The Cave of the Winds’ website has been an amazing and fulfilling creative challenge – we feel a bit like we now have a third child! We threw our heart and soul into the creative development of this site and now we have let it go out into the world, to be all that it was designed to be.

Cave of the Winds’ previous site:

Cave of the Winds’ new site:

Click here to go to the new Cave of the Winds’ website and do a little exploring on your own!

On August 1, 2009 (we remember the exact date because it was Jenny’s birthday) we took a trip up to a Parade of Homes House outside of Cripple Creek (near Evergreen Station for those of you in the know). Chris’ parents had raved and raved about this house and insisted we go see it. We walked into the Starlite Kibanda, our mouths dropped open and we instantly knew we had just walked into our dream home. It was there that we met, and got to know a little bit about, the amazing Doug Allen of Allentown Homes. Doug’s energy and passion for his work was immediately visible, we talked with him about the house and he showed us many of the funky cool custom touches. We left with a brochure and a business card, dreaming of living in the Starlite Kibanda or having Allentown Homes build us a custom home of our own someday.

That night we took a peek at the Allentown Homes website, excited to see how he had blended his building style with his website style. We arrived to the site and let out a “oh no”. Doug did have a site for his prospective clients to visit, but the site was definitely not up to par. The photo gallery was hard to use and the site just plain lacked the passion that Doug possessed. We emailed Doug to let him know had some great ideas for a better functioning gallery and thoughts for a site that really projected the feel of Allentown Homes.

We started working with Doug and his wife Jannelle not too long after that original email. At first, it was only in the budget to add the Starlite Kibanda home as a feature to their current site. We also updated the photo gallery for this feature home – making it more intuitive for the viewer to use.

Not long after completing that project, Doug and Jannelle asked us to submit a proposal for a complete site redesign.

Right around that same time we decided we had to move forward on finishing our basement/office area. The cement floors and insulation walls were not at all inspiring and we were so ready for Design Rangers to have an official HQ. Not knowing were to start we contacted Doug to ask if he knew someone that would be interested in working with us. When Doug replied, “I’ll do it!” we were shocked. Really. Wow. Okay! Our dream of working with Doug was coming true – even if it wasn’t to build our own Starlite Kibanda.

Design Ranger office: Before*

*This is the day we were moving EVERYTHING out of the basement so Doug could start. The kids found their way over to the computers for some resting up…

So it turned out we worked in succession. The Design Rangers’ office moved up to the living room and Doug moved his contractors into our basement. We designed Allentown Homes’ website concepts, Doug installed the baseboards and trim around the doors. He’d come up at lunchtime and we’d all sit on the deck and eat Chipotle or we would feed Doug his favorite lunch of egg salad sandwiches. We started to feel like Doug, Jannelle and their 3 beautiful daughters were part of our family – they are fun, super friendly and an amazing family.

Here is Doug’s work:

Dryall complete

Doug & Chris hanging cabinets

Our new HQ!

Client meeting/brainstorming area

The most awesome bathroom. Ever.

Here is our work for Allentown Homes (to see the full site click here):

We will always be thankful for that trip up to Cripple Creek, for meeting Doug and his family, and for helping each other out. Allentown Homes now has a site they can be proud of, that truly reflects their style and vision. Design Rangers now has the most amazing office/meeting/guest area. Six months later we still are in shock – this is our office?

Endless thank you’s to Doug and Jannelle. Our lives are better because of you!

What happened is: Chef Corey Wilson began to use what he knows about food and apply it to his life. He began cooking himself up lots of amazing, fresh, healthy meals – backed by a dedication to working out on a regular basis and wallah! Corey has lost 60+ pound to date. What an amazing life transformation!

Chef Corey is now taking what he knows about food – and what he has learned on his journey – and providing nutritious and budget friendly in-home cooking services in the greater Colorado Springs area. His customized and fully prepared meals provide clients with a healthier and affordable alternative to eating out. You can save time and eat well – am I in Heaven? (Chris and I have had the pleasure of taste testing a few of Chef Corey’s creations. One word: YUM.) BONUS: He also provides cooking classes (in the form of FUN) and dinner parties.

