Overall brand identity work, including logo, stationary, business cards, menus, gilded gold window treatment and signage, in addition to a tasty website for Bay Area restaurateur Nick Peyton (who steered two top tier San Francisco institutions: Restaurant Gary Danko and The Ritz-Carlton) and celebrity chef Douglas Keane's unique "home-style" restaurant in the wine county town of St. Helena.

Market's focus was on American classics – comfort food of the highest order, made with the freshest of local ingredients. Dishes include a hearty meatloaf, finger-lickin' fried chicken, flat-iron steaks, huge pork chops, a fine chopped salad and even a perfectly-created grilled cheese sandwich. Desserts are to die for, especially the s'mores, self-cooked at your table over a tiny open flame, as well as the restaurant's robust wine list.

The identity needed to reflect the new restaurant's high quality, yet understated cuisine, relaxed atmosphere, moderate prices, predominately local and affluent clientele, and wine country location. The result was an identity system that effectively did just that.

Market has received rave reviews, was featured in Esquire’s Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America, and Chef Keane named among the Best New Chefs of 2006 by Food & Wine, Chef of the Year by Esquire Magazine, and the title of Season 5 Top Chef Masters. After selling Market, Nick and Doug focused on their critically acclaimed, award-winning luxury restaurant Cyrus in Sonoma County.

Global Gourmet Catering creates incomparable experiences through highly customized food, beverage, and event services, using sustainable practices and a customer service-driven team to exceed all expectations for their clientele.

Because their websites were getting stale, a new website was needed to freshen things up and merge Global Gourmet Catering's separate corporate and wedding sites and company blog into one integrated website that can work across all platforms.

The objective was to redesign the site to feature a cleaner, more current/modern design, reinforce the company's position as an innovator and industry thought leader in a highly competitive and much heralded Bay Area large-scale catering marketplace, feature their high caliber restaurant quality food through stunning new photography, provide state-of-the-art venue searching and online booking capabilities, and build an all-new, fully custom Content Management System. All part of a refreshed brand strategy and digital presence that included a new logo design and communicated through advertising, collateral, direct marketing, and social media campaigns.

The stunning new, content-rich, fully responsive design website delivered on the brand promise, in part, by showcasing food as an experience while also offering a more streamlined user experience, improved SEO, and a unified, holistic brand experience. The site’s information architecture includes paths for corporate and wedding users, but grants access to shared content through thoughtful organization and clear navigation.

The Global Gourmet website won a 2017 Silver Davey Award and was selected Communication Arts Webpick of the Day.

The California Culinary Academy, part of Career Education Corporation and the Le Cordon Bleu family of culinary schools, needed a new sales piece geared towards a young demographic of graduating high school seniors and community college attendees deciding their career path. The piece needed to serve as an academic catalog and a promotional brochure covering the academy's Culinary Arts, Baking and Pastry, and Hospitality & Restaurant Management programs.

Used as part of a fulfillment kit for student prospects responding to our extensive new advertising and direct marketing campaign, the catalog needed to be informational and aspirational. This design job called for a high-end brochure with elegant new photography, a sophisticated yet modern look, success stories from past graduates, and an overall sense of quality and opportunity. It needed to make a huge impression.

Special premium inks, choice paper stock, and a spot satin aqueous varnish as part of its high-quality finishing all played an appropriate role in producing a quality piece that conveyed the impression the academy sought and proved instrumental in securing prospects' enrollment.

The lead generation campaign utilized direct mail, print and online advertising, television commercials, and an educational video to promote the California Culinary Academy (Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in San Francisco) and recruit future culinary stars. Those who responded received the scrumptious new catalog.

The school’s website also underwent a significant overhaul concerning overall design, user experience/interface, and functionality.

I am a great believer in the power of advertising. Good advertising, that is. Innovative campaigns that stand out, get people to take notice and open their minds to new ideas or solutions. And most importantly, advertising that effectively builds a brand, sells products or raises awareness for a worthwhile cause.

Here are some good examples – print and online advertising campaigns promoting Kensington's family of ergonomic mice and trackballs, and their market-leading MicroSaver Security Cable for both consumers and businesses.

