Garrison Everest

Ergentus Rollout Party

jclaflin — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:27:37 +0000

Left to right: Dr. Nathan Watkins, Ergentus - Joshua Claflin, President, Garrison Everest - Russ Minary, Garrison Everest - Dr. Dave Rutherford, Ergentus

Garrison Everest just completed work on a 10 month brand development project with ESP (Emergency Service Physicians) of Colorado – now named Ergentus. We helped ESP align and brand their 36 year old organization to keep pace with the ever changing health care industry.

Along with a complete brand strategy— the project included a complete redesign of the organization’s corporate identity, website, marketing collateral and scrubs as well as a new name which we designed to more accurately represent who they are as a company.

Ergentus Rollout Party

Ergentus held their official roll out party Friday, April 27th, 2012 in Denver, Colroado where the brand was officially introduced to employees, hospital staff and Exempla leadership.

Ergentus, a group of 65 emergency medicine physicians and physician assistants currently serve at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Colorado.

Learn more at ergentus.com

Garrison Everest Featured in PRINT Magazine

jclaflin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:01:22 +0000

A few months ago I was interviewed by PRINT magazine on the topic of Political Campaign Design in the age of Obama called Ink on Plastic. It’s always fun to get national recognition, especially for what is considered a non-existent market for being a “conservative graphic designer” – a term you don’t usually hear in the design community because of its left-leaning majority. We work with right and left-wing business clients (we actually don’t even ask), because really, who cares? We are all Americans right? However, when it comes to political work, it’s all conservative issues and candidates.

The left-leaning design majority was apparent when I was in College at the University of Wyoming. When most of my peers were wearing chains, sporting purple hair and idolizing Bill Clinton, I was showing up to class in a white shirt and tie (I was president of my fraternity and on the varsity swim team, so such an outward appearance was appropriate, if not the expectation) — It was I who stood out at the end of the day. It wasn’t my fault I grew up on a ranch in Northern Wyoming with a skill and talent in design. I am a 5th generation Republican, I don’t have a choice in these matters. Regardless of being a minority among my peers as a conservative designer – even in the Denver web and design market – I am thrilled to get the plug.

I do, however, want to reply to a couple of statements made in the article, “…it seems unlikely that in the near future, vernacular American political design will be transformed by abstract concepts like ‘narrative’ and ‘brand.’” As Callahan says, “It’s just putting ink on plastic.”

There is some truth to this, evident by the fact that of the thousands of people who run for elected office every year, many have neither the budget nor an understanding of the benefits of branding and design. But for those folks who do get it, and to challenge Callahan’s suggestion that candidates are only known for the look of their yard sign, I’m willing to bet that those with a better looking yard sign not only have a higher likelihood of getting elected, but most often do. So in the end, it’s really not just ink on plastic, now is it?

Below is an excerpt from the article written by Fritz Swanson.

Garrison Everest, of Denver, is a design firm that is struggling to bring state-level candidates around to the new realities of political design in the Obama age. When you Google “conservative political design,” Garrison Everest is the top hit.

Joshua Claflin is the president and creative director of Garrison Everest, and after nine years in the business, he finds himself doing more and more comprehensive designs for political clients. A designer all his life, Claflin studied graphic design and marketing at the University of Wyoming. His firm typically works with local and state candidates but has also been brought in by national campaigns. Most recently, Garrison Everest was in talks to do work for Newt Gingrich’s 21st Century Contract with America initiative.

“The real story,” Claflin says, “is that the Obama campaign turned the political design industry upside down. Any candidate who is serious about winning has to take his approach. Politics is no different from business, and those same best practices need to be considered. Develop your brand, your narrative, and a creative platform.”

But this message has been hard to get out. Before Obama, very few political clients came in looking for help. And even post-2008, when Garrison Everest’s traffic tripled, it was still only working for a handful of actual clients: four regular ones right now, and only about ten total over the last three or four years

“Conservative Republicans are just starting to wake up to the power of design,” Claflin says. Even though many politicians come just for a yard sign, he sets out to show them that a strong web presence and an integrated design package (including a WordPress-based content-management system, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a business card and letterhead) are what every serious candidate needs these days. “If a candidate stands for something, they need to communicate it through all of their touch points,” Claflin says. He explains to prospective pols that they should have a typeface or an insignia. They need to do something that introduces the politician as a person, something that cuts through the clutter. They need to become a brand.

