Pool Creative » marketing

DURANGO HIGH SCHOOL SLC PROGRAM

kris — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:06:38 +0000

What a great way to kick off the new year. I just received the SLC brochures off the press and couldn’t wait to share. Durango High School is changing things up, and starting next year will offer a community of Small Learning Communities- where each student can pick the learning style that suits them best. I wish this was an option for me. Needless to say, I’m excited about what it means for the school and am very pleased with the publication I helped them put together. It’s designed to make the process of choosing an SLC a little easier. Each school gets its own spread complete with a matrix that helps you see all the stats at once.

You can view the entire book by clicking on the pdf link below.

SLC Book pdf

HERMOSA CREEK LOUNGE WEAR

kris — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:22:47 +0000

I’ve recently finished design of the first edition web site for Hermosa Creek – Affordable Luxury Lounge Wear. The line represents beautiful feeling basics, in clean silhouettes for the contemporary woman. I wanted the site as well as all the collateral to reflect this feeling. Simplicity, sophisticated and comfortable. At this stage they are not selling from the site, but using it as a marketing piece to show the line to buyers.

My role— I work with the designer Christina Erteszek developing and designing her communications pieces, art directing photo shoots for print and web, and most recently in color consultation for the line. The web programmer for this site is William Glenn.

APPLE DID IT, AND PEOPLE GOT IT

kris — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:38:12 +0000

What Steve Jobs had taught me. There has been a lot of that passing around the net lately and most of it you read and shake your head in agreement. Steve Jobs got it. He built to the highest standard he could and raised the bar for quality design. You don’t hear anyone complaining that Macs are beautiful to look at, or sleek, or just really amazing. You might flinch at the price, but what you are getting feels worth every penny. Jobs got it and never let go of that standard. He didn’t cut corners, he just innovated and improved. He probably dreamed about his work. For him, it was about feeling great about what he did.

So what does this have to do with you? If you are seeking to build your business, improve or alter your messaging or just getting started— you are going to need strong and innovative marketing and creative thinking in your tool kit. But here’s the rub. There is no measuring stick for creativity. There is no hourly rate put on the design process. It would be virtually impossible to clock in and out every time I thought about a client as once I’m on the job, I think about your product or service all the time. A creative person is inspired by everything and often will find applications for it to a client’s marketing or design. Let them do it and you will be more than pleased with what that creativity can do for your bottom line. Apple is a shiny example of that. Their marketing is brilliant. Their packaging is dead on. It feels like Christmas when you buy anything from Apple.

So the message here is this. Innovative design and marketing can and does improve your bottom line. Period. Stop concerning yourself over how much time it took to develop a logo or brand system, and start asking yourself does this design do what I need it to do? Is it helping my image or telling my message? Is it speaking to the right audience? If your answer is no, then you need to find yourself an inspired creative who can help you with this and let them. It will be worth it.

HANGING AROUND

kris — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:49:51 +0000

I’ve just finished my first “animation.” It was a project I started with Cara a few years ago and got side lined. I kept meaning to revisit it, but you know how it goes. So the other day, my friend Jack at the Durango Chamber told me to consider finishing it and entering it into the Chamber Video contest. What the hec? So I did. The Look Local First campaign sends a good message in a nice way. No begging or preaching. Just a, “Hey, next time you’re shopping look local first. If you don’t find what you need, then that’s fine.” The animation’s goal: to give you a brief run down of what happens to our dollars and why it’s a good idea to try to keep them flowing in your county.

The Wonder of the Magic Mouse

cara — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:52:53 +0000

It was like walking into a candy store for Apple Junkies! The bright lights, the high energy and all the newest gadgets to enhance my designing pleasure. Just before we were about to depart to devour some California Pizza Kitchen, my eyes fell upon the glorious Magic Mouse! Lo & Behold! The splendor of a sleek and seamless wireless mouse that works on virtually any surface. It responds to my touch to scroll horizontally, vertically and diagonally in any direction without the problematic scrolly ball. All this in one tiny hyper-responsive little device that fits so perfectly under the palm of my hand thanks to the technology of Blue Tooth and the Multi-Touch innovation of the iTouch. It’s the world’s first multi-touch mouse and Pool is the proud owner of 2 of them to make life that much more efficient.

RUSSELL ENGINEERING WEB SITE DESIGN

kris — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:31:23 +0000

For a designer to walk into an engineering firm and experience serious space envy is ironic at best, but there you have it. When I first met Joan Russell at Russell Engineering headquarters I couldn’t keep my eyes off the great art (mostly hers), fantastic and cleverly upholstered pieces, the rammed earth wall and I could go on. Actually, I could live there. This is every bit the creative team, in both their work and their cool digs. So the challenge was to evolve their brand into a statement that walked the line between the precise lines of an engineer and the organic nature of their philosophy. Their new web site is live now and ready for showing. We developed this site in cahoots with Aaron Heirtzler of Aaron Heirtzler Creative and he did a fantastic job of bringing structure and order to a large amount of content in a fluid and clean manner. Check it out.

russellpe.com

MARKETING IN A RECESSION

kris — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:28:53 +0000

Historically speaking, during times of recession, businesses that stay strong and don’t disappear from sight will pull through. Great, but how do we pay for our continued marketing efforts? Where does the money come from? I get the idea, but implementing is another beast. Here’s my take on all of this. I agree, stay out there and don’t climb in a cave and hope it all goes away soon. That’s counter-productive. You need to keep moving forward. But, pull it back some. Define your budget more carefully and use the time to analyze whether or not a particular marketing strategy is working for you. Now is the perfect time to get creative in your methods and take a few risks with some new thinking. You might even say, now is a good time to be a little more bold than you have traditionally been. Bold might get noticed more.

O.K. But how do we do that?

Start with some careful scrutiny of what you have done. Break it down into all the traditional methods: print ads, direct mail, advertising, radio, TV and all the other pieces. Make a list of pros and cons for each. How do you know if its working or not? Do you get feedback from customers? Is it an expensive form of media? Can we achieve similar results with another approach? Can we get very specific about the center of our target audience? Can we reach those people another way? Are we offering a service or product that gets noticed? Stands apart from the competitor? Can we do better? Ask yourself these questions, and put some careful thought into it. Maybe some pattern will show up. Maybe some weak areas will present themselves. Maybe some serious over spending will suddenly be clear. Think about your assets and what your customer enjoys about you. And push that thinking further.

I prefer to be optimistic. I truly think this will turn around, but realistically it will take a bit of time. In the mean time, we’re all in this together. We can keep our businesses above water and make it through the backside. We’d like to help you however we can, no matter what your budget. And maybe, you’ll find that your marketing is better and stronger than before.