Work Recognized at 2011 MAME Awards

Last night, we had the pleasure of attending the 2011 HBAR MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards with our clients at StyleCraft Homes. On top of having a great time with their sales and marketing team, we were thrilled to learn that the work we concepted and produced with StyleCraft led to top honors in seven categories:

• Marketing Excellence By A Builder
• Best Advertising Campaign
• Best Community Brochure (non-video)
• Best Print Advertisement, Magazine, Color Over Half Page
• Best Logo Design
• Best Merchandising of a Model, Single Family Homes $250,000 to $350,000
• Best Sales or Information Center

To see photos and samples of the work that was recognized, click here.

In addition to the work, we’re also extremely proud to share that Kyle Yeatman, StyleCraft Homes’ General Sales & Marketing Manager, was recognized as the 2011 Marketing Executive of the Year. Congratulations, Kyle!

Our first official hire!

We realize it’s been a while since we’ve posted a news update, and truthfully, it’s because we’ve just been too busy to do so. Fortunately this update is going to help with that. We are psyched to introduce you to our first official hire: Taylor Buckholz. We think it’s best to keep with tradition and post his responses to our interview questions.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve designed to date?
A: NMB Annual report from 2006. Was the first project where I “got it”. Might not be the best design I’ve ever done, but was the best design for my career.

Q: What food item would you be able to handle in a competitive eating format?
A: I can eat the crap out of some chewy chips ahoy cookies.

Q: Polaroid or Instagram?
A: I grew up with polaroid, plus, I like tangible things I can hold. Instagram will never replace that. (I do use instagram though.)

Q: Which three countries are on your destination wish list?
A: South Africa, Iceland, Greece

Q: C, M, Y, or K. Which is better and why?
A: M, it stands out the most, put it next to any of the other 3, and your eye goes directly to it.

Q: Step Brothers or Zoolander? Please explain your decision.
A: Step Brothers: I think people sleep walking is the funniest thing in the world for some reason, so that scene made me laugh more than I’ve ever laughed at a movie in the theater, and made up for a lack-luster rest of the movie.

Q: What Vegas Vacation game would you win the most money playing?
A: I’m a fairly decent poker player, especially late at night when all the other people in vegas are drunk.

Q: Who would your dream client be and what would you want to design for them?
A: Merge Records: Every album cover and poster they would ever need.

We think it’s pretty obvious from his responses above that he’s going to fit right in here. Not only does he like Step Brothers, his portfolio is one of the best we’ve ever seen—with phenomenal attention to detail, unique approaches to identity development, and a wide array of beautiful print work. Taylor will be joining studioSavvy as an Art Director, and comes to us after a year and a half with Elevation Advertising in Richmond, preceded by four years at Design Army in Washington, DC.

Please welcome him and stay tuned for more updates as he digs into his new role here.

Office redesign!

After a few weeks of waiting, we finally had our new furniture delivered yesterday. Here’s a sneak peek at our new office setup, and the reason why we are so excited about our new desks!!!

Meet Gabe!

We’d like to introduce you to the newest member of studioSavvy: Gabe Kelley! In case you’ve ever wondered what it takes to be hired here, we’ve decided to post our grueling interview questions along with Gabe’s answers. Obviously, he aced it.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Q: What’s your record for eating hotdogs in one sitting? (Either quantity or speed.)
A: I eat hot dogs at about 1,337 bites per minute. Sadly, I get full after about four loaded with cheese and chili.

Q: What is your favorite font?
A: I take a strong liking to anything Wingding related. But other than that I dig heavily on Knockout.

Q: C, M, Y, or K. Which is better and why?
A: Y. Cause Y not!? I’m hilarious.

Q: Springsteen or Bjork?
A: Bjo…Just kidding, I’m not a dummy. Springsteen.*

Q: What’s going on in your head at this moment? Be specific.
A: I’ve had this thought in my mind all day. Check this out. Slytherin = slither in. I cracked Rowling.

Q: If a train leaves boston going 60 mph and another train leaves new york city going 37.453 mph how long until they meet?
A: Well if 2+2=4, the obvious answer is 117 minutes.

Q: What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
A: 117 minutes.

(Editor’s note: *Incorrect, but 6 for 7 is still pretty good.)

In addition to his outstanding wit and love of unhealthy foods, Gabe is also an excellent designer who will be returning to MICA in August (unless we can convince him otherwise). He is currently working on his BFA in Graphic Design with a concentration in Photography. In his spare time he has created the photography blog poor-places.com that currently has 5,000 followers and a monthly page viewing of about 10,000. Not too shabby!

