Wagner Design Associates Blog

Wagner Design Associates, an Ann Arbor, Michigan web design and advertising firm, recently created an improved web site for Bonanza Creek Country Ranch. Designed to be user-friendly and visually engaging, the new site depicts the rugged beauty of the Montana guest ranch with professional and amateur photography throughout. Visitors easily navigate information-packed pages to learn more about Bonanza Creek’s activities, history, amenities, and surrounding attractions. Testimonials from recent guests offer deeper insight into the ranch.

In addition to an engaging new design and expanded content, the Bonanza site was fully optimized for both humans and search engine spider visitors.

“We’ve received many compliments on the new site from both our guest regulars and new visitors,” said June Voldseth, owner of Bonanza Creek Country. “But even more satisfying is the significant increase in the number of visitors and the length of their stay on the site. Inquiries and reservations are up!”

Located in Montana, Bonanza Creek Country Ranch is part of a historical family ranch on 25,000 acres with 1,500 head of cattle. Along with daily opportunities for horseback riding, guests enjoy fishing, hiking, or pampering with massage and hot tub. Bonanza Creek has been honored by Travel+Leisure Magazine as “One of Montana’s Magnificent 7 Guest Ranches”. Visit the website at http://www.bonanzacreekcountry.com/ to learn more.

Wagner Design provides a full range of creative design and advertising services to a wide spectrum of industries including high technology, retail, health care, financial, and academic sectors. The firm has won recognition and awards for its work in print collateral, direct mail, electronic communications, and web design, and has been featured in various design publications.

Wagner Design Associates, a local advertising and graphic design firm, received a Silver ADDY in the Ann Arbor Ad Club’s 2010 ADDY Awards competition.

The silver ADDY was awarded to Wagner Design for a self-promotion flash piece. The online holiday card production featured warm holiday colors and morphing illustrations to accompany a warm greeting. The piece was designed to complement a pro bono calendar Wagner Design produced for Safehouse Center, a local community organization that offers refuge and support for women who have suffered domestic violence. Together both pieces reflect the hope and community spirit of Ann Arbor.

Sponsored nationally by the American Advertising Federation and locally by the Ann Arbor Ad Club, the ADDY Awards Competition recognizes and rewards creative excellence in the art of advertising. Beginning at the local level, in 200 markets nationwide, the ADDY’s three-tiered competition is the largest and most representative advertising awards program in the industry.

Wagner Design provides a full range of creative design and advertising in Ann Arbor to organizations in the high technology, retail, health care, financial, and academic sectors. The firm has won recognition and awards for its work in print collateral, direct mail and electronic communications and has been featured in various design publications.

Contact:

Kathy Roeser-Nordling
Wagner Design Associates LLC
T: 734.662.9500
F: 734.662.6590
E: kathy@wagdesign.com

Wagner Design Associates has worked with our client, Ocean Organics, for over twenty years. From designing their logos to creating their trade show booth graphics, we enjoy partnering together for business success.

From the Ocean Organics website, here is a little about their company:

We have been processing seaweed and formulating fertilizers for over 30 years. Collectively, the five key members of our staff have been involved in the seaweed industry for more that 130 years. We selectively extract high levels of beneficial compounds from seaplants using techniques that are both sophisticated and sustainable. Our innovative processing technologies yield products richer than others yet with fewer solids and lower viscosity. This means our extracts can be used with a broader range of materials with better blending, mixing and stability characteristics. Our seaweed-based fertilizers, biostimulants and soil conditioners lead the industry in quality, effectiveness, cost efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Manufacturing for Ocean Organics is based in Waldoboro, ME while the administration for the company is based in Ann Arbor. The company set themselves apart by continuously working to upgrade their product, often finding new uses for their fertilizers by tweaking the formulas. Once mainly a supplier for the golf course industry, Ocean Organics has successfully expanded into agriculture, professional and residential landscape, gardening, and sports turf. Because their innovative products are based on an organic formula, some are OMRI listed for organic gardening.