Where Design Rangers come in: Corey asked us to design his logo, business cards and web site. He wanted to feel to be friendly (he is also known as “A Personable Chef“), fun, affordable, and healthy. Here is what we cooked up…

Logo: Lots of “Chef-y” research led us to the fork icon – because really, it all comes down to eating!

Business Card: After a great photo shoot with Joel Strayer we were inspired to incorporate a photo on the back of the business card. The problem was there were so many great shots – which one to choose? Decided it was better NOT to choose and designed 4 different cards for Chef Corey – each with a different fork color that complements the photo on the back. Here are a couple of our favorites:

Yellow

Red

Designing chefcoreywilson.com is the next step – but in the meantime check out facebook.com/chefcoreywilson and twitter.com/ChefCoreyWilson!

Your next step: Consider hiring Corey to cook you up some amazing meals to throw in your freezer -it might change your life too!

What an amazing message and a big, bold statement. We often push our clients to make the big, bold statements. It takes guts though and not all clients are willing to put it all on the line. I’m proud of Coleman and their marketing guts. Errr… I was proud until I did some research.

Strike #1 –Web Site. This morning, after I had decided to write a blog on Coleman and the awesomeness of  “The Original Social Networking Site” campaign, I was super excited to go to coleman.com and see how their web site integrated the messaging of the campaign. You should have seen my sad face when the site loaded and… nope. Nothing. After some digging around I finally found mention of the social networking press release and a page titled “Social Networking” which shows the advertisements.

Strike #2 – Print Ads. According to a Coleman press release, the T.V. spots began running in May 2009. They are/were also running print ads, but until I did a little bit of research on Coleman, I wasn’t aware of them. We subscribe to Outside magazine and are exposed to several other “outdoorsy” publications – seems like I would have seen one in there (Chris says he *thinks* he may have seen one in Outside, maybe I missed that page… in that one issue?). My family is their market. They have definitely not reached us.

Strike #3 – Consistency. As designers, one of our favorite things is consistency. In our dream world, the ads, the web site, and the marketing materials all have a similar look-and-feel, similar messaging. Coleman could have really taken this campaign and ran with it. Instead, they are just left with a disappointed consumer.

What we can learn from Coleman’s mistakes. Don’t disappoint your market with an inconsistent message. As much as you may think your customers won’t notice that your web site uses a different logo than your business cards, you are using several different color palettes, inconsistent fonts, etc – they will. You want current and potential customers to see your company’s marketing materials and recognize them as yours – every time, everywhere. This is especially important now that there are so many ways for consumers to find you out in the world ie: Facebook, Twitter, Google search.

Final thoughts. Be bold, be brave, be consistent!

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.

Those of you that read our blog with any frequency or are fans of Design Rangers on Facebook know that I frequently post links from Design*Sponge. I pretty much love every thing they post, but here are a few favorites that have popped up this week.

1. These twig push pins are super cute and it’s a great way to re-use twigs and branches that have fallen off of your neighborhood trees. Seems like a must have in the new Design Ranger office!
2. I’m pretty much convinced that everything cool in this world comes from Brooklyn. My dad was from Brooklyn – which I believe makes me 1/2 cool. Our completely awesome friends Tammy and Ehren are from Brooklyn – when ever they come to visit they always bring us awesome gifts from some fantastic little shop in Brooklyn. Okay – they main point is… I love this letterpress bear card, it has die-cut arms so the bear can hold a little something, too! And yes, you guessed it. Brooklyn made.

On a much more serious note – did you know there are 884 million without access to safe drinking water? A very sad WOW came out of my mouth when I came across that fact on www.waterforpeople.org’s home page. Water For People is a “Denver-based international development organization supports sustainable safe drinking water and sanitation projects in developing countries”. The organization worked with Duffy & Partners to launch their new re-branding campaign, Joe Duffy is an amazing designer that I have always admired and he has done it again with the Water For People brand. A happy WOW this time.

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!

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.