements into a poster for each business. Although each poster was not very difficult, the sheer quantity and time frame kept me working like crazy.
Thanks to Janel Bantz for the excellent photograph.
Here are some other links:
A few months ago, Casual Creations was only a concept. The client loves to bake and thought that making desserts for small gatherings, such as bridge clubs, parties, reunions, etc., would be an enjoyable way to share her love of baking while earning extra income. I was tasked with developing a name and tag line, creating a visual identity, and creating marketing materials.
There were two main challenges when working on this project.
- The name and tag line. We needed to convey the idea of homemade desserts that might not be picture-perfect, but that still tasted delicious. After much brainstorming, “Casual Creations: Desserts like grandma made,” came to the forefront.
- Reconciling my own design ideas with the real world. I originally envisioned a beautiful, stylized illustration of a lemon pie, using only white on a rich, lemon-yellow background. Unfortunately, if the yellow is dark enough to read white text, it no longer looks lemony. While struggling with this concept, Debbie, my client, received a beautiful red Sunbeam mixer for her birthday, providing a focal point for the solution.
In the end, I was able to create a brand that evokes grandma and her kitchen. We determined that, instead of letterhead and envelopes, a price sheet and dessert labels were more important for this business. For the website, we continued the idea of grandma’s kitchen by not only making an “online business card” but also making it a place for Debbie to share other recipes with her customers.
Update: Sometimes it’s just as exciting to see what the client does with the finished product. Debbie told me several months later that she punches holes in her price sheets and dessert labels and ties them together with a red-and-white-checkered bow that matches the ribbon she ties her desserts up with. A perfect touch to the brand. Way to go, Debbie.
