The Blog

Welcoming guests and clients to Birch Studio, we offer water to drink:
“Would you like some water?”
“A water would be great, thanks.”
We say “some” water, they say “a” water. It’s such a slight turn of phrase but it illustrates the power of a single word.
“Some” is served in a glass and “a” water is served in a bottle. Right?
The first has an inherent sense of grouping. The second has a distinct individuality about it.

We use terms like “some”, “they”, “those”, “this” and “we” to identify something in general. They refer to a certain amount or group of something. But they are not defined by name. They are referred to in terms of groupings, in a sense. (more…)

When we work on logos with clients, we’re always struck by the difference of opinion about what a logo is role that a logo plays in an organization. After all, we’ve all seen fine companies that have bad logos, or even no logo at all. Sooner or later, most companies that have longevity create a logo so I want to provide three tips to help guide expectations and make the outcome more rewarding.

1. It makes you proud
When you look at your logo, you must feel that you are putting your game face on. Dressed for business. Looking like you have somewhere to go. (more…)

Birch Studio’s primary output is creativity. All of the work that we produce is custom: graphic design, web design, user interface design, data visualization, etc. To keep our wits about us, we needed a process that could be the same each time for us. The following is a summary of the tips David shared at the seminar hosted by the Center for Non-profit Excellence on July 19, 2011. (more…)

I suspect that PDFs are way more versatile than you know. You probably have seen form fields in a PDF. PDFs also include lots of features that are common on web pages – linking between pages, check boxes, pull-down menus and more. They also allow some of the same high-powered functionality that websites do such as dynamic content and logic-based operations.

Combine this digital DNA with the reliability to hold any page design, regardless of whether it’s seen in a browser, as a stand-alone document, by email, or even printed, and you may start to see PDFs have the power to fill the space between digital and printed media. And maybe even take a bite out of both of their markets. (more…)

Two things that food and information have in common: the more attractive and richer it is, the more we want it.

When you’re really hungry, almost anything tastes good. Eat too much, and it has detrimental effects. The same is true with information. Most of us have more than enough, and it starts to slow us down. But when information must be consumed, it is very helpful to present it in a way that is appetizing, and not just more of the same.


Information Design (more…)

This article is not a tip on what I’ve done as the Creative Director of a Birch Studio, but some information about excellence in general that will hopefully give you license to enhance your own creative skills.

I was just reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. He provides historical facts about many of the world’s top talents – Canadian ice hockey stars, world-class violinists, The Beatles, Bill Gates – which show that in order to master a pursuit, one needs to practice with dedication for many hours over a very long period of time. He puts the number of hours roundly at 10,000. He writes about pianists: (more…)

When we start any significant branding project, we ask a number of questions to lay down the goals and parameters for the project. The primary questions for a logo project are simple but powerful enough to launch us into conversations that guide the rest of the project.

Whether you are developing a logo on your own or hiring a professional, there are three things we recommend you think about deeply prior to putting the first line on paper: (more…)

Birch Studio helped Allen Hoover, founder of Invisible Dog Productions and 7-Train Productions, develop a brand for his new film company. An early adopter of our Cobalt Web Package, Invisible Dog went for a logo, website with video and a stationery suite. (more…)

It stands to reason that since every office has a computer, every office has computer problems. How does the average computer owner or office manager know who to call? How do you choose one tech-support company over another?

NWG Solutions hired Birch Studio to answer that question in their favor. Being in business since 2001, they knew plenty about what they did well and how they provide the most value to their clients. Our goal was to find out how they do it better than anyone else, what makes them so different (in a quantifiable way) how they get new customers and why their customers are so dedicated to them. (more…)

How blue is blue? Does it have a tinge of green in it? Can it be more like the ocean at midday? Maybe it’s more of a cornflower blue. A little less saturation and then more toward the purple…

In a creative or web development process, there are many things to communicate, some clear as day, some vague as the night. As a purchaser of creative services, you need to know that there is a large nebulous area between your decision to hire a creative firm and your final product. As much as you know what you’d like to see in a project, it is only a faint precursor of the outcome. Even if mind reading were an option, there are oodles of details that simply can’t be worked out before a deep dive in the project. (more…)