New platforms = New ideas

There’s a new camera platform that is out and hitting its stride – micro 4/3d’s. We’ve been playing with the Panasonic GF1, a great little camera that you can change lenses on, but which has the profile of a rangefinder – very small and quiet. A whole new industry is starting to percolate around this…

Brand is Business

I met with a potential new client recently for an extended conversation about what we (studio two) might be able to do for them but also as a follow-up to our initial meeting. What’s interesting about this business (lets call them Smith Co.) is that the question of “brand” is pervasive to the entire business.…

ROI

Design is often placed on second-tier status by businesses seeking to verify and justify their expenses. Historically, Return on Investment for design and marketing has been difficult to measure accurately, especially for smaller organizations like many of our clients. As designers and brand strategists, we are as guilty as anyone of not placing ROI at…

GDUSA09 Winners

The Studio just won 2 Graphic Design USA awards for Packaging. The winning entries were new labels for Berkshire Mountain Distillers (BMD) Ethereal Gin and new labels and packaging elements for Barrington Coffee Roasting Company (BCRC). Senior Designer Heather Rose worked her magic on these two projects, bringing together an elegant sense of typography and…

Strange activities

It’s that time of year when we are working on summer theatre concepts. I’m not going to tell you what these are about at present – suffice it to say that the play is not a comedy – but I finally had a reason to bust out that army surplus gas mask I picked up…

Radioactivity at QPC

We were on-press today at Quality Printing for the IS183 Radioactive Bodega invitation. This beauty is going to be hitting mailboxes all over the region in about a week or so, and you won’ be able to miss it! Studio Two Designer Amanda Bettis (the talent behind everything BIFF) has been crafting this piece with…

Wearing it

A conversation I’ve been having with a number of people lately has been about what we mean by “branding”. For many people, branding relates simply to the design of the logo or mark used by an organization. That would be its historical function, but the term and its use have evolved. Branding is now a…

Branding the Best

We’re in the midst of a branding cycle with favorite long-time client Barrington Coffee Roasting Company (BCRC). This cycle was prompted mostly by a desire on their part to freshen things up, review and renew their identity. It’s been a great time. We’ve had a couple of sessions with Gregg, Barth and Cristina at the…

the center at eagle hill branding

The Center at Eagle Hill www.centerateaglehill.org/ The Center at Eagle Hill was a brand-new, state-of-the-art performing arts venue located in central Massachusetts. We developed an entire communications system for the facility, including website, signage, collateral and overall identity. The goal of the brand was to establish The Center as a “stand-alone” entity within the Eagle…

new england wine cellars rebranding

New England Wine Cellars New England Wine Cellars is known for its gorgeous, state of the art, custom wine cellars for a very high end audience. They came to us with a outdated logo, uninspiring marketing materials and a brand that did not correctly reflect the end product. We began the rebranding exercise by making…