Posts Tagged ‘Design’
A Fresh Start this Spring
My name is Shaun Culbertson. This spring I’m making a fresh start here at designRoom Creative, one that was 11 years in the making. Eleven years ago, in 2005, I walked into a design studio in downtown Cleveland to interview for a designer position. I was just two years out of college. The room I…
Read MoreThe Leap from Words to Images
I’m often asked how we come up with logo designs from thin air. My answer? It’s never from thin air. It’s a process and it actually starts with words. Words? Don’t you just Google images and look through fancy designer swatchbooks to come up with ideas? Or doodle until something happens? Assessment Makes for a…
Read MoreMy Year in Review
This is my year in review. 2015 has definitely affirmed what I want to do with designRoom Creative. I’m intensely grateful for the people I’ve met, the work we’ve done, and the exciting projects to come. So I’ve put together kind of a list of reverse-resolutions – things that I totally would have wished for…
Read MoreMarsala – Pantone Color of the Year: PMS 18-1438
When we establish a new identity or refresh an existing one, we provide our clients with brand guidelines. These guidelines are a set of rules that help to maintain the consistency and integrity of a brand over time. Within the guidelines, we provide specs for the brand’s exact PMS colors. Pantone Matching System (PMS) is…
Read MoreLet’s Face Heroin Addiction
We shared this heroin addiction campaign blog a year ago. It is reposted because the situation is not getting better. (Blog amended and edited on September 29, 2016.) After hearing and reading comments from good, smart people saying how pissed they are at the cost of an Epipen versus an overdosing addict’s access to Narcan and that…
Read MoreNeed to Know Production: Image Resolution
Image reproduction is pretty important to our work here at dRC. We work with images every day—creating, manipulating, color correcting, scaling, placing, printing, zipping and emailing. We receive images from clients almost daily — logos, illustrations and photographs. Image resolution is critical to successful reproduction. If the image you want on your billboard is a…
Read MoreNeed to Know Production: Color Matters
Understanding your corporate colors is one of the more confusing and overlooked aspects of brand management. Here are some steps to help you along the way: 1. Yes, color is a big deal. “Color increases brand recognition by 80%.” (Source: University of Loyola, Maryland study). Choose your colors wisely. Color is critical to identifying your…
Read MoredesignRoom Creative Collects Three Silver Aster Awards for Medical Marketing, Branding and Web Design
CLEVELAND, OH – MAY 21, 2015 – Once again, Cleveland-based branding, positioning and design studio, designRoom Creative (dRC), has been nationally recognized for its branding, web design and direct response skills. dRC earned three Silver Aster Awards for work on behalf of three different medical clients. The award-winning work included branding and marketing for two…
Read More20+ Years of dRC Holiday Cards. Which is your favorite?
Here is a fun look back at all of the designRoom Creative Holiday cards. Let us know which one is your favorite. Bonus points if you can guess the designers (no cheating past dRC designers). Hint: I try as hard as I can to get out of doing the card every year, but some of…
Read MoreMy Top 7 Resources for Color Inspiration
I spend less than two minutes picking paint colors from that massive swatch kiosk at Home Depot. I go with my gut. But I really only have myself to please. It’s different in my design work. There are so many factors that go into developing a color palette for a brand, a campaign or even…
Read MoreI Love Black, and Other Color Trends.
I own a creative studio. Every day here is colorful. Our designers are immersed in color, recommending palettes for client brands – digging deep into color psychology, meaning, relationships, competition, hierarchy and every other aspect you can think of. Even our walls are a bright orange and pale blue. I oversee this colorful kingdom while wearing…
Read MoreWhat the Font!?
I’m warning you up front. That this is a curmudgeonly blog about design language. First, when speaking out loud of a photograph, it is a “picture.” Not a “pitcher.” Now that that’s out of the way, let’s discuss Font vs Typeface. Like when people say “font” when they really mean “typeface”. Or vice- versa. Whatever.…
Read More