Strategy/Writing/Design | Connecting your message with your markets
At Crown Hill Cemetery, the third-largest non-governmental cemetery in the U.S., one of its most famous of its memorials honors Mary Ella McGinnis, who died on August 6, 1875, at the age of six. If you stand in just the right spot at the right time of day, her monument appears to return your gaze. … Continued…
Madam C. J. Walker became America’s first self-made female millionaire. This dynamic entrepreneur founded a cosmetics empire with a product she created to treat her own hair loss. She built her company in Indianapolis, Indiana, along with an architectural gem of a facility that combined a theatre with spaces devoted to community use. This building … Continued…
The Indianapolis Senior Center supported residents ages 50 and older with an extensive menu of services focused on independent living, good health and well being, intellectual and cultural enrichment, and travel and tourism. Its quest for a better alternative to its long-standing facility ended with the determination that buying and renovating its current facility offered … Continued…
Many new college graduates migrate to other parts of the country in search of job prospects that they either know or believe they cannot find in their home states. Fewer college students opt for teaching careers. Because of these trends, the aging teacher population, and other factors, many schools scramble to fill their teaching ranks. … Continued…
A publishing executive who attended the 1963 March on Washington was moved by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to create an organization designed to increase the representation of people of color in influential positions within American corporations. He established INROADS as a non-profit network of locally incorporated non-profits serving … Continued…
An audio electronics guru wanted a logo for his consulting business, named after an old-school cookie product. I created a design that plays off the fact that the same letter ends the first and begins the second word of the name. The look also captures the two-sided nature of the client’s business, including both component … Continued…
Orthopaedics Indianapolis wanted to promote its services directly to employers and parents. I wrote two ads that used original illustrations based on the character of Humpty Dumpty, the fallen egg in need of rescue. One message promoted the need for expert orthopaedic care to resolve workplace injuries. The other, addressing families with athletic youngsters, pointed … Continued…
For the orthopaedic specialists at SCORE, I wrote a series of ads that focused on individual sports, including baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. Each ad used an exaggerated statistic to emphasize the difficulty of competing while injured: a 700-foot distance to hit a home run, a 20-foot high basketball rim, an opposing football team with … Continued…
ARCA racing team WebeRacing needed a high-visibility logo for its primary car, one that would be easy to prepare on a computer-driven vinyl cutter. My design highlights the “W” in the team’s name (also the last initial of its driver) with a look that spells “speed.”
At the same time that Indiana educational trends pointed to rising high school dropout rates, many Hoosier college students who wanted to pursue teaching careers sought other opportunities because of the widening gap between teacher pay and the compensation in other professions. The Congressional Choice for Educational Excellence scholarship program was designed to help would-be … Continued…
This Italian restaurant established its identity with billboards, television, and radio. Television and radio spots shared the same scripts. To tie its menu to family-style comfort food, out-of-home messaging centered around two tag lines: “So good, you’ll leave home for it” and “Every bite as good as it looks.”
Nearly a decade after the events of September 11, 2001, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began accepting petitions from communities that wanted to develop local 9/11 memorials. Petitioners whose plans gained acceptance received Ground Zero artifacts to incorporate into their sites of remembrance. Indianapolis firefighter and paramedic Greg Hess, who had … Continued…
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana provides organizational leadership for girls and adults in a large number of Hoosier counties: 35, at the time GSCI embarked on a capital campaign to replace its longtime office space with a building more suited to its mission and its people. I researched, wrote, designed, laid out, typeset, and produced … Continued…
[Please note: I’m only allowed to share the scripts of these spots and can’t identify the client’s location.] ——————– In light of the bleak statistics on reuniting lost dogs and cats with their families, Washington Humane, an animal welfare organization with a no-kill shelter, wanted to promote its discounted microchipping event at a local mall. … Continued…
The Phoenix Theatre, an Actors’ Equity member institution, presents diverse plays, including recent Broadway hits (which it’s often the first Midwest theatre to stage) and new works by Hoosier playwrights. It mounts its productions on two stages in a renovated church that’s been its home since 1988. Faced with ongoing needs for updates to its … Continued…
On Your Level Youth Project uses broadcast media, online resources, and face-to-face interactions to encourage teens to explore and accept diversity, communicate honestly and openly, and seek out productive life paths as they forge their way into adulthood. The project is the brainchild of teacher, media personality, and spoken word artist Blair Karsch, a multi-decade … Continued…
The Indiana Dental Association’s Annual Session brings together practitioners from around the state for continuing education and social events. When the Association used a thematic tag line (“Beyond Tomorrow, Beyond Ourselves”) to tie together one year’s activities, I created a signature image for use on printed pieces that signed up exhibitors, registered participants, provided a … Continued…
This product photograph accompanied an article in the quarterly magazine published by the Indiana Dental Association. The original image cropped off part of the top and one end of the sealed package, which set at an odd angle against a gradient background. I removed all four components of the image from the background, rebuilt the … Continued…
Through media, multimedia, and in-person experiences aimed at a teen audience, On Your Level Youth Project promotes communication and understanding in a diverse world. I created a logo that symbolizes the not-for-profit group’s message of building a strong base of understanding among gender identities, races, and belief systems.
For a technology-oriented company that specialized in providing computer systems and services targeting the graphic arts, I created a typographic logo that matched up precisely geometric letter forms with a swirling, graceful ampersand. The combination of hard-edged and curved shapes echoed the focus of the client’s business, aptly named for its products and its customers.