Over the past six years I have worked with a number of small businesses and start-up companies. I have done a wide array of designed pieces from short runs of business cards to large scale advertising. Every new business I work with tries to carve out a different niche, but the one consistent need across every new company, partnership, or sole-proprietorship is the need to get their name out effectively. Doing this with competency and consistency helps new businesses establish their legitimacy and create interest in what they offer.
There are a few elements that every new business needs at they begin to establish themselves in the marketplace.
A CLEAN PROFESSIONAL LOGO
Why? Every organization needs a consistent, iconic piece as identification and to distinguish themselves from their competition. This mark can used throughout all the different pieces of named or "branded" material that a business uses from business cards and invoices to advertising and marketing pieces.
Your logo should be clean, consistent, and scalable. It should be able to have as much impact on small sticker as it does on a large billboard. Most importantly, it needs to be transferable. This means that as your logo gets used, it needs to be clean and legible in every application.
A USEFUL BUSINESS CARD
Why? Even if you plan on building your business on word of mouth, you need a way for clients to reach you after they meet you.
Think business cards are dead? The business card still remains the standard in primary client contact. While technologies exist that can digitally replace the card, consistent deployment of a technology is never 100% guaranteed across any potential client base. A small, well-designed piece with all your necessary contact information that you hand to a potential client with your services is. Be creative, use creative materials or items with your contact information, use balloons instead of cards, just provide something tangible as a reminder of your meeting.
A WEB PRESENCE
Why? 92% of consumers research a product or service online before purchase according to Google testimony. If you are not talking about your business online, chances are someone else may be, or a competitor may be primed to take that business.
Fortunately, building websites and creating a web presence is easier than ever. Social media provides a quick and easy outlet to begin, monitor and respond to marketplace chatter. At the same time, there are a number of hard working designers and developers ready to provide a myriad of useful and affordable solutions to getting your business online. Monitoring and measuring your web presence will help drive business and provide valuble return on the time and energy you spend promoting your business.
Want to learn more, shoot us an email.
The logo design game has changed. Moreover, designing for business has changed considerably over the past ten years. Print has traditionally driven many design and marketing choices, but with the advent of social media, web-based design has driven most design strategies for marketing, promotions and development. Visual components of "a brand" have become more adjustable, flexible and dynamic. At the same time, the basics of logo design; creating a simple, bold, transferable mark, have remained the same.
Start-ups and small businesses are especially tuned in to these changes. The days of locked-down, consistent visuals as your brand have given way to more maliable ideas of what your brand can be. While the design of your logo can be much more, the importance of having a clear concept and defined ideas is still important.
You can check out more of my thoughts in Christina DesMarais' article at Inc.com. Still interested in the development of logos? Check out this short documentary featuring logos and their development throughout time.
I have lived in the Twin Cities for nearly half my life. I moved here in mid-90's to attend the University of Minnesota and never left. I met a girl, got a job and have worked to settle in ever since. While the Twin Cities are substantially different from my hometown of Milwaukee, it's where I call home.
It's easy to find things to love here in the Twin Cities. Nature, cultural influences and creative energy abound. Metro Magazine put out their list of some of the top 100 things we love about the Twin Cities, and a few we don't. I thought it was a pretty good list, heck I even learned a few things, but I thought they missed a few. Below is my Metro post on nine good things, and one evil, that was selected for their November 2011 publication.
Good
Art-a-Whirl: Art-a-Whirl in Northeast Minneapolis is the nation’s largest art crawl. Few art crawls have the talent or the patron support that Art-a-Whirl exhibits, not to mention the lack of pretension. The energy and momentum of Art-a-Whirl is so great that it has spawned other events and festivals in Northeast Minneapolis on the same weekend.
Theodore Wirth: Theodore Wirth planned to locate and design parks so that every household in the city of Minneapolis would be no more than 6 blocks from green space, a vision that Minneapolis residents reap the benefits of today. Exceptional elements of park design like the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, the Rose Garden, Minnehaha Falls, the Chain of Lakes and Victory Memorial Drive are all a testament to Wirth’s grand vision.
Public Art: We have a lot of it, and a lot of it is good. From the statue of Abraham Lincoln off Victory Memorial Drive to the Mississippi Guardian Birds in Upper Landing Park, the Twin Cities has a wealth of public art on display. Bronze lumps sponsored by cable networks don’t count.
Trees!: Both St. Paul and Minneapolis are Tree Cities, along with dozens of other cities in the metro. Minneapolis alone has a tree canopy that covers more than 25% of the city. Organizations like TreeTrust help ensure that Minneapolis & St. Paul will have glorious canopy to shield us from the evil, evil sun for years to come.
