Branding & Web Site Design: Introducing Mobius Motion Studio
Wow, this one was a fun but demanding project. A full branding initiative for a recent start-up movement studio called Mobius Motion. This encompassed everything from logo design, color scheme selection, business cards, postcards, and even gift certificates. All melded consistently to fit with the newly developed brand.
The branding was the easy part, for the web site and print materials I had to balance design asthetic, with branding requirements from the parent company that licenses the brand of movement Mobius Motion provides. Which leads to lots of revisions, but it was all taken in stride. All in all it was a great project, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Click the image to be taken to the web site for Mobius Motion
Phew, summer already?
Yep, still kicking around here. Been very busy with a full branding and marketing project for Mobius Motion ( www.mobiusmotionstudio.com ). Everything from the branding/logo to the web design, postcards, business cards, even gift certificates. Expect a detailed post soon.
Meanwhile, I’ve been back behind the camera lens a lot lately, and expect some cool things to come with that… stay tuned!
Share on FacebookSchuylkill River Shad Festival – Web Design & Branding
Very proud to present the web site I donated for the Schuylkill River Shad Festival. I had a very, very tight deadline in between regular projects and work. And while I would of loved to spend a couple weeks on the project and made every last detail hand crafted and perfect but I think with the help of the festivals sponsors, the Schuylkill Canal Association, we pulled out a nice looking product.
Schuylkill River Shad Festival Web Site ( Click To Visit )
If you or your business is in need of a custom web site, hand crafted and suited to the unique personality of your business, I can help. Ed Roper Designs is focusing clearly on those in need of quality web sites and graphic design services. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, ed@edroper.com, and I’ll be glad to talk over your options with you.
Coming Soon: Mobius Motion Studio
I’ve been working with a wonderful new client, Mobius Motion Studio. To quote their site, “Mobius Motion is a Philadelphia based therapeutic movement studio that guides clients through their personal fitness goals with the practice of GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® exercise”
I’m going to be doing a full branding and web design package for them. In the mean time, check out the cool little coming soon web page I put together.
It’s always better to have a coming soon page with basic description of your business and contact info. That way you can achieve a couple of things
1. It looks like you’re actually in business
2. You don’t have an ugly placeholder page from your domain registrar
3. You start getting indexed by Google and other search engines, so when you are up and running you’re already on Google’s radar
4. People can get a basic idea of what you do and contact info if they wish to start working with you.
All my web design clients get a free custom coming soon page included in their web design packages. For more info on my web design services, email me ed@edroper.om
And I almost forgot, here’s the web site!
http://www.mobiusmotionstudio.com
Share on FacebookWeb Design – Now offering full-service web design services with social network integration
I am proud to announce that I will be offering full-service web design services to my clients in the Phoenixville area and beyond. For those that don’t know me, I started my career in the IT sector as a web application developer. HTML & CSS has always been a friend of mine. Of course, in the private sector I was limited creatively as to what I could design. Now that I am freelancing, the doors are wide open.
I hope to offer my services across all industries and disciplines, from real estate agents, to musicians, to artists and soccer mom bloggers. I will be designing browser compatible web sites using the latest CSS/HTML techniques, put together elegantly using my eye for design and creativity.
I will also be creating sites driven by the WordPress blogging platform, to act as a Content Management System ( CMS ), so that my clients can update their sites on their own. All sites will be heavily focused on usability, as well as creativity. I hope to integrate real world elements and illustrations, textures, and other things to give my sites a truly ‘hand crafted’ aesthetic.
This is something I have been considering offering for quite a while. There are a lot of web “designers” in the area, but very few I feel actually do good work. I hope to change that and to elevate the local market to a better looking and functional level.
Now, you may notice my portfolio does not have any examples of web design in it ( other than the fact my site was completely designed and coded by me ). As I mentioned, I worked the majority of my career in the IT sector. In doing so, the sites I did make are not mine to show due to various non-compete and confidentiality agreements. So to make up for this and make potential new clients feel at ease with working with somebody new to the freelance market, I will be offering 25% off my usual rates for the first 3 clients who sign up with me for web design services.
