Grand Slam baseball promotion

To reinforce the timing of baseball season and announce the four year sales accomplishment for Jackson National Life Insurance Company Variable Annuities, I developed the Grand Slam name, concept and direct mail promotion. This set of four over-sized baseball cards, including bubble gum and foil packaging, included cards that were coated on the front and uncoated on the back to look and feel authentic. As part of the campaign, an imprinted baseball and bat pen were given away as promotional items. Little did we know that the Colorado Rockies were going to the World Series when the promotion was produced.

My work included:
> Concept & naming
> Illustration
> Design (logo, baseball cards & packaging)
> Production
> Vendor coordination

> Writing

 

Landscapes for Living & Learning direct mail

As part of ongoing brand integration for Landscapes for Living & Learning, I developed this direct mail promotion. The piece had multiple objectives: introduce L3’s business & services and, educate and promote the new website. To make it more engaging and memorable, native flower seed packets (called “Seeds of Wisdom”) were included as give-aways, along with tips, education and resources for Xeriscape landscaping and native plantings. The look and feel complemented the identity I developed, focusing on the two aspects of this full-service design/build landscape architecture firm: living and learning. Color coding is used throughout all L3 deliverables: Living is always olive green and Learning is always red. My role included: concept, design, writing, production, print specs and management.

Other work for L3 included:

> Logo & stationery system

> Brochure & print ads

> Yard signage & tradeshow banner

> Website

 

Compaq/Oracle Webinar

This breakfast Webinar series promoted the partnership between Oracle and Compaq and was meant for employees. Meant to be viewed at home, this Webinar series occurred on two separate dates, in the morning, and included promotional items such as coffee, tea, a mug, a coffee cookbook and an Amazon gift certificate/bookmark. The main tag lines: “Concocting the ideal recipe for success” and “Wake up and smell a great partnership” were used throughout the campaign. My work on this campaign included: art direction, illustration, design and production for the packaging, invitations/announcements and promotional items.

 

Cyber Media Show direct mail

Upon receiving a six-page Word document from the client, along with the knowledge that they purchased a satellite clock promotional item, I was commissioned to create the brand identity for Westwind Media’s “Cyber Media Show” — an online talk radio show hosted by a well-known, outspoken female author and personality: Kim Bayne. This show was broadcast over the NPR satellite (hence the clock) at a time when streaming media was just coming onto the scene. For the logo, I chose a simple two-color design to emphasize Kim’s mouth and an online volume control slider — this epitomized her identity. The logo and color scheme were carried throughout the direct mail promotion that included the following: brochure, poster (digital illustration), packaging, promotional item and CD with sample program. It was also used as a sales kit, delivered in person. Both the logo and direct mail received Gold Awards at the Art Directors Club of Denver.

This direct mail promotion won a Gold award from the Art Directors Club of Denver.

 

Synergy Conference

The main brand message for this first annual seminar, hosted by GE Access and StorageTek, was to communicate the effect of the partnership between the two hosts and the resellers. The name Synergy and the tag line “Navigating the Storage Universe” was used as the year’s theme and to kick off the newly-created brand for this conference. For flexibility and freshness, the tag line and date were changed in future years. This allowed for new themes and designs. Star constellation maps and a compass promotional item were used throughout the campaign in a clean, three-color design.

My work included:

naming, concept, design, illustration, production and print & vendor management.

Campaign deliverables included:

naming, logo, tag line and identity, direct mail, invitations and announcements, signage, various collateral, PowerPoint template, CD and packaging.

 

Nupremis direct mail

As one of the many dot com companies that came and went in the late 90s, Nupremis (Boulder, Colorado) was a provider of broadband applications and online services. They needed to announce their presence with a direct mail promotion. Design for the promotion included: packaging, a brochure and a pack of Lifesavers as a promotional item. The whole life-saving theme was based on Nupremis’ brand message “simplify” in order to cut through the industry jargon and acronyms which seem like alphabet soup.

 

Power Breakfast promotion

Hosted by the partnership of Compaq and Siebel, the Power Breakfast seminar was hosted in two cities on two separate dates. To promote the event, I developed the tag lines “The most informative meal of the day” and “Knowledge is power” to drive the message of the breakfast seminar. A direct mail announcement was produced for the two cities, along with a leather coaster as a promotional item giveaway, to invite C-level execs to attend. Stock photography included visuals of a man thinking juxtaposed with abstract images of silverware (manipulated in Photoshop).

 

Clean Slate brochure

Designed with the same hand-crafted and unique focus of the Clean Slate brand, this brochure is flexible and portable to drop of in person or mail, and features a company bio on the front and a portfolio on the back. Special bindery, finishing and packaging were combined with heavy stock to make this brochure completely one-of-a-kind. It further reinforced Clean Slate’s brand identity of the logo and stationery system.

This brochure won Bronze and Silver awards from the Art Directors Club of Denver for design and writing and incorporates personal photography as well.

 

President’s Dinner invitation

The annual President’s Dinner at Fresno Pacific University always followed a theme. This particular year had a safari theme, with an attraction from the Fresno Zoo. I often take a literal approach as it is often the first thing that pops into my head (go with your gut they say). As I was brainstorming, I noticed the phonetic sound of the “s” in President was a “z” and that evolved into the safari theme and a zebra. I had taken some photographs at the San Diego Zoo and had the perfect shot for this direct mail invitation. I used a simple one color design, with the phonetic “s” running throughout the piece, and the zebra’s stripes for the background.

 

Homecoming invitation

The annual Homecoming event at Fresno Pacific University was always a big deal. For this direct mail invitation, I developed the concept around the writing of “Come on feet, get moving!” While the footprints were on the cover, the inside opened to reveal the shoeprints you might find at each homecoming event (concert, annual fun run and flag football). I then carried the theme over to the flag football t-shirt design, printed in white, on different color shirts for each team. The simple concept only needed one color and I created the footprints using feet/soles dipped in paint, then scanned each print.

 

Managing Conflict In Schools

This direct mail invitation was for the 2nd annual Summer Institute, hosted by the Professional Development Division at Fresno Pacific University. The year’s theme was Managing Conflict in Schools so I came up with the idea of conflict being represented by high contrast and aggressive colors. My simple, direct typographic approach, paired with my digital illustration of the double-ended pencil, represented the nature of conflict as two parties not working together.

 

Don’t Quit Your Day Job! direct mail

I created this direct mail piece for the Center for Degree Completion at Fresno Pacific University. The driving concept was to complete a degree at night so my thoughts revolved around the sharp colors and contrast of day and night, coupled with cubism style. My work on this project included concept, illustration and design.