“The brand has to stand for something, has to be unique, and has to tell a story,” Claflin says. “It is not enough to have a product and a service—you have to have more. There are ten to twenty of everything, including political candidates.”

For his conservative clients, he suggests a corporate color palette: dark blues and dark reds. “Nothing green, nothing pink,” he says. He steers them toward angles rather than curves. He prefers sans-serif typefaces, masculine forms. And he really likes the work. “The best part,” he says, “is seeing the exposure of the design in the public, especially when your candidate is elected.” Claflin’s satisfaction is sharpened by civic pride, a sense that he is helping to clarify and communicate issues of substance. “It’s more satisfying than working on, like, a regular lawn-mower service,” he says.

The key draw of political work for graphic designers, Claflin thinks, is inspiration: “These candidates are inspiring. It carries over into the design. When you talk to a candidate, you get excited by their stances and their values, and it is inspirational.”

Even though Claflin can make the case that clients need good design, and even though he has the insight and the passion to give conservatives a design ethos that is right for them, the political work is still only about 5 percent of his total business. The main reason Claflin can’t convert contacts into clients is budget. According to the Institute on Money in State Politics, the average total budget for a state-house race in Colorado is $36,334. The average price for one of Garrison Everest’s integrated design packages is between $5,000 and $8,000. “It’s very hard to find someone who will go all the way and really do it right,” Claflin says. “They are hesitant to make the investment.”

And it’s not just small, hand-to-mouth candidates. I asked him if he ever got the job designing Gingrich’s Contract with America. “No,” he said. “They just didn’t have the budget.”

Fritz Swanson’s work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Believer, The Christian Science Monitor, Esopus, and Mid-American Review. Visit him at manchester-press.com.

Read more at PrintMag.com: Ink on Plastic

Nor1′s Web & Brand Debut

jclaflin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:34:24 +0000

We are proud to announce the launch of the new Nor1 brand identity and website. For over 4 months Garrison Everest has worked with Nor1 to brand the company’s new market position: The Technology Leader in Upsell Solutions — and to create all of its needed design materials for the launch. This assignment included product logos, a CMS/Blog-based website, Twitter/Facebook pages, stationery, powerpoint templates, tradeshow materials, sales sheets, sales folders, info graphics and email templates.

Nor1 leverages its cutting-edge pricing and merchandising technology to intelligently maximize the revenue and profits of its customers and redefine data-driven pricing strategies. The Silicon Valley-based technology company’s patents and patents-pending are focused on perishable inventory serving a variety of industries, while its core solutions are designed to service the hospitality industry. The statistically driven PRiME® engine is the innovative backbone to Nor1 solutions. PRiME dynamically analyzes millions of points of data gleaned from Nor1 transactions to directly meet the desires of hotel guests before they even ask for them.

The new brand was designed around the creative premise: “The fusion of technology and guest experience.” Nor1′s technology helps hotels enhance the guest experience through upsell offers guests are likely to buy. “We wanted to create a solid graphic representation that signifies the amount of computing taking place behind the scenes that allows Nor1 to create real-time offers that have the highest likelyhood of being purchased for its customers,” says Creative Director, Joshua Claflin.

The website features over 20 custom graphics, JQuery sliders, logo scrollers, javascript programing, blog, news and lightboxes — all powered by WordPress.

Visit website: www.nor1.com

How to Design a Great Logo: 7 Step Process for Graphic Designers

jclaflin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:02:26 +0000

Several times a year I am commissioned to design a logo. Projects run the gamut in subject matter, and I often find myself biting my lip because I’m not inspired by what the brand, product or service stands for — these projects are priced accordingly or turned down. However in most cases, I’m able to take an idea and run with it, knowing that I can come up with something that meets or exceeds the client’s expectations.

Typically the most difficult projects — the real stumpers — are about subjects that don’t relate to any tangible objects in the real world. It’s much easier to get creative with a person, place or thing than with an idea. In these cases you have to incorporate related objects to communicate what you are trying to convey. For example lets look at a past project – Noble Plans, a non-profit recruitment agency or RPO.

How do you come up with an icon for Noble? Or Plans? You don’t — it doesn’t exist. The easy way out would be to come up with some typeface and call it good. We solved this problem by using the “cross meaning” method as a way to communicate the meaning of noble. ”Cross meaning” is essentially finding something that is similar to the meaning but drawing from another category. So instead of asking what does noble look like — the question becomes, what is noble?

Some examples of Noble may be: A Politician (haha, …no.)? A Knight? A Shield? Perhaps a Lion?

