Design can be used to enhance the visual appeal of a product or service. It can be used to organize complex information or give meaning to abstract concepts. Sometimes design is used to make a bold statement or to evoke a specific emotion.

Design can do all of those things and more, but the underlying quality always remains the same — to strengthen clear communication.

When USA Cycling approached us with the opportunity to design their High Performance Plan (HPP) presentation, clear communication was the driving force behind the entire project. The HPP weighs in at around 135 pages of information ranging from high-level to technical, broken into 15 sections. We were told that the bulk of the content had changed little from year to year. Our challenge? To make it easy for the reader to digest and quickly grasp the key concepts within the plan. Past attempts had been too busy and not consistent with the USA Cycling brand.

Our first step was to ensure that the base content provided a solid foundation for the design. We had our talented copywriter Tammy Oler collaborate with USAC to edit the existing plan. Throughout the process, Tammy kept the visuals in mind, suggesting modifications that would allow for better communication.

While the copy was being developed, Design Rangers worked to create a high-impact cover design and an interior layout built to let readers find information quickly. The idea was to illustrate the power and passion behind the athletes and their goals.

With final content and the base design in place, we got down to business – creating common visual cues in each section along with a variety of text styles to create consistency and to increase readability. Graphics and charts in each section were re-designed using icons and stylized elements.

The physical appearance of the piece makes just as much of an impact as the contents contained within it. We worked with a local printer to develop a package that would stand out from the rest. Custom 3-ring binders with the new cover and spine graphics were produced to allow for content additions as needed. The binder was constructed with a lay-flat design, a business card window and a pocket in the back to house additional materials. The tabs feature an easy-to-browse design and are reinforced at the hole locations and tabs themselves. The interior is was printed in full digital color on a premium stock. Design rangers also provided a matching PowerPoint template to help ensure consistency.

The final result? A clean, comprehensive guide built to inform and educate. Every aspect of the design and content were refined to make the communication stronger, and USAC is poised to present their plan with confidence.

Such was the case when USA Cycling asked us to create a new look for their National Championships race series. These premier events cover 18 cities and 5 cycling disciplines – road, mountain, track, cyclo-cross and BMX. The races and locations are diverse and full of personality, and the graphics that defined each race had become so too. USAC was worried that their image had become too segmented and that people often didn’t know that the events were part of the series, or held by USA Cycling at all!

To date, the marketing team had been using a combination of different logos, text and images at each race year-to-year. To make things more complicated, each venue had been developing their own signage and materials to promote their events. In addition to creating an identity crisis, the growing number of graphic files and signage made it nearly impossible to manage the entire National Championships campaign.

After brainstorming with the USA Cycling team, we proposed building a “graphic toolkit” that would help them to get things under control and create a solid foundation for the National Championships brand. The toolkit would include a new brandmark for the series along with a set of guidelines and graphic files that could be used internally or by race coordinators. The goal was to create a design that captured the spirit and professionalism of the USAC while allowing room for expansion and the addition of venue specific information.

After sketching out many potential designs, we narrowed down the field to 4 distinct concepts. The final ideas were presented as mock-ups with modular elements that could be re-configured to allow for integration of event names and sponsor logos. Designs were presented in color and black-and-white to ensure that the look could be reproduced effectively in a variety of formats.

Concept #1:

Concept #2:

Concept #3:

Concept #4:

The four designs were narrowed-down to two finalists, both of which were integrated into a variety of situations to show how they would work vertically, horizontally and with additional typography and graphics. The final design uses the USA Cycling logo, letting the flag flow into a strong typographic treatment and 5 stars, representing each of the cycling disciplines. The open design allows similar elements to flow around the text while keeping the main focus on the National Championships at all times.

Final Design:

Now that the foundation for the look had been established, the rest of the “toolkit” was constructed. Key elements included:

• Color palette with breakdown of colors for web and print uses
• Logo files – color, black and white, single-color and reversed
• Signage templates
• Logo files with event names and venues integrated
• Online advertising templates
• Merchandising templates
• Style guide outlining guidelines and best practices for using the graphics

All files were provided in an online download area and on CD-ROM for easy access.

True to their original vision, USA Cycling now has a flexible graphic toolkit that they can use to help define the National Championships brand. The files and guidelines can be provided to partners and race coordinators to help them create their own materials while the internal marketing team can focus on promoting awareness and membership.

