Does your website have a mind of it’s own? Do you want to take control but you don’t know where to start? We offer website training for websites that have been built on the WordPress framework so you feel empowered to make regular updates and changes to your website. Or if you have questions about converting your current website to a more user-friendly format, we’d be happy to help! Drop us a line!
Environmental awareness, ethical marketing techniques, support for local businesses, and promoting great products and services – these are our resolutions at Design Intensified. We want to help you generate online exposure for your business in a responsible way. With digital marketing, together we can change the future of advertising by reducing paper waste.
Dear DI fans, family, clients, vendors, friends, et cetera,
We just wanted to send a big end-of-year THANK YOU to everyone! We had an amazing 2012. We wish nothing but continued health, happiness and success for ALL in 2013. We are in the process of creating a video of some of our favorite projects from this past year, and we’re excited to show you how much we’ve accomplished. We are so proud of our work and with all the referrals we have received, we are pretty sure our clients are happy as well!
Recent changes you may have noticed:
• We have become more specialized in Websites, E-blasts and Social Media Branding. All of this begins with a strong brand initially, so we are still beyond ecstatic when we can start with a company from the ground up to build a logo and overall look, and then be able to implement the assets digitally!
• Our decision to focus more on digital marketing came with our push to be a more sustainably-conscious design agency. We’ve added a Philanthropic section to our website, which also highlights our efforts to work with other “do-good” businesses.
• We are now able to post our starting prices for our digital services.
• In addition to being able to brand social media pages, we also began offering maintenance services with your choice of daily or weekly updates on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. There is no longer a need to have to update these sites yourself, we’ll take care of it all so you can focus on whatever it is that YOU do best. Contact us if you are interested.
Some things to look out for in 2013:
• We will be announcing some new clients soon, and we’ll of course be excited to show you any and all the work that we do for them!
• We will be posting more work from our AMAZING repeat clients! Thanks again!
• We will be adding a functioning Client Center to our website to make things like our Social Media maintenance service processes even MORE seamless.
As always, the biggest compliment you can give us is a referral! But we wouldn’t mind a positive review on Yelp or Google+ either! Thanks again, we look forward to sharing more with you in the upcoming months and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive regular updates.
Love – The DI Gals
On our Facebook page, we will post a brand tagline that has a word or words missing. Complete the tagline by commenting on the post, and then guess the brand that it belongs to! Do both of these things and receive up to 2 points per post. Only the first person to complete the tagline and/or guess the brand will get the point. If person A completes the tagline, and person B guesses the brand it belongs to, 1 point will be given to person A and 1 point will be given to person B.
Part One (1 point):
Finish the tagline.
Part Two (1 point):
Guess the brand it belongs to.
The person with the most points will win a custom designed Facebook Cover and main image with their favorite things, photos, name, etc.
The contest will end on December 31, 2012. The winner will be announced by January 2, 2013.
December is almost here so we figured we would post our list of creative gift ideas for the 2012 holiday season. We know how hard it is to find a gift for someone who has everything so we hope this list helps a bit!
1.) DIY Food Jars. This is a great gift for grandparents or busy moms. We love that it’s something useful and once it’s used it won’t take up space. It takes the pressure off the chef in the family and provides a quick option for dinner! Here is one site with a list of ingredients, how to layer them and printable hang tags. Cap it off with brown paper and string from around the house for a rustic look! Place in a decorative basket and you won’t even have to wrap it.
2.) Shop With Meaning! We have talked about this company before when we designed their brand, but seriously – they have great stuff! How many times have you thought to get a gift for your dad, uncle, brother, etc and realized they already have everything? Well why not get them something that helps a greater cause? They’ll feel good knowing that the small gift they get, has a huge impact on society. Here are some of our favorite “guy” gifts (because they always seem to be the hardest to shop for) from shopwithmeaning.org… but check it out, they have something for everyone on your list!
The “PUT A LID ON” movement uses the purchasing power of our fans to benefit the earth and help those less fortunate live a better day. nine five ltd. is committed to donating 20% of every purchase made on our site and turning the contributions into something that supports the greater good.
With every bag sold, ESPEROS helps send impoverished children in developing countries to school for a year. The company is currently focused on helping children in Haiti and, donating 50% of its gross profits, ESPEROS is regularly able to fund one year’s tuition for a child in Haiti with every bag it sells.
