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The Connection Of Visual Design And Music
 In 1939 recorded music was forever changed when Alex Steinweiss created the first custom-designed album cover.
We’d like to thank the late Mr. Steinweiss for allowing us to express our love of music through graphic design. It allows us to collaborate with a wide variety of creative individuals to capture the feel of the music and lyrics visually.
This iteration of Marketing28 CD art starts with the Tim-O and Danny Hicks Brain Invasion and features surgical instruments juxtaposed with a smiling young lady from another time, expressing the title “Pain Ms. Management.”
Next comes naive child art of two individuals. A glimpse of the unsettling lyrical content peeks up from the bottom, type askew, for Tim-O’s “The Killer’s Journal 2.”
And then the outlaw country of the BOB Band is captured behind bars with photos courtesy of Todd Davis for the release “Time Served.”
We’re looking forward to the next music/design collaboration opportunity. Contact Dan O’Saben if you’re looking for help making your musical vision come to life. And make sure you support the musicians in your neck of the woods by going to a show and picking up their latest release, whether it’s a physical copy or digital download. The world will be a better place because of it.
Small Doesn’t Have To Mean ‘Local-only’.
 A sampling of where some of the Marketing28 clients are located. I remember when I was working for an agency in St. Louis and there was a lot of talk about branching out to clients beyond our immediate metro area.
At the time the owner of the company just didn’t understand how it made any sense to pursue clients that were more than a car drive away. He felt out of town clients would be costly and a hassle, with less financial reward than working with a business-to-business client right down the street.
And, at the time he may have been right. The internet had not even begun to reach full potential (will someone else be writing similar words in 5 years? What is the full potential of the internet? Are we even at 1% of knowing the answer to this question?) and out of town clients meant travel expenses, lots of long distance phone calls, and a constant caravan of FedEx packages being sent with precious creative cargo in tow.
Side note: Does anyone else remember writing on the outside of an envelope “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL WE ARE ON THE PHONE TOGETHER”, hoping that the client would heed your words, but knowing full well that they had probably already looked at everything and made all their decisions hours before the conference call, and your rationale/sales pitch had begun? I do.
It’s a different world out there. A world where small, agile companies can apply their expertise to help companies of all sizes. Wherever they are.
Looking at our client, both past and present, Marketing28 is a perfect example of this new world.
We have worked with clients in Florida, Montana, Illinois, Missouri, New York, California and more. Online tools make communication across what are really vast distances relatively easy. And a face-to-face meeting is just a plane ride away.
And we also benefit from being able to work with the best collaborators we can find, no matter where they are. Of course we have our core team right here in the St. Louis area, but we also do not hesitate to reach out to a programmer in Texas, or a designer in California, when the project is right for that person.
Where will our next client hail from? I really don’t know, but I’m excited to find out.
Do you need help with your advertising and marketing efforts? Let Marketing28 founder Dan O’Saben know by emailing or calling today. No matter where you are, we’ll be happy to lend our expertise to grow your company.
Introducing The St. Louis Brewers Guild!
St. Louis area brewers have recently joined forces to promote the burgeoning craft beer scene in the area, and Marketing28 has designed their logo. Cory King, head brewer at Perennial Artisan Ales, says ”With all of the breweries around here now, there is no reason why St. Louis shouldn’t position itself as a destination for beer vacations,” and we agree!
While activities are still in the planning stages, you can follow the guild through Twitter and a web site should be coming soon.
The founding breweries are 4 Hands, 2nd Shift, Charleville, Ferguson, Kirkwood Station, Morgan Street, O’Fallon, Perennial, Schlafly (St. Louis Brewery), Six Row, Square One and, of course, Urban Chestnut. We recommend you stop by any one of these outstanding breweries when you are in the St. Louis area, and enjoy some tasty, tasty beer.
Does your company or organization need a new logo, an identity, a marketing plan? Contact Dan O’Saben to find out how Marketing28 can help you. Cheers!
AIRHAWK and Marketing28 help motorcycle riders ride on air.
Or, pilot sorb aire. Or, sedate su bolle d’aria. Or, of course, luftgepolstert fahren.
 How do you create a piece of communication when you know it has to be translated into several languages? It may seem like an easy task, but it is one that trips up many a marketer.
When Marketing28 teamed up with ROHO and AIRHAWK to adapt a three dimensional display into a poster translated into a total of 4 languages, we knew what had to go: clever turns of phrase.
Wait a minute. Did he just say ‘don’t be clever’?
No. I did NOT say ‘don’t be clever’ (Somebody tell me if that is even a proper sentence, with two negatives in there. I feel like matter and anti-matter just collided). But I DID say we had to remove any clever turns of phrase.
You see, what may be a delightful slang expression in one language can mean something completely different in another. And before you know it, embassies are involved and official public apologies have been issued and you are asked to never visit that country again.
This does not mean you should be boring in your point of sale materials. But, while you may understand the phrase ‘these products are the bomb’, you never know when translating this same phrase into another language may end up being the cause of international embarrassment for your client.
Marketing28 created these eye-catching posters with the goal of easily translating them into Spanish, Italian and German. Or whatever language we needed to communicate.
No matter how you say it, motorcyclist all over the world are learning about AIRHAWK and the benefits of riding on air thanks to Marketing28.
Do you have a business with international communication needs? Or maybe you are thinking about expanding into new markets, either domestic or beyond. Contact Dan O’Saben and see how we can help you create successful advertising in any language.