The last two ads shown here are part of a B2B campaign developed for the MicroSaver to reinforce Kensington's leadership position while generating leads for their sales force.

Research discovered that the highest demand for this product was at the corporate level where the majority of laptops are stolen each year – right from the office! So IT managers/directors were targeted in large organizations who are responsible for replacing these products – along with all the information lost as a result – and taking care of any possible security breaches that may occur due to acquired passwords from stolen notebooks. This becomes even more important with the threat of identity theft constantly on the rise and the need to keep customer information safe and secure.

Since it's much easier to take steps to prevent a computer from being stolen in the first place, the ad campaign focused on demonstrating that this $49.99 cable & lock device was a viable, inexpensive, first-line-of-defense against theft and possible security breaches. (If your notebook's unlocked, your network is too.) And in the process, it reminded the audience that the little slot located on the side of almost every laptop sold was designed by Kensington, specifically to fit this security cable.

To help generate leads, a monthly drawing promotion was added where prospects could win a free MicroSaver Security Cable. Respondents entered though an online landing page/form and were also given the opportunity to opt-in to receive periodic updates.

After the first four and a half months of the campaign, Kensington reported an overwhelming response, receiving over 20,000 hits from print ads across ten publications. Over 3,000 people registered to win free MicroSavers or asked for more information about the product. As a result, this campaign successfully achieved its goals of creating product awareness and generating qualified sales leads, and ranked as one of Kensington’s most effective advertising campaigns to date.

Print advertising, technology white papers, and product data sheets were created to promote NEC’s tough notebooks and innovative blade servers among discerning corporate IT customers.

NEC notebooks underwent rigorous testing to ensure their durability, including subjecting them to extreme temperatures, a series of thorough beatings, and dumping coffee and other liquids onto them. Who hasn't done that at one point or another, and what better way to communicate these notebooks' quality and toughness?

An integrated print and outdoor campaign for the San Francisco Maritime National Park. The ad campaign, along with a durotrans for the San Francisco Visitors and Convention Bureau and a set of rack cards distributed at tourist destinations, was designed to help raise awareness of the Park's various highly immersive attractions, including the Maritime Museum, tall ships, and a WWII submarine, and to increase visitation among both tourists and locals.

And because I'm only a little bit of a narcissist, it was particularly gratifying to hang out at the waterfront and see people turning around after viewing the large banner hanging off the Pier 39 parking garage (which took some doing) and start walking toward where the USS Pampanito sub was docked to go check out the "danger."

Launch materials for Hewlett-Packard's family of PostScript printers for the Macintosh market – a completely new market for them then – included a consumer brochure, sales support materials, and an in-store poster. Other work includes pan-European print advertising, direct mail, and channel materials for HP toner cartridges, supplies, and accessories products.

The National Kidney Foundation of Northern California website needed a complete overhaul. A new site that presented a more personal and professional image, made navigating easier, and provided a seamless way to make donations and process transactions online.

A new logo/brand Identity system for an Independent Publisher of Big Ideas in Berkeley, California, committed to publishing the best work available for nonfiction books about real estate, business, lifestyle, history, and sports.

Platypus Wine Tours is a tour and transportation company specializing in unforgettable Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley wine tours, offering a lighthearted and fun approach to wine tasting and learning about wine. If you're looking for an anti-wine snob wine tour, this is the one.

They needed a new website featuring a clean, modern design and a much-improved SEO/SEM (paid search) strategy to go with it to more effectively present their available tours, guide customers quickly and easily through the reservation process, elevate their brand, and acquire new customers.

The new website, along with a targeted online advertising campaign on TripAdvisor and other travel websites, rack cards placed at hotels and other tourist locations, integrated blog, and promotional video resulted in above average response rates, increased website traffic (up 24%) and online tour reservations (up 33%), significant and consistent growth in their business, and allowed Platypus to expand into new markets.

Mendocino County needed to establish a brand to differentiate itself among DINKs and WOOPs from other popular California destinations and increase visitation (heads in beds) during spring and fall shoulder months.