3.) Custom Stamps. Check out zazzle.com or stamps.com for cool stamp designs or even upload your own stamp design (we can help with the design part)! It’s a great gift for distant relatives, grandparents, friends that live far away or small business owners. It’s also a good reminder to KEEP IN TOUCH! Who doesn’t love a good piece of snail mail from a dear friend? Way better than bills and ads.
4.) A gift card for a fashion stylist. For the fashionista in your life, why not get her a wardrobe stylist for a day? She’ll feel like royalty with a personal shopping trip from a fashion expert and she’ll look great with all of her new outfits (using old pieces from her closet and a few new pieces from her shopping trip)! Check out Cathy at Style Speaks… or try to Google a fashion expert in your area!
5. Sustainable Wooden Baby Toys. We love Etsy.com for all things handmade, and there are always new baby products popping up. For the baby that’s still a little too small to play with (and drool on) your iPhone, how abou this cute wooden Instagram block? It’s like baby’s first camera! The wood is a sustainable alternative to plastic and there are no added chemicals and the wood won’t splinter. That means safe baby AND safe iPhone! Love it.
Follow us on Facebook and we’ll post more holiday gift ideas as we find them throughout the month of December.
For the month of November we will be hosting a logo contest! We will post a section of a popular logo onto our Facebook page daily. ‘Like’ us and then comment to guess what logo it is! The person who guesses the most logos correctly by the end of November will receive one free holiday e-card design for the month of December. The card can be of whatever you want and can even include photos of your families or pets. Good luck!
*Photography services are not included. Card design includes up to three rounds of revisions.
We know it’s crossed your mind! It makes sense; there are a lot of new online businesses offering templates for $100 or less. We get it! Their commercials make you feel empowered to do it yourself – pick your colors, add your logo, write some content, push the magic button and DONE!
No! There is a lot more that goes into a website that you should consider. Scroll down to read more…
Here is small glimpse into our world:
Purchase Domain Name/URL, purchase hosting space, link URL to host, install WordPress database, create WordPress username/password, download & purchase template, upload template to database, login and attempt to make the template look like the website example that originally sold you (good luck…) and then customize your website so it doesn’t look like a template! Still with us? Now that you’ve squeezed about 12 hours out of your week (after breakfast, before work, after work, before bed, repeat) …does your website fit your needs? Do you need to download plugins? Is everything working correctly? We can already hear the inner dialogue, “I guess it will work for now…”
Do you feel overwhelmed just reading the last paragraph? You don’t know where to start? And even if you do know the best place to purchase a URL/hosting or download a template, you’re thinking “Where am I going to go if I’m stuck?” We’ll add some questions to that list to really get you thinking: What if your logo is horizontal and your template only allows for a vertical logo? What if your website has a feminine cursive font, but your company is more professional? What if you want to add links to your social media pages? And achieve a high ranking in Google searches? Add a slide show? Add a contact form? Compress a video file so it loads quickly? Resize photos so they don’t take up the whole page? Add an E-Mail Newsletter sign up form? The list goes on forever.
It all boils down to one simple question – how can a template fit YOUR needs if it is designed for a bunch of different companies to download? Use a creative agency – Design Intensified is a GREAT option. Stand out from the template crowd and let us create a website that works for you! Think about the time and energy you’ll save. Oh, and we want you to feel empowered too, that’s why we provide training to teach you and your employees how to update your content. And if you run into snags in the future, we will always be here to lend a hand!
Want a quick way to add a little more customization to your website? Why not add social media media icons that match your style? If you check out Accents, Style Speaks or Heidi’s websites you can see some of the social media icons we designed. Let’s stray from the typical blue and white Twitter/Facebook icons and get people clicking on some creativity instead!
Here are a few creative ideas we’ve seen. We’d love to discuss ways to bring your site into the social media era and customize the details!
Wendy’s announced that they are re-branding their entire campaign, starting with a new logo. While they have reported that they weren’t unveiling until March, we found this leaked logo!
They kept Wendy and ditched their old-fashioned font for a more modern, familiar font that has a stronger sense of immediacy. It seems like they’ve broken away from the “come here for an old-fashioned dinner” and are reaching to compete with and exceed other fast-food giants like Burger King. This is the first time Wendy’s has changed their logo since 1983. Other changes will include store remodeling, a menu revamp and a stronger overall brand. Guess we’ll see if they benefit from a re-brand! Read more here. Does your business need a re-brand? We can do that!
