The campaign, which showcased the city’s incredible summer of art, featured national print ads, online banner ads, a micro site (above), rack cards and posters throughout SFO. We’re always thrilled when industry insiders recognize and reward great work. A huge thanks to Lynn Bruni and the rest of the marketing team at the SFCVB for bringing us on and making this happen!

Find out more about our advertising work.

The featured logo is for the Feld Institute, a seminar-driven organization training attendees to improve individual aspects of their lives by understanding how those aspects fit into the larger whole. The logo itself embodies the ideas of integration and balance, and recalls the origins of those ideas, in eastern philosophy. We’re looking forward to seeing the new book when it comes out next spring!

The problem is, we are just not getting out into nature as much as we should. In fact, there’s clear new evidence that says that children who play and explore outdoors feel less stressed and may develop more confidence and greater social skills. It’s just that problem The Trust for Public Land and The North Face wanted to address. How do we get people out into nature again?

The two organizations came together and decided it’s high time someone promoted the incredible diversity of local parks and outdoor spaces, right here in the city. And so Iron was commissioned to write and design the “San Francisco Urban Nature Guide: 2009.” This handy pocket map features nine of the city’s lesser-known, but fun-filled parks, with suggestions on how to make the most of our time in the great outdoors. The guides are free and being distributed through The North Face stores this summer. It’s time to put on a pack and hit the park!

This week the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco launched their new web site which we designed and helped to develop over the past 6 months. The site is intended to provide a more interactive, informative and user-friendly experience and is filled with great information about the Clubs and programs, their important partners and some history of the Clubs in San Francisco. Check out some of the following NEW features we designed into the site:

• Sophisticated back-end development allows the site to act as a key fundraising and marketing tool
• Integrated CMS gives the client complete control over the content of the site
• Revised look and feel ensures consistent brand implementation
• Improved and easy-to-use online giving feature, complete with corporate match information and options for recurring gifts
• Interactive maps and full Clubhouse listings
• The option to sign up to learn more and receive an e-newsletter
• Extensive new photo galleries

It was a privilege to work with such an important organization. Our goal was to redevelop the site as an engaging and dynamic communication channel, ensuring the look and feel meshed perfectly with the organization’s re-brand. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Read more about our non-profit work
Read more about our web design work

But this was a symptom of an age-old advertising problem: good radio is hard to do and it doesn’t have the portfolio cache that TV does. So the hardest thing to do well always falls to new, less experienced writers. In other words, most agencies aren’t very good at radio in the first place – and the need to do it in half the time has simply shined a light on that fact. On the other hand, agencies that specialize in the “theater of the mind” are more in demand than ever.

Listen to more of our radio spots here

Last night Alice (pictured above) and I performed at Pecha Kucha in San Francisco. The theme for the evening was “CAUSE” and the event was part of San Francisco Design Week.

The format of the event is simple. You present 20 slides and talk about each for 20 seconds. Our theme was cause/affect, the graphic design competition we developed on behalf of the local chapter of the AIGA: the professional association for design. It was an incredible experience and gave us a great chance to get together with a bunch of do-gooders all doing incredible work.

It was one of those fantastic moments when a client took time out of their busy schedule to call and thank us. Why? Well, their phones had been ringing off the hook as the ad campaign we had been working on started to click into high gear. This was the pinnacle of a six month effort which saw us radically improve their Bay Area media buy, revise their marketing strategy, and redesign their print campaign.

We are excited to see how the campaign helps the organization strengthen its position as the premiere destination for seniors, and we look forward to developing their marketing materials further.

Read more about our advertising work
Read more about our non profit work
Read more about our media buying experience

The campaign, which showcased the city’s incredible summer of art, featured national print ads, online banner ads, a micro site, rack cards and posters throughout SFO. Our fingers are crossed!

Read more about our advertising work

We recently designed the Gala Invite and event program for the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, and we’re pleased to report the event was a huge success.

I was lucky enough to attend the event and was thrilled to learn it raised a phenomenal $550,000! Click here to see pictures from the event. With this money, the Clubs will continue to run vital programs that help kids succeed in school, build strong character, develop healthy lifestyles and graduate from high school with a clear post-secondary plan.

We’re also putting the finishing touches to the orgnization’s web site, which is due to launch in the middle of the month.

Read more about our non-profit work
Read more about our web design work

The seminar, entitled: “Making a Difference. Designing for Social Responsibility”, gave a broad overview of the topic encouraging us, as business and community leaders, to promote the spirit of philanthropy and volunteerism.

The seminar was well attended and I was suprised by the commitment and diversity of the group. If there’s one thing I took away it was that more and more people are passionate about incorporating some degree of social responsibility into their daily practice.

Read more about our work with non-profit organizations.