Just like fashion and the weather, the way we communicate never stops changing. Street Level Studio has been creating marketing tactics for a long time—from T-squares, triangles and galleys through desktop publishing and on-demand everything. Fortunately we are a curious group and beyond all else, we love change. We are especially excited to be on the leading edge of the social media revolution. It helps us all communicate quicker and with particular relevance. It’s fun and it’s participatory. Given the advances in both technology and communication strategies we are very happy today as we launch our new website. It’s been built to deliver information more simply and directly. No fluff. No hype. Hopefully it represents the scope of our interests and skills—all of which will help us become a better marketing agency. You be the judge. Take a few moments and look around our new site. We’d love to hear your comments. See the rest of this entry »
We’ve all seen product photos before. We’re surrounded by them each day, in catalogs, mailers, on websites and TV commercials, etc. But have you ever wondered what’s involved in getting the products to look so good? Street Level Studio worked with our client—Emerald Spa Corporation, in Grand Rapids, MI—to photograph the rollout of their newly redesigned, high-quality hot tubs for distribution in North America and abroad. See the rest of this entry »
Some designers freak out at the slightest blip in the cultural barometer. A recent example is all the talk about the quality of design in today’s world. Let’s face it, designers don’t have a corner on the market of communication. How many hand made signs do you see that advertise everything from “going out of business” to “home grown tomatoes”? Personally, I’d trust a handmade “Tomatoes” sign on the side of the road far before the professionally designed one at the supermarket. But that’s just me.
Here’s the deal as I see it. Milton Glaser and a handful of other influencial graphic designers may be able to change the world for the better with their work, but the rest of us design professionals are just banging away out here trying to do the best we can for our myriad of clients. Some with money but most without. We want to do award-worthy work on each project and many of us have achieved that when our clients had the budgets to support our creative thinking. Today is different. The same large, corporate clients we did all that great work for, are now out of marketing money. Hmm.
So, I’ve decided to help our clients by doing things more efficiently. Maybe even drag an old idea or two out of the archives. We’re still doing the best we can but we’ve adapted, if temporarily, to the situation at hand.
Social media is often blamed as well for this perceived denigration of great design. As far as I’m concerned, low quality pictures on the internet have nothing to do with great ideas. Creative thinking in today’s world is smart, appropriate and efficiently implemented. Good enough may be the new great, but there is room for both. For now.
Last weekend I drove down to the Illinois Institute of Technology with my son and daughter-in-law to check out the Andy Warhol “Silver Clouds” (circa 1966) exhibit. I hadn’t studied up on this 3-dimensional aspect of Warhol’s art so didn’t know what to expect. I’m very familiar with his paintings, screen prints and films, but this was something of pure joy to see.
The vast space in Mies van der Rohe’s S.R. Crown building was consumed with chrome-like king-size pillows filled with helium. Commercial fans were strategically placed on the floor to help keep the “clouds” in motion. At first, I just stood there and gawked but slowly started to walk into a corner that was filled floor to ceiling with hundreds of these magnificent floating objects.
The feel of them bouncing off my head, the sound of the fans, the light playing wildly off the shiny surfaces was amazing.
The possibilities to affect people on a large scale seem limitless when you consider how such a simple idea can make you jump around and smile like a kid. As art often does to me, I came away inspired, energized and full of ideas on how our company can make a powerful impact with our thinking, our hearts and our actions.
It’s funny how some of the most obscure lessons we learn as children carry with us into adulthood. Case in point, in third grade, at a time when my grades had dropped faster than my retirement portfolio did in 2008, my teacher recommended a revised educational regiment that included walking when I studied. Can you imagine being an eight-year-old allowed to get up and walk about the classroom when you felt the topic not sinking in?
Now, I am not saying I did not abuse the privilege, several people to this day will not talk to me because of the wet willies I gave them during my educational stroll. Something amazing came from it though, my grades vastly improved. I found myself walking when studying from grade school through college (not like Forrest Gump, I stopped a bunch of times in between the two). When I got stuck for an idea I walked. This would serve me as a creative professional when confronted with a design problem and seemingly no solution. See the rest of this entry »
You may have noticed there has been a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.
In the past, even as recently as a few months ago, marketers were still trying to sell their goods or services in traditional media by telling potential customers why they should buy from them. Ads and commercials were filled with product features, reasons why they are better than the competition and practically begging people to buy their products because they are the best.
Well, guess what? Customers didn’t believe those promises then and they emphatically don’t now.
Enter Social Media. Customers are talking amongst themselves today. And if they like your products they’ll tell their friends. They trust each other more than they trust you.
We have developed a Social Media presentation in an effort to help explain the power of this this new way of marketing. If you have a big, well-known brand, Social Media can build a loyal following quickly. If you have a relatively unknown brand the groundswell is slower but will still be steady. Do it now.
We can help you find your customers online, but you need to go there and participate in their conversation. Without a doubt, a dialog will begin. Have fun and be honest.
In our lives we experience some event, person, or moment that touches us on the deepest of levels. One of mine came at the passing of my mother from pancreatic cancer. I felt compelled to find an outlet that would not only allow me to honor her memory but make a concerted effort to help in the fight against cancer. I have found both in the American Cancer Society’s Discovery Ball (discoveryball.org), a charitable event that has saving lives as its cornerstone. I painted a piece named Katina’s Swan, after my mother, which I am donating for the event’s silent auction. The painting depicts a swan, a memory I have of my mother and her childhood home. These images show the progression the work took from concept to finished art. See the rest of this entry »
Mercury Plastics (manufacturer of dynamic point-of-purchase displays for major brands and retailers) wanted to showcase the company’s ongoing investment in advanced technology, demonstrate its creativity, and promote its speed-to-market capabilities.
To emphasize that projects really “fly” with Mercury, Street Level Studio recreated a WWII aircraft hangar—complete with Quonset hut doorway, camouflage netting, authentic-looking propaganda posters, and the protruding fuselage of a Corsair fighter jet. Inside the booth, screens projected a black-and-white newsreel video that took visitors on a factory “tour.” Pre-show direct mail and email generated advance buzz and assured a steady stream of traffic to Mercury’s booth. See the rest of this entry »
Whether it’s something man-made or made by nature, one can find design all around us. Take a look around you, what do you see? See the rest of this entry »