Ah, so hard to choose! Everyone wants to be unique, but it is hard to think of new ideas every year. Being something classic like a pumpkin or a ghost is always a good safety net, but try thinking of something relevant to this year… maybe movies or news stories. Here are some creative Halloween costume ideas from the DI gals:
1. Carly Rae Jepson – The song of the summer could turn into the costume of the holiday. A wig, a microphone, and handing out a sticky note that says “Call me, maybe?”could complete the look.
2. Olympians – Five best girlfriends would look great as the US Gymnastics team. Or swimmers like Lochte, Phelps or even the break-out swimmer Missy Franklin!
3. Kimye – Who wouldn’t want to be Kim and Kanye for a night? A great couples idea!
4. No Doubt – Dress up solo as Gwen (after doing 100 crunches every night until Halloween of course)… or get your friends to dress up as the band. It is definitely a cool way to commemorate 10 years of this band being together.
5. Snooki and Baby Lorenzo – Great for a pregnant girl to incorporate the baby bump.
And here are some fun timeless ideas if you are looking to be less focused on celebrities and events:
1. Bunch of Grapes – Perfect for the wine drinkers of the party! A green jumpsuit with purple balloons taped to it would look great as your holding your glass of vino!
2. Condiments – We think it would be funny to look into your pantry or refrigerator for couple’s costume inspiration. Try salt and pepper, ketchup and mustard, a lemon and lime, etc.
3. For bigger groups try things like everyone dresses up as a tree (you’ll collectively be a forest!), legos, a deck/hand of cards, a field of dandelions (or everyone could be a seed of a dandelion… how funny would that be at a party?)
Check our Facebook page during the month of October as we post other cool costume ideas!
We love giving direction to companies who are feeling overwhelmed with advertising. Your brand needs to have a cohesive look that is recognized from print ads, to websites, to social media! Your brand should be familiar, loyal and most importantly MEMORABLE! We’d love to help!
As a self-proclaimed celebrity watcher, I decided to get a little psycho-analytical about the KateMiddleton-tanning-topless story in the news.
It seems frightening to be famous with the advent of social media and the ability to quickly send pictures to mass amounts of people. Celebrities and royalty are under a microscope with the entire world looking at them. I think the obsession with these people is similar to the reasons why we love reality tv shows so much. Teen Mom, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore, Etc, are all extreme or unusual lifestyles that we otherwise would not experience. We may not agree with these lifestyles, but we watch them because we are fascinated.
Specifically I think the obsession with Princess Kate, comes from the fact that she has the title of “Princess.” Please, correct me if I am wrong but she really has very little contribution to politics and her title is merely a status symbol. We are drawn to her every move, every outfit and every word she says. The difference between her and Honey Boo Boo (aside from the obvious) is that Honey Boo Boo is a 30 minute show and when it is done, we’re on to the next show and Honey Boo Boo goes to school and eats ‘Sketti’ and still maintains some sense of normalcy (well… Honey Boo Boo “normal”). But, Kate doesn’t have a show… rather she is just watched in real life. How annoying? There are no commercial breaks or editing OR censoring for that matter, because it is just real life. We are fascinated by a status symbol, and it is crazy.
I get it, she chose to be in the lime light, however, I don’t understand why we are so enamored every time she does something that we all have done. I just went to the beach two weeks ago, and probably 10-20% of the females were sunbathing topless (nothing R rated)! And I guarantee almost 100% of females have sunbathed topless at least once in their life. So why do we care SO much when a princess does something SO normal? I get it, the wedding of William and Kate was a big deal… everyone wants to experience a fairytale wedding so we were interested. When she has a kid, of course everyone will want to see the baby pictures. But, I think that things like this should just exist and be shown organically ONLY IF the celebrity chooses to share. When we scrutinize every second it doesn’t always end well… as we all have seen in the past. It’s like we build up scenarios to watch them crumble and fall apart. What a sick cycle! My new goal will be to care less about celebrities. I’d rather spend more time catching up on my friends and family’s lives. Thoughts?