For more details, click here to view my pdf brochure. As always, feel free to contact me anytime to discuss how I can help you and your web needs. Email me ed@edroper.com for a free consultation.
Share on FacebookHow to lose thousands of dollars, in one fell swoop.
Recently, a colleague of mine from another agency told me a story about a client who just wasted a large amount of money on printing. How did they do it? Well it’s a funny story.
You see, the client in question was using multiple creative agencies to fufill their printing needs. In this case, they were using my colleague for printing and some design, and an ad agency for other aspects of design. In this example, they used the ad agency for their envelope design and printing.
So, as the story goes, they had the ad agency design them a mailing envelope. The envelope of course, looks amazing. Nobody expected it not to. But there was one small problem. There was a large branding design, in the envelope “clear zone”. Meaning, it was inelligible for postal discounts since this area of the envelope needs to be completely clear from any printing or marks. Since this customer has a need to mail at a volume high enough to receive automated mail discounts, all these envelopes were rendered useless. They are now out a couple grand in printing costs.
Now you may wonder, how could this of been avoided? Simple. They could of ensured that the design agency was aware of their business requirements, and had the knowledge to design for those requirements.
If you are designing an envelope for bulk mail discounts, you should ensure that you use a USPS Notice 67 template, available from most bulk mail entry units. This will show you a distinct ‘barcode clear zone’ where no printing can occur.
Because of a lack of knowledge on the design agencies part, this simply wasn’t done. And that my friends, is how you can lose thousands of dollars, by not doing something that could of taken 30 seconds to figure out.
Luckily for my clients, I have experience in designing mailpieces and have worked in the print & mail industry. If a customer comes to me needing envelopes designed around their brand, I scope out the work, and determine if these will be bulk mailed or have postage affixed. Just another example of how experience and knowledge can save, or lose, you money.
Ed Roper is a freelance graphic and web designer from the Philadelphia suburban area who specializes in print, identity, and web design. He caters to small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. His web site can be found at http://www.edroper.com.
Share on FacebookBuy Fresh, Buy Local : Why it’s critical to work with a local designer to create your identity.
If you are a new business looking for your first logo, or perhaps you’re simply wishing to update your existing brand, you might be tempted to go to google and look up “logo designers”. If you do, you’ll notice something interesting: there are a ton of logo design “services” who operate completely online.
You may click on to their web site, and be tempted by their pricing pages. Often times they have “packages” with prices from high to low. It seems like you can buy a logo as easily as shopping at your favorite online retailer. But don’t be deceived, there are quite a few reasons why you are actually short selling yourself when you use a faceless “logo designer” or “crowdsource” your branding.
To walk you through these hazards, lets take a look at the design process of one particular web site. To protect the innocent ( and to keep me from being sued ) , I have slightly altered the copy and removed any names, but have stayed true to the message they were conveying.
“…just fill out our online form and submit payment. This form gives us all of the information you need to get started working on your logo”
This particular web site gives you three fields to fill out describing your business. Your name, your “tag line”, and a little box asking you “describe your business”. There are quite a few things wrong with this right off the bat.
To start, your business identity is just that, your identity. A good logo and identity will incorporate all the things important to your and your organization. Your ideals, message, mission, goals and desires. Can this all be summed up in one simple text box? Can you, as a person, be summed up in one single text box?
A good logo design will give you a full featured design brief, or questionnaire. Often times these can be 1-2+ pages long and consist of questions asking about your business, it’s vision, what it’s values are, and other important aspects of your business. This is all part of getting to know you and what’s important, and what’s not. Without knowing this, how can you possibly hope to represent your identity?
Let’s move on with the design process, shall we?
“Within 2-3 days, you will get five or six concepts to look at. We have as many as 6-7 logo designers working on your logo, to give you many choices to choose from…”
There are two glaring things wrong with this concept. First, you can’t rush perfection. A good logo design process can take up to a few weeks, bouncing ideas and concepts back and forth between the designer and you. All the while, the designer is learning what makes your business tick, and you are learning about their creative process. Second, scattering your logo ideas amongst multiple designers gives your multiple people, who know even less about your business. It just further abstracts the process and gets your further away from crafting a truly unique and meaningful identity.
