The Atomicdust Blog - Creative Matter
Articles in the category Design
Our work for Franchise Concepts’ Deck the Walls and The Great Frame Up recently launched. While most any craft or hobby store has a framing sections, these guys set themselves apart as the framing experts.
Each brand wanted help showcasing the variety of framing options and the expertise of the employees in the stores. So we put the framed items right where they should be- the center of attention.
The result was a pair of sites that showed people all of the memories they could capture- whether it be their child’s first art class project or that game-winning hockey puck. They got the message: if there’s something to be framed, I need to take it here.
In addition to rebranding the corporate sites, we also provided a solution to help franchise owners keep their sites consistent with the corporate brand. Each franchisee had created a website for their own store, and each site had a completely different look and feel form the next. This created a major disconnect from the main brand.
To alleviate this problem, we provided a variety of templates for individual franchise owners to choose from. As a result, they could personalize their specific store with special offers and photos, while still keeping the consistent look and feel of the corporate brand.
After developing the strategy and producing the initial creative, we gave the files to their internal team to code up. You can check out the sites here:
The Great Frame Up
Deck the Walls
Fri, January 22 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
They design dream vacations, we designed their website.
Great Getaways has been creating dream vacations for clients around the world for over 15 years, and as members of the Virtuoso travel network, they are in the top 1% of travel agencies. They take pride in not being ‘cookie cutter,’ and we wanted to make sure their website wasn’t either.
Throughout the website, we paired enticing images from destinations with messages focused on Great Getaways’ expertise and exclusivity. Inviting you to visit Hawaii, for example, and see the ‘greenest greens you can’t reach by golf cart.’
Great Getaways goes beyond just being a normal travel agency. They keep a dedicated travel blog, extensive photo albums on Picasa, and connect with their clients through Facebook and Twitter. We made sure to highlight these features on each page of the site, and made it easy for them to update by designing the site to work with WordPress.
In the end, we created a site that was both cool to look at and extremely functional for the client. Check out their site here, and start saving for that trip to space.
Mon, January 11 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design, Development
Our award winning self promotional postcards were reviewed in this month’s issue of Small Business Monthly by Dan Klein, David Meyer and Brian Schwartz.
The guys gave us a great review, calling the postcards a ‘great example of clean, bold design.’ Klein also praised our ‘creative that matters’ message, saying, “Clients are bottom line driven, and can be fearful of creativity or change. By stressing both strategy and results, they’ve effectively assuaged these fears.”
In September, these same postcards were Bronze Award Winners at the Business Marketing Association of St. Louis’ Targeted Marketing and Advertising (TAM) Awards.
Special thanks to the guys over at Spoke Marketing for giving us such a great review, and make sure to check out the full article at Small Business Monthly.
Thu, January 7 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design, Print
This past week, we were awarded 2 Targeted Marketing & Advertising (TAM) Awards from the Business Marketing Association of St. Louis. We won for our Oculus Capabilities Brochure and our Self-Promotion Sales Postcards. Look how awkward Mike looks as he accepts the awards along with his fellow winners…
Fri, September 25 | By Matt Roeser | Posted in Design
Graphic Design….turns out we’re pretty good at this stuff.
We’re happy to report that we have won 3 American Graphic Design Awards for this year’s competition. They received over 8000 entries year and our work for Elsevier, Logos School and some self promotion stood out. We were awarded for our Atomicdust 6th Party Invites, the Evolve Learning System brochures and the website we designed for Logos School.
Fri, September 11 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
In our ongoing commitment to Logos School in St. Louis, we’ve donated our time to create an identity and materials for the “Peabody Logos Leaders in Education Award”.
The program, sponsored by Peabody Energy, is to encourage and award teachers in St. Louis for their dedication and achievement in education.
The initiative was launched at a press conference on July 16. To help prepare for the launch, we created a visual identity for the program, including logo, backdrop and our first-ever oversized check as well as a dedicated section on the Logos School website. Check it out here.
We can’t think of a better outlet for our time than the Logos School and making their creative matter in ways as big as their aspirations.
Fri, July 17 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
Gateway EDI has one of the greatest vendor reseller programs in the health care industry. They produce serious ROI for their partners, and offer a support network that’s second to none.
Gateway wanted to grab the attention of potential vendors by promoting the benefits of the program through a direct mail campaign. The idea was there, but it needed a creative boost. This is where we come in.
We designed an unforgettable piece that very candidly demonstrates the program’s benefits:
‘Little Investment. Giant Return.’
After painting them “Gateway Purple”, we filled gumball machines with one dollar bills and strips of paper printed with quotes used in their customer service training. The machines cost just 10 cents to use and dispense dollars, thus illustrating the idea of how Gateway EDI shares revenue with its vendors.
10 cents for $1.00? Are you serious? That’s how great Gateway’s Vendor Program is. To the recipients, the message is clear: This isn’t your typical vendor program.
The hard part is the manual assembly. Ever taken apart 12 gumball machines, hand painted, and reassembled them?
Some photos of James, Richard and Josh trying to figure them out, and a photo of the wonderful results. Nice job guys.
Tue, July 7 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
The newly redesigned identity we created for Logos School has made its way onto canisters of tea from The Republic of Tea. The tea and its new packaging are part of a fund raiser for the independent alternative St. Louis school that will help with tuition and operating costs. The canisters feature artwork from Logos’ students. Delicious!
Tue, June 30 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
So Martin and Gavin from driftingcreatives.com stopped by Atomicdust on their way through St. Louis yesterday. A little about these guys….
Gavin Braman and Martin Hooper, partners in this epic quest to design our way across America. We both just graduated from Texas A&M University. After endless amounts of job searching we decided to take a more radical approach. We love design. We aren’t about to settle for anything less than awesome. We know there are tons of towns out there that don’t have access to designers. What better time for us to help? We hope to make just enough cash to move onto the next town and leave a sweet little wake of awesome design. And this is how Drifting Creatives was born.
They’re kind of like the A-TEAM traveling from town-to-town getting in design adventures, only in a Honda Element instead of a van. We asked them to design a poster for our super-boring conference room to help liven it up. They came up with a pretty awesome design. Thanks again guys!
Fri, June 5 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
It’s something every company faces at one time or another: Should we update our logo? What will happen to our loyal customer base? Will it take our company to the next level? There are many questions and concerns that go into deciding to re-brand a company. And, while updating an identity can be a difficult process of change for your company, it can also result in a grand new direction for the future of your brand.
Brand New is a blog that takes a look at companies that have recently updated their identity, offering opinions on why they think the new looks succeed or fail. Whether you agree with their take or not, it’s an interesting study into the ideas and choices that go into major corporate re-branding.
Check it out at the link below:
Tue, May 26 | By Mike Spakowski | Posted in Design