The answer to the problem was a Lion. It proved to be a good fit to express nobility, integrity and strength. These were also brand attributes the owners wanted to convey. We then used a strong typeface to reinforce. In the end, not only did the Lion make sense, but it also differientiated the brand in a highly competitive category. We also made sure that within their category, their competitors where not using a Lion.

Really great logo designers typically invoke a high level of cleverness into design. Cleverness is the ability to show inventiveness or originality.

I define creativity as: the capacity and talent of a designer to take shape, color, form, style, imagery and type and transcend those design elements into original, progressive ideas that give the viewer or audience something they have never seen before. Creativity can also influence the purchase decision by causing the viewer to feel enjoyment or satisfaction when encountering a piece of communication. In design, creativity is often restrained to ensure accuracy in communicating with the desired target audience. It can also be repressed by the product or service owner’s idea of how best to present itself. These dynamics determine the level of “punch” of any creative execution.

Remember a logo is much more than just a “logo” – it’s the number one business asset that allows businesses to compete and differientiate themselves in the marketplace. For small companies, it’s the pivot point that establishes a sense of pride, ownership and foundation.

Below is the process I generally take when designing a logo. Sometimes when I hear the name of the brand, by God’s grace – the idea just pops in my craw, other times — it takes some work and a lot of thought. But the challenge is what keeps me loving what I do – being a designer and a thinker.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. – Henry Ford

First things first, start off with word association: Using the Visual Thesaurus tool and Dictionary.com - I will look for words similar to the subject’s name, meaning, industry or any other nouns or adjectives to begin to understand the meaning and potential underlying meanings and how they are percieved.
Begin initial concepts: Based on your initial impressions of the subject, sketch out some rough concepts on paper. I will then look for photographs to bring resolution to the concepts.
Create 3 different categories to design – Abstract, Lettertype and Icon
Textures, Materials and Movement – Can you reinforce your message with any of these elements?
Color & Type – Add the appropriate colors and characters (typeface) based on the directive of the communication.
Presentation – a little trick I use to present logos is to arrange them in a way that builds up to a climax – presenting the weakest designs first and ending with the strongest. Try to also arrange in a professional layout, just don’t throw them at the client all at once. Walk them through your process. This helps create a great presentation and leaves you taking applause at the end.
Recommendation - Without a solid presentation your best ideas will fall flat. I always give our recommendations on what we’d like to see the client go with and then fight for it. This adds value to the client and helps you to establish more credibility for later projects.

Joshua Claflin is President, Creative Director and Brand Strategist at Garrison Everest. A Brand Development Company in Denver, Colorado.

Meeteetse Chocolatier

jclaflin — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:28:18 +0000

In June of 2004, Tim Kellogg’s (saddle bronc rider and ranch hand) mother suggested that he make a bunch of truffles and brownies to sell at the Cody Stampede (Wyoming) as a way to raise money for a new bronc saddle. Tim replied, “Absolutely Not!” His mom finally talked him into getting a booth at Art in the Park, and that was that.

Successful brands usually comes from great stories. Unique stories can sometimes be the one thing that causes brands to skyrocket to the front of the mind which impacts profitability. Compare this brand to any other chocolate company and I think you would find yourself choosing the Meeteetse Chocolatier over Cadbury.

Tim Kellogg is a friend of mine from college. So we created a website utilizing Volusion’s (Garrison Everest is a Authorized Reseller of Volusion) shopping cart platform for Tim and his staff to expand his business online. With over 30 products to choose from, it has become an additional revenue stream to his brick-n-mortar storefront in Meeteetse, Wyoming.

Now in its fifth year – chocolate lovers from all over the world can order his gourmet confections. This has been one of the more interesting brand stories and projects we’ve had the privilege to work on.

Visit website: www.meeteetsechocolatier.com

Design Ethics: Watch out for Buzzards!

jclaflin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:11:18 +0000

As designers, we are often solicited by “less-than desirable” prospective clients whose businesses are built on gimmicks and loopholes. These “buzzards” are up to no good and need the shimmer of design to make the lies of their products or services believable to their target market.

In the course of my design career, I’ve seen first hand these slickwheels pedaling their pitches and at one time didn’t find out that the business was a scam until the FBI called. As designers, we can sometimes forget the power we carry to craft messages that persuade and influence purchase decisions. It is the designer that ultimately carries the torch of credibility and trust for the client when going to market. Here are three points I want to make with regard to courting or taking new clients. They have helped us steer clear of otherwise undesirable business partnerships and clients.