Want to see the new look first-hand? Check out the 2010 National Championships schedule.

Have you had a situation where a set of graphics elements or tools helped you? Maybe you have something that could use one now? Let us know in the comments.

And its true, but it’s not just the physical act of pedaling and balancing that that stick in your mind. Most of us recall the freedom of cruising around the neighborhood with friends, the gleam off of a brightly colored frame, or the smile when our own kids wobble down the sidewalk without training wheels.

Local bike shops are an extension of those memories and feelings. Walk into one and you’ll find not only two-wheeled wonders, but an inviting atmosphere full of knowledgable staff who eat, sleep and breathe cycling.

So how do you take all the wonderment of cycling combined with the heart of of a bike shop and translate it into a website?

That’s exactly the challenge that we faced with ProCycling, a Colorado Springs bike shop that needed to translate it’s brand to the web. Walk into ProCycling’s store and once you’re able to shake off the kid-in-a-candy-store gaze, you’ll be welcomed to a world that will leave you itching to get on a bike and outside.

Located in the aptly named Roundhouse (which at one time housed gold-bearing trains from Cripple Creek), ProCycling wanted to showcase its new location and its products online. In addition, they wanted to be able to keep the site fresh by having the ability to add new products and events on-the-fly. Reaching beyond the outline of the project, we felt it was important to not only create a site that was functionally sound, but one that captured the spirit of the store and it’s staff. The result is procyclingwarehouse.com. A custom site that strives to become a virtual extension of the brick-and-mortar shop.

The design
We created a clean, streamlined look for ProCycling that allows the images to take center stage. The simplified layout and limited color palette gives the site a high-end, professional feel while conversational text, vivid photography and clear navigation make the site approachable. Little details like the chain-link separators in the footer and the tire track through the mud on the homepage keep things interesting and add a sense of personality. The entire website is built in a modular fashion so that updates and additions to the site can be easily integrated.

Photography
Since extending the spirit of the new shop was so important, professionally photographed images were used throughout the site. The photographer was able to capture the beauty, detail and scale of the building, bikes and accessories in unique ways. It is crucial to highlight the importance of these images – the feel of the site would have been completely different without the photographer’s artistic vision. Check out the tops of each page or the gallery to see some of the breathtaking shots.

Content management
As stated before, ProCycling wanted the ability to make updates and additions to the site in-house, saving both time and money in the long-run. However, the ability to make changes is nothing without a system that’s easy to use and understand. For a site this size, Wordpress, a free open-source blogging and content management system was the perfect fit. Not only does the platform allow for easy updates (check out the Bike Fitting section that was added by the client), it also takes advantage of web technologies that make the site more functional.

For instance, we were able to use the blogging functions in Wordpress as a fast way for staff to use for the What’s New section. When someone adds a product, Wordpress places the newest items first with the current date. Product categories and tags can be added for sorting and the three newest products automatically show up on the homepage.

The future
ProCycling is a dynamic shop that has a lot of plans for the future. The web is by it’s very nature dynamic, allowing the site to grow and transform along with the company. Planned updates to the site include video testimonials, an e-newsletter and a live-inventory listing. With a solid foundation in place, these things can be added as needed with minimal investment.

We enjoyed working with ProCycling and helping them tread a new path, making their online experience as enjoyable as the one you get walking through their doors.

Are you working to make your site an extension of your brand? Tell us how you’re doing it in the comments.

5o9 is a Boulder, Colorado company that develops software enabling the web to be personal, local and mobile. This unique approach allows companies to send and receive personalized content through the web instead of building complex apps for each mobile device.

5o9 tasked us with creating a website that could communicate the complex technology behind their products and turn it into something that everyone could quickly and easily understand.
Taking the challenge head-on, we developed a site that is clean and easy to navigate while using strong graphics and everyday concepts to create an approachable look. 5o9 felt that the animation on the homepage hit the nail on the head, showing “who”, “what” and “where” scenarios for a diverse group of mobile users.

Upon completion of the web concepts, 5o9 LOVED the new look, but suddenly realized they didn’t love their current logo design. Just like that, a new project was born – create something abstract, friendly, and icon-based. A mark that didn’t need to have the word “5o9″ in it to be recognizable. Needless to say, not an easy task, but one that we felt confident we could tackle. The new logo illustrates the who, what and where data and shows how they intersect to create magic. Some also see a zen-like mark while others see a person. What do you see?

