Drake Creative RSS Feed

How to handle VERBIAGE

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:09:14 GMT

Category: Content Development

As someone who accepts money from people, money he uses to pay his mortgage, I’m not prone to ranting about their weaknesses. But occasionally we have clients who give in to the temptation to sound like insiders by partaking in marketing speak.

It’s not their fault. I blame the manipulators who delight in enslaving and torturing language, in beating it into a sad submission of cliches, lingo and catch phrases, and then selling it in e-books and how-to videos to hard-working and unsuspecting people who are trying to make a living.

Take the word verbiage, for instance. It’s been exploited. Oppressed. Battered.

I can’t tell you how many times clients or potential clients have called asking me for verbiage.

Verbiage, noun, overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing or speech; wordiness; verbosity. Origin: 1721, from Fr. verbiage "wordiness" (17c.), from M.Fr. verbier "to chatter," from O.Fr. verbe "word," from L. verbum "word"

That’s right: verbiage means excessive or unnecessary words. I don’t care how much someone pays me; I won’t give them that.

Gone Fishin'

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:39:05 GMT

Every August we like to remind ourselves why we chose that bug for our logo. So we’re in Idaho, in rivers and breaking the line that connects us constantly to the interwebs, although, we hope, not the line connecting us to the fish. We wish pleasant summer days and nights to you all.

{sharethis}

Half Moon Theatre Web UI 2

alex@betterbug.com (Alex Tuller) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:29:33 GMT

Half Moon Theatre Web UI 1

alex@betterbug.com (Alex Tuller) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:26:01 GMT

Barnabys Steakhouse Website Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:17:43 GMT

Category: Website Design

I love a client that feeds me when I visit. Anyone who knows Alex or me knows we are suckers for food. When we set up shoots for food, we don’t allow any styling tricks. We like to eat it when we’re done.

We designed this website as part of a continuing brand effort for Barnabys Steakhouse in New Paltz, New York. You can’t work on something like this without the basic ingredients of invested owners and good food. In this case we had the added flourish of a setting that is beautiful and historic: Barnabys was built as a theater in 1863, out of brick from the local brickyard in New Paltz.

That sort of thing serves not only as great inspiration; it also works beautifully as backdrop. And who is going to turn down a great backdrop, whether you are shooting, or just eating dinner?

You can see more of our identity work for Barnabys here. You can visit their website here.

{sharethis}

How to Remake Oz’s Tornado for the Stage

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:43:37 GMT

Category: Theatrical Design

When our clients ask us how we’re going to do something, I often tell them it’s all theater, that there is no one right way to do it, and that the end result is good if their audience appreciates it. And for some jobs, like showing a tornado through the windows of Dorothy’s house on a live stage, it really is all theater.

Lou Trapani, director of the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, says that if people make the effort to buy their tickets and be in their seats when the curtain goes up, you have to do everything you can to give them a good show.

I’d add that when you have your chance in front of your audience, it’s not the time to look like everyone else, to blend in and not be heard. It’s your time to shine, to say what you have to say clearly, and earn your applause. (You can apply this metaphor to the real world too, hint, hint.)

And what better to blow an audience out of their seats than a tornado?

How to alleviate anxiety through communication

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:56:16 GMT

Category: Brochure Design

When you're driving through a town you don’t know and you can’t find a street sign anywhere – and for the sake of argument, let's say your GPS isn’t working – what do you feel? Frustration? Fear? Hopelessness? Me, I have to go with rage, because thoughtfully placed signs would solve my problem, allowing me to understand where I am and where I am going.

Now multiply those feelings times twenty.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the inability to communicate and interact with others is the common symptom of all sufferers of autism. In a way, their lives are missing all of the street signs.

Our client, Sloan Architects, designed the master plan for the Anderson Center for Autism in Staatsburg, New York. In researching a white paper-style brochure for them about the project, I spent a day there. The inability to communicate, I learned, is a major cause for the challenging behavior associated with autism (the sort of behavior script writers like to use to dramatic effect).

Recent Work: Palace Diner sign design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:09:08 GMT

Category: Environmental Graphic Design

It's easy to get excited about a project that requires a crane, a cherry picker, a metal shop, and a crew of seven guys. Our most recent environmental graphic design project was just that kind of project – the kind that stops traffic.

