Hello loyal fan base! I haven’t been posting much lately, sorry about that. Been busy doing client work, I’m sure you understand. I wanted to share with you the latest and greatest website project from the BeeHive. Brown & Szaller, a nationally recognized law firm based here in Lakewood, Ohio was in need of a website update. The BeeHive worked with Brown & Szaller on developing and updating their site to a more current and user-friendly web presence. Site officially launched last week, and we are all very pleased with it! Visit the site to for the full experience.

Ok, back to work….!

Well, 2010 is off to a great start. One of the many projects that has been keeping the BeeHive a-buzz is a tradeshow display for STERIS corporation for a trade show in NYC. This year’s display included a flash component, a new feature this year. We completed 3 separate animations, as well as incorporating them with the overall design and concept of the display. What a great project and opportunity to be a part of, as well as a fantastic group of folks to work with at STERIS. Great collaboration!

Every now and again and opportunity comes up where I get reacquainted with my old friends, pen and paper. I usually sketch ideas out, but you never see those, only the finished product. This time around I was lucky enough to work on a series of marketing materials through COSE for the Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute, which is Cleveland’s award-winning business training course for literary, media, performing and visual artists. So I thought, hey, what better way to advertise that than with an illustration to really drive home that “art” vibe. I started out sketching the old-fashioned way, then brought it into illustrator where I noodled and doodled. I’m showing here the original black + white art (below), and also with color added, which is how it appeared on the postcard, poster and ads.

It’s that time again! Time for the AIGA Annual Student Portfolio Review! This year I thought it would be fun to do an ‘old west’ theme for the poster. I originally started with a ‘show-down’ concept, but along the way it morphed into a wanted poster, which I believe came together nicely. I had a lot of fun with this project….mostly because I was hearing the old west shoot-out music in my head as I was designing, and occasionally saying “paard-ner” to myself.

India Home Fashions, a home accessory company based in Cleveland Heights, was looking to revamp their existing product catalog. Impel Creative saw this as a great opportunity, and collaborated with the BeeHive for creative and technical assistance. Also, of course, to ensure we could turn around a work-load this size in a timely and efficient fashion to meet the expected deadline. Together we designed the 80 page catalog which includes full-color photography, organization of new and existing products, and categorizing them by collection names and also items. All of their products and information was arranged to be presented in an attractive and clear manner to appeal to their wide-base of customers (including easy to use order forms!). All in all, it was about an 8 week project, with a happy client and great printed piece in the end. What a great opportunity to be involved in a project like this! Already looking forward to 2011!

COSE is revamping their event calendar for 2010. Their idea was to present their events and activities with more of a “curriculum” approach so that the members could easily decipher the level of events they are choosing to attend. Event content ranges from beginner (101) to advanced (301).

Immediately, I wanted to expound on the curriculum idea with the theme of continuing education, without appearing too juvenile. The approach also needed to be clean, clear and concise, given the amount of info inside. The content is divided up into categories by subject area, and then also by “course level” indicated by numbers. Additionally, the networking and other re-occuring events needed to be included but read as separate information, so that it wasn’t confused with the educational events.

Just got some great news! The Ohio Pipeline just received an award from the Cleveland Chapter of Public Relations Society of America! The BeeHive collaborates with the internal communications of Dominion East Ohio to design a quarterly newsletter for internal distribution. Go team!

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Connect Today
Ohio Newsletter Rocks, Has Award to Prove It
(Dec 14, 2009)

Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and now Dominion East Ohio’s Ohio Pipeline  publication can claim rock-star status after receiving a Cleveland Rocks Award from the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The quarterly employee newsletter received a silver award in the internal communications category. The awards competition honors the best in marketing and public relations in Northeast Ohio. Nearly 75 of 134 entries were recognized at the awards luncheon.

“We’re especially proud of this award and our internal communications team,” said Tracy Oliver, director-Ohio Media Relations. “Dominion was one of only a few companies to win an award, with most of the winning entries being produced by advertising agencies or public relations firms.”

Here’s a quick pic of a banner I just finished for Citizen Groove, sent to me by John Knific (on left). They are just getting started in launching their website and business, and they needed a banner for an upcoming tradeshow. Luckily, I was there to save the day. These guys were great to work with, and I wish them the best of luck in their venture!

The logo I recently designed for The Unique Bird and applied it to fabric merchandise tags. Love it!