By the way – 5o9 is crazy in love with the new logo. Here’s to another satisfied client!

I just came across this great article from the “biz ladies” of design*sponge. I have found so many articles by the biz ladies to be inspiring and informative, including: how to form successful biz partnerships, organizing your biz income + expenses, starting a business in tough times, and I actually included this one in a weekly round up blog post from August of 2009 – a very informative article about advertising 101 for small businesses.

To quote the article’s author, Meg Mateo Ilasco, “…an amateur logo design could only hurt your business. Just because you’re an artist, craftsperson, or designer doesn’t make you a skilled graphic designer. Designing a logo takes experience. It’s no easy task to take everything a company stands for and bring it down to a single graphic representation or symbol.”

Meg hits the nail on the head – your logo is everything! The Design Rangers believe it should be clean, have good contrast and be simple. Our professor in college once said “a good logo can be drawn in the sand with a stick”. Think Nike, McDonalds, Mercedes, Apple. The greats ARE clean and simple! Here is a previous blog post that talks briefly about our logo process and what it take to get some pencil marks on a paper to a logo that has impact.

We are passionate about logo design and we love a well designed, thoughtful logo! Here are a few of our favorites: Endurance Army, Property Army, Bottle Rocket, Love Yarn, Women’s Bike Challenge, Lyric Quotes, Beer Garden, and idea couch. What are yours?

It’s doubtful however that many would envision a talking wine bottle looking for a date with food (a campaign for Epcot’s International Food and Wine festival). Or an ad showing Yoda, using the force at luggage claim (in a campaign for Star Wars Weekends). Yet these are exactly the kind of fun (and funny) ideas and campaigns coming out of Disney’s “Yellow Shoes” in-house creative department.

Or take the example of the campaign for the Disney Princess half-marathon. It would have been easy to take a group-shot of Disney’s many animated princesses and call it a day.  But by combining a classic icon with the unexpected, you get a much more powerful and targeted message. The theme worked so well, that Disney created real glass-slipper running shoes for display alongside other athletic shoes at Foot Locker, the key sponsor.

The Rangers had the exciting opportunity to attend Will Gay’s presentation to the Pikes Peak Advertising Federation that provided rare insight to the creative engine that drives the creative look for Disney’s resort brands. Will, the creative director for Yellow Shoes, showed us that even under the seemingly restrictive brand that is Disney, big ideas and creativity still rule the roost.

Besides being a fun and entertaining presentation, the talk sparked dialog at the Ranger Camp about the importance of creative play and the ideas it can create.  The big take-away for us is that you should always be pushing for innovative and smart creative, even if what you have is already working for you. Disney has a proven formula that’s worked through the ages, so why step outside the box? Because it works, and it keeps the Disney brand from becoming stale. As Will put it, “If you entertain people, they forget that they are being advertised to.” What ads or brands stand out in your mind as innovative, creative, entertaining or willing to push the envelope? We look forward to hearing your favorites.

Bearski’s skin-loving products are high-quality, handmade, yet affordable.  Jessica and Christian were looking to give Bearski a hip, cool, and fun personality.  They gave us a lot of great input and ideas – bubbles and lower-case text were kicked around – then… they let us have at it!

Ultimately, a logo should reflect the persona of the company while being engaging and memorable. Sometimes, the design process meanders on it’s way to the ultimate design, and other times, you just get a “Yes, THIS is IT!” moment. After completing one logo concept in particular – we knew we had done it. We felt the logo really had it all – contrast, personality, sweetness, not to mention bubbles AND lower case type. We were thrilled when Jessica and Christian loved it just as much as we did.

SIDE NOTE: We were also thrilled to find out just a few days ago that the Bearski logo has won an ADDY award

After many rounds of high-fives about the logo, we let the logo begin its new life in Bearski’s business cards, product label template and a custom e-commerce web site:

Not only were we passionate about this project, we’re passionate about what Jessica and Christian are doing with Bearski Bath & Body. We are crazy about their products – here are links to our favorites, the coffee soap and Goat Milk TLC. Feel free to list your favorites in the comments or visit Bearski and pick up a future favorite.