To learn more about Gabe and to see his portfolio, go to www.gabekelley.com.

We’re really excited to have him here this summer. Please say hello and keep up with what he thinks of life at studioSavvy on twitter @jg_kelley.

Making good GRADEs.

Last night the Richmond Chapter of the AIGA held their biannual awards ceremony, GRADE (Greater Richmond Awards for Design Excellence). Knowing that this competition has historically high standards, I was trying my best to remain optimistic as I entered the room. Much to my surprise, every single piece we entered was on display!

Throughout the evening I met and mingled with other fellow designers, and was introduced to many people who had recognized my name from our work. Tremendously flattering.

At the end of the night we walked away with the following:

• Award of Merit in Advertising Design for the StyleCraft Quality Campaign
• Award of Merit in Logos and Icons for The White Thread Logo
• Award of Merit in Posters for The Richmond Type Map
• Award of Merit in Stationery for Sensei Development’s Identity System
• Award of Merit in Stationery for studioSavvy’s Business Cards

All in all, it was an extremely successful evening for studioSavvy!  We’re excited to share these awards with our clients, copywriter Kathleen Toler, and printing extraordinare, Foley Company.

}Carrie

Victory is theirs!

This past Saturday, an epic Laser Tag battle took place at SkateNation Plus. Teams from studioSavvy, Feedback and Hired Guns met on the 5,000 square foot LaserTron field to settle once and for all who Top Dog is when it comes to running around in the dark dressed like storm troopers.

After 30 minutes or so of intense game play, scores were tabulated and a clear winner emerged.

Our congratulations goes out to the team from Feedback, who’s combined three game score of 109,050 was the clear winner. If there was such a thing, the highly sought after but rarely attained Golden Laser Trophy would go to them. Unfortunately, team captain Dean Browell was too busy re-energizing by eating chips and salsa at Plaza Azteca afterward to comment. However, we assume he would have given credit to his teammates and to discovering Rapid Fire mode at the right time.

studioSavvy placed a close second with a total score of 92,860, but we have our heads held high. From Hunter Knierim: For a team made up of four people who didn’t realize we lost points for ‘friendly fire’, I think we did pretty well. And there will be a next time.

The team from Hired Guns came in a distant fourth. 18,365 points. Really? (Way too far behind to be considered third.) They only sent one warrior to fight on their behalf, but with a name like Hired Guns, frankly we considered them a dark horse favorite going in.

The Richmond Show 2010

Friday night I had the privilege to attend the 2010 Richmond Show hosted by the Richmond Ad Club. Hunter and I were both a little nervous going into this year’s awards given the fact we had so much fun enjoying our success last year (exhibit a). It would be a teeny bit embarassing to go home empty handed after that much fanfare.

Luckily, this year studioSavvy had the honor of going home with a Silver for our New Business Cards, and, even more exciting, a Gold Award for The Richmond Type Map!!! Once again we’re honored to be recognized for our work, especially considering the level of competition that this show always brings.

Some notable moments for me were:

• Listening to the hilarious Gene Cox call advertising people “boogers”
• Enjoying the full length version of the “Swagger Wagon” as Black Iris took home Best in Show under the Production Awards. Seriously, that spot gets me every time. (Play it. You know you want to.)
• A Cotton Candy machine!!
• Not tripping on my way up to the stage. Twice! Quite a feat.

More articulate people have posted recaps here and here, and the full list of winners is available here.

Once again, we are honored and proud to show off our cannonballs. Whether or not the gold babies will make it through TSA remains to be seen… stay tuned.

}Carrie

PS. Thank you to my muse, Jeff Kelley, for all of your support and for giving me the idea and motivation to complete the type map. We owe you a big chunk of medal.

New business cards.

After one incredibly botched printing catastrophe, we finally managed to have our new business cards produced the way we had envisioned!

We stuck with a classic black and white setup, but wanted to add a twist that would make these cards stand out from the pack. The cards were printed on a privately-owned letterpress by a friend of a friend. We used 92# Reich Savoy for the top and bottom layers, and had him sandwich in a 100# cover sheet of French Paper’s pop-tone in black licorice. Overall there are 8 cards involving 4 complimentary sets of icons.

We think they’re pretty awesome, and so have some of our peers:

Love Stationery
Brooklyn Bride
Oh So Beautiful Paper