1. Be on your guard – always get 50%
A few years back I got involved with a startup that was looking to revolutionize small business. The goal was to create a web presence where a small business operator could order business cards, design a website, conduct seo/ppc and ultimately get discounts from major retailers like Staples, Office Max and Office Depot. The first meeting was everything a designer could ask for, complete design freedom, unlimited budget and a flexible timeline. The owner was extremely convincing. We were told that they had “big” investors stepping up to the plate and that if we signed up we would be on our way to changing the world. This was an exciting project as it pre-dated the existence of HPand the proliferation of web templates. Sounds great, right? Once the proposal was submitted, we were told that it would only take a few weeks to get our security deposit. We ended up moving forward with the logo development, web design and the assembly of our team – programmers, architects and scientists on good faith to develop the massive hosting structure for the millions of websites we would be hosting. After a month passed, the client started getting more and more irritable with our progress even though he still hadn’t paid the security deposit. At this point, everyone started to question this guy’s ability to pay, but the promises kept coming.

After two months, I decided that it was time to cut my losses and jump ship. But the train kept rolling with the team that was willing to stick it out. I was able to eventually get my invoice paid for the work (took 6 months) but the other team members ended up losing thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time to this guy who promised a revolution.

Today, there are several businesses like this that exist and from what it seems, look very profitable. In the end, the client lied about who the “big” investors were and did not take the time to calculate what it would cost to create this idea, nor how to pitch it to investors. He ended up burning a lot of good people in the process and wasting all our time.

2. Do your background checks
Another story of lies and corruption stem from a project we got involved with that offered luxury properties around the world to millionaires, with private jet service to their destination. The client positioned himself as a real estate tycoon who owned some of the most amazing residences around the world – like the ones with their own islands, landing strips and so on. He was networking with other timeshare owners to negotiate time slots for his A-list of clients, which included movie stars, CEOS and sports icons (I won’t name names). This time the client did pay the deposit, however he was extremely anxious to get the work done. This is were things started turning fishy. The website contained over 100 properties, but the imagery being provided was coming from Google image search. We all know that it’s difficult to get high-res photos, but they were not able to provide even one. The workload forced us to pull a few all-nighters where the client would actually show up to our office to check in on us or to drop off another flash drive of photos and poorly written content. Eventually the project concluded – complete with secure login, property galleries, location map, sign up form and logo that was to be placed on their fleet of private jets and yachts. We were paid and went our separate ways. Uneasy about having our firm associated with the client and the services we provided for them, we conducted some investigation of our own. We learned the client was wanted on foreclosure fraud and soprted a probation ankle bracelet – might explain why he always wore seat pants. We decided to head to the courthouse to learn more. We searched the court records discovered that the client was on a docket for a court hearing during the same time we where at the court house. We immediately bailed and were narrowly able to depart unseen; on the way out the client was walking in – a quick move around the corner allowed us to escape undetected. Seriously, you can’t script it better than that! The next day the FBI called. We took the meeting and cooperated fully. Last we heard the client and his wife went to jail, the site got hacked and the son of the client we called “Junior” is no where to be found.

This happened early on in my business. Lesson learned? Do your background checks, trust your intuition and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

3. Go with your gut
Recently we’ve been receiving quite a few calls for packaging, website design and brand development. Drawing on past experience, however, we’ve made it routine to perform our own due diligence in finding out more about our potential clients…and it’s paid off. One had a website completely devoted to exposing their mishandling of refunds, poor products and generally warning everyone to stay away. The second actually had to change his name because the reviews were so bad it was hurting his business. The third – which really takes the cake – had an article on Yahoo! that accused him of selling steroids to rehabilitate a famous NFL quarterback (who was later fined and kicked out of the league), and who became a minister to take advantage of a legal loophole that allowed him to cousel clients without having to disclose any private information if someone came looking for info on his products of unapproved FDA supplements. Sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up!

You could justify these accounts and give them the benefit of the doubt, but at the end of the day, if you can’t look yourself in the mirror and say, “I helped a business, somebody’s life, family or their customers’ lives” – then it isn’t worth the time.

In today’s society of relativism, get-rich-quick schemes and weight-loss gimmicks, we must be vigilant as persuasive communicators in a consumer culture of those who would prey on others. Ultimately, designers hold the key in a digital age of reflective graphics, convincing video vignettes and slick speech. We must be the guardians of what’s beneficial and what’s false with regard to products and services. It’s up to us to say “no thanks” and force the bad-doers to re-evaluate their motives.