“Take some time to think over the designs. You might like the colors from one, the fonts from others, and layout from another…”
A good logo designer will usually present your initial concepts in black or grayscale. A good logo works in black and white first, and color after the concept is approved. Thus will begin another round of changes and you discuss color options. They will also make sure it works well at small sizes, reversed out, enlarged, and any other presentment options that were discussed, in the design brief. Since these logo web sites don’t first evaluate all the needs you may have for your identity ahead of time, how can they anticipate what your needs will be after the fact?
“After we finish, we will send you your logo files. Now is a good time to think about one of our letterhead and identity packages.”
Stop right there. Branding and other identity ideas should begin as soon as you have some initial logo concepts. That way, you can seamless link and integrate all the concepts together. Usually, a good logo designer will already present logo concepts along with some “rough” identity ideas such as letterhead, business cards, etc. in order to let you see your logo in context. Branding and future identity uses should never be an afterthought.
As you can see, there are a variety of reasons why you should work with a local designer. At the very least, if you must use an online designer or agency ensure you are working with one or two people at the most. There are some very solid designers out there who work primarily online, but they still extend all the best practices in branding to their clients. In fact, one of my favorite designers, David Airey ( http://www.davidairey.com/ ) works with clients from around the world. But his design process is so personal and intimate, he might as well be next door to you. A big box “logo shop” will never give you that level of satisfation and quality. And after all, doesn’t you business deserve the very best?
Ed Roper is a freelance graphic and web designer from the Philadelphia suburban area who specializes in print, identity, and web design. He caters to small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. His web site can be found at http://www.edroper.com.
Share on FacebookMy New Identity: Introducing, Ed Roper Designs
After a little bit of early growing pains, I am proud to announce that I will be operating under the banner of Ed Roper Designs. Providing full service design, identity, web & photography services, this will allow me to align myself as a one-stop-shop for small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. I also will be expanding my service offering to provide web design. Drawing on almost 10 years of web application development, I can combine my design aesthetic with my programming know-how. Backing this up will also be service offerings for businesses looking to branch into social media, search engine optimization ( SEO ), as well as identity & branding reinforcement techniques for the online world.
More good things are to come, including a brand new web site ( to replace the current brand new web site 
).
Soon I will be getting nice, new business cards, that will surely blow you away. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s going to look great!
Also keep an eye out for upcoming informative blog articles, and many more new great things.
Signup for the mailing list. Special deals, promotions, and giveaways to subscribers!
Signup for the brand new email mailing list. Keep up-to-date on whats going on with Ed Roper Designs, as well as information on special deals, promotions, as well as free giveaways! Coming very, very soon, will be a monthly free business card design giveaway, but only for members of the mailing list! Sign up now at this link :
Click the link to be taken to the signup form, and you’ll be notified when the contests, as well as other events, start.
Share on FacebookAnnual Report Design – Good Samaritan Shelter of Phoenixville
It’s been quiet on the blogging front, because I’ve been hard at work with some interesting projects. The most recent of which is an annual report I’ve completed for Good Samaritan Shelter of Phoenixville.
Utilizing their branding standards, which includes color schemes and font choices, I designed an interesting annual report that provides a clean and very professional look, something that every non-profit can benefit from.
With the client’s permission, you can view the entire publication in PDF format by clicking this link : PDF Download ( 3mb)
If your business or organization is in need of professionally designed annual reports, presentations, or other business documents, I can help. For more information feel free to contact me.
Share on FacebookNewsletter Design: Mom’s House, Inc of Greater Philadelphia
I’ve volunteered my design services to the Phoenixville, PA based Mom’s House, Inc of Greater Philadelphia. Mom’s House provides free daycare services to at-risk or underprivileged mothers who are going to school full time. A great organization. They are very grateful for having a professional looking fall newsletter to send to their donors. Hopefully it will open some more doors for them in terms of donations and funding. They’ve also since asked me to be on their advisory board for graphic design needs. Click the image to see a larger version.