Wagner Design Associates has worked on three Ocean Organics’ websites and strive to keep them current as they head in various marketing directions. Most recently Wagner has created new product labels, reorganized their email system, and created a new trade show booth. Creating strong marketing communications for clients like Ocean Organics makes working in Ann Arbor advertising and graphic design an exciting and gratifying experience.

Welcome back to the third in a series of seven blog posts that highlight examples of work from our Ann Arbor graphic and web design portfolio, and identify and discuss each of the seven elements of design: color, line, shape, direction, size, texture, and value.

Size is a somewhat sensitive subject in the design community. A common misconception by clients is that in advertising, biggest is best. It’s true that a big font or a big mark will attract attention. But attention, when it comes to advertising should be positive. The idea is to attract, not repel.

If a very angular font is used, for example, making it huge will make people feel like they are being shouted at. If that’s not the effect you were looking for, reconsider the size. In the same vein, a humungous logo is not necessarily the best way to make your company known. Sometimes a big mark is so intrusive that the message itself gets lost. Bigger is not always better. Balance is essential for attracting onlookers and relaying important information.

Take a look at the Highscope International Conference Mailer Cover & Fold Out Poster. Both were created with current branding in mind. The goal was to ensure a consistent look that unified them with Highscope’s previous marketing pieces. We used some very large elements but balanced them with smaller images and blocks of copy so that we could highlight the content of the mailer. Notice that although the logo has been downplayed, the poster is still a very recognizable part of the Highscope marketing family.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a mailing seminar at Allegra Print & Imaging, with one of our partners, Laura. I’ve been curious about print advertising in this economy. Namely, is there still a place for it? And the answer, of course, is yes!  Ann Arbor advertising takes many shapes and forms, and they work better together: print, web, and word of mouth.

Believe it or not, print advertising remains the most popular way to advertise. And now, businesses can make their mailings more targeted than ever. Many print companies have mailing specialists who can access specific stats in communities. For example if your company is a welcoming service, a mailing could be sent to specific houses in specific neighborhoods because your mailing specialist has access to information about which homes recently sold in the area. Looking for neighborhoods or communities with a certain base or cap income level? Need to find customers who enjoy travel? Your advertising agency and mailing specialist can help you with this type of targeted marketing. Now more than ever, your mailings can reach the people who want your products.

There are a variety of types of mailers that can reach your audience, from posters to brochures to postcards.  Direct mail pieces offer a multitude of ways to connect to potential clients and let them know that your company sells the items or services they need.

Of course, a well-optimized web presence has some terrific advantages, so you shouldn’t neglect that form of advertising. But, the advantages of print advertising are clear: strong, targeted marketing to people who are likely to want what you’ve got to offer. WIN, WIN!

I thought it would be interesting to do a series of blog posts that identify and discuss examples of work which highlight individually each of the 7 elements of design: color, line, shape, direction, size, texture, and value.

The first design element for this series is color. The basics of understanding how to classify color into groups like primary, tertiary, compound, etc., aren’t going to be the focus here. I want to talk more about how color behaves in design, in relation to other colors and shapes.

Let’s take the color red for example. If you were to compare the same red spot on different color backgrounds, there would be very different effects. Red would appear more vibrant against a black background and somewhat duller against a white background. In contrast with orange, red would look lifeless; in contrast with blue-green, it would be more brilliant. Also, the red spot would appear larger on black than on other background colors. Sometimes a single color can appear as two different colors if two background colors are used. The effect is that of four colors being used, when it was really only three.

Observing the effects colors have on each other is a stepping-stone for understanding the relativity of color, the relationship of values, saturations, and the warmth or coolness of respective hues.

An example of how our Ann Arbor advertising firm uses color to affect a certain advertising piece is this comedy show poster we did for Planned Parenthood Mid-Michigan. Note how the blues and greens play with one another to create multiple hues and communicate fun. While greens and blues are traditionally calming tones, the design team used them here to enliven the piece and create an atmosphere of energy.