"You know my brand, I'm happy with your past work, it makes sense!"

Susan Baier was thinking aloud during our meeting about why she chose us to create icons for the Audience Audit website redesign. 

After we met, I got to work, thinking about the brand and the headings these icons would illustrate, brainstorming, sketching, and collaborating on a color palette with the developer, Greg Taylor of Marketing Press. I also began exploring concepts related to geometric shapes and patterns, which would work on several levels, complementing the circles central to Audience Audit's logo and becoming a type of symbol for each heading. 

Rather than sticking strictly to abstract geometric patterns; however, I moved toward icons that looked like charts and graphs, since analyzing data is a big part of what Audience Audit does. The "BETTER CLIENT WORK = MORE AGENCY REVENUE" icon, for example, is a rectangle that looks like a line graph with revenue increasing.

When the timeline for the site launch got moved up, I hustled to put the finishing touches on the icons and made sure they were ready to go before the site went live.

The icons complement the site, giving it an even more custom, eye-catching look and feel. 

And, yes, Susan is still happy with our work. 

They need to fold flat. And be made of wetsuit material. And priced to give away. And (look) dangerous.

Most importantly, they need to keep beer cold.  

As part of an event introducing college students to Gangplank, AuthorityLabs wanted foldable can holders (also known as "Koozies," although that's technically a brand name), specifically made out of neoprene.  

We tracked down a few options for them (including a magnetic one that would be great for tailgating), and they chose their favorite. 

They loved the final results – compact neoprene can holders with the Gangplank logo on one side and the skull on the other.

And ice cold beverages. 

As I kid, I would try to claim "Finders, keepers!" on all kinds of things – toys my little brother left laying around, Dad's loose change on the end table, neighbor kids' stuff that ended up in our yard. (I don't recall being so vocal about things I actually would've been allowed to have, like interesting rocks or this little car trinket I dug up one time in the backyard, which my brother's friend later "found" and kept.)

Mom would always make me return the object to its rightful owner. She'd remind me that spotting something doesn't make it yours.

It's a good reminder for grownups too, since many people make a similar assumption about things they find on the web, particularly photos.

However, most images have some form of copyright, which means you don't automatically have the right to put them (or ask your designer to put them) in your presentation, blog, marketing materials, or anywhere else.

What can you use? Charlene Kingston sorts this all out in her article, "Blogging: Images and Copyrights," but, for now, I'll just quote her on this:

Many people mistakenly believe that any image you find on the Internet is in the public domain. That is not true. The person using the image may own the copyright, or may have purchased a license that allows her to use it. You may not take an image and use it without permission.

It used to be that color was a luxury with printed materials primarily in black and white and color doled out sparingly.

Times have changed, and so have print processes.

Color has become an affordable indulgence. 

Sometimes our clients are concerned about the number of colors in banner or business card designs. But we can often offer full color printing for the same price as one-color – so we do.

For those projects, full color printing can be a brilliant solution. 

Fairytale weddings are overrated. Trying to orchestrate a perfect day in this imperfect world generally just stresses everyone out.

Katie Charland and Tyler Hurst got it right when they began planning a storied wedding – a laid-back celebration of community and a new chapter in their lives.

When it came time for the invitations, they already had a few of the pieces: beautiful textured agave paper and their silhouettes traced and cut out by an artist at a charity event. 

We incorporated the silhouettes into an elegant black and white design with a playful twist.

During brainstorming, I noticed that the word "tie" is in Katie's name and the sound of the word (although not the spelling) is in Tyler's. I thought about weddings and tying the knot, and made that play on words central to their design.

We echoed the silhouettes on the inside of the invitation. On the back, we carried the style over with a logo-like "t+k" and their wedding date. 

For some reason, I started thinking about design and order this morning. I jotted down some thoughts. Then I remembered a related Twitter conversation during Phoenix Design Week about whether creativity requires chaos and/or order. Perhaps it has been percolating in the back of my mind all this time, because now I have a clearer view of how it all fits together. 

Design is not just about beauty; it is also about order.

This shouldn't be surprising, since the two are often intertwined like a double helix. You see them in the points of a snowflake and the honeycomb in a beehive. Order. Beauty. Elegant design.

There may be randomness – or even chaos – in the creative process. But, in the end, design puts things into place, where they make sense and function beautifully. When entropy creeps in, design re-orders. 

Order doesn't have to mean monotony. Think of all the different types of trees and all the different ways tree branches grow. They all come from seeds. And, whichever way a seed falls, it somehow knows to put roots down into the ground and to send stem, branches and leaves up toward the light. Leaves don't grow on roots. Roots don't grow toward the sun. There is both order and beautiful variety in the way trees grow. 

