We started with the basics like “What is Social Media” and expanded to “How to develop your campaign” and finished up with “How to talk to your audience” and tools for measurement of your campaign.

Rather than keep it all to ourselves (and the rest of the conference attendees), we thought we’d share it with you…after all, it’s the social thing to do! So here’s our presentation: “Build a larger audience with social media in the mix”

The session was well received at the conference, but we’d like to hear from you. Leave us any questions you have about social media or the presentation in the comments section.

Identity: Bold and Playful

How do you create a new brand when the old brand is based on a childhood toy that the client loves?

To keep a personal approach (while creating a bold and recognizable identity), we created a silhouette of the iconic sewing machine toy and added a knitting needle to the baseline to promote her two areas of expertise. The rounded font is easy to read and playful, too.

Caro even liked out alts and went with the circle version for her store and (possible) future product logos.

Website Design: Fun and Informative

To reveal her new identity, Caro also wanted a website re-design. Originally, she just has a simple TypePad powered template that featured little customization. The new site was to be a CMS website where she could post thoughts, tutorials, showcase her products and interact with friends and clients. Our overall goal with the design was showcase a wide range of content on the home page without overwhelming a visitor.

To enable a more robust set of features, the new site is built in WordPress. (See our previous post about why we love WP.) We approached the design by utilizing a ‘magazine-style’ template called Arthemia.

This magazine style layout displays a main article with thumbnails for latest news, a small side bar with the latest product info, blurbs of the latest posts, category browsing, ad space, Social Media integration with Twitter and a widget-ready area for RSS feeds. The main Splityarn site linkes to her store, RSS feeds, info about Splityarn, and her full photo gallery from Flickr. (She’s an avid photographer.)

Store Design: Powered by Big Cartel

Splityarn uses BigCartel to power online shoping. This is our first time using BigCartel and we love it – you can create you own store, upload product photos and text, set discount codes, add sale and clearance items, manage inventory and you can customize one of their templates or design your own using their API. They help integrate with Paypal to process your order payments too.

Thanks, Caro. We can’t wait to watch your brand gain even more momentum.

It was a fun and relaxed presentation, and we found the Capital Factory participants to be full of courage, energy and good ideas. These folks are hungry and ready to make a difference.

Here’s the presentation for your review:

Please check out The Capital Factory start ups – you’ll soon be hearing more from these folks:

Cubit Planning
Sparefoot
Hourville
PetsMD

The Killjoy Team
World Bicycle Relief
The Dirt Derby
The Bonebell (new site design coming soon)

So when Kevin Heppner asked if we could help design new logos for our favorite team (Joe’s a member), we jumped. Kevin made the new logo a center piece and pulled a 180º from previous designs with a clean kit that’s sure to stand out at the front of the field filled with overdone design and high sponsor counts.

Front and back, yellow and black – and a Stalelife logo that adds a splash of color in a subtle place.

The horizontal logotype is highly visible on a racer's thighs - perfect for the Chicago Cross Cup courses this team will dominate.

Look around Chicago and Austin, you’re sure to see this kit on the dirt and on the streets this year.

In fact, when you design online your first goal is to consider how users might come through your site. What do we want them to do first? Is there something they need to know right away? After all, if consumers are only going to read around 20% of your content, you want to give them the most important information right away.

That’s exactly what we did with BizQuest.com. We simplified their busy page and developed appropriate action-driven content to make it easier for people to complete key tasks. Our design pushes the eye in the right spot (dark blue for the most popular action), and the new header is more pleasant to the eye with a more intuitive taxonomy. Speaking of smart, the buttons that require action are all the same color, we removed the over-use of blue and, lastly, we chose fonts and weights that allow for critical spatial relations.

Success on this project was measured on conversion, and we’re on the upside. While we can’t divulge exact figures, the owner has expressed his pleasure.

New design:

Old design:

If you’re looking to buy or sell a business, please consider our partners, BizQuest. Great people to do business with (and the extra sales will always help prove our viable design even more).

Well that’s Adomatica, a staple in the Austin (and national ad scene). He’s never ripped us before, but I felt obliged to stand up for our fellow ad men and women and give him a bit of the business.

Or he’s a good friend and super-smart online marketer who writes a snarky and helpful blog in his spare time. Grab the Adomatica RSS feed, it’s worth your attention. Unlike the GSD&M / McGarrah Jesse Austin Addy Awards.

Special image thanks to The Foto Booth – a great group to hire for your events.

Clients, friends and cohorts – thank you for making ’08 great. We have the feeling that ’09 will be super fine.

So we created this video just for you:

So why not make ‘em dig deep?

You give $10, they give $10. You send a whole bike ($134 – seriously, isn’t that insane?), the angel gives one, too. That can really add up with all our friends, and the donations will help healthcare workers travel farther, and allow families to carry food and water and more.

If you’re feeling giving this holiday season, go to this site and donate today . They make nice gifts, too.

P.S. – We designed this campaign. Show a little love for the crew.

Tired of the same old Holiday station that plays the same Kenny G, Celine Dion and those other songs that make you want to throw the radio out a window? You know, the ones with the same song rotation since Halloween. (I’m looking at you 93.9 The Lite!).

Well we have the cure for the holiday blues…the WOXY.com Holiday Mixer. WOXY is the official radio station of Stalelife, Inc. (we are big supporters of the Cincinnati station) and the holiday mixer puts us in a great mood. It’s the perfect blend of old classics like The Waitresses (Christmas Wrapping) and Run-DMC (Christmas in Hollis), cult gems like Bob & Doug McKenzie (12 Days of Christmas) and new independent artists like (Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time!) and The Raveonettes (The Christmas Song).

And if you want to take some of this wonderful music home, WOXY has partnered with the music blog Hard To Find A Friend to bring you the holiday compilation Peace On Eatrth: Vol 2 that benefits the Children Of Uganda Fund.

So visit our friends at The Future of Rock n Roll, give them a listen and stop by their store to pick up some holiday gifts and help support the children and one kick-ass music station.

Happy listening!

^ Click image to enlarge ^

There were some subtle modifications to the original – for instance the zippo/camera was removed and the cascading line elements now resemble actual film, but overall the initial creative remains intact.

If you’re a fan of independent film, be sure to get your tickets right away – the BIG show is next Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. All profits will help fund next year’s awards.

Healthcare workers?

Yes, especially in places where people walk everywhere they go. Like in Africa, it’s nothing for the people of Zambia to trudge for hours to get water or to school. But if you give a person a bike, it takes four times less to commute. So people can do more for themselves and each other. And that’s where our favorite charity comes in.

World Bicycle Relief provides sustainable transportation to those who need it most. Here, watch this quick video from The Today Show that shows the power of bicycles in action:

World Bicycle Relief was founded by members of SRAM Corporation, a local Chicago company that leads the cycling componentry industry. It’s a great project to be a part of, so consider signing up for updates to help them out.