The client is a family-owned commercial tent and event rental supply company that needed to polish its brand image in order to regain its market share. Among the many brand communications improvements needed were the company website, stationery, forms, signage, vehicle graphics, and staff apparel. The project lasted approximately 10 months, and was part of a larger reinvestment campaign to increase the brand's awareness and competitive edge.
The client's existing logo had significant meaning to the brand's leadership and the new logo needed to pay homage to that design while gently modernizing and simplifying the mark. After about four tries, this was the approved design for the identity update.
The website overhaul was the first major phase of the rebranding project. I worked closely with the client to design the homepage mock-up, which included the content and order of both the top and bottom navigation, using image "tiles" to help visitors find what they need quickly, and all graphic assets.
I specified the images and wrote the corresponding copy for the image slider that greets visitors above the fold on the home page. I then worked as a liaison between the client and a team of developers to produce the final site.
Since the client's company is a multi-generational family-owned business, the current owner and CEO felt that it was important to showcase the brand's history in a unique and interesting way. We decided that a graphical timeline would be more interesting than paragraphs of copy. I used Illustrator to draw a vector image of one of the brand's custom wooden tent poles to represent the timeline. We added a few significant links along the timeline and I created images that were historically accurate for each link. I even tracked down an actual ad from the 1978 Cleveland East Yellow Pages® directory to use for that year. This was a fun project and the client was very happy with the results.
Special thanks to: The Cleveland Public Library for their assistance with finding the actual archived Yellow Pages® ad.
The new brand identity was applied to every visual communication channel, including the company's Outlook email signatures.
Business cards for the sales team.
I really enjoy designing for advertising; particularly print advertising. This piece was a half-page ad, and the first ad since the re-branding campaign began. I had complete creative control for the ad, from concept to completion. I believed that the client's work spoke for itself and that an endorsement from an event industry colleague would provide the most persuasive message for the client's prospective audience, so I reached out to Ms. Jokilehto-Schigel, owner of Shi Shi Events to ask for an endorsement from her that would work like a word-of-mouth referral. She was happy to oblige and the resulting ad turned out beautifully.
Special thanks to: Gina Jokilehto-Schigel, owner of Shi Shi Events, for her contribution, and David Corey Photography for the stunning image.
Photo rendering concept of new vehicle graphics for the brand's delivery fleet.