Being a designer means getting to the heart of a problem and discovering an elegant solution. It means arranging separate pieces so they become a whole new unit. It means transforming a confusing process into an intuitive one. It means bringing order from disorder in a beautiful way.

You may be familiar with the Box Tops for Education program, a program that gives cash to schools based on "box top" coupons clipped.  

But did you know that you can also help local schools when you purchase screen printed t-shirts or polos for your business or organization? If you order screen printing on Hanes products, you can submit your Bold Avenue invoices to any school participating in the Box Tops program. The school will earn 1 box top per shirt, which they can redeem for educational supplies. (See hanes4education.com for details.)

Can't find your last invoice? Just let us know, and we'll email you a copy you can submit to the school of your choice.

Click here to download:

HANESPrintable_Info_Cards.pdf (817 KB)

After the logo design, we carried the branding over in the design of postcards, website and Alan Dayley's business cards.

Business cards

The reversed-out leaf (detail from the logo) makes these business cards stand out. We also printed them on thick 14pt cardstock with a matte finish.

Postcards

The postcards were a promotional piece handed out at Phoenix Startup Weekend. On one side is a graphic we created based on a sketch Alan often uses in Agile coaching to illustrate how Agile teams are meant to function in a holistic way, a useful reminder for Agile practicioners to keep at their desks (retaining the company's contact information, as well).

We edited the copy for the other side of the postcards to make it more concise and include the attention-grabbing headline "Better Teams Make Better Business."

The cards were an effective way to spread the word about Dayley Agile and were more useful and budget-friendly than many promotional products.

Web

Finally, in collaboration with Perri Collins, we created a website to showcase Dayley Agile's services, as well as photos from actual Dayley Agile training and workshops, testimonials and  information on Agile.

We adapted the postcard verbiage and holistic team graphic to be the image that is currently front and center on the home page. The look of the site is professional, open and organic to reflect the way that Dayley Agile does business.

A.

The short answer: yes!

This doesn't mean things are slow. In fact, things have been pretty consistently busy.

We believe a healthy business is a growing business. We're glad to discuss organizations' design needs, and we appreciate referrals. When we're slammed, we may have to schedule meetings and project start dates out a little further, but we'll do what we can to accomodate new clients, while continuing to take great care of existing ones.

This is post is part of our occasional FAQ series. Do you have a question about Bold Avenue? Ask it here or via Twitter using hashtag #BoldFAQ.

Robin is an artist, working in watercolor and ceramics and participating in the annual Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour. During this event, Cave Creek-area artists open their studios to the public, displaying, selling and demonstrating their craft.

It has been Robin's dream to reach a wider audience with her art – especially her whimsical watercolors of animals – by featuring it on items people can use.

The art of design

She was referred to Bold Avenue by her sister (one of our t-shirt clients), and, while she had some ideas about what she wanted, she was unsure of the best way to make it all happen. 

The good news? Making it happen is kind of our specialty.

We worked with her to find products that fit the bill: sturdy and roomy canvas shopping totes, wide aprons, and the right paper for her greeting cards (as well as a cost-effective way to print small quantities of 12 different card designs!). When a traditional calendar wouldn't work, we designed a new calendar format for her.

For each product, we created designs that would keep the focus on her gorgeous artwork, while making it sure it fit each medium and giving it a finished look.

The biggest challenge came in making Robin's series of calendar art – watercolors of Arizona animals with lessons to teach for each month of the year – into an actual calendar. 

Calendars, of course, are dated. And Robin was concerned about not selling all of her 2012 calendars before the end of the year. We didn't want to do anything that would make the calendars less functional or her art too small, but we did need to make sure her investment would last beyond the next couple months. 

After meeting with Robin, brainstorming, and researching calendar formats, I came up with a way to feature Robin's art on a reusable calendar. The art pages are all on the top half, which (similar to a regular wall calendar) you flip over each month to see the new page. On the bottom is a grid for the dates, which is dry erasable. Each month, you just flip the art page over, wipe off the old dates and write in the new ones. You can use it month after month, year after year. 

As Robin's words on the cover say, it's made to "take to heart and keep forever."

Starting this weekend, you can see Robin's art (originals, as well as calendars, cards, totes and aprons), along with the work of 144 other artists, on the self-guided Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour (Nov. 18-20, 25-27). You create your own tour route at http://www.sonoranartsleague.org/hidden.php.