We are sad to hear that Hurricane Isaac has turned fatal. Mother Nature is not something we can control and at times it can be devastating. To all dealing with the aftermath of the storm, including the flooding, our hearts go out to you! We are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. Hopefully the technology that exists today will help us learn more about how these storms effect communities, so we can be better prepared for them in the future.
Stay safe everyone!
We not only create amazing graphic design, we are smart about it, too! After completing a job for Shop With Meaning we decided to share the ways that we are social conscious and strive to attain global sustainability.
Take a look!
• We have a company goal to move towards more web advertising and e-mail newsletters and to do less printed ads and direct mail. This eliminates our carbon footprint by reducing the use of everything from paper, inks, factories to shipping and mailing.
• We work with printers that offer non-toxic inks, recycled paper and sustainable materials.
• All of the DI gals work from home! There is no additional office space needed, which is one less building polluting the environment. No one has to drive to work (less pollution from cars and transportation). Also, we don’t use printed work orders, invoices, time sheets, et cetera – everything that we do is digital.
• We donate design hours to meaningful organizations like Shop With Meaning! Check out their website and social media outlets to see their new logo and brand that we designed for them.
A few DI gals have family members that golf, and some gals even golf themselves! Golfers usually partake in the sport for relaxation, exercise and sometimes business meetings. For this reason we decided to put an ad in the course booklet of one popular Golf Course in CA. We chose Catta Verdera Country Club because they are well-established, have a lot of members and they also host weddings.
Hopefully our ad is successful!
When Patricia started the company she had a vision of what she wanted to achieve. She wanted to hone in on the California style, intense colors and add personal flare with the paisley. As the company has grown, and she has brought on more team members, and attained clients across the country, we collectively decided to re-brand design intensified to reach a broader target and focus on our uniqueness as an agency.
Our social media presence, website and business card are now branded with retro fundamental graphic design, and a strong over-arching female empowerment. The cool thing about looking at this comparison is that because we have so many team members, we really CAN design in any style. Contact us so that we can help with YOUR re-brand!
Enjoy!
Many people don’t realize that there is a tremendous amount of graphic design that goes into the Olympic games each time they come around. Every set of games has it’s own logo and it’s own way-finding system.
This year for London’s games, the logo was designed by WolffOlins (the design agency that does campaigns such as (RED) and brands like Target and GE). The logo for the 2012 games was actually chosen in 2007!
Additionally, every set of games gets an updated way-finding system of events, branded to match the logo of that year! Here are this years:
Bet you never realized what an impact graphic design has on the games. We vote Design Intensified develops the 2016 Olympic brand… that would be the Gold Medal equivalent for us designers!
If you have owned a business for a while, and in recent years have been seeing a decrease in revenue, try Googling your business. Are you at the top of the search? Are you even on the first page? When you do finally find something about your business, albeit a website or maybe a Yelp post from a client, what is your first impression? Is there a huge call to action and a clear statement about what the business is? Do you have a strong brand with constant colors and logos and style?
It might be time for a business re-brand! No worries, we can help! We love offering suggestions on how to build your brand and web presence and the best part is, we can offer this along with an estimate for our services, free! FREE! Even if you are unsure if you need a complete rebrand, we can take a look and see if we can alter what you have to help maximize revenue!
After getting caught up from being away, I am so excited to announce that I am engaged!
Mike (whom is affectionately called Stu by myself, friends and family) came up with an amazing proposal. While in Ireland traveling the country, we wanted to stop at the Cliffs of Moher (http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/). While looking at the breathtaking view in the middle of an amazing adventure of a trip, he said a few kind words, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
With tears in my eyes, I looked at the beautiful ring and said “Oh My God” a few times, and then of course I said “YES!” To top it off he says “I have just one more surprise for you… we are staying at a castle tonight!” He reached out to the travel agent who told me that we were staying in a small hotel nearby, and changed our plans to stay in the Ashford Castle built in 1220 owned at one time by the Guinness family (http://www.ashford.ie/)! It was like a real life fairy tale!
Enough of the gushy stuff! Now I am so excited to be planning a wedding.
Are you engaged, too? Let us help you design your wedding invitations, collateral or website!
- Becca
Today I am leaving for Ireland! The beau and I are staying in Dublin, Killarney and Galway. Wish us luck as we drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time ever! Maybe I will put a four leaf clover on the dashboard :). We’re expecting to see goats, rolling hills, castles, cliffs and of course a few pints of Guinness.
