The annual report cover for the Society of the Sacred Heart began with an amaryllis watercolor painting by Sister Donna Dolan. “We are struck by her amaryllis surrounded in darkness. Image-wise and symbolically, it just feels right for the cover. Donna is working on getting us a high-resolution image, but this is what we’d like…
My expertise is graphic design. I am not a writer. But, I know when a sentence is not a sentence. Case in point: A CEO rewrote the text in his brochure. This CEO is not my direct client; my contact is a project manager who handles the creative jobs for the CEO’s company. [Let’s call…
Brand Challenge: Hatching an Ad Series Motivated by it excellent personal service, the Berg-Salus Wealth Management Group decided to distinguish its wealth advisor group from the larger financial institution of which it was a part. Because “people buy from people whom they know and trust,” investors were not choosing the larger brand when they were…
Let’s say you own a start-up company and want to build your business identity. Where do you start? What should you do first? Nehmen-Kodner’s client, Reed Therapeutics, came to us with those questions. Here’s how we helped them, one step at a time. 1. First, prior to the design process, we discussed the company: products,…
Home Works! requested a brochure update. My client, Karen, rewrote the text and sent a new Word document. The assignment was to replace all the copy. While we were discussing the project on the phone, I asked Karen if she had new sponsor logos. “Uh oh,” she answered. “I forgot to do that! I’ll send…
The First Challenge: Choosing a Name Creating a new brand identity for two St. Louis legacy congregations that were merging into one is no easy task. After more than a century, members of each congregation had become identified with their name, image, building, and even seat location. The two congregations, Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel and…
Situation: Mike originally came to us for help in updating his flyer and marketing materials, but our conversation took another path. Mike wanted to know how to reach a larger audience. “What should I do?” he asked. The answer was social media, but that is a complex issue. Solution: I wrote a guide to online…
One day, our client Bob called and said, “I’ve got an idea for my company.” Bob’s idea was to rebrand his company, with a mascot, Mr. Happy Crack. The tag line would be “A dry crack is a happy crack.” (It’s true!) His company, The Crack Team, specialized in fixing cracks and leaks in concrete,…
One of our clients engaged us to design a table runner and tabletop display for an upcoming health fair expo. The client provided the logo file and graphic standards that identified the corporate palette. I used the colors shown in the graphic standards in my layout. On screen, the colors looked great, but a computer…
Postcard design | direct mail Memory Care Home Solutions (MCHS) is an organization that helps families caring for loved ones with memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease. This is a wonderful group of people to work with. When I completed my first project, Memory Care Guidebook, I happened to receive an MCHS marketing postcard in…