For years now Alex and I have been looking to scrap the old sign at the Palace Diner, the one lots of people drove past but no one ever saw. Last Saturday, the time finally came, and all morning those drivers were rubbernecking to see what we were doing. Some of them even stopped to talk.

It started as a concept, a vague discussion over coffee — at the Palace in this case — that developed through rough sketches and more focused mock ups before it ever got to the approvals stage. You think you know how it will look, but you never really do until it's up. So you work your way through construction and eventually through installation, and at times you barely believe it's actually coming together.

But suddenly there it is, in this case our monument to the Vanikiotis family and their restaurant. Here's a little photo essay so you can see highlights.

How to brand an overnight success

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:13:44 GMT

Category: Identity

Alison came to us weighing two ideas for a business. One scared her to death because she wanted it so much. The other seemed like a practical way to get the bills paid. Then she got lucky; she landed her first client. A big one. The kind that brings you ten more, and some of those are just as big or bigger.

That made the decision for her, and we never mentioned that practical idea again. But having seen what she’s done since, Alison would have made that choice anyway. Risk may scare her a bit – and that’s smart – but she isn’t afraid to take it on.

A lot of start-ups approach us for help with their identities. How they approach us says a lot about their take on risk and likely indicates what they’ll invest in themselves. Too many of them say something like: “But I need you to build the website first. That way I can start making money so I can pay you.”

If you are asking someone to shoulder your risk for you, you have nothing at stake.

That is not how Alison approached us. She wanted an identity for her company, Blue Flower Arts, that would give life to her vision of a cultural organization that fostered spoken word events, with a strong emphasis on poetry as a powerful oral medium.

How to re-brand a small-town institution and not get run outta town

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:28:47 GMT

Category: Identity

I’ll admit to the occasional superhero fantasy where I swoop into an insurmountable situation with my mighty brain and lead the huddled and confused masses to a stylish and inspired glory. In the real world, however, I do try to remember that few people are reviled and ridiculed more than that highfalutin outsider who walks into the room and thinks he knows it all.

Alex and I are outsiders. Eight years ago we moved from New York City to Millbrook, a small – diminutive, actually – town that has welcomed us graciously.

Still, there are two types of residents in a small town. One, the indigenous, is rooted not only through ancestry, but through street name, building facade, memorial and legend. The second moved there from somewhere else.

So when the Bank of Millbrook, an institution so tightly entwined with the Village of Millbrook that some residents have never set foot in another bank, asked us to revamp their identity, we knew better than to start by telling them what we thought a bank should be.

Recent Work: Pearl Abraham website, blog and book trailer

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:23:20 GMT

Category: Website Design

Who knew asking someone to define what makes a martyr could be so upsetting?

Pearl, to our great delight, is someone who has no interest in the conventional.
It makes her books a pleasure to read. It makes Pearl a fun working partner.

But the subject of her book: an American soul surfer fascinated with Sufism
and caught up in the camps outside Peshawar? This theme of martyrdom in
a post-9/11 world either gets people pumping their fists, or throwing them your
direction.   When we made the video trailer for this book, we decided with Pearl
to avoid the conventional notion of a movie trailer style that reveals some bit
of plot and intrigue, and worked instead toward posing the question:

How do you define what makes a martyr?

We’ve been thrilled to see some people stop and think about that, and it’s been amazing and gratifying to learn something
of their core beliefs in the process, as if they broke open and exposed themselves. It’s been equally amazing to see the
degree of venom that can result, and not just about beliefs, but about the creative choices we made.

It’s a special project that takes you somewhere like this.

Where to begin

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:33:34 GMT

In a creative field it’s critical to have developed a system that works for you, that results in consistently fertile ground for the growth of ideas.

We emphasize form – not to be confused with formula – and to do that we approach each new project the same way: as though we don’t know a thing about it.

We begin by researching the field, probably like much of your audience would, absorbing enough information to be able to ask questions. Seeing enough of what is out there to grasp what the conventions are. Discovering who does what you do best and considering why. Sometimes, when we’re lucky, that who is you.

We learn the language, the images, the colors that predominate, the ideas that dominate, the interplay, the expectations and fascinations and the disappointments as well.