Outdoor Edge

jclaflin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:26:39 +0000

Garrison Everest has been working with Outdoor Edge Cutlery since 2004. We have been responsible for the design of their 60+ products for package design, website design and ecommerce, various product logos, catalogs, and other printing projects. Founder and President David Bloch, who is featured on Love of the Hunt TV Program on Versus, The Outdoor Channel and Wild Tv of Canada is known for his innovative hunting knife designs and butchering kits including the SwingBlade and Game Processor.

Outdoor Edge knives are sold in Cabella’s, Sportsman Warehouse, Bass Pro Shops and other boutique retailers around the world.

Garrison Everest utilized Volusion’s ecommerce platform to build Outdoor Edge’s website that includes its entire portfolio of products, hunting videos and how-to DVDs. Through the various shipping functions of Volusion, Outdoor Edge can easily fulfill orders from its warehouse to its loyal customers.

Visit website: www.outdooredge.com

Lennox

jclaflin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 23:08:24 +0000

The Lennox Dog Collar Company started when Mack, the family’s resident German Shorthair, had worn out his leather collar. The search began for a new and improved leather dog collar. It needed to be durable, comfortable and utilitarian, but of course had to reflect Mack’s unique personality and keen sense of style!

Well, fortunately, the search was unsuccessful and the Lennox Dog Collar Company was born.

We helped Gary and Allison Lennox work through the brand development process to uncover what made their dog collars special. Not only did their collars incorporate an “O-Ring” that added a functional aspect to the product, but also that Lennox was for people who lived in the city and played in the country. We positioned Lennox as a high-end brand of dog collars, but focused on the functional aspect in the logo and tagline. The imagery displays dogs at play and gives dog owners a different choice in style.

In the end, Lennox Dog Collars continue to grow in the local dog boutique stores in Colorado and Texas.

“We chose Garrison Everest because we were looking for a firm to truly understand what we were trying to accomplish and who we were as a company. Not only have they exhibited great attention to detail in the creative process, but have also been exceedingly helpful in educating and guiding us to define our brand. On the afternoon of our final brand completion meeting, we left feeling as though Garrison Everest had exceeded our expectations.” - Owner, Lennox Dog Collar Co.

Visit website: www.lennoxdogcollars.com

No Excuses Workout System

jclaflin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:03:07 +0000

The No Excuses Workout System (NEWO) is a subscription-based online personal trainer designed to help you get fit, lose weight and stay motivated with super-efficient interval workouts. NEWO includes an optional heart rate monitor and DVD (that has 6 workouts), motivation and support from our social networks, daily motivational resources, rewards and fitness challenges to keep you going!

This website corresponds with Breakthrough Health & Wellness and is the product site for their B2B offering. Using a WordPress theme, we customized slightly to showcase NEWO and its other products that utilizes 1Shoppingcart.com as the ecommerce platform for checkout. With over 56,000 community group members and growing Facebook and Twitter channels, Founder and Fitness Expert Jonathan Roche continues to help thousands of people with their weight loss goals. The site was designed to bring in the social aspects of the community and provide customer support.

We should also mention here that Garrison Everest was responsible for product development and branding which included logo design, DVD design, User Interface design, instruction manual, fulfillment operations and everything in between. NEWO’s former name Momentum, which we coined was sold to Weight Watchers in 2008. This is an example of how we help our clients from A-Z get to market successfully.

“Garrison Everest has played a pivotal role in the success of Breakthrough Health & Fitness. Without the hard work and skills that Josh and his team has brought to our partnership, we would honestly not be impacting the people who we are currently helping.” - Founder and CEO Breakthrough Health & Fitness

Epic Relays

jclaflin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:44:26 +0000

Get ready to experience a truly EPIC outdoor adventure! It’s a running party with friends. You might sleep, you might not. All you need is: You, 11 of your friends and the desire to run through the most beautiful countryside in America.

I’m an avid runner and triathlete and love it when we get to work on projects that have to do with my favorite free-time activity. We assisted Epic Relays in designing their branding and website – that is backed by a content management system, flash countdowns, newsletter signup, Constant Contact email marketing and SEO. We were able to get Epic Relays front page rankings on Google for their designated keywords like “Running Relay Race.” Epic Relays continues to grow and we expect more races added next year.

Visit website: www.epicrelays.com