Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

MetroAction Postcards

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

We’ve been fortunate at BlackOut to have a fruitful working relationship with MetroAction. We think it’s led to some of our best work and it’s helped MetroAction maintain its status as the leading provider of small business loans and resources in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Recently, to help promote MetroAction’s upcoming business training seminars, BlackOut produced a series of print postcards that carry all of the pertinent information on the seminars and registration. The cards will provide a high impact, informative piece of collateral that MetroAction staff can distribute to their network of clients and referral partners.

Ecommerce design for Danielle & Company

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

We recently had an opportunity to redesign a website and ecommerce cart for Danielle and Company, an award-winning manufacturer of contemporary organic products for the bath, body and home.

Any time we work with ecommerce, our primary goal is always to facilitate transactions – ensure customers find the information and products they’re looking for quickly and guaranteeing a positive user experience during throughout the checkout process. It certainly helps when the products being sold carry the reputation for quality that Danielle’s do.

Owner Danielle Fleming is an expert in the effect scent can have on mood and she uses her expertise to create soaps, candles and beauty products that enhance mood and well-being.

We developed a platform that showcases Danielle’s unique products, along with her knowledge of scent and her commitment to sound environmental practices. We also provided Danielle with blog functionality allowing her a new level of interaction with her customers and the ability to share her enthusiasm for the products she creates.

Visit the Danielle and Company site and have fun browsing her fantastic products.

National Center for Organizational Continuity Logo

Friday, January 15th, 2010

BlackOut is proud to have been chosen to work on a prestigious project with increasingly crucial implications – The National Center for Organizational Continuity (NCOC).

NCOC will serve as a clearinghouse for information and resources on the business continuity industry, a field that strives to prepare businesses of all sizes for disruptions to infrastructure and operations caused by catastrophic events.

The goal of the NCOC will also function as a training and research collaborative, connecting workers with the high-demand organizational continuity skills they need and providing networking opportunities for continuity professionals and institutes of higher education.

The first phase of our work with NCOC involved developing a logo that encompassed the mission and message of the Center. Our designers worked to create a logo that spoke to the Center’s core goal of empowering workers to handle any situation or circumstance.

The logo was only the first part of our engagement with NCOC. Check back for more news on the Center in the coming weeks.
National Continuity Center Logo Design

Print Postcards for DeCoverly Kennels

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

For nearly a century, DeCoverly Kennels has built its reputation on an unwavering dedication to the quality of its breeding and training programs. When they needed a design firm to uphold that reputation in their marketing materials, they turned to BlackOut Design.

We produced for DeCoverly Kennels a full-color informational postcard suited for distribution at industry conferences. The cards describe the value of a DeCoverly Kennels hunting dog both in the field and at home while incorporating photography of their beautiful setters.

The DeCoverly team will take the cards with them when they attend the Garden State Outdoor Sportsmen’s Show this weekend and we’re proud that the postcards fully convey the DeCoverly tradition of excellence.Decoverly Kennels Print Design

BlackOut Design’s Latest Newsletter is Ready

Monday, December 14th, 2009

You can check out some selected highlights from the past few months:

It is Always Nice to See Innovation in Action

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

At BlackOut we try to keep current on new web developments and there have been quite a few lately. One that I wanted to toss out there is Kapitall.

Although there is no shortage of investing tools out there I think between the mission of Kapitall and the revolutionary interface it is a project the deserves a mention. The goal of the project, in part, is to educate beginners on the world of investing and specifically on how to research an investment. It does a great job of sorting your portfolio data and pulling up information about a stock or mutual fund effortlessly. Right now the project is in a “beta” so you can really just monkey around with the interface and be dazzled by the workspace. My be is much link Mint we will be reading about an acquisition sooner rather than later.

Definitely a project worth watching.

Branding Package for Local Entreprenuers, Cognition Media

Friday, September 11th, 2009

After founding and building BlackOut Design into Northeastern Pennsylvania’s leading interactive agency, BlackOut President Jack Reager likes to support other local entreprenuers.

In conjunction with the Great Valley Technology Alliance Business Plan competition, BlackOut offers its logo design and branding services, free of charge, to competition winners. We help these upstart local companies develop a custom brand and logo that allows them to put their best foot forward as they enter the marketplace.

We developed a branding package for Cognition Media and its product, Minerva. The Cognition plan was prepared by University of Scranton students Joseph Casabona, Matthew Pfahl and Kristen Said and involves the design and development of a content management system specifically for high schools to manage their websites.

After a few design iterations, these are the logos we settled on with the Cognition team. It was a pleasure working with Cognition and we wish them continued success in the future.

Hexagon Project Postcards for the MAC Gallery

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

BlackOut continued its collaborative relationship with the Melberger Arts Center Gallery, designing postcards to promote the upcoming Hexagon Project exhibit at the gallery.

The Hexagon Project is part of Interdependece Day activities in Scranton. Interdependence Day aims to “acknowledge the inevitability and significance of interdependence in our time, and set out to build constructively and culturally a global civic society.”

Reflecting that theme, the Hexagon Project invites school students respond creatively to global issues and design unique hexagon art. More than 300 hexagons will be on display in the MAC exhibit.

Interdependence Day 2009 will be celebrated on Thursday, September 10, 2009. The Hexagon exhibit opens Friday,
September 4, 2009, and will remain on display through October.

Valley Distributing and Storage Co. design

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

For over 50 years, Valley Distributing & Storage Company has been the premier provider of supply chain solutions in the Northeast; and when they needed a design firm to communicate that sterling reputation to an online audience, they turned to BlackOut.

We designed a new site that reflects the full range of Valley’s logistics services including warehousing, transportation and distribution. Valley needed a web presence that was innovative and elegant. See the results at the Valley Distributing & Storage Company site.

The Font Isn’t Always Right

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

When designing, we tend to rely on fonts to assist in doing our job. Possibly one of the more important tools we can have is a good library of great fonts at our disposal, as well as an understanding of how these fonts will layout, their letter forms and spacing. Sometimes though you really like the font, but not every letter form works for you. No one ever said you had to use it as, that’s one of the reasons why Ai has a convert to outlines options

In this particular case the font was already designated by years of use with the client, and when asked to design an anniversary logo for them, I went straight to their logo font Eurostile (Bold Extended 2). When I laid out the tag line however I found some letters in the Eurostile alphabet fighting with the extended width and rounded corners indicative of this typeface.
Eurostile straight out of the box (more…)