Thanks Bearski for trusting us with your image – creating it was truly good, clean fun!

Tammy asked us to design a Wordpress site that would showcase her wordslinging and marketing talents as well as incorporate her blog & post her twitter updates. We really wanted the new site to reflect TAMMY and her hip, funky, professional awesomeness!

Chris started with the Cushy WooThemes template…

used his design magic, customizing the template it into this….

Tammy was thrilled with the look of her new site, and quickly realized she needed business cards that reflected the new tammyoler.com feel. We designed this card for her…

The cards are printed on 16pt paper, and we decided on the rounded corner option, as it played off of the background pattern nicely.

Every now and then our 6 year old son will ask me, “What’s your favorite color?”

It’s a question I really can’t answer. It would be like saying I love one of my children more than the other. Some days I may like one son a bit more than the other depending on the events/tantrums/trials of the day but deep inside I love them both dearly.

Except Peach – I will never, ever like Peach. I don’t know what it is but it makes me kind of nauseous when I see it. Some kind of childhood trauma I suppose. By some cosmic coincidence, they painted the house right behind us peach *sigh*.  I used to really dislike Purple and any variance of Purple but lately I am coming around and can see it’s worth. I don’t foresee that happening with Peach – we will never be BFF’s.

Working with color is one of my favorite parts of being a graphic designer. Colors and how they look and feel together is so much of what we do. Color can add excitement when appropriate. Color can help the viewer feel more trusting of the company or product. Color can evoke emotions hidden deep within all of us (see peach commentary above). Color can make something feel warm or cool, carefree or corporate – the possibilities are endless.

And while our creative instincts ultimately guide us to color bliss, there are a variety of useful tools that help us find just the right hues. Interested in expanding your palette? Check out a few of our favorite resources:

Kuler

One indispensable tool we like to use when exploring color options is Adobe’s Kuler. Think social networking for color. The Kuler web-app allows you to search for color palettes submitted by users based on a word or feeling. Register for a free account and you can create your own color combinations, bookmark favorites, or download a palette as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file. Registration is free and the searches produce many, many great color combinations.

Pictaculous

One of the best ways to find a color palette is to work with what nature has already provided. Upload any image (photos of organic objects work especially well), and upload it Mail Chimp’s Pictaculous. This nifty tool will pull key colors from your image and create swatches for them. It also integrates with Kuler and COLOURlovers to suggest similar combinations. You can even submit images with your iPhone and get palettes emailed to you. By the way, if you’re looking for a great, easy-to-use manager for your email campaigns, MailChimp is the way to go.

Pantone

Of course, before the web we had the PMS (Pantone Matching System) book, which is still our bible. These books, used by printers nationwide, fan out like a paint-sample chart, showcasing an entire rainbow of luscious color options. Specify one of the spot colors and you can have it matched at any commercial printer on the planet. Need to reproduce the color in CMYK or RGB for the screen? There are books for that too.

The pages of our PMS books are worn and tattered as they get used on almost every design project. Even Pantone has moved beyond the printed page though, with its own Twitter page, an app for the iPhone and a pepper mill!

Color brings power and subtlety it brings to design. So, what’s your favorite color? (I promise not to judge if you say Peach!)

Happy Friday Dearest Blog Readers,

We want to share with you some great sites/images/information/etc. that we came across this week…

1. Typedia (it’s like wikipedia for fonts) just launched their site. Here is a great blog post about the creation of their logo.
2. A few months ago we wrote a post about how/why to have fun with your brand. This week we found a great site that features some fun & creative business cards. If you ever need a crazy cool business card you know who to call… (shoot us an email if you don’t have a set of Design Ranger cards, we will send some your way!)
3. Our friend and copy writing partner, Tammy, came across this site and thought of us.  Yes, we love it! Also, on the same site a image for our coffee loving friends (you know who you are!).
4. Lastly, every now and then design*sponge will feature a post titled biz ladies. (The post may be called biz ladies but it is just as informative for biz men.) The article features an expert in the field that will offer advice on anything from writing a book to making a strategic business plan. One post we found very informative was advertising 101 for small business owners.
5. Bonus: once you view the biz ladies link you will know why we found this noteworthy.

Well, that wraps up the Ranger Round-up (say that 3 times fast!). Have a great weekend and of course, Happy Trails.