Because of my close involvement with Fred’s other companies (U S Spaces and U S Loans, see Case Study), Fred asked me to visually sum up his thoughts about how SmarterBenefit should look. Although it was not a part of Fred’s other businesses, it had to share their sensibilities.

Because of my close involvement with Fred’s other companies (U S Spaces and U S Loans, see Case Study), Fred asked me to visually sum up his thoughts about how SmarterBenefit should look. Although it was not a part of Fred’s other businesses, it had to share their sensibilities.

Logo

Brochure cover

Brochure interior

SmarterBENEFIT landing page

NYRP has a clean, graphic and whimsical look that appeals to me. I love working on their Direct Mail and this opportunity — to design an invitation package for the top-tier Bette’s Garden Club members — was so much fun.

The showstopper for the package would be the main, 6-panel Insert component. I sketched out several options, settling on 2 that best imparted NYRP’s signature style.

As is always the case, the finished product is a’la carte — elements from both concepts were included. When done with respect for the design, this approach is a great compromise (not to mention, it allows me to keep elements of designs that I love, but weren’t chosen).

What I love best about this piece is the attention to detail. There are little, loveable elements that make the piece a pleasure to read. The logo becomes the central “spine” of the piece, tying everything together.

I love bold, transparent overlays. I especially love to couple an almost-overwhelming element with a calming element. The interior has it’s own rhythm because of this. It jovially “bounces” from full-bleed photography to clean, white and graphic.

Original Logo

The challenge with Fred was keeping enough of his previous branding to be recognizable. Fred had hard-won recognition in Philadelphia. He certainly didn’t need a new logo to make him start all over again. However, his old branding lacked polish. It was dated. Plus, it didn’t follow the “rules” of a good logo: there was no way that logo was getting as small as it should. Not happening.

So what gets saved and what doesn’t? That was the point of my initial brainstorming and sketch exercise — distilling all info to find what makes the logo still recognizable, yet  brings it into the 21st century. I decided that the best approach would be explore color and the block mark.

Once Fred pick concept #3, it was time to port this logo to his other needs — logos for U S Loans and Fred Glick (his PR arm) as well as other collateral items.

The thought process behind any project is similar. I chose the K&L wedding package to showcase as a Case Study because it’s personal closeness makes showing the process deeper, and therefore, more illustrative.

First, before hand-hits-mouse, there is always pen-hits-pad. However, what many may not know is that the even “uglier” stepsister of design layout sketches is the Outline. Yikes. The dreaded, grade-school Outline. It’s been spiffed up a bit with the more current Mindmap, but it’s all the same — “boring” words, gridded out in some fashion to show priority and relationships.

I drilled down through all the elements that made this couple “tick” and came up with a couple of concepts — each of which had a whimsical, humorous element to them:

• Timeline K&L had dated for an eternity before they became engaged. It was a certainty that they would get married, no doubt. But friends were taking bets on the “when”. Wouldn’t it be nice to play on that theme — the “finally” — along with an actual history of the couple.
• Thursday K&L’s wedding was going to be unusual on a number of fronts, one being that it would be held on a Thursday. The Save The Date (the first installment in the wedding package) would focus on this. Later, in the invite, we would focus on other unusual elements of the wedding.
• Mix It Up Finally, the third concept would illustrate their humor by mixing up fonts. But it would also incorporate a French element (outlined, Deco-ish flowers reminiscent of French storybooks) to bring in the additional element of Lauren’s extensive love of all things French.

As is the case with most design, the Release version drew from all concepts, the main one being the Timeline. Now I had a theme and structure to create the rest of the collateral.

The Invite was the centerpiece for the K&L Timeline concept. I wanted to describe the history of the couple. After much consideration, I decided that a standard size “card’ wouldn’t work, conceptually speaking. If I wanted to emphasize the longevity of the couple, I needed space to spread out. A 6-panel “brochure” would do the job.

With the gauntlet thrown down, it was time to put on our thinking caps and woo them back to our loving arms.  And the way to show anyone how much you care is to truly grasp them. We had to show that we understood Philadelphia Insurance better than the competition. We started by listening to them. What did they think about their business? How did they feel? It was time to get touchy-feely with them. What we found was a fascinating trip through PHLY’s history.

Philadelphia Insurance kept it’s success by sticking to their original formula — finding and serving niche markets. Starting at the companies founding in the early 1960′s — whereby founder James Maguire, Sr. learned braile so he could match plans to the hearing-impaired — PHLY became an insurance resource for under-served clientele. When their competitors looked in 1 direction, PHLY looked in another. That is what made them special and that was what we had to demonstrate.

This 1st concept speaks to PHLY’s uncommon company culture. It’s a can-do attitude that looks at adversity and says “yes, I can”. Anything can be possible with intelligent and decisive information. It’s this spirit that percolates from the business culture to the personal culture. At PHLY, team building takes place in the boardroom as well as the Ironman Triathalon. Good sportsmanship and team effort are every bit as much a part of PHLY as sales and PowerPoint presentations. A fit body shows a fit and determined mind. That led to the theme for concept 2:

The final concept illustrates the thoroughness with which they explore new opportunities. Some would say that PHLY carves their niches, but PHLY feels that they reveal it. When deciding on a new path, every new choice goes through an exhaustive process to determine its risks vs. benefit. This exhaustive process is a boon to their investors, for it shows the seriousness and dedication PHLY has to limiting risk. Because of it’s appeal to their stockholders, this was the direction that PHLY chose. It went to press and the client stayed happy.