One of our favorite campaigns recently happens to be one of favorite types of work – comprehensive branding and communications across a variety of formats.
Print to PDF to web to email to social media, we hit them all in this campaign. (more…)
When our favorite non-profit came to us for a makeover of their fundraising materials, we were especially glad to help them look like the professional organization that they are.
Our first concern for the design of the Sexual Assault Resource Agency brochure was that it should balance carefully the need for positive fundraising imagery and respecting the sensitivity of SARA’s clients.
We chose colorful images of people which were happy, but not too happy. Then we blended those into a warm gray background to add a somber undertone. A small flair of the SARA logo on a page or two, and some minor graphics seen in the boxes on the What You Can Do page, give the piece one more small dimension and a quiet bit of hope.
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…)
Just finished this website for the Jefferson Innovation Summit put on by The Batten Institute at Darden. The Summit brings together the brightest minds in business, government, academia, media and the arts to talk about creating and sustaining a society of entrepreneurs and innovators.
Last month, we took our own advice and developed something unique to Birch Studio – something that none of our competitors do. For years, we’ve been adding breadth and depth to our expertise as a design and branding agency. For our size, we’ve accomplished quite a lot. Our work represents many of our clients to their Fortune 500 customers. We are one of the few shops with 5-star rating from the University of Virginia.
Not happy to rest on our laurels, we set out to claim the intersection of our expertise, interests and market opportunities to create something truly unique. A month later, we were rewarded with magic. (more…)
At Birch Studio, we have long been fans and admirers of green tech marketing – the promotion of technologies that reduce our carbon footprint, reduce toxins in our environment and generally decrease our impact on our beloved planet. Our challenge was that other than planting trees and purchasing carbon-offset credits, we felt like our hands were tied. We wait while the captains of industry catch up to demand and provide us with more of the infrastructure we need to be better consumers.
Enter: The Flux Report. We thought, rather than waiting for them to help us, we will help them. We took it upon ourselves to research various industries and produce useful information for marketing green tech. We launched our inaugural issue on electric vehicles in mid-January and will publish the report monthly on a variety of industries. Look for our hydrogen report next month. (more…)
Birch Studio has had a website since the Wild West days of the Internet. Before Google, before Facebook … before your momma got a cell phone. This new site has been completely rewritten to add clarity and definition to our services and products.
Like most of our clients, Birch Studio has developed its business to the point where we outgrew our old website. We got to that point where the website needed to evolve to keep up with our new offerings, new technology and new processes. The aesthetics of site 1.0 drew many positive comments. Site 2.0 was growing in content nearly monthly with our blog posts, new projects and Fish Wrap newsletter. (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…)
We had three goals for this piece: introduce a high-end Executive MBA program; write copy at an aspirational level, leaving the details for follow-up pieces; and have it in the Dean’s hands for his international tour in four weeks. We had some thoughts on how to make a single piece of paper say, “I’m worth $130,000+ and an investment of two years of your life.”
Research
We reviewed other MBA programs to determine how they approached marketing their programs, both visually and conceptually. Among those that stood out, we found one with photos of its building on the cover and one with faded silhouettes. Neither presented a very strong point or unique position in the market. (more…)
