Giant3

With Corporate identity, it is critical to stay on task and keep all your marketing collateral and outreach on theme. Everything a customer or prospect sees need to be consistent. It needs to project the same values and messaging. The viewer should subconsciously know that is comes from you. That’s what branding is all about.

When Mantas connected with us, they needed an image overhaul that included messaging, an updated look and feel and overall–consistency. So often, we are called in to work on one particular project, but to be consistent, the designers and wordsmiths need to be on the same page. What began as a need for print design quickly overflowed to internet, presentation and trade show materials.

I started PlanetShifter.com with developer Cheth Rowe and graphic artist Andrea Fuenzalida over six months ago because we need everybody’s ideas and vision to re-build a healthier, sustainable and just world. We need to take risks. I want us to reach past our self-interest and fears to risk and share in new sustainable solutions.

Somebody just asked me if I would have started this project if I had known where the world economy would be on 03/03/09. I told her,” Yes!” We need to come together now!

Firm to Lead National Media Relations Campaign to “Land” Innovative Green Network

San Francisco, CA – February 15, 2008 – Longbow Strategic Group (LongbowSG), the Big Picture communications firm, today announced that it has been selected by PlanetShifter.com to spearhead the promotion of its online “Innovation Network”.

PlanetShifter.com is a collaboration to work network. It’s a think tank, a virtual water cooler meet-up, and a place to share and refine ideas about sustainability. The community will be driven by artists, musicians, writers and inventors. Rather than launch the new site, its creator and members want to ‘land’ it.

The first ‘Green City Web Portal’ rolls out with the City of Fort Lauderdale leading the way. The Community Greenhouse Foundation’s “Green Communities” program provides residents, organizations and businesses of the community a resource to discover, educate, promote and communicate the benefits of a “greener” community and life in South Florida.

With the goal of establishing fifteen green city web portals, we’re excited to announce a partnership with the City of Fort Lauderdale for the establishment of the first green city site, under our program.

Giant3 partners launch Get Green Directory, an online resource that connects people who care about what’s happening to the world they live in with businesses and organizations doing good things. Connected to the green building industry and the health and wellness world, Get Green Directory is built in sync with the Get Green Today Expo series.

How do you show that your business cares? How can you tell your story, spread the word, about the good work, products and services you deliver? Get Green Directory is a relevant, online resource that helps bring together people who are working for a cleaner, greener tomorrow.

News is a very powerful medium. It can help tell your story and illustrate who you are, who you’ve worked with, and where you’re going. And yet, many organizations don’t effectively use public relations to communicate.

The press release is a simple tool that helps get the word out. Using news as a part of your marketing strategy has many benefits, yet it’s often hard to quantify them or get the bean counters to foot the bill. I tell you today, though, that I’ve found news to be much more effective than advertising.

Creating a new identity for your organization is never taken lightly. When Jeanette Soucy of the Star Center came to us, we knew that an NPO that does so much for kids with Autism (and other learning disabilities) deserved a brand that helped them shine.

Not for profits–and especially a school for special needs–often make important decisions by consensus. And designing a logo, an identity, a brand, requires an inclusive process that allows a group of decision makers to take part in the creation. Longbow’s Eric Needle, has been doing this work since 1990; It’s their forte. Rather than have someone dictate or limit your options, we work with you to refine your image. Our inclusive process makes it easy to build a logo that everyone can be happy with.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Often, tech companies have a hard time explaining what they do. One niche we often find ourselves filling is distilling or refining a complex message into visuals that wider audiences can understand. Engineers sometimes communicate what their companies do, rather than showing the need their products can fill. Illustration and animation tell the story.

DxTech has been busy inventing new diagnostic tools for the healthcare world. Just as diabetics now find it common place checking their own blood sugar levels, new products and systems promise to change the way we do lab work.

Sell sheets are quick, focused collateral that you can hand to a prospect at a trade show or after a sales pitch. Often product identity and marketing is the last thing we think about as we prepare for that big event. Here a little strategy goes along way.

How do you prove the value of your business to the world? You consistently deliver quality, service and satisfaction. Giant3 has been working with AllStar Printing since 2000.

“No matter how many competitive bids we place, locally and nationaly, Matt Longmire and Jef Beeman have worked to deliver quality print to our clients and partners. With each and every job, they exceed the quality our customers demand and beat others’ prices. They work hard for our business.” Eric Needle, President of Longbow, the Space Coast’s premier marketing and communications firm relates.

Many of our clients need illustration and more often and not, it’s in a rushed scenario. Though photoshop and raster image editors are great in a pinch, the power of vector drawing is worth the extra energy.

Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and Corel Draw have long been valuable tools in the artist’s quiver. The value and reason for making vector art, though, is in the application.

Many organizations and businesses face great challenges when it comes to continually keeping their sites fresh. Community-based NPO’s and groups of faith are among those who need to keep its members up to date. Whether it’s big events or small group meets, the people who most need all this updating often just can’t justify the expense.

So often, brochures and printed materials are made at great expense, but do not work towards your overall goals. Each document that comes from your organization are opportunities to reinforce your brand, your message and the vision of who you are.

With any new client, our job is to discover who you are and where you want to go. Defining your positioning is critical. Position describes your market, the segment you live in, and identifies not just you, but everyone else who occupies that space; Yes, the competition. Often we have preconceptions or misconceptions about our competition. Knowing your competition allows us to build upon your strengths and differentiate them. While some of this goes beyond the scope of a print project, it’s all relevant.

The word branding has become commonplace, yet few organizations really tap into the full potential of their brands. Branding is really a very simple practice. Ranchers of the American frontiers marked their cattle with a distinctive mark, a brand, to be able to tell them apart at a crowded marketplace. Today, your brand is no different.

We mark our company, our products and our services with a brand. We call these ideas about visual icons, logos, styles and cues–your identity.

Messaging quickly communicates, grabs and keeps your attention, and is a critical factor is the way to speak to your audiences. Headline news is the de-facto standard in our over-communicated society. To be seen, message needs to be concise, to the point, and simply worth reading.

Who is ATD? We began work with Automated Trading Desk, (ATD) with illustration that distilled down the technical process upon which their business is founded. How can you compress the intellectual property, genius, and thousands of man hours into one picture? It’s a daunting task, but one that proves the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s what ATD needed–a way to quickly communicate why they were so innovative. In addition, we helped wordsmith their content throughout the process, culminating in their tag line, “ATD is technology for smarter trading”.