We sing, you sing, we all sing!

When Lynn Manock, owner and stylist of Ziabird in Lumina Station, wanted to embark on the rebranding of her studio inspired jewelry and accessories boutique, she came to us. This job entailed adding a creative flare, not only to the visual aspects of the store but also to what Ziabird stands for as a whole. Lynn defines Ziabird as an airy, welcoming shop, where the creativity of artists and designers across the country is celebrated. With a mix of fine art, beautiful clothes and one-of-a-kind statement jewelry, it’s no wonder our new tagline, “Make Your Wardrobe Sing,” now graces the new hot pink front window awnings. To Lynn, making your wardrobe sing means helping to find a client the perfect pieces to set them apart from the crowd. Reflecting Ziabird’s new mantra is a beautiful wall graphic we designed for the interior of the store. A giant tree spreads its branches across multiple areas of the boutique walls and even plays home to a few Ziabirds of its own.

Also this week, local publication Focus on the Coast will be featuring our work for Ziabird – a cover design and brand new spread advertisement featuring Ziabird’s new look!

To celebrate their two-year anniversary, as well as the opening of the Cordell Cordaro show, Ziabird will be hosting an Anniversary Party & Cocktail Reception. The reception will be all day on Thursday, June 2, 2011 with music, food, drinks and festivities. New York artist, Cordell Cordaro will grace the walls of Ziabird with his work from May 23 until July 12, 2011. Don’t miss the chance to enjoy Ziabird’s new makeover as well as the opportunity to “Make Your Wardrobe Sing!”

Be sure to check out our Facebook page for more photos from Ziabird as well as our other projects.

We have met the target audience. And we are they.

A few months ago, we at Morvil Advertising + Design found ourselves in an interesting position. We were given the exciting opportunity to develop a new logo and tagline to rebrand the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. Rebranding is one of our specialties, so we were in familiar territory and felt very confident in our abilities to deliver the service.

The twist this time, however, was that as members of the Wilmington business community, we were also the target audience. Talk about a vested interest.

Read a Greater Wilmington Business Journal article about the launch of the new logo and tagline, as well as other Chamber initiatives.

Our Ads Generate New Business (Sometimes Even For Us!)

A couple of weeks ago, we received a phone call from the Open Fences publication in which an ad we created had run. (See previous post on Darby Home ad titled “From The Mountains…”)

To our surprise and delight, the purpose of the call was to ask us to produce the magazine. It turns out they were in the market for a new agency to take over the design and layout of the quarterly publication. When they saw our work on the Darby Home ad, they gave us a call and offered us the job.

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting publishers David Light and Mark Walz who flew in from Maine and Texas to do a meet and greet with the Morvil team. We are all looking forward to partnering with Open Fences and continuing to produce quality work.

Website Design Research, BHI-Style

Yesterday, I went to Bald Head Island for the first time. A Wendy Wilmot Properties yellow golf cart with a red surfboard strapped on top awaited me when I got off the 8 a.m. ferry. I was handed a map, along with a list of places to see along the way, whether it was a view from a home, a tasty milkshake at the Peli, or a dip in the ocean. It truly was a fun way to explore the island and see firsthand what questions I might have, and what parts I’d like the most (which was a lot!) I also discovered how many three-point turns a golf cart can make, and how many times I couldn’t help but stop, get out of the cart, and venture down this or that little path to take a closer look at beautiful homes or just enjoy the shade of the large oaks with their cool green leaves.

As I was driving down the streets, almost everyone I saw waved, kids smiled, parents looked relaxed. A golf cart passed me once when I was turned around and feeling a little lost, but the sound of the kids’ laughter as they passed left me with the relaxed, happy feeling of slowing down and taking it easy. And when I looked up, I realized I was on the right road.

I like how the street signs on the island are subtle, and the speed limit is 13 mph. It is such a break from the fast-paced, stoplight-laden traffic lanes filled with road ragers that are more the norm on our commute to and from work.

People come here to get away from all that and, it wasn’t until I found myself on the island truly experiencing this way of living, that I really got it. Here, getting away from it all is more of a feeling than a saying. Had I stayed a couple of days longer, I might have ditched the golf cart and used a bike to get everywhere, because the neat thing is: you can. It might take a little longer on a bike, but you are on “island time,” so what does that matter?