Road Trip! AKA, we’ve created Urban Chestnut’s first truck graphics.
Marketing28 has once again teamed up with Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, this time with Eagle Distributing, to create their first delivery truck! Now that they are in over 100 restaurants and bars this is surely the first of many.
In the St. Louis area? Ask your server or bartender if they have UCBC’s Zwickel or Winged Nut. If they do, it’s more than likely that beer you’re drinking took a joy ride in this tricked-out vehicle.
Need help with vehicle graphics and beyond? Contact Dan O’Saben.
Man, we can’t wait to share the packaging for these guys. Soon! Very soon! (OK, not soon enough!)
Is Your Site A True Reflection Of Your Company Personality?
Sierra Counseling and Mediation came to Marketing28 frustrated with their existing site.
It was static.
The design and content were owned by the medical template company that implemented it.
It did not reflect the personality of the company, and founder Vivian Sierra.
They needed the flexibility to easily share their story as the grew.
In response, Marketing28 created a new site with all original content. There’s a blog designed to give Vivian an opportunity to comment on the latest trends in the counseling field and a forum where like-minded individuals can come to discuss their issues. And with their custom content management system (CMS) they can make changes to the site content whenever they want.
Original photography of Vivian Sierra and the office space, along with an intro video from Vivian give a potential client a good sense of the warmth and compassion exhibited throughout the practice.
And you can’t get that in a template.
Tired of being held captive by your static website? Need one that is a proper reflection of your company personality? We should talk. Contact Marketing28 founder Dan O’Saben today.
New Music Means New Marketing28 CD Designs!
 We have talked about our love of music here before. And it is always a joy to be able to work with musicians to realize their artistic vision through CD package design.
The goal of any successful design is to capture the spirit of the piece/company/product/etc., no matter what type of client we work with. And these two new designs are a good demonstration of that. The end result of working with a blues guitarist with a CD title about pretty girls should end up looking totally different from a CD from one of the stars of the movie Evil Dead 2, especially when the name of the group is the Tim-O and Danny Hicks Brain Invasion.
Creating unique personalities is what we do every day here at Marketing28. So whether you are an aspiring musician that needs help with packaging and a web site, or a large corporation in need of fresh thinking, we’d love to help. Give us a call or drop us an email and we’ll get to work helping you create your very own brand personality.
P.S. We also feel strongly about supporting local musicians. If you catch Joe Alford playing out around the Greenville, IL or St. Louis area, buy a CD. You can listen to the Tim-O and Danny Hicks Brain Invasion CD, ‘Slightly Concussed’, on BandCamp and purchase it there also.
This Weekend: Urban Chestnut Brewing Company hosts Oktoberfest in September.
 Poster designed by Marketing28 for the Urban Chestnut Oktoberfest Note from the editor: If you are reading this after September 24-25, 2011, then the Urban Chestnut Oktoberfest is OBVIOUSLY not THIS weekend. You missed it. And we feel bad that you did. The only way you would be able to experience the awesomeness that happened would be if you had a time machine, and you could go back, like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future.
So read on, but don’t be trying to show up for some German oompah music in February. You have been warned.
ADDITIONAL note from the editor: Have you invented a working time machine? Then contact us here. I’d like to talk to my 17-year-old self about revising some embarrassing incidents from high school.
Now, where were we? Ah, yes, Oktoberfest in September! Which really isn’t that odd, since the original Oktoberfest in Munich has always taken place from late September until early October. For their inaugural Oktoberfest UCBC will have German food, German music, and of course German bier.
Brewmaster Florian, born and raised in Germany, will be on hand to make sure everything is authentic. We suggest you be there to have a good time, and to see if he is wearing lederhosen!
Marketing28 worked with UCBC to design banners, posters, and t-shirts. You can see a more detailed schedule on their blog. Stop by and say “Hello!” at the festival. We’d love to see you there!
 Urban Chestnut Oktoberkest t-shirt design by Marketing28
The Return Of DART St. Louis
Two years ago I had the opportunity to explore a region of St. Louis that I had never been to before, all thanks to a throw of a dart onto a map projected on a wall. You can read all about it, and see the results in this post.
It was a great experience, from the camaraderie of the original dart-throwing gathering, to getting back together for the big reveal of all the photos.
And so I was excited to see that DART St. Louis wasn’t a one-off, but was back for 2011. The opening dart-throwing event was larger than what I remembered the first one as, but still a fun time to catch up with old friends and ex-co-workers, and to meet new folks, too.
Here’s how the organizers describe the event:
DART St. Louis is a participatory photography challenge. Creative St Louisans gather biannually at FK Photo Studio to throw darts at a giant map of St Louis City. Over the following month, participants visit the location where their dart landed and make a photograph within a one-block radius. Everyone then reconvenes for a happy hour and slide show to celebrate the experiment’s results.
A camera is a powerful tool that gives the photographer a reason to explore topics and places that are unknown. By the mere act of photographing, things that were unknown become captured, understood, and made personal. By experiencing new areas and meeting new St. Louisans, we can see more clearly the hope and promise of our own neighborhoods and our own neighbors.
This is all St. Louis, and it’s ours.
This year each dart throw was also a donation to help the non-profit organization Rebuilding Together – St. Louis, with $2,200 raised for a worthy cause. My dart landed in North St. Louis, at the corner of Natural Bridge and Fair.
You could only submit one photo. But sometimes it’s hard to decide, so I’ve included my top three picