For the past 10 years, the gentlemen at Internet & Telephone, LLC of North Andover, MA have built a strong company on face-to-face business relationships.

Based in North Andover, MA, I&T provides corporate IT support and phone, data and Internet service. They serve as an outsourced IT department to keep phones and computer networks working for clients such as hospitals, office buildings and colleges. Customers really like I&T because they provide great customer service. When clients call for help, they know the voice on the other end of the line. I&T has thrived with this approach.

But in all that time, I&T hadn’t generated many leads from the Internet. Their sales have been more traditional – handshakes, community networking, and referrals.

One reason they hadn’t used their website as a sales tool was that it had become dated. I&T’s sales people didn’t want to send leads there because the site didn’t present the professional, state-of-the-art company that I&T is – and it didn’t show the friendly faces that their customers know and respect.

To help Internet & Telephone reverse that trend, Vital Design provided a completely new website design and development that presents a professional image and clearly communicates I&T’s services. Because their site is now an attractive destination to refer sales prospects to, I&T has also launched email marketing and online marketing campaigns.

The new site provides a modern, professional online presence where I&T can showcase their services – ranging from IT managed services to conference room communications installs and T1 voice and data. The site also includes lots of photos of I&T’s actual employees shot by Photographer Ian Aldrich.

We feel like we’ve helped Internet & Telephone move forward as a company with this site. And we’re glad that it’s helping them because they really are nice guys. Check out the before and after:

We recently finished a new website design for Applecrest Farm, New Hampshire’s oldest and largest apple orchard. It’s an earthy, rustic design, a bit like the smooth scroll website we developed last spring.

The new web development showcases the tasty offerings of Applecrest (located in Hampton Falls, NH), such as pick-your-own schedules and festival dates and other info. The site also offers a registration form for private parties, allowing users to reserve dates online.

“This website design ties in four generations of the Wagner family. We are really excited about our new web design,” said Applecrest’s Todd Wagner. “Vital Design combined all of our attributes into one well-organized site to showcase everything our family has created throughout the years.”

We had a lot of fun designing this site because it brought together generations of hard work and development. (The Applecrest barn itself is more than 200 years old.) Applecrest Farm is a family fun day mecca, offering pick-your-own fruit and hay rides to their pumpkin patch. The new website also offers festival and event schedules.

Another cool feature of the Applecrest website is the ability to buy gift packages of apples online and have them shipped to a friend, business associate or family member. This would be great for a transplanted New Englander. They hand select each item for the gift basket. To top it off, they add a handwritten card to accompany the package. It’s sweet. Go pick some apples next fall and check out the site and let us know what you think!

It can be tough to come up with unique ideas for client holiday gifts. We’ve sent North Face fleece shirts, hosted parties, created custom designed posters, and even hand painted ornaments in years past. To thank our clients this year – and show them we appreciate working on their branding, websites, and other marketing projects – we tried to create a fun, memorable holiday gift.

We listen to music every day, so we shared some of our favorite songs with our clients on a mix cd. (Sounds kind of uh, frugal, we know.) But this project gave us a chance to stay within a budget, share our creativity, and give our clients something besides a jumbo tin of assorted flavored popcorn.

We settled on a theme of “A Vital Mixer” – a virtual cocktail party for our clients. We carried this “mixer” theme across the gift packages by compiling some of our favorite cocktail recipes from each team member, creating printed recipe cards for the cocktails, and developing a Web page where they could download drink recipes and share their own.

Here’s the CD cover:

We packaged the Vital Mixer CD with printed recipe cards. (It’s not too late to ring in 2010 and download all the cocktail recipe cards. Cheers!)

We then mailed out the packages, publicized the virtual cocktail party with social media by tweeting and Facebooking links to the online party. We also sent an email marketing piece. This type of multi-faceted marketing effort is genuinely fun and exciting for us. We love to bring several elements together under a single theme.

See what we just did there? We created a product, in this case the recipe card and music, that was packaged in real life and online. We were hoping this would do a few things for us:

1. Show our clients we appreciate them.

2. Build our brand as a creative, fun marketing company.

3. Create a community-oriented online destination to welcome our clients.

4. Drive traffic to our site.

5. Showcase a few of the services we offer in one marketing campaign – design, email marketing, web development, merchandising, social media.

The concept of the actual graphic design was to channel the glam of a ’60s cocktail party mixed – or perhaps shaken and strain over ice – with the charm of holidays spent fireside with Bing and Perry. Early in the process, we looked to Christmas albums of yore for inspiration:

There were no stock photos that met our standards, so we held our own photo shoot. I got a few curious looks as I walked down the hall with a martini shaker at 3 p.m., but we think the result was worth it. Take a look at the original photo before we adjusted the color and added texture.

We’ve received lots of positive responses from clients, who say it was a unique, fun package to receive in the mail. It makes us glad we didn’t send another tin of popcorn.

There’s nothing more frustrating than filling out an Adobe PDF form then realizing you can’t save it.

Recently, one of our clients had this problem on a PDF form we’d created for him. It seems like a hiccup that should have an easy fix. But the link that should explain it on Adobe’s site was broken. (They’ve since fixed it.) But you know when we find a good solution, we try to share it. (See posts like, “Creating a Facebook Page With Custom HTML” or a “How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes.” )

After testing the template several times internally, we delivered the branded, updateable document and our client tried it out too. He was psyched. But when it came time to save a new proposal, he couldn’t save a copy of the template with his new data entered. Here is how we were able to set up his document so he could save form data – complete with colorful, easy to follow graphics:

These few short steps will enable you to save an Adobe Acrobat form in Adobe Acrobat Pro so users fill out forms and save their entered data in Adobe Reader.

1. Open your doc in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

2. Under “Advanced” on the tool bar, click “Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader…”

3. Click “Save Now” and save your document with a different name.

4. Close the existing document and open the new one that you just saved.

Now you too can set up Adobe PDF forms in Adobe Acrobat Professional so people with Adobe Acrobat Reader will be able to actually save them!

As you all know, social media is exploding. Almost everyone has either a Facebook, Twitter (although my wife may think it’s stupid), and/or LinkedIn account, if not all three. YouTube is becoming an everyday resource for tutorials etc. If you still think this social media thing is just a fad, you may be surprised to learn that in January UNH will offer it’s first Social Media course.

Facebook is kind of a big deal, and surprisingly enough the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users is those 35 years old and older. What started as a platform for students to communicate, has evolved into a highly sophisticated marketing tool with more than 300 million users worldwide. Major companies are taking notice, and it’s showing up everywhere. The other night I noticed that Honda is using their Fan page url, facebook.com/honda, in commercials rather than www.honda.com. It’s an interesting concept. Honda is trying to get their customers to build strength in the Honda brand socially through, “The Experiment.” A project attempting to prove that, “Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda.” Seeing if we can all be connected through Honda Love.

Other companies like Walgreens, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull are using it too. It makes sense, go to where your customers are rather than making them come to you. There are 128,940,004 daily users already familiar with the Facebook functionality, becoming a fan of your company is just a click away.

So you have a Facebook page, you picked a custom Facebook URL and have started to add content. But your page is still just a Facebook page with your content, and not nearly as impressive as Coca-Cola’s customized page.

How do you create a custom Facebook page?

Static FBML is a Facebook application that allows you to add custom HTML code to your Fan Page giving you the ability to brand the page or pages however you want. Ideally, a professional looking custom designed and developed landing page will make the viewer want to become a fan of your business.

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to add the Static FBML application to your page. How to set up your code so it works correctly. And how to set your new page as the default landing page for visitors, rather than your wall.

Here’s what you do…

Go to www.facebook.com and Login to your Facebook account.

At the bottom left of your screen click Applications.

Then click on Browse More Applications.

In the search box type in Static FBML.

Click on Static FBML.

Once on the Static FBML page, click Add to my Page select your page from the menu by clicking Add to Page.

Next, return to the Fan Page you are editing and go to the wall. Click Edit Page from the options under the logo/image box.

Scroll down to the FBML application, and select Edit.

This should bring you to a page that has two empty boxes. In the Box Title field, enter the name you want to display on your new tab. In the larger box, paste in your HTML code. When you are done click on Save Changes.

NOTE: The code should be from opening to closing div or table tag and contain no opening or closing body or HTML tags. Image/flash files etc. need to contain the full url and all styles need to be inline.

Setting Your New Page as the Default Landing Page

Go back to the Wall of the Fan page you are working on. Click Options, and then click Settings.

In the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else:” option, select the tab that you have just created.

That’s pretty much it. Log out of Facebook, go back to the Facebook Fan Page you just created to see how everyone else will view it. And remember, if all else fails… we can do it all for you! Contact us to learn more.

No, Vital Design’s blog is not on the cutting room floor. And it hasn’t been censored.

We’ve just been a bit busy the past two months designing, laying out, programming, writing, tweeting, conducting public relations and procuring print for the New Hampshire Film Festival.

Vital has been fortunate to be NHFF’s exclusive marketing partner since 2004 when the fest moved to Portsmouth, NH. We put a lot of time, energy, and creativity (not to mention sleep deprivation) into NHFF. It’s a blockbuster project for us.

We start designing brand elements by January and work on it when we can until we really ramp up around August. A lot of the content we use, such as film titles, panelists, and venues, is not available until a few weeks before the fest. That means we spend a lot of September and October working late, without stunt doubles.

But it was worth it last weekend, when NHFF had its most successful year to date, drawing nearly 9,000 people (up from 6,000 in ‘08). Now that we’ve caught up on our sleep, it’s a good time to discuss how NHFF’s design has evolved and improved the past six years. In that time, ten designers have contributed. One constant has been Art Director Scott O. Holt III.

When the fest started, it was known as the New Hampshire Film Expo. In those NHFX days, marketing collateral included a logo, a poster, ads, and passes. In 2009, our marketing to-dos included a website, public relations, large banners, national advertising, email marketing, a 68-page program, t-shirts, a printed and online schedule, tote bags, and social media marketing.

2003

Although we did not design this, it’s the oldest logo we have on file and the version that was being used when we took over the project.

2004

We were concerned that the 2003 logo looked too similar to branding at the time for Boston alternative radio station WFNX. So we cut the grunge factor and adapted for the screen with clean typography.

2005

We modified the logo slightly by using an image from a film countdown shot.

2006

The logo was updated with a 3D lens in the Web 2.0 style that was just becoming popular. In 2006 we also took on the festival program for the first time. The cover is one of the key marketing pieces, since all festival attendees will pick up a program at some point during the weekend. We branched out into larger graphics and added local interest with the lighthouse.

2007

This was the year the expo grew up and became a full-fledged festival. We switched over to a fall palette and introduced the new logo with the reel and seagull. We flushed out the branding with the striking silhouette of the Portsmouth skyline. The classic ‘07 look is still a favorite among some involved with the festival.

2008

In ‘08 we continued with the fall colors and skyline, but added the contemplative festival-goer reflecting on a recent screening in Prescott Park. We introduced the eye-catching ‘08. The ‘08 T-shirts were the best yet!

2009

This year we added some visual interest with the angled typography, interlocking ‘09 logo, and diagonal stripes. The background texture

and color combination give everything a warm retro feel and continues in the appropriately New England autumn color palette.

And check out our design in action! What a shot! Award-winning Producer and Director Chase Bailey, left, is interviewed by NECN’s Lauren Collins. At right is Actress Ann Cusack, star of Chase’s film “Crooked Lane” which won Chase this year’s NH Filmmaker of the Year Granny Award. Oh, is that Vital Design listed on that poster? Nice! And check out those T-shirts!

We recently launched a new website, http://www.portfolioluxurykitchens.com for Stratham, NH custom kitchen showroom Portfolio Luxury Kitchens. The new site features an inviting, tactile, clean design aesthetic which highlights Portfolio Luxury Kitchen’s expanded showroom and portfolio.

The site also serves as a resource to homeowners by letting them sign up for design seminars and download .pdfs of design idea galleries.

We designed and developed the new site with a Flash gallery. The site is mostly a brochure/portfolio site that serves as an information resource for new and returning visitors as well as a branding tool for Portfolio Luxury Kitchens. Portfolio owner Kevin Roy likes it.

“This is a gorgeous new site,” Roy said. “Vital Design worked well under our demanding design standards to produce a site that showcases our premium work and our style.”

If you’re not familiar with our company, check out our site and portfolio. Vital Design provides website design, graphic design, branding, copywriting, public relations, and email marketing. Some of our clients include the New Hampshire Film Festival, the One Hundred Club, the Portsmouth Gaslight Company, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Orion Seafood International, and The Stone Church. Vital Design, supports Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA-LP 106.1 FM with gratis graphic design and is a member of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce and New Hampshire Creative Club.

Portfolio is recognized as the Seacoast’s premier design firm for custom cabinetry and millwork. A unique professional service, established in 2006. Portfolio’s designers and builders offer years of expertise in the field of design, project management, and skilled craftsmanship.

This may be old news to some, but when I figured out this technique I was blown away by how much time I had been wasting. This quick tutorial will show you how to easily rotate your Photoshop brushes to any angle you need. It may sound silly, but it’s a huge time saver!

We’re all fans of Photoshop brushes. Easily adding textures, patterns, images etc. to my designs is great although I always felt like they had their limitations based on their “out-of-the-box” layout. I can’t tell you how many times I have used the brush I needed on a separate layer, then rotated or flipped it to where I wanted it to end up. A huge waste of time.

With a couple mouse clicks, you can make the brushes do whatever you want. Here’s how.

STEP 1

Open up a blank document and grab your brush tool. Pick a pattern (anything but round) from your brushes pallet. I’ll choose this cloud brush that’s alway annoyed me because I thought it could only be used in the lower right corner of the page, without transforming or erasing part of it.

STEP 2, here’s where it gets good…
Now, in the brushes pallet (Window > Brushes) select “Brush Tip Shape.” I never noticed this as an option because of the check boxes next to all the other choices. Check out your options, flip X, flip Y, angle, even a dragging option. Too easy! You can just click and drag to the exact angle you need.

Here is a sample with the clouds rotated to all 4 corners. How celestial.

Quick and easy, but a huge time saver. I hope you found this to be helpful!

Crisp fall nights loom on the horizon as we wind down the dog days of August. This time of year means football, for many. Of course, geography plays a large part in determining which brand of football. Being part of the growing contingent of football fans in the states that follows the European version – the one played with feet – I’d like to examine the influence of modern design on the rebranding of football clubs in Europe. You can think of them as soccer clubs if you’d like, I can assure you no one in this group will mock you publicly.

ARSENAL FC

We start with the rebrand of the club I have a firsthand knowledge and love for: Arsenal FC. I remember when the new crest debuted. You might have thought someone dropped a bomb on the stadium and sold all the players, according to some in the blogosphere who saw this as a clear abomination and betrayal of the club’s history and heritage. Given time, however, people get over their disdain for change and embrace a new look. Minimizing design isn’t always the answer, but it has been a successful trend in modern updates of brands from corporate to sport, and here I feel it works quite well. The previous crest was far too ornate, and busy. The update displays a modern font and a simplified eastern facing cannon that signifies a commitment to progressively moving forward. All told, a resounding success as far as this designer is concerned. Of course I teeter on the brink of bias, but I digress. A-

BOLTON WANDERERS FC

Moving on To Bolton, a truly detestable side with a moderately detestable crest. This upgrade is subtle and preserves their previous typography adding little whispy streamers instead of the stately ribbon of the previous effort. This upgrade isn’t particularly bad as it’s understated enough, I’m simply not a fan of the logo to begin with. And anything that evokes the memory of Will Ferrell’s floor dance performance in “Old School” can’t be a good representation for any club looking to establish their identity. D+

BORUSSIA DORTMUND

Let’s jump countries on our European tour over to Germany to check on Borussia’s update to their classic BVB crest. Punching up the yellow really leaves an impression. The typography has been updated nicely to make the crest symmetrical and sophisticated. It’s simple but memorable. A