An integrated marketing campaign consisting of new branding/positioning, print advertisements running in Via, National Geographic Traveller, Sunset, and CondeNast Traveller, online advertising, direct mail, email blasts, advertorials, airport kiosks, Search Engine Marketing, rack cards, a 24-page brochure and a microsite promoted breathtaking ocean views, hiking and biking trails, unpretentious wineries, whale watching and many other reasons to visit this largely undiscovered, unspoiled gem.

The online ads generated 2,186,640 impressions and over 28,000 visits to the microsite and maintained a solid .13% CTR (well above the industry standard for non-enhanced rich media). The print campaign generated 8,828,000 impressions, over 500 visits to the microsite, and over 6000 response cards received (an outstanding response). Based on the overall marketing budget, response, and customer acquisition conversion rates, the campaign achieved a Return on Investment (ROI) of 17 to 1.

Extensity offered a suite of Internet-based, enterprise-wide software applications that enabled employees to automate mundane tasks, plan business travel, file expense reports, request and approve purchases, and capture time for project and payroll management – essentially freeing them up to do the actual jobs they were hired for in the first place.

Extensity was about to go public, so they needed an ad campaign to help raise awareness, evolve the brand, establish positioning, and lay the groundwork for the IPO.

Research led to the creation of the Work Wonders tagline, which summed everything up perfectly and was included in unconventional brand and product advertising that ran in BusinessWeek, Fortune, CFO, and The Wall Street Journal, a complete collateral package of data sheets, partner profiles and case studies, email marketing, and a new award-winning website.

This led to Extensity having a very successful IPO and eventually being acquired by Toronto-based Geac Computer Corp. for $46.2 million.

PS’Soft needed to raise awareness and establish a unique, viable, and sustainable long-term brand position among a tough C-level audience, demonstrating that this company with a European heritage is serious, contemporary, and reputable in the US market as well.

Their old identity looked outdated and didn't reflect the company's true brand image or personality. A new visual identity, positioning strategy, and tagline (Efficiencies are there. We find them) were created to make the company stand out among its better-known competitors in a crowded high-tech marketplace.

This new identity was expanded to include a new product naming strategy, PowerPoint templates, HTML emails, webinar invitations (so popular that On-Demand versions had to be made available to keep up with customer demand), and product datasheets.

A new website was also developed that creatively incorporated the new PS'Soft logo into the central imagery also used in other advertising and marketing communications), was easy for customers to navigate and for the client to maintain via an extensive content management system, and worked across multiple languages and cultures.

The repositioning work was so effective in taking PS’Soft to the next level, the company was eventually acquired by Allen Systems Group (ASG).

SwitcHouse.com offered online swapping of videos, CDs, books, and computer games among an audience of mostly twenty-somethings. Registered users list the various items they no longer want and wish to trade for the things they do. The site would then search its database, find matches, and put people in touch with one another to make trades, creating a sense of community in the process.

Actual titles of popular movies, games, and artists were used in a combination of print and online advertising and opt-in emails to help demonstrate the diversity of the various categories on the site, educate the masses, and ask the all-important question: "So, what'cha got?"

IPAC needed to present an overall improved, professional image and raise its profile as an established, trusted, customer-focused, global source of quality petroleum and additives products within the industry.

A new logo and brand identity, positioning, and tagline (Never underestimate the power of the independent) were created along with a “bigger doesn’t mean better” message strategy (based on insights obtained through customer research), communicated through advertising and a new company brochure as part of an integrated global campaign.

The launch ads featured imagery of dinosaurs and referred to IPAC’s larger competition as “lumbering giants” and demonstrated that while IPAC competes on the same level as its larger competition in terms of product quality, competitive pricing, global reach and overall product effectiveness, they can consistently beat them up on customer service, relationships and responsiveness, every time.

The response was extremely positive, unless you’re the competition. The ads scored well above average in readership studies for awareness, large orders were placed as a direct result of the new advertising, the industry was buzzing, and for the first time, competitors became nervous, a little pissed off, and noticeably concerned. Mission accomplished.

