Cherry Hill | Business Cards

Well-crafted cabinetry. Well-crafted customer service. That's what you'll find at Cherry Hill Cabinetry. They produce absolutely breathtaking kitchen remodels. While they're at it, they truly put the 'custom' in 'customer service'. Craig Hartsock, the owner of Cherry Hill found StudioM on Inkd. Instead of purchasing already-designed business material templates, Craig requested I create some custom work for them. He's into the whole 'custom' thing if you haven't noticed. And I love that. (Speaking of custom, if the Cherry Hill pattern looks familiar, you saw it here first.)

Although he's now located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Craig lived in Portland once-upon-a-time. So when he says he'd like something 'classy with PDX character', I know exactly what he's talking about. The first project we tackled was a logo redesign and a business card combo. Craig is smart. He realized it would be silly to go to all of the trouble of creating a new business card design just to slap an old logo on it. 'Old' logos can be a good thing if they have a lot of brand equity and are in line with the company's goals and objectives. But this one wasn't. So now there's a new one! (If curiosity's getting the best of you, the old logo can be viewed here.)

Here are a few photos of Cherry Hill's work:

Hello. Has your breath been taken yet? I think I gasp every time I look at these. Beautiful. Craig, I'm honored that you chose me to produce custom creative work for your custom creative work (smile).

More Cherry Hill materials to come. Stay tuned.

A Penchant for Pattern - The Mod Marine Collection

I've been pattern-making! And here's a peek at what I'm coming up with. If you want to see more of the products of my penchant for pattern, check out this previous post.

Shop Newport | Map + Blog

Newport, Washington is a quaint little town of 2,015 on the border between Washington and Idaho that boasts more than just natural beauty. There are seven very special shops in downtown Newport that have joined together to create a superb shopping experience. These ladies are rocking the shopping world in Northeast Washington. To help promote easy and fun shopping, we recently developed this small map + store guide as a in-store handout.

Cute, right!? If you're in the area you can pick one of these little maps up at any one of the seven shops participating in the Shop Newport movement. If you're not lucky enough to be in the area, well, you're still in luck because we've started a Shop Newport blog, too. There you can find detailed information about each shop, the map guide and photos from the shops. Follow, enjoy and find your something special in Newport, Wa.

If you want to read more about Shop Newport's fabulous Who Let The Girls Out!? 2009 event earlier this year, visit the Shanty Boutique blog or my previous post.

Bakery D'Amour | Wall Art

This is what you will see on the walls of Bakery D'Amour in Salem, OR. (If you missed what you won't see, click here.)

Contrary to the proportions you see here, the bike image will become a 2x2-foot stretched, gallery-wrapped work of art on canvas. The below work will be featured on a 6x3-foot gallery-quality canvas. Huge. If you've been to French Press, you've seen the 7x3-foot piece we created earlier this year. That's really huge. Bold and beautiful is the only way to go for this culinary endeavor; it's backed by some very brilliant and very brave people. You know, they say "La chance sourit aux audacieux" or "Fortune favors the brave" (literally translated: "Luck smiles at the bold"). Bakery D'Amour, you are going to be showered in smiles. I just know it.

One of the client's family members got to join in the fun, too! Christine Zollner did the sketch of the picturesque bakery woman in the piece above.

Here's the bakery's address if you'll be in the area: 2755 S. Commercial, Salem, OR 97302

Style Guide 101 | What a style guide is and why you (might) need one.

Firstly, no. I'm not branching out into fashion. Yet.

This is about design + marketing.

A style guide is, "a set of standards for design and writing of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication or organization" according to Wikipedia. That doesn't really tell you much now, does it? Besides what you've surely already gathered from the name: 'style guide'. It's a guide for style. Duh. But what is it really? And why does anyone need one?

Successful marketing requires consistency. That is the purpose of a style guide: to help you (and me for that matter!) be consistent. A style guide serves as a reference for each piece of visual communication – ads, letterhead, envelopes, business cards, website, invoices, fax cover sheets, mailing labels...the list goes on and on. It includes specific information regarding approved colors, logo usage, typefaces and any number of other elements. This way, what you're saying to your audience doesn't change with the flickering trends. As a result, your life is easier. And who doesn't want that!? When you have an established style guide, there's always something to bounce new layouts off of and get inspiration from. You're not questioning the logo placement, color scheme and type selection for every print communication piece. Ahh.

Although it may seem regimented to some, a style guide is absolutely essential if you have more than one person working on your account or you see your company expanding in the future. I ran across some really great arguments for why it is so essential on the University of Alabama at Birmingham website such as, "Using the same style and design helps us project a strong unified, organized, and professional appearance to our audiences." Universities are known for having super detailed style guides due to the aggregative nature of their institutions. But really, don't you want to look unified, organized and professional, too? I also love the way they handle the definitions of graphic identity + style. Read away.

You can see some examples of style guides I've developed here and here.

And finally, Wikipedia has something to conclude the matter. This time I think they're on to something: "Such guides allow a large design team to produce visually consistent work for the organization." Exactly. And that's why it's important. It facilitates successful marketing. Period.

Windlab Systems | Style Guide

Just a peek into a corporate style guide I've been working on. It's final form is a digital booklet. They actually requested it, believe it or not. Consistency is king. They understand that. (If you want to know what a style guide is, read about it here. Then you can decide if you need one. Wink, wink.)

Verge | Style Guide

This is a style guide I developed for a client in February of 2007. It's a good example of a one-sheet layout approach. All the goodies at a glance. Read more about style guides here.