My little adventure, arranged by Wendy Wilmot Properties, allowed me to see all of the island. I stopped and painted a watercolor high on the dune overlooking Cape Fear, just outside what is known as “the whale house.” I spent some quiet time on Middle Island, listening to nature. I interacted with visitors in a neighborly way, and the sense of welcome resounded. As I wandered through neighborhoods, garages and windows were open with families spilling out of them, some packing up the carts for a beach day, others working on their yards, some flying kites. The laughter, smiles and a sense of ease resonated wherever I went.

I’m sure people come from all over and there is a huge mix in how they make their livings off the island. But on the island the share a common way of life: a laid-back, taking-it-easy, relaxing kind of living. I’m positive now that people take that with them when they leave and when it starts to fade, they rush back for a refresher. Because all in all, that kind of living is what we all are going for, right?

To Wendy Wilmot, thanks for the experience. To everyone else, I highly encourage you to visit Bald Head Island, and if you are a first-timer, take a bike or a golf cart and explore with or without a map or an agenda.

After all, Bald Head Island is the kind of place you really don’t mind getting lost.

From The Mountains… To The Oceans White With Foam (Or Vice Versa)

It’s called the worldwide web for a reason. When you design, build and launch a website in Wilmington, NC, your client could just as easily be in Wilmington, Delaware or Wilmington, England.

Or in this case, in Floyd, Virginia.

From our offices near the azure waves of Wrightsville Beach, we recently created a website for some gorgeous real estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was such a fun and rewarding project for us because the professional photography beautifully captured the property’s sophisticated ruggedness, the creative team was inspired by the unique nature of the assignment, and—especially important to us— the client was very pleased with the finished product.

As part of the overall marketing campaign, we also created a cover design and interior spread for a national real estate magazine to generate calls and drive prospects to the website, and ultimately to the property. Why not take a look yourself?

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together!

I don’t know about you, but I grew up on the A-Team. No matter what hair-brained plan they cooked up it all came together in the end. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of planning something out, it grows and grows till you’re not sure if it will serve the purpose that you had intended for it.

This year’s Christmas gift is one of those plans…and i think we all are thinking “I love it when a plan comes together” (cue theme music). I know all of us here are proud of the work and effort we put into everything we put our name on. This year’s gift creation is no different.

This post is a thank you to all those that have sent in photos of our birds displayed in your office. You have no idea how much that means to us here. We have even started a few conversations with clients that we have been courting for a while. Who knew all it would take was to send them a holiday card to remind them we exist? Just when you think that you don’t have the money or it won’t matter…it does. Let me tell you. This is a lesson we all can learn from.

Not bringing in the clients that you want? Why not? Do they know that you are out there? Why not send them a reminder about some projects that you have been hard at work on this part year. The worst that could happen is you don’t hear from them. What is the best thing that could happen? They realize that they were crazy to think they could live with out you and show up with flowers asking to be taken back…(Uhh… is he still talking about business?)

Sure I am. Be encouraged to court the clients you have and the one that you wish you had. It may all come together. Don’t forget that we can help it all come together too! That’s what we do. (Now we need a theme song.)

Thanks again for all the support and business that you have brought to our company.

Till next time.

It’s the Most Wonderfully Hectic Time of Year.

Here we are in December and the creative juices are flowing as to what to get the loved ones in our lives. What do you get that crazy uncle who has everything or the sister-in-law with exquisitely particular taste. We find ourselves in the same place when we think about our clients this holiday season.

The Morvil Crew has been hard at work crafting a gift that shares a piece of each of us. We’ve been trying to nail down all the ideas since summer. There have been may milestones and plateaus in this process as each creative raises the bar, refining the idea process.

I believe all of us here are artists first and designers second. Last year we felt a connection with the Christmas gift we gave to our clients. We all collaborated to make a hand printed serigraph art print.

When you combine your company’s vision with our creativity, there is a magic that happens. There are several eyes, thoughts, and ideas that we bring to the table to solve the problem of “How to brand and share your company the best way possible.”

We longed to create something again this year that our clients could take and put up and remember that we are creatively trying to solve their advertising needs. Something from the heart, that was in fact a part of each of us. Look at it as another window into our minds, hearts and souls. I know that we artists get a “wrap” for being eccentric and “wearing our heart on our sleeves”. However, there is an innate desire to produce something from nothing, let our guards down and be vulnerable when we create and share with our clients. Honestly, I think that sometimes this goes under the radar. I hope that this years gift will bring awareness of our teamwork and creativity in a new light. Check back in the new year, after we settle back in and have a chance to post it.