After completing an internal brand audit and conducting primary customer research, we determined that VIP needed a new corporate identity and to be repositioned in the marketplace as a provider of more than just pet vaccinations.

As a result, the company name was changed from VIP Vaccine to VIP Petcare Services, and a corresponding logo and overall more warm and fuzzy brand image was created, along with a revamped website, retail advertising (including the use of post-it notes in newspaper ads) and a direct response campaign. All designed to create awareness, increase lead generation, and help highlight the more robust preventative petcare services offered by licensed veterinarians through VIP’s mobile pet clinics. You might see them at your local Pet Food Express on Sunday providing these services for your anipals.

Double page spread introducing Gravis' new Xterminator Dual Control joystick for gamers young and old. The campaign consisted of print advertising, banner ads, landing pages and an interstitial (mini commercial) highlighting the element of surprise the user has over their opponents as a result of using the product: the ability to sneak up on them before they realize it and it's too late – game over!

The print advertising ran primarily in computer and gaming pubs, while the banner ads and the short interstitial were placed on gaming sites like gamespot.com, viewed while users waited for their game to load.

Conducted primary consumer market research consisting of focus groups, triads, quads, in-home interviews and on street intercepts, developed recruitment screeners and discussion guides, and crafted reports of key findings, analysis, and recommendations for the brand development, positioning and message strategy, and launch of AT&T’s U-verse television, Internet and phone service to the hungry masses wanting to take their Walking Dead to work with them.

Advertising, direct marketing, and branding work for my San Francisco ad agency, Amp Communications – a small fish in a big pond with lots of other fish, big and small, all offering the same thing and competing for the same business. So how do you stand out and compete in a gnarly dot-com busted, post-9/11 recession in the Bay Area?

You run a tight ship, keep your overheads low, and give your potential new budget-conscious clients something to smile about during an economic downturn: all the big ideas from big brains without the big agency bills, so they can remain competitive and top-of-mind without blowing their entire budget.

We helped clients amplify their messages not by being louder than everyone else but rather smarter – by finding the single most important truth in their product or service and filtering that message through all the noise and clutter in the marketplace and in the most targeted, cost-effective manner possible. The result is highly creative advertising that gets through to its audience, resonates, and is remembered without breaking the bank.

Brand Identity development, website and social media for a small independent publisher of unique and eclectic works from up-and-coming authors in the genres of lifestyle, biography, fiction, business and pop culture.

Launched in San Francisco and poised to circle the globe, Rocketbird is a new brand champion for the previously humble chicken sandwich. Rocketbird, part of the Culinary Current Restaurant Group, is branded whimsically yet with serious attention to how it's crafted meticulously, cooked deliciously, packaged sustainably, ordered digitally, and delivered swiftly. Rocketbird’s brand identity, complete with logo/ID, packaging, signage, and website, was created in collaboration with FINE Design Group. Social media, SEO/SEM, email marketing, customer rewards programs, and influencer marketing are also vital components in the marketing mix. Visit Rocketbirdchx.com

Detroit-powered pies. Moto Mio Pizzeria is born from the notion that quality ingredients, exceptionally delicious preparations, the need for speed, and love of all things square keep our taste buds joyfully racing down the straightaways and delivering the finest Detroit-style pizza this side of the Great Lakes to your doorstep. Moto Mio Pizzeria’s brand identity, complete with logo/ID, packaging, signage, and website, was created in collaboration with FINE Design Group. Social media, SEO/SEM, email marketing, customer rewards programs, and influencer marketing are also vital components in the marketing mix. Visit Moto Mio Pizzeria.com

Tasty Moon is born from the notion that quality ingredients, exceptionally delicious preparations, and a love of authentic Chinese cuisine keep our taste buds dancing, delivering the finest dumplings, noodles, stir fry, and more from the east to the west right to your office or doorstep. Tasty Moon’s brand identity, complete with logo/ID, packaging, signage, and website, was created in collaboration with FINE Design Group. Social media, SEO/SEM, email marketing, customer rewards programs, and influencer marketing are also vital components in the marketing mix. Visit TastyMoon.com