Then we focus our attention on you. Your who. Your what. Your how. Your then. Your tomorrow. We look at it like you do and we look at it from the perspective of your audience.

Our goal is over-saturation. We want to be bubbling over with you-ness. Once we’ve reached that point – then we’re ready to start into design.

Learn Create Think

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:32:12 GMT

We’re idea designers. We’re graphic designers. We’re content developers.

We create systems that broadcast your message. We do that on the web, in print, and on signs.
We build strong and clear identities.

Learn

In a creative field it’s critical to have developed a system that works for you, that results in consistently fertile ground for the growth ideas. We begin by immersing ourselves in understanding you.

See our Process »

Create

With close to four decades of combined experience as creative and art directors, we’ve learned that there are projects that require just one of us, and those that demand a team of remarkable talent and diverse skill to turn concept into beautiful reality.

See our Services »

Think

Sometimes the best way to develop your ideas is to send them out into
the world and see what comes back.

Come play »

How to talk to a room full of strangers for 3 hours

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:43:06 GMT

Category: Web and Identity

I gave a talk at the Hotel Sierra in Fishkill, New York, for the Dutchess Regional Chamber of Commerce last week. On blogging and branding in social media. It was part of my effort to follow the same advice I give my clients: Engage your community.

I didn’t used to know what that meant. The experience of living and working in a city like New York differs drastically from the interweaving that takes place in region like the Hudson Valley. In New York we were single faces among millions. In Millbrook, we discovered what can happen when you are one among hundreds.

When we moved our business here in 2004, we knew almost no one. It occurred to us that to survive, we would have to become visible. So how do you become involved in an area where most people have known each other since childhood?

Oddly, we managed that through blogging.

How to tend a prolific blogger

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:00:09 GMT

Category: Web and Identity

I am not an avid gardener. I’m barely an apathetic one. So the notion of digging up and moving and replanting and reorganizing a garden from year to year would never have occurred to me were it not for Leslie. Formerly a Garden Q&A columnist for the New York Times, Leslie spends her days in gardens, thinking about gardens, shaping gardens to life.

When she’s not blogging that is.

In 2005, when we began the process of designing her first website, I suggested that, given her newspaper background and her ingrained understanding of editorial calendars and deadlines, she was the perfect candidate for a blog.

“It sounds awful,” I believe was her reply. But you could hear that dawning resignation in her voice, the first indicator that she’d already accepted the inevitability of this path despite her devout Luddism.*

How to extend your brand and not overshadow your clients

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Category: Logo and Identity

That’s a question, isn’t it? How do I get what I want or need without alienating the people who send me money?

It comes down to a critical point I make to all of our clients, and it really doesn’t matter what their business is. It’s never about you. It’s about your customer, even when it’s about you.

I have a client, a not-to-be named one in this particular instance because this story isn’t about her, who wanted to know why she was getting no traffic and no response to a project she’d worked hard on and sent out into her social media world. So I went and took a look.

Morgan Stanley Capital International ETF Research Materials Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:08:52 GMT

Morgan Stanley ETF Information Design and Content Development

Developed content and restructured information delivery for Exchange Traded Fund research materials
(Created in conjunction with Richard Bonner and Katie Nurton of Morgan Stanley)

Flo and Joe Event Logo Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:49:38 GMT

Flo and Joe, Event Logo

Drake Creative Logo Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:41:40 GMT

All logos at once

An interactive thumbnail gallery

One logo at a time

More of a stroll if you will

Bank of Millbrook Letterhead Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:37:03 GMT

Contact

alex@betterbug.com (Alex Tuller) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:37:36 GMT

Drake Creative LLC is a multidisciplinary design firm located in Millbrook, New York, in beautiful
and rural Dutchess County. We are extremely wired in, however, and can even be reached all of the
traditional ways. We look forward to hearing from you.

Drake Creative LLC
PO Box 64
Millbrook, NY 12545
t: 845.677.8918
f: 845.677.8718
e: click here

You can also reach us through this form:

{form 1}

Services

alex@betterbug.com (Alex Tuller) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:27:53 GMT

We maintain a network of creative, technology and production professionals,
giving us the capacity to expand as needed so we can produce exacting work
in timely and cost effective ways. Just because we like to be small doesn’t
mean we have to act small.

