Andorra Creative » brand development

Website Design and Development

ericdeal — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:02:33 +0000

Finished another site today. Transformation Clinics is a fitness spa and have some pretty cool services. Most all sites that we build have a lot of additional functions to help our clients. We use a Content Management System (CMS) that allows the client to make updates and can make posts to the news/promo/blog area. Our sites are also built with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to help the site gain ranking organically, rather than needing to pay for pay per click through sites like google. You can see the full site at, www.thefirmeryou.com.

Andorra making news

ericdeal — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:09:33 +0000

Andorra Creative was recently in the Springfield Business Journal for the DED Small business loan we applied for mid 2009, which purpose was focused on creating jobs and helping small businesses in Missouri. (http://www.ded.mo.gov/ded/loan.aspx) We were happy to hear about the loan approval late last year and went through several months of interviews to help staff for Andorra’s growth. This growth isn’t just to -be bigger- but to help us serve our clients better, and help speed up our process. As a business we were able to use this loan for many uses but felt it would help our clients more by using it to staff additional employees. Link to story http://sbj.net/main.asp?ArticleID=86887&SectionID=18&SubSectionID=23

We were also pleased to be listed as the 10th largest firm in the Springfield area, and expect to continue growing because we continue to put our clients first and offer many award winning services. -This makes me think of the “Avis we’re number 2″ ads. -We’re number 10, so why go with us? Well, with the bigger firms you may not be number 1 to them… or “we can’t afford to take you for granted, and… because the line at our counter is shorter” (see top ad here).

Small Business or Start Up Marketing Plans

ericdeal — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:29:21 +0000

We work with many small businesses and have had quite a few start up clients and just wanted to offer some marketing advice to people who may be in similar situations. There are many areas that we see come up, and we will cover those over time. This can help you get some insight on your marketing, and hopefully avoid these issues.

Our number one suggestion is that you need to do is figure out an annual or monthly marketing/advertising budget and goals and then stick to it. We suggest to approach this with the same intention as a personal savings plan, you are investing in your business and that amount needs to be large enough to do something with, but not so high that it is difficult for the business to set that money aside. If requested we can work with you on determining this budget. A few questions that we would ask are:

-What are you currently doing for marketing and advertising? (what’s working, what’s not, are you truly measuring or just estimating?)
-If you are doing B2B sales, what tools do you have in place to help with those sales?
-What are your business goals for the next year? 5 years?
-Who are a couple of your main competitors?
-Your website should be a central cog to all your marketing, we like pretty websites, but as a tool what is it truly doing for your business? (is it an over-glorified brochure? should it be selling products, should it be generating leads?)

Please feel free to contact Debbie or I to set up an appointment and discuss.

Cornerstone Website

ericdeal — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:58:18 +0000

Once again, with the help of 40 Digits, we have had a recent launch of the new Cornerstone website. This site is unique because we wanted to give the feeling of a e-commerce site without the checkout. This site has additional functions that is built in. Not only is the site built with SEO, but it has a Content Management System that allows them to make updates to general pages as well as make news/blog/ promotional pages. Then, when you post to your blog area, it forwards it to your Facebook page, which then sends it to your twitter page. So we cover a major area of your Social Marketing and save you time by only needing to post in one location.

http://www.cornerstonejeweler.com/

Cornerstone Website Design

The coolest graphic design tool

ericdeal — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:48:41 +0000

So a friend of mine -Jesse Adams- who is a designer/art director/-insert title- at Gulf Shore Magazine down in Florida, just sent me a link to the coolest upgrade in Photoshop CS5. As the owner of Andorra, I try not to overspend on money, but just the content aware function in the new CS5 will save us so much time that it should pay for itself. This video shows a couple things, one for just cleaning up the photo. -some not so difficult to handle (like removing trash or blemishes in a photo) then others were you deal with shadows which can be a pain. The part that impressed me the most is at the end where you can “add on” to photos. I can not tell you how many times that I have had to crop in on an image, manually add space to the edge of an image, or spend more time just looking for a new image because the one I liked would not fit in a space just because the photo was not tall or wide enough. Normally to quickly fix something like that you could spend up to 30 mins just adding on to the photo in separate layers which this does in seconds. It will help us focus on big picture for the projects and not as much time on the production side. Adobe has to be one of my fav businesses out there!

Lots of big things going on with Andorra Creative, but we will save those for another post.

Couple New Website Launches

ericdeal — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:35:18 +0000

We have had a couple websites launched with partnership of 40 Digits. -We feel this combination gives our client the best of both worlds. You get the full attention of our award winning advertising and design firm as well as the detailed programming and online expertise that 40 Digits offers. With this combination, we can fill any online need for our clients and tie the design into their brand and create create useful online tools.
A couple successful projects:

http://openbookconference.com/
A website that features the event based around the book “The Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack

We also launched:
http://jbofthesouth.com/

Andorra Creative Office

ericdeal — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:04:30 +0000

Andorra’s office is located in downtown Springfield. -315 Park Central East- to be exact (well… if google maps was more exact, it’s marker is about a block west). If your surroundings can influence you, we feel that we’ll continue producing top notch design, advertising, and websites.

We also open for first Friday art walk (when it’s not ridiculously cold out!) So feel free to come by then and see our place! We currently feature artwork by local photographer and artist Josh Mitchell. Next art walk is this Friday -March 5th- see you then!

2009 ADDYs

ericdeal — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:53:33 +0000

So many things to post, but another year has passed and a few more awards to hang on our wall. This year we entered 7 entries into the ADDY’s and left with 8… (We help other firms with their design and they entered a project we worked on). The count broke out to 2 Golds and 6 Silvers. Projects were Andorra Creative Logo (gold), 40 Digits Logo (gold), Galt Consulting Logo, Wacky World Logo, Door Deals Logo, Self Employment in the Arts Poster, Kringle Talk Stationery, and Barnett Davis Dental Holiday Ad. Overall it was a pretty good year and expect to have another one this year.

I will have to say one thing about the event. It was different than any other ADDY awards that I have ever seen. Most memorable, was the quarter trick… I’m glad I wasn’t eating then!

Angel Network Brochure

ericdeal — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:30:46 +0000

Create a single brochure that would serve two purposes: Inform potential “Angels” of investment opportunities and connect entrepreneurs with accredited investors. This was done by a simple z-fold to separate the 2 demographics.

Self Employment in the Arts

ericdeal — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:29:15 +0000

Created a branding for the annual SEA event. Project consisted of delivering overall look concept and applying to poster, direct mailer, web, and event program.