Is your business or organization in need of a well designed newsletter, brochure, or other print material? I can help. For info on how I can assist with your visual identity, email ed@edroper.com. And click here to check out my portfolio to see more examples.
Share on FacebookBrochure Design : J. Richard Liston, PhD Pre-College Mentoring
Dr. Richard Liston, President of Sphere College, needed a brochure quickly for his college mentoring services. Liston, a seasoned educator, is offering pre-college mentoring for prospective college students in order to help them craft application letters, find volunteer opportunities, and do other things that will get them higher on the application process for quality educational institutions.
The client required a brochure as soon as possible, as he is trying to go full forth with marketing efforts of this unique service. I was able to turn this around in an evening.
If I can create a quality brochure in a few hours, imagine the designs I can do for your business with a more flexible schedule. Ed Roper Photo & Design provides full-service design and photography services for small to medium-sized businesses as well as non-profits.
Share on FacebookGot my name in the paper, for good reasons
For those who don’t know me, I’ve been getting quite involved locally in the revitalization movement of Phoenixville. There are many who feel, myself included, that the revitalization progress has stalled. So I’ve been quite active in trying to help motivate people and getting everybody talking again. Phoenixville, like most small towns, has an existing and established political machine that also like many small towns, has worn some people the wrong way. I believe, like with anything, time and communication can heal most wounds.
A better Phoenixville in the long run is better for my business, the business of my customers, and the community overall. It would be something I’d be spiriting behind even if I wasn’t a “businessman”.
Also, a funny side note, they misquoted the business name as “Ed Roper Creative Services”. While that was once an earlier business name, it’s been Ed Roper Photo & Design for a little while now.
Here’s the link :: http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/08/17/news/doc4c6a6e5edc00a388376584.txt
Share on Facebookedroper.com 2.0 is live!
So very, very proud to announce the launch of my new web site at www.edroper.com. There is still a little bit of work to do, but I wanted to move away from the blog format, and get a more traditional web site up as soon as possible. This blog will definitely be maintained, and feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed.
One neat feature of the new site, is new blog postings are automatically posted to the front page of edroper.com. Check it out!
Share on FacebookLogo Design: Unfiltered Phoenixville News
The Unfiltered Phoenixville News, a small but growing community facebook news group, needed a logo for it’s page. The design incorporates a glyph of the old water tower that can be seen from downtown, and which at night is illuminated with a star.
The font chosen for the typeface is “Franchise Bold”, designed by Derek Weathersbee.
Ed Roper Photo & Design can help you or your organization with logos & branding, marketing materials, and commercial grade photos. For information on how your business can be helped with some fresh design, email ed@edroper.com
Share on FacebookYour brand may be hurting your business.
There’s no question that we live in a hyper-visual world. With the prevalence of multimedia capable phones in every pocket, HD-TV’s in many homes, and the internet on every desktop consumers are exposed to brands all the time.
Not having a powerful visual presence in this day in age is not only a poor business move in regards to attracting customers, but may in fact be repelling them. Click the link to find out more…
Share on FacebookThe new edroper.com, coming soon. No, really!
It’s not just one of those perpetual ‘coming soon pages’ that people post to their sites, and then sit dormant for months. I really am working on a new site. Want a preview? Well, ok..
See! It’s really happening. Quite a bit of a detour from our current look, but thats the fun of it! Stay tuned!
Share on FacebookPhotoshoot with Liza Houck fashion designs.
Phoenixville area fashion designer Liza Houck is premiering some news designs. She asked me to help her with some photos to be used on etsy.com. Check it out!
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Ed Roper Photo & Design – Now live on Facebook. Coming soon to edroper.com
Won’t you “Like” me?
Share on FacebookLocal Business Spotlight for Phoenixville Area Small Businesses & Non-Profits.
Do you or anyone you know run a small business or non-profit in the Phoenixville, PA area? Get featured by yours truly on the great Facebook group “The Unfiltered Downtown Phoenixville News”.
Details here : http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=136541776366246
And feel free to “Like” the page as well. The link is below!
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