“Look Like You Mean Business.”
This tagline refers to what I do for firms I work with:
Represent your firm as a competitor of the same caliber as the best in your business.
Because, until or unless you prove otherwise, you ARE the best in your business.
Here, we’re starting with a quick look at a variety in each category: ads, logos, photos & illustrations, and design for entertainment.
Then, a quick look at the “why’s” and “how’s” of a couple of projects, and a look at my involvement.
(*Samples enlarge when clicked, and they can be viewed as by using the arrows on either side of the screen.)
TONY: LOGO DESIGN | BRAND IDENTITY (FONTS, COLORS, VISUAL BRAND VOICE) | PHOTO ART DIRECTION | PRODUCTION DESIGN (PAGE LAYOUT, FILE PRODUCTION, VENDOR OVERSIGHT) | MOCKUPS | RETOUCHING | FINAL DIGITAL FILES | COPY
Public Sector Brand Identity Design:
Philadelphia City Council
Tony
New staff Graphic Designer & Art Director on the President’s staff at Philadelphia City Council. Working in a building so historic that we would run into paid TOURS while running down to another office!
Job Description
Establish a separate visual Brand for Council in a government that, like most, the actual citizens think the Mayor is in charge of everything. Simply put, a visual separation of branches. Council=Legislative, Mayor=Executive
The Task
New Council logo, new website elements, design for “intranet”, a website for access to PDFs of rules and procedures and news (we went with CouncilNet).
Solution:
The appointment led to designing everything from a new logo for Council, to donation containers for branch offices, Logos for individual Council members, billboards, digital.
Also, an entire brand campaign explaining how Council is responsible for most of the progress they see in their city.
“Mr. Buford is a talented graphic artist and art director that I have worked with over my terms as an elected official in the City of Philadelphia.”
Philadelphia City Council
TONY: BRAND IDENTITY. | AD DESIGN. | CONCEPT | PRODUCTION DESIGN | RETOUCHING | FINAL DIGITAL FILES | COPY/TAGLINE
Learning “improv” art direction on the spot,
a quick Case Study of an ad:
EP Henry Corporation
Need
As Art Director at EP Henry Corp.—where I designed dozens of ads to cover our regional design magazines, trade shows, web sites, and the trades—we loved an installation (we made paving stones, a dramatic upgrade to concrete sidewalks and driveways) that was done in a location near our headquarters office and brought to our attention by an installer of our product, so we set up the date for the shoot.
I had designed an ad that could be modular with different family images dropped in (sure, women ride motorcycles!), and would make our paving stone products more personal than just more “real estate” shots, as they had been in the past.
Next Steps
I designed the ad with space for a personal family inset image to change the trajectory of the “brand promise.” (prior to these ads, our campaigns were basically pictures of people’s yards, driveways, and pools…without people, pets, clutter, or anything else that brought the ads “down to earth”.)
Went out to direct the photo shoot: perfect day, clear blue sky (the sky color isn’t retouched, although the blue sky reflections on the 2nd floor windows are).
Scaffolding and camera platform set up in the street, kids galore wondering what’s up.
After setup and “digital polaroids”, we were ready.
The Wrench in the Works
So…right then, in rode our smart aleck (and great) VP of Sales & Marketing, on his motorcycle.
Parked it right in the middle of the perfectly-clean driveway shot, with the question, “Hey, you guys taking pictures here, or sumthin’?” Funny guy.
The crew and photographer looked panicked.
The Solution
I took a look, and realized that his 1500 cc Suzuki motorcycle is probably exactly what would be in the garage of this suburban home with the unique driveway. Probably good he wasn’t riding a Harley.
“Polish the chrome, and let’s shoot it.” Seemed like a good thing to say at the time.
After looking at the final shots, the “Dad” version is the one I chose to run in all the regional magazines on our usual list in the Mid-Atlantic region. The “Mom & Daughter” design came later, but never ran.
The Outcome
The ad ran in multiple regional publications, and the “personalization” change in our campaigns was noticed, and had people thinking about their personal connection with the product, not just the old version of “processing customers”, as I call it.
Sales warmed to the direction, clients warmed to sales, and plenty was learned by all.