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By Client
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- Jane Street
- Perception Research Services
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- Sententia Research LLC
- Stamford Hospital
- The Boston Red Sox
- The Fund for Public Schools
- Transparent Financial, LLC
- Vecdr Studio
- case studies
Slow Branding – for small businesses with limited budgets
While there are many reasons that small businesses work with the wrong design partners, the most common would appear to be cost. After all, doing it yourself, off shoring the work or hiring the cheapest designer around would seem to be motivated by price.
However, I have found that bargain hunting is often a symptom of a larger disease. They are in a rush, and in attempting to budget for everything at once they are willing to accept anything in terms of quality. I call it the “fast food” approach to branding.
If having business cards that look like they were ordered off the...
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Content Driven Design Grids
The first thing every designer learns when they go to school is the power of using grids. That is, to establish a framework from which all of your content can be arranged. Thus, it will all be neatly organized and consistent.
At best, design grids make work easier and can be proprietary – as much a part of the brand’s toolkit as its color pallet or typeface. At worst however, it can be an obstruction, as it may prioritize mathematical cleanliness above visual and contextual considerations.
This all comes to mind because I find myself working on a collateral piece, which of...
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Choosing the right partner to brand your small business
It is not remarkable to encounter a small business in need of a holistic refresh of their brand’s look and feel. However, it becomes noteworthy when you are informed that they have just recently invested thousands into their design, only to be disappointed by the results.
There are a myriad of reasons why this occurs. At the center of them all is the fact that many small and early-stage enterprises simply don’t have any familiarity with the process and they choose the wrong partner. What should they have been aware of?
Know the difference between design and...
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Don't Design in the Browser
For the past two years I have attended the Boston Drupal Design Camp at MIT. Understandably for a Drupal camp, most sessions focus on the technology but with a unique slant toward its use in the service of aesthetics.
I guess you could say it sprang from a movement that began at DrupalCon DC, where many designers gathered to set an agenda during the code sprint. I was a fly on the wall of that meeting and I saw many leaders voice concern that their presence within the community was undervalued.
As I sat down to an early...
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