New DirtDivas.net Live!

I am proud to have been a part of the great new site for the Dirt Divas, Charlotte’s only women’s mountain biking club, which went live today!

Ben Wilson of Wilson+Taylor called me into help with the background and banner graphics, and I wound up with the privilege of designing their new logo and team jersey (still to come).

Check it out – loads of great info on trails in the Charlotte area!

new DirtDivas website

Anne Neilson in “Today’s Charlotte Woman”

I’m happy to share the latest great press for my great client, Anne Neilson.

Artist Anne H Neilson featured in Sept Arts Issue of "Today's Charlotte Woman"

Old School, New Cards

There is a wonderful, old sign outside the wonderful, old school – carved in wood, likely by hand, featuring this lovely illustration.  The colors, paper choices and rest of the design attempts to reflect the hip, progressive personality of this preschool community, but the sweet, old artwork is the star here.  So the credit belongs with the generations of cool, artistic families that have hung out on this playground before me.

Plaza Presbyterian Weekday School Business Cards

Art Newsletters

Art Clients, and Subscribers and Designer alike are loving the flurry of new email newsletters we are generating. It is such an easy, inexpensive way for an artist or gallery to share their latest works with their collectors.

A few of the latest:

• Anne Neilson Fine Art -  August 2009 – July 2009 – Subscribe

• The Linville Gallery – August 2009 – Archive – Subscribe

• Sophia’s Gallery – August 2009 – Subscribe

For the record, I love  MailChimp for beautiful, easy, affordable emails!

Quick… a logo and a business card in 24 hrs!

Sometimes new companies don’t have all of the time we marketing people like to allocate to a thorough branding process.  More often than not, entrepreneurs get an idea and a business opportunity and they (and I) work fast to crank out some marketing materials to present themselves in the most professional way possible as quickly as possible.   And so it went Friday afternoon.   And today (3 business days later – would have been 2 if it weren’t for the holiday weekend), our friend Alan picked up his and his partners’ new business cards, still hot from the Fedex truck, and  headed directly to his meeting with a new prospect.

Morris and Moffitt, Inc. Business Card

Grocery Cart Ads for Blackhawk Hardware

The lovely Colleen Taylor and Ben Wilson of  Wilson + Taylor called upon me last week to help with a couple of ads for Blackhawk Hardware –  my maiden voyage in designing for a shopping cart!

These ads will be displayed on the carts of the Harris Teeter at Park Road Shopping Center, where the amazing Blackhawk Hardware is also located.   This store has an incredible reputation for style, selection and service and our ads managed to reflect its upscale, high-style personality.  The ads feature photographs by Ben (styled by Colleen).

Blackhawk’s owner, Jim Wilkerson, loved the ad so much he decided to extend the ad campaign to all of the shopping carts in his own store.  He came up with an idea of how to custom-build frames for his own carts.

Grocery Cart Ad for Blackhawk Hardware

More great press in American Art Collector

The July issue of American Art Collector magazine came out today and featured a story about Anne Neilson in the SOLD! section. We are getting such a great response from AAC readers to Anne’s Angel Series!

Coverage for Anne Neilson's Angel Series in American Art Collector

Wonderworld Website Live!

I am excited to announce the recently launched website for Wonderworld Film + Video.  This was a fun, challenging project with a great team!  Colleen Taylor and I worked with Dorne and Ivi on  initial concepting, planning and research.   I handled the graphic design, but Colleen and her partner Ben Wilson were responsible for the rest of the masterminding, programming, and implementation.   Ben programmed the site to include an interface that allows the folks at Wonderworld to upload new videos and update the site themselves.   Good stuff!

New Site for Wonderworld Film + Video

Thanks also to the very wise Kirk Fannelly and Joey Richey for their consultations.

Art Open House at Dilworth Artisan Station

Lots of talented artists, including several of my lovely clients. Check it out!

Studio Open House: See the work and spaces of 18 artists and designers: Friday, June 12. Check it out!

Marketing Local Food: Branding a Farmers Market and a Farmer

It’s almost Farmer’s Market season — we’re all signed up for our CSA share and ready to start seeing those greens!

Charlotte has a growing local food movement and at its center is the Charlotte Tailgate Farmers Market.  In 2007, Colleen Taylor and I worked with Market Manager Lynn Caldwell and founding farmer Sara Fennell to create some branding for the new and growing market, then in its second season.

Tailgate Market: Bus Card: Front

Tailgate Market: Bus Card: Back

On a tight budget, The Tailgate’s marketing efforts were limited to business cards, posters and a few ads in Creative Loafing … that and some serious grassroots efforts from Caldwell, the farmers, and their customers.   Caldwell sent regular emails to neighborhood lists, wrote blog entries, and attended Slow Food events, including a dinner with the legendary Alice Waters (whom was quite impressed with our business cards, I might add!).

Since then, The Tailgate has moved to a new, bigger location in Southend and has ditched the radish artwork for a sunflower illustration.  Plaza Midwood misses our market but I still make a weekly trek to get my veggies — just can’t do it on foot any longer.  We look forward to bounty of the 2009 season.

Tailgate Market: Poster

Tailgate Market: Creative Loafing Ad

As for the aforementioned Sara Fennell, in 2008 the established urban farmer and native Charlottean moved her family to Galax, VA, to start Groundswell Farm, a FOR REAL-farmy-farm (acres and tractors and all).   I was honored to help her with her branding.

We needed to reflect Sara’s folksy-yet-hip, unpretentious personality and communicate the quality of her product — a little tricky since farmers aren’t allowed to call their organically-grown vegetables “Organic” unless their certified.   Working from one of Sara’s quick sketches from a brainstorming meeting (my girl could moonlight as an illustrator, right?), we created a logo that made it clear what her farm was producing and infused some of her personal style.

The business card was printed with rounded corners, as was a postcard produced to keep in touch with her Charlotte customers and growing list of Galax patrons.  Sara now manages the Galax Farmers Market and Groundswell is going strong.

Groundswell Farm: Business Card

Groundswell Farm: Postcard: front

Groundswell Farm: Postcard: back