{loadposition user3}

Identity

identity systems
logos
product naming
taglines
web
signs
advertising
packaging
printed collaterals

Content Development

strategic writing
corporate large scale content restructuring
information architecture

Website Development

user interface design
information architecture
content management systems
database design
ecommerce
open source platform customization
video production

Environmental Design

signs
wayfinding

Theatrical Design

large scale backdrops
projections
animations
video production

Print Design

event logos
brochures
packaging
posters
invitations
business cards
letterhead/stationary

Publication Design

newsletters
newspapers
magazines
white papers
book

Art Direction

photo shoots
custom illustration

Production

print production
website programming
audio/video production
live event production

Website Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:43:55 GMT


Leslie Land Garden blog, Author website	Internet Archive Search engine, Internet museum	Bodsana Mindful Yogawear Corporate identity, e-commerce

Solid State Cooling Systems Corporate identity, online product customization	Dyson Foundation Website with interactive grantmaking functionality	Blue Flower Arts Literary speakers agency website

The Secrets of the Bulletproof Spirit Self-help book website	Bank of Millbrook Corporate identity website	Palace Diner Website & blog with social media integration

Pearl Abraham American Taliban Author & novel website	Dyson Foundation Annual Report Online replacement for paper version	Old Salem Farm Horse farm & horse shows website

Bob Mott Personal blog & resume website	Long Lost Blues Book website & supplement	Katharsis Theater Company Theater & ticket sales website

Theatrical Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:30:24 GMT

Working with Drake Creative is a pleasure, they are inspired and create stunning work that brings our events to life. At the same time, Dean and Alex are flexible when they need to be, yet always come to a project with a strong artistic point of view! We come back to them again and again for major events.

^{Eve Ensler
Playwright, performer, and founder of V-Day}


Superdome Arena New Orleans Video, Zipper Graphics, Environmental	Hammerstein Ballroom Environmental Graphics, Projections	Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center Projected Theatrical Backdrops

Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center Walk-in/walk-out projections sequence	Apollo Theater Projected Theatrical Backdrops	More Projects Both recent and underway

Identity Design

dean@drakreate.com (Dean Temple) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:06:36 GMT


Barnabys Steakhouse Logo, Signage, Menus, Advertising	Blue Flower Arts Logo, Web, Collaterals, Advertising	Bank of Millbrook Logo, Signage, Advertising, Website

Palace Diner Logo, Signage, Menus, Collaterals, Advertising	Bodsana Logo, Tagline, Web, Hang Tags	Families First New York Logo, Affiliate Identity System

Drake Creative RSS Feed

How to handle VERBIAGE

Gone Fishin'

Half Moon Theatre Web UI 2

Half Moon Theatre Web UI 1

Barnabys Steakhouse Website Design

How to Remake Oz’s Tornado for the Stage

How to alleviate anxiety through communication

Recent Work: Palace Diner sign design

How to brand an overnight success

How to re-brand a small-town institution and not get run outta town

Recent Work: Pearl Abraham website, blog and book trailer

Where to begin

In a creative field it’s critical to have developed a system that works for you, that results in consistently fertile ground for the growth of ideas.

Learn Create Think

We’re idea designers. We’re graphic designers. We’re content developers.

Learn

Create

Think

How to talk to a room full of strangers for 3 hours

How to tend a prolific blogger

How to extend your brand and not overshadow your clients

Morgan Stanley Capital International ETF Research Materials Design

Morgan Stanley ETF Information Design and Content Development

Flo and Joe Event Logo Design

Flo and Joe, Event Logo

Drake Creative Logo Design

Bank of Millbrook Letterhead Design

Contact

Services

We maintain a network of creative, technology and production professionals, giving us the capacity to expand as needed so we can produce exacting work in timely and cost effective ways. Just because we like to be small doesn’t mean we have to act small.

Identity

Content Development

Website Development

Environmental Design

Theatrical Design

Print Design

Publication Design

Art Direction

Production

Website Design

Theatrical Design

Identity Design

We maintain a network of creative, technology and production professionals,
giving us the capacity to expand as needed so we can produce exacting work
in timely and cost effective ways. Just because we like to be small doesn’t
mean we have to act small.