pushed into a leap of faith
In late 1989, when the computer was first becoming a useful tool for the graphic design industry, our small Boise firm was tentatively dipping our toe into the digital world. Our first little Macs, a Classic and then an SE30, were used as typesetting machines. We would typeset the headlines and body copy, then print them out and use SprayMount or the waxer to glue them on the paste-ups (there’s a word you may not have heard for years, if ever). Final art was an illustration board with type galleys and stats pasted on it, amberlith overlays, and a sheet of tracing paper with call-outs and instructions for the color separator to follow for their pre-press work.
On the phone with the color separator one day I asked him how many of the design firms he worked with across the country were submitting digital files vs. the age-old way we were doing it. I was, of course, looking for confirmation that we weren’t lagging behind the industry in any way. To my dismay he informed me that a good 80% of the firms he worked with were submitting their work digitally.
This was unacceptable! No way was I going to let this continue. I circled all the designers around me and announced that we were going to get with program, now! And so we did. Not immediately of course because there was equipment to purchase and software to learn and techniques to master. It took months to get up to speed, but we got there.
Tens of thousands of dollars and several years later I told my story to the color separator, thanking him for giving me the incentive I needed to up our game. He laughed and said “I was kidding! Only a handful of agencies at the time were willing to make that commitment - you were way ahead of the pack.”
stahlbush island farms
Although many of our projects begin with package design, they don’t usually stop there. Part of the basic new product marketing and promotion toolkit is the sell sheet. The trick is to make it unique and interesting while communicating all of the necessary basic information about the product line for brokers, distributors and retailers. Here are some examples for Stahlbush Island Farms.
chandlers and hotel 43
We were asked to help promote the obvious synergistic benefits of Chandlers, Boise’s finest restaurant, being located in the lobby of another of Boise’s finest establishments, Hotel 43. As you can imagine, the pun, double entendre and cliché possibilities are endless. Here’s the first ad (running in the Boise Journal) we’ve done for this new relationship.
new from tj farms select
Treasure Valley Packaging continues to grow their private label line, TJ Farms Select, with the addition of new sausage items. Treasure Valley Packaging prides themselves on being able to provide quality A-grade product at private label pricing. To us, it looks like a tasty way to start the day.
stahlbush, farming like they mean it
The term “sustainability” has become as green washed as the term, well, “green”. Big corporations are making big sustainability claims, and with this ad in the Utne Reader, Stahlbush Island Farms encourages consumers to challenge these claims and find out for themselves who is walking the talk.
wada farms advertising gets face lift
Literally. The next step in our rebranding of Wada Farms is this series of trade magazine ads. These ads are designed to stand out from the competition and also communicate Wada Farms’ superior selling points in a memorable, humorous, and unpretentious way. We think they are a home run!
fresca
Fresca is a Boise-based tortilla company founded in 1977 with a large (and loyal) international foodservice clientele. At the beginning of our engagement, we went for a tour of their factory and were blown away by their operation! Donning hair nets and notebooks, we set out with Plant Managers, Kip and Jim and were impressed by the pride they take in their product and the smiles we got from all of the workers as they quickly moved tortillas over hot, hot, griddles!
To date, we have refreshed Fresca’s brand identity, and created a company brochure and recipe cards. Soon we will launch their website - stay tuned!
lake front property
With only 12 inches of average annual rainfall, Boise can have some problems handling the occasional torrential downpour. This is a photo of Front Street taken from our parking lot this afternoon. We had so much rain in the foothills in such a short time that the water blew a manhole cover off the storm drain and we had a “fountain” 3-feet high in the middle of street, which created the scene above. Note the white Subaru in the distance which stalled out while pretending it was a speedboat!
