We were so excited to celebrate with our longtime clients and friends at Paradise Arabians. This year at the Lexington Egyptian Event, Paradise made history for themselves, and we were proud to be a part of it! They brought home 10 CHAMPIONSHIPS, 5 Reserve Championships, and 10 Top Ten ribbons, all while celebrating a record sales year! Read more about their victories here.

We were also excited to double their web traffic by providing daily show updates on their website for clients and friends. Congrats to everyone at Paradise!

We were very excited to be brought on by the team at Wilmore-based Cre8tive Group to produce an four-video high definition kiosk presentation for Lexmark International. The series, “Lexmark at Work” demonstrated their products, and how printing less can save money as well as the environment. 

If you’re looking for dynamic, pro-sports-feel photography for your student athlete, look no further than Triple Play Productions! Triple Play approached us needing a site that made portfolio and content updates simple in-house, and also showed off their wide range of photography and graphic design services. Built using a content management system, the Triple Play team can easily make changes to their site directly within their web browser with no software or HTML experience necessary!

If you’re looking for a tropical getaway, you won’t have to travel very far. Apparel just launched South Carolina-based Egyptian Arabian horse breeder, Paradise Cay Arabians’ website. We were very excited to work with Bill and Cheryl Corcoran Paradise Cay, and our only regret is that work on their site made us want to retreat to the islands WAY too much! Congrats, Bill and Cheryl!

Washington, D.C. based Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, CCCU, is teaming with Apparel Studios to promote their 2010 Forum on Christian Higher Education. The Council features more than 100 educational programs across the globe including studies in Sydney, Australia, Oxford, England and the Los Angeles Film Studies Center to name a few. For more information on the forum, please visit the CCCU website.

We’re hypocrites. We tell our clients that they have to make frequent updates to their site, and we beg and we nag, and yet we don’t make updates to our own site. Well, we finally did!

Welcome to our new website. During the last several months, we’ve begun to restructure, dream, brainstorm and grow in order to better serve our clients. Our website now better reflects our purpose, our goals and our commitment to you–or clients.

A few key things that we’ve identified as being our top strengths, and core services that set us apart from other firms, large and small:

• We’re dedicated to our clients. We’ve formed strong, deep relationships with our clients, and we care about their success, long after our project for them is complete. We believe the only clients are lifelong clients. 
• We’re about strategy, not projects. Our growth over the last few years has shown us that simply creating beautiful work is ineffective without a larger marketing strategy. That’s the chief reason why we think it’s important that we’re an ad agency, not just a production company.
• We’re small: intentionally. We offer a lot of services in-house, but are able to keep costs low by only hiring an essential creative and executive team. By working with a network of dedicated freelancers, we ensure a lower-cost product, and work performed by the absolute best in the market.

We were extremely excited to get the chance to partner with UK-based Lumenware to produce a comprehensive marketing package for one of their emerging products, Axis Technology. We were most excited because in the early phases, we were required to sign a waiver to not discuss the technology or its details. It was sort of like working with the CIA.

We began by producing a comprehensive graphic identity/logo/stationary set, then developing their website, and producing a to introduce how the technology works.

Take a look at Axis Technology’s site, and be sure to meet Security and Mobility.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the all new Arabians Ltd. site! Based in Waco, TX, Arabians Ltd. is the premier breeder of straight Egyptian Arabian horses. They’ve built their business on educating newcomers to the industry on the financial advantage and personal joys of owning their legendary bloodstock. Arabians Ltd. owns the leading stallion of the breed, Thee Desperado, who has produced more champions than any other.

Because of their commitment to newcomers, the site had to be developed to target everyone from industry professionals to newcomers. We wanted the site to feature stunning, rich photography and warm, vibrant colors.

Not long ago, we were asked to photograph the creative team of Omaha-based Word Made Flesh. Initially we planned to take digital photos, but upon arrival, realized WMF’s earthy, vintage, “modern antique” look lent itself to a much different style. Fortunately, during that trip we discovered Holga. This amazing gem of a camera shoots medium-format film, but the entire camera, including the lens is made of cheap plastic. It feels cheap. It looks cheap. And fortunately we were able to pick one up at the local Urban Outfitters–also cheap.

So, we went ahead and shot the photos digitally first, but we were much more pleased with how these turned out. (With a lot of Photoshop work…)

Oh, and one of Cheddar, our office dog. I was really intrigued at how something intentionally poorly-crafted (compared to standard optics) can produce such uniquely random, original art. So often in design (especially a few years ago) the trend to create the rugged and rough was so hard to do from scratch. When you TRY to do it, it’s increasingly more difficult than a device that can so beautifully do it for you. There’s probably a life lesson to be learned here.

Not long after we launched New Horizon’s site, they began implementing it exactly as we had envisioned–as an active online community. Since New Horizons has a very active calendar (classes, training, diving trips, etc.) their clients and students were really looking to the web for more information about class schedules, equipment, trip costs, etc. We built the site with these components, but also were hoping it would be used to showcase photos, stories and interaction from trips around the country. New Horizons immediately began posting trip updates, news stories, etc.–and the results were impressive.

Their contacts, of course, were interested in the stories, photos and trip updates, but they began sending to their friends, relatives and beyond. Rather than simply reading the content, this newly-established community began commenting, talking about trips, and encouraging further interaction.

This is just one example of how building a dynamic community of users can directly influence sales and constituent-base. Be sure to check out New Horizons online–we’re sure you’ll enjoy the amazing photos!