Hot, Hotter, Hotbed

So when we were first blessed with the opportunity to redesign the brand for Hotbed Media, a San Francisco based film production company, we were excited to present the company with a mark that literally took the concept of a "hotbed" and translated that into a symbol that leveraged the equity found in the old symbol. Then we dropped a first rate flash based website on them that has been the rage for close to 10 years.

But times can and do change...for the better. And what a difference a redesign makes.

This week I spoke to Ed Reese, head of new business at Hotbed and he shared some very good news. "We have increased viewership to our videos on our site by close to 300% in 3 months."

A few months ago Stokes McIntyre, Co-Founder and longtime patron of Themilkfarm, asked for a redesign. With the new demands on SEO (search engine optimization) we had to refresh the site so they could be more competitive. As a film production company, Hotbed needs to be competitive online to generate sales leads globally and compete with great studios who already have a strong following.

We sat down with Stokes and Ed, hashed out the general structure over lunch, created a clean design that not only optimizes search, it is a breeze to maintain, and we went from concept to completion in a few short weeks.

Immediately the requests for their reel went up and overall traffic to the site has been steadily increasing. Not to mention the top level organic search rankings in Google. "We are even coming up before Steven Spielberg on certain searches." Ed shared.

From our side, we are excited that design has played a pivotal role in truly increasing visibility for our clients. And at the beginning, middle and end of the day...that is what it is all about.

Just Ask

My own personal business design guru. Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with a woman who has helped grow one of the world's most amazing design studios.

Joanne Chan from Turner Duckworth in San Francisco, took time out of her dense schedule to talk shop with yours truly. Joanne has been with Turner Duckworth for over 10 years. She is the business side of the San Francisco creative office managing every aspect of the business.

So at the beginning of the year when I decided to go deeper into building a strong design company, as opposed to just a series of great projects, I called Turner Duckworth. Joanne replied and was gracious enough to share some pointers on how Turner Duckworth builds successful brands, but more importantly, their own successful brand.

I had questions that ranged from cashflow to competitions–finding good talent to building trust. The take away is this. There are amazing people in your life that have the answers you are looking for. Simply ask, be considerate of their time, and you shall receive.

Do your best to learn at every turn. As I reflect on the last 13 years in design, I have come into the presence of many great people. Collegues and mentors. Often times I ponder the pearls they passed on, and the wisdom they shared. Seek wisdom and you will find that there is an entire world out there waiting to support your vision.

Blestek

Bless Technologies needed a revised logo.
Themilkfarm created a new system that not
only included the new word mark and symbol,
we also encouraged the client to consider
a slight name change to create a more
proprietary name.