Thanks for the loyal support and patronage from all of our clients this year. We do indeed look forward to seeing you and your business succeed in the years to come.

From all of us here at Morvil.
Happy Holidays.

Getting Defensive In Defense of Advertising

Advertising tends to get a bad rap. Maybe I’m overly sensitive, but I sometimes chaff when I hear everything from news reports to Sunday morning sermons blaming advertising for consumerism gone wild. While I agree that our society tends to be materialistic and over-the-top greed played a significant role in the current economic crisis, I find it difficult to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the messengers.

Looking at it from the inside, this 25-year veteran of the industry has a different take. I approach my work with the following mindset:

Our client has a product or service to sell. (To avoid cumbersome sentence construction, I’ll use the widget stand-in going forward.) The most effective way to reach large groups of people who may be interested in our client’s widget is through targeted marketing. The client pays for the opportunity to tell his or her story and promote any competitive advantage—i.e. why his widget is better than other widgets on the market. Or, in the case of a brand new product: what is a widget and what are its benefits to the reader/viewer. I can honestly say I have never been asked to conjure up a wild desire for widgets—or anything else—where no demand existed before. (And I wouldn’t have a clue to how to do that!)

I view advertising more as communication than persuasion. And certainly not chicanery! Are there people in the industry who do employ deceptive techniques? Absolutely. And just like ambulance-chasing lawyers and quack physicians, they give the rest of us a bad name. Most advertising and marketing professionals are simply storytellers, honestly trying to communicate the benefits of a particular product or service so that people can make educated decisions about whether to purchase it—or not.

Okay…. that’s a rather long-winded lead in to a blog about using our work to promote good works throughout the community, but obviously I had an axe to grind. Now that I have that off my chest, I’ll climb down from my soapbox and tell you about some cool projects we’ve done. For free.

Pro Bono: From the Latin “for the public good”, it’s certainly not Greek to us

Communities in Schools, which is aimed at dropout prevention in the most vulnerable populations, needed an invitation to their Blue & White Bash—a fund-raising dinner and silent auction. CareNet Counseling Center and the Child Advocacy Commission hold similarly formatted events annually, counting on us to design invitations and programs. A church event here, a school function there—it’s all part of giving back to the community that has been so good to us.

As is true of most volunteer work, we get as much as we give—or more. We get the chance to channel our creativity in a new realm. We get to meet some of the area’s most generous people—often unsung heroes who are dedicating their lives to causes that really make a difference. And we often get invitations to these events ourselves. Besides the proverbial free lunch, we receive a greater awareness of some really great organizations.

So, how do we put a value on that? With apologies to the MasterCard campaign… Knowing you’ve had a part in making your community an even better place to live: Priceless.

Our Logo Frame of Mind

Logo design…it’s a new adventure for us every time. We begin by listening, and then listening some more. Next comes research, and finally, we enter the design phase, a non-linear process that includes sketching, brainstorming, group critiques..logos coming to life before our eyes.

Tina Williamson of T. Williamson Interiors came to us recently with a desire to recreate her brand, starting with a new logo design. What an opportunity: To create the new voice for her company. After our initial presentation of logos, Tina mentioned that just seeing all of our logo options gave her a more complete sense of her own business identity. She recently remarked, “This process (each meeting) allows me to assess my needs, anticipate future applications, and simply determine what I really want potential clients to know about T Williamson Interiors.”

And now, here it is; a new identity is born, with rebranding of her website, corporate identity and ads soon to follow:

This is our goal for all of Morvil Advertising + Design Group’s clients. Through partnering with us to explore the question “Who is your company,” you’ll come face-to-face with the opportunities presented by branding or re-branding your company.

Take a look at the newly-update logo gallery of our website. We’ve just added several new ones, as well as some old favorites. We’re continually adding work so check back often.

Is it time to meet your new logo?

Split personalities

Hello again from the gang here at Morvil.

We took some time to relax a little and enjoy some laughter around the office not to long ago and wanted to share the humor with you all. We can be serious when the time and project call for it…but honestly who among you doesn’t prefer to laugh and smile?

Here are some of the images that brought us quite a bit of enjoyment and laughter.