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR FC

Being an Arsenal supporter, Tottenham falls under the category of nemesis. The clubs are separated in North London by four miles and a wealth of good fortune. That said, as much as it pains me to say so, the update of the club’s crest is a fantastic improvement. The simplification of the “cockerel,” (their birds not mine) came off perfectly. They dumped the lions and Latin and inserted a retro football in the place of the club’s initials. I think the color, lines, and look of this update to the crest are nearly flawless leaving you with a simple and sophisticated improvement. For that they receive high marks. A+

PARIS ST. GERMAIN FC

Onto France where we take a look at the updates in Paris. PSG did a nice job cleaning up what was otherwise a little murky. The black strokes on the old logo were harsh, and the typography appears messy jetting off the icon as it does. The upgrade addresses these issues nicely, even if the baby crib under the Eiffel Tower is a little curious. B-

AJAX FC

The Dutch national team has one of the coolest brands of all time in the lion’s head. I liked it so much I placed it on the Vital team jerseys for our Tuesday night league. This fondness does not carry across the board in Holland as Amsterdam’s Ajax (eye-axe to those of you confusing it with a cleaning product) upgrade has left me a little conflicted. On the one hand I love the type update, as well as the red border, but I can’t help thinking the update to the Greek Warrior Ajax’s face took simplicity to the precipice and beyond. If we were to agree that the original version was far too detailed to reproduce across multiple forms of media would we then agree that using a fat magic marker to do a quick trace would not be the answer to simplifying the image? I think so. In writing this I’ve learned that supporters have been campaigning to ditch the new crest since its inception in the ’90s due to it being too cold and business like. A campaign that has fallen on deaf ears. Proof positive that you can oversimplify your brand and agitate your target audience. C-

Moving away from the per club breakdown of club crests, I’d like to now move swiftly onto my “FILE UNDER” segment where we take some successful, some not so successful, some legendary and some downright bizarre examples of rebranding from around European football leagues and file them under their appropriate categories.

FILE UNDER “PROGRESS”:

FILE UNDER “STROBE-TASTIC”:

FILE UNDER “MUTANT RABBIES CAT”:

FILE UNDER “FINE WINE AND BIOHAZARD”:

FILE UNDER “LAW SUIT”:

FILE UNDER “INEXPLICABLE”:

FILE UNDER “УРОДСКО!”:

FILE UNDER “Vive Le Résistance!”:

FILE UNDER “YOU AIN’T GO-‘N’ NOWHERE”:

FILE UNDER “LEGENDARY”:

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It’s no secret that Vital Design loves orange.

It’s a main feature of our branding and you’ll find it on our walls, in our logo, on our website and in our gifts to our clients.

Color Wheel Pro says orange represents “enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation” and that’s an accurate description of what we’ve got going on, if we may be so bold.

This orange branding has nearly saturated our workspace. If you swing by to borrow a stapler, it probably will be orange and we’ll invite you to have a seat in the super comfy visitor chair – also orange and pictured at right. We know there are a lot of design companies out there loving the orange like us, sooo we tallied up some of our coolest orange stuff:

Vital’s Top 10 Orange Desk Accessories

1. Le Pen

This sleek and orangey pen is très magnifique! And so much sexier than a Bic.

2. Toy Scooter

What would Barbie say? “OMG, it’ll look so cute at the dream house!”

3. Pantone Orange Coffee Mug

Hot coffee spurs creativity but it’s super creative-making juice when slurped from this Orange 021 C pantone mug.

4. Giant Paper Clip

To dry our giant wet things. You should see the clothes line.

5. Logology

The study of logos. Bound in handsomely smooth burnt orange leather impressed with logos. Very impressive.

6. Somewhat Offensive Tape Dispenser

But much less offensive than the pencil sharpener that featured a prone figurine.

7. Nathan Water Bottle

We could die of thirst without this. Then who would make pretty things for you?

8. Toy Corvette

Smaller than a squash. Mightier than a matchbox.

9. Sparrow Memo Clips

We only have the orange one and it memos us to do all manner of tasks. Kind of tweety too.

10. Behance Action Method Notebook

A week to learn how to use this. A lifetime to master. Cover is soft and impressive, helping us justify higher rates.

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