Beyond Facebook: Which Social Media Site Is Best for Your Business?

Many of the business owners in my networking groups are not on social media, perhaps surprising, perhaps not. I shared the following research with one of those groups earlier this year.

Mountain Path Yoga – Doing Good From the Start

As I’ve written before, the people I meet are one of the best parts of my job – and one of the most interesting parts can be the often surprising things I learn while working on their projects.

Take Mountain Path Yoga of Thornton, New Hampshire. I few months back I created a new logo, seen here, for owner Azanna Wishart. Shades of green for growth, renewal, the mountains of New Hampshire. A path to a healthier, more whole you. And the rising (setting?) sun. One member of the Infusion Studio team said it looks like a ripe orange half about to drip with wholesome goodness. Images and colors of life.

Design Pick of the Week: Mission Impawsible Dog Training

This playful logo for Mission Impawsible Dog Training in Brentwood is super-cute – and very effective at inviting me, as the consumer, to want to take my own dog through the Mission Impawsible training program.

 

First, the color scheme. Yellow and red are primary colors, clean and crisp. Red has many connotations, and in this case, it makes me think “stop” – as in, heel, sit, stay. The basic commands you want your dog to be able to follow.

Combine the red with white type and yellow stars, and you’ve got a somewhat patriotic feel to the design. The stars are also reminiscent of those gold stars for good work in elementary school. Moreover, they carry a subtle message for the frustrated dog owner driving by: “You may think instilling manners in your pooch is a mission impossible, but let’s shoot for the stars anyway! Come on in, and we’ll give it a try!” Talk about a graphical image that can handle triple duty.

Design Pick of the Week: Surf Seafood Restaurant

No doubt what sort of fare is served up at Surf, whose fun logo caught my eye online recently. In fact, chef/owner Michael Buckley’s establishment has won Best Seafood Restaurant in the state by New Hampshire Magazine numerous times.

A basic design color wise – blue for water and black, with the tan background – the logo for Surf is a good example of how a unique creative element is often best paired with conventional type.

The word Surf is not so much a typeface as it is freehand lettering, and dramatic at that. Very flowy, very dynamic – reflecting the ocean, of course. Restaurant, by contrast, is as simple as can be, and the location (Surf has two, Portsmouth and Nashua) is done in Times New Roman bold for maximum legibility.

The Things You Learn on the Job!

Meeting Tim and Pauline Doucette would give any struggling small-business owner a shot in the arm. The owners of Worry Free Property Management are so good at what they do, and so confident about the future of their business, their energy is infectious. Find your niche, that skill or talent you have better than anyone else in your market – throw yourself into it 110%, and you too can succeed!

Getting to know people like Tim and Pauline is one of the best parts of my job. And one of the most interesting parts is the often surprising things I learn about the world in general while working with such clients.

In this case, the Infusion Studio team was busy the last few weeks putting together trade show materials for Worry Free. We did a table display with vertical banners. We did two brochures, one each for the company’s property-restoration and property-management divisions. And we did a display rack featuring sell sheets on Worry Free’s expertise in handling fire, smoke, water, and mold damage (which will do double duty after the trade show in the informational folders given to new and prospective clients).

It was while assembling these sell sheets that I picked up quite a few “who knew?” tidbits of information:

Design Pick of the Week: The Cottages of Wolfeboro

Logo design is all about telling a story. And while driving through Wolfeboro the other day, I came across a “story” I want to write myself into! Simple and elegant, the logo for The Cottages of Wolfeboro immediately drew me in.

 

The graphic designer cleverly embedded the emblem (the tree) inside a green bounded box. Yet the box does not confine the tree. Its boughs extend beyond – suggesting, literally, that the company has an innovative, think-outside-the-box take on the hospitality industry.

Reading Round-Up: Self-Promotion, The Cloud, and Lego Furniture

No time to read any business articles this week – again? For the last few months, we’ve been trying to share one article a day with our colleagues and clients via Twitter (@InfusionStudio1). Just one article – often a blog post really. Something that will take mere minutes from your day to read. But that will keep you thinking for some time afterwards.

 

Here’s a sample of what we were reading the past few days.