We have no particular reason for going, aside from an adventurous vacation. Might as well do it while we’re young, right? As a creative individual I think it’s super important to be culturally literate so that I can effectively communicate visually to all. Be prepared to see some beautiful photos of our trip when we return next week. My DI gals will be busy while I am away, but I am so excited to be going!
Take Care!
- Becca Fiedler
This weekend was quite eventful for our east coast team members. A freakish thunderstorm with derecho winds reaching over 80mph left thousands without electricity for days! We all busted out the candles and coolers, did some manual labor to clear trees from the streets and seemingly pulled through. Talk about living retro!
Here we are today with a holiday, and guess what? MORE thunderstorms predicted! Mother Nature sure is keeping things interesting.
No matter where you are in the country (or what the weather is like) we hope everyone gets to enjoy the day!
We just read a cool article on in the Puget Sound Business Journal by Todd Bishop about workers being more productive outside of an office environment. Without the office politics, commute and uncomfortable cubicle, a worker can more efficiently complete tasks. The funny thing is, most companies are not embracing the concept. Why not!??
All the lovely DI gals have the choice to work in an environment of their choosing, maximizing productivity and creativity! We are all so lucky to be working with such a ground-breaking company that EMBRACES employee happiness! Our central office is in California, but we are all located across the country – free to work where we please! Being able to communicate and work together via phone and internet makes the world seem a whole lot smaller. It also makes it easy to work in fun locations… who’s going to stop us from designing a logo on the beach!? :)
When Patricia started Design Intensified, she didn’t have all of the lovely ladies supporting her like she does now. When she started gaining momentum and building our client base, and ultimately bringing us gals on board, we had a group discussion about what Design Intensified was trying to achieve as a Creative Design Agency.
We were empowered by the fact that we were all women, tackling tough design problems and offering successful design solutions. We took the “Can Do” spirit and combined it with 1950′s styles and colors to ultimately come up with the brand that we have now. While we love what we have created for ourselves, and would thoroughly enjoy creating more vintage style artwork, we are not limited to this look. As you can see on our girls page, we have a variety of talented artists willing and able to design in the style best suited for your needs. Feel free to request an artist to specifically work on your project when we begin the design process.
That being said, CHEERS everyone! We are so appreciative of our current and past clients, and are anxious to get to know our future clients. We look forward to being the best agency that you have (or will!) ever work with.
There has been a lot of hype lately regarding the newest social phenomenon, Pinterest. We have to admit, we’re hooked too!
As designers, this site takes the guess work out of what YOUR vision as the client. It is a virtual storyboard, something originally developed by Walt Disney, that you can create in a matter of a Google search! How cool is it to literally build the feeling and look that you want your design to have, and then let us bring it to life? Share your pin boards with us for business and logo re-brands, your wedding boards will allow us to match the perfect wedding invitations, promotional pieces, websites, etc. Then, let’s talk about how we can solidify them into designs.
Here is one of Becca’s boards for well-done logo designs and business cards that she uses for some modern inspiration:
http://pinterest.com/becston/design-inspiration/
Business owners don’t always think of the “brand” of their company as a priority during start-up. However, us art folk think that your company’s logo, collateral and website are INTEGRAL to your business’ success.
Compare the following:
http://thecookiechew.com/shop-by-occasion
http://www.boardwalkmacaroons.com/
In the well designed Cookie Chew logo, what you see is what you get! The name even says cookie, the logo looks like a cookie, the colors are friendly, SWEET and inviting. What’s great is that the entire brand is consistent throughout the logo, collaterol and their website.
In the bad boardwalk macaroons site, you can’t tell what’s a logo, what’s a name, or what exactly you are buying. Even the name of the site doesn’t match the URL which makes it immediately confusing.
My point: Boardwalk Macaroons could have the most AMAZING sweets. However, as a consumer, I would take 100% of my business to a company that has a look that just feels right, like Cookie Chew.
If you plan to start a company, make sure the branding is considered from the infancy stages forward. Also, be relevant with the clients you are seeking! Can you name one currently successful retail business or service that doesn’t have a website? We can’t either! So if you are planning to start a successful business, we are pretty AWESOME at building well-designed websites that support your company’s brand!
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