Nicollet Island: A quick spin around this island with it’s Victorian-era houses, wooded lots and quiet streets will make you forget that you are mere feet from downtown Minneapolis. Not to mention Satan’s Cave is a great piece of urban folklore.
Lakewood Cemetery: Lakewood is a grand cemetery in the heart of the city. It serves as the final resting places for many local politicians, civic leaders and celebrities, and its spectacular upkeep exceeds that of many other urban cemeteries around the country.
Twin-ness: St. Paul is like a tiny vacation for people from Minneapolis! Minneapolis is where people from St. Paul can experience big city life!
Smart People: We’re smart. From rankings on lists like America’s Most Literate Cities to regularly topping the list of highest ACT scores in the nation we’re smart and everyone knows it.
Proximity to Wisconsin: When it’s Sunday and you forgot to buy beer for your Memorial Day BBQ, Wisconsin is always there to enable your forgetfulness. Not to mention that many ‘Sconies have taken up residence here and some do contribute to our society in positive ways.
Evil
The Alberta Clipper: Our northern latitude should do enough to keep the snow on the ground during the winter months. But a few times every winter, the Alberta Clipper seems to come down from Canada with the jet stream just to make our winter a little worse to punish us for all glorious nature, civic participation and civilized events we have.
I've never been a big believer in luck, probably because I have rarely ever been the recipient of any true luck. As a result I believe more in the theory that luck favors the prepared mind (a derivation on Louis Pasteur's 'chance favors only the prepared mind'). In my experience, putting in the work to meet a goal is the only way to ensure any success, luck just becomes the icing on the cake.
That understanding is the basis for my latest submission to Six Word Stories Every Day, an online project for creatives to express themselves in very simple ways through images and words. My submission, titled Your Own Luck was featured in October. Check out other submittals and creatives at Six Word Stories Every Day.
On June 21, 2011, Mayor R.T. Rybak declared #NEMPLS day in Minneapolis thanks to the work of local journalist, Dan Haugen and community booster, Greg Isola. To commemorate the event, we designed Tweet Northeast t-shirts. We have been distributing them around Northeast Minneapolis and we even got one on the mayor. To learn more about what is happening in Northeast Minneapolis, you can follow me, Dan and Greg on Twitter, or simply follow the hashtag #nempls to join the conversation.
I love social media, I really do. I go pretty deep into a number of social media services. I've been lucky to build real relationships, get work and participate in cool projects because of social media. But with so many social media outlets, it's easy to spend far too much time on 'social' pursuits that can turn out to be, well, kind of antisocial after a while.
I've decided to make each Tuesday Twitter free. I'm doing this to not only free up more time during the work week and concentrate more, but also to pull back and gain a little more perspective on what social media outlets really provide value versus the ones that only fill space with more noise.
I'm curious to know if anyone else has done any social media "fasting." Did it work? What did you learn? I would love to hear your story. Shoot me an email. You can also hit me up on Twitter @martinize, any day but Tuesday, of course.
I am offering a limited number of prints for a short time at my 30-second sketch store for $15. Proceeds from each sale will go to Art Buddies, a program of Creatives for Causes in Minneapolis.
This June I am participating in the 2011 30 Days of Creativity. This project is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff each day for 30 days. For this project I am doing 30-second sketches each day. The purpose of a 30-second sketch is to help you see subjects quickly and trust your hand to execute a realistic representation without overthinking.
You can check out more 30-second sketches at my Twitpic feed or at 30 Days of Creativity on Pinterest or find them on Twitter @createstuff.
This is a chart based on information from the City of Minneapolis illustrating this year's budget based on revenue from taxes, aid, fees and more and how those funds are used throughout the city. The 2011 Budget in Brief report illustrates the major components of the budget in relation to overall dollars. "The Public Works Department makes up the largest part of the City’s budget (22.8 percent, $310.3 million). The main tasks of Public Works include the following: offering safe transportation to residents by maintaining streets, bike paths and sidewalks; offering high-quality drinking water to residents and visitors by managing the sewer and water system, and facilitating the collection and disposal of garbage and recycling."
44% of the overall dollars for these items comes from property taxes. The remaining portion comes from the State of Minnesota, licenses, fees, special assesments and more. For a detailed look, please consult the complete report [pdf] from the City of Minneapolis. It is an interesting and useful way to help understand how your taxes get used in Minneapolis.
Six Word Story Every Day, Jeffrey Martin and Kate O'ReillySix Word Story Every Day is a storytelling exploration through language and typography inspired by the work Ernest Hemingway. It is a creative way to express a minimal amount of information in an interesting, novel way. At the left is my work, done in collaboration with Kate O'Reilly from Clever Kate. Check out my work and more from writers, illustrators and other creative types at Six Word Story Every Day.
As an independent design professional, I specialize in the strategy, development, and execution of a wide range of projects for my clients. As an owner, designer, and project manager, I have extensive experience working through all stages of project development with a wide array of clients. It is my passion to work toward creative solutions that not only reflect the immediate needs of my clients but create lasting elements that will serve them well in the future.
Appointed by the Minneapolis City Council to help enhance and shape how the City of Minneapolis and its various departments engage residents throughout the city.
I craft design strategy and implementation of a variety of digital and print applications for small businesses and non-profit organizations. I work in a client-focused, creative partnership to help launch small business brands, marketing endeavors, product and service development, and social media integration to help each client's business grow.
Late April isn’t usually the best time to talk about a late season snowfall, but it sure is pretty.
The 2013 Hotdish Revolution in Northeast Minneapolis is THIS SUNDAY at St. Maron’s Church! Don’t miss it.
I’ve learned a lot about home repair and replacement techniques after living in my 100-year old Minneapolis home for the last ten years. It’s not always easy. A lot of times the solution isn’t readily available at the local home center.
This week I had doors for our built-in bookcases replaced. The original doors are long gone. The only thing that remained was the end of the ball catch in the case and some hinge mortices. Sweeney Brothers helped to source the wood, finishes and build the piece to fit while Architectural Antiques helped with period hardware.
Hopefully these doors will last 100 years.
I’ve lived in Minneapolis for over 18 years after moving from suburban Milwaukee. I’ve been impressed by how Minneapolis has been able to thrive and not only serve as the economic and cultural engine of Minnesota, but also be a great place to live.
Some of the heavy lifters that work to keep that keep livability high are the 70+ neighborhood organizations built by dedicated residents. Those neighborhood groups, comprised of mostly volunteers, serve as the grass roots political foundation of Minneapolis.
On my trip to Wisconsin in November I stopped by the Wisconsin State Capitol on two different occasions. Each time I was greeted by protestors of Governor Scott Walker; some were veterans, others Union workers, as well as a few pensioners.
I’ve been told that a number of protestors from around the country have been keeping a steady vigil at the capitol building for the past six months.
The first photo was taken in the men’s bathroom just outside the Governor’s office.
Hundreds of people braved cold temperatures to line the hill at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis for the 6th Annual Art Sled Rally. Dozens of racers from yellow submarines to monster trucks and fire-breathing dragons raced down the frighteningly icy Powderhorn hill.
A little “residential archeology” under the basement floor of my Minneapolis home has yielded a few interesting finds. I found three Calvert Reserve Whiskey bottles, a Hamm’s beer bottle, a clear bottle with a Minnesota tax stamp and another brown beer bottle of unknown origin.
No alcohol was found in any of the bottles.
The Donut Cooperative is closing! This certainly is sad news for folks that appreciate the atmosphere of the corner-store-turned-small-business.
While they took some heat for their decision to hire unpaid interns, they did have great donuts and a strong commitment to the community.
I’m making a coloring book for my daughter with two female characters named Rocket Girl and Baby Blast-Off. Feel free to download and color along.
Over the weekend I caught this guy surfing Lake Michigan just north of Milwaukee…in November. Lake Michigan isn’t typically known for its heavy wave action, but this guy was able to get up on a few despite the near freezing temperatures.
We are fortunate to have a lot of choices in breweries, brew pubs, and tasting rooms in the Twin Cities, with more springing up each season.
I don’t purport to be a beer expert by any means, but I do appreciate interesting, local brews that add new ideas to the brewing landscape. One of those new breweries is Pour Decisions Brewing Company. They currently have a portfolio of three beers, plus cask options, that show their high level of competency in brewing. The Acerbity Berliner Weisse is a bright, almost champagne-like beer that is an interesting departure from traditional “light beer” or entry-level IPAs. The Patersbier Golden Ale and Pubstitute Scottish Ale are also very well done and far more complex than you average ales.
If you find yourself north of St. Paul, near County Road C and Fairview Avenue in Roseville, stop in to Pour Decisions. I think you will enjoy it.
Putting the finishing touches on the Lowry Avenue Bridge in #mpls (at The Lowry Avenue Bridge)
I stumbled upon this little art dump/hippie commune in NE Minneapolis near Edison HS this morning. (Taken with Instagram at Firefighters Hall & Museum)
Astronautalis does some really high-energy live shows. Recorded tracks don’t do his music justice.
If you have the means to see him live, I highly recommend it.
If you are motivated enough to put up a sign you should be motivated enough to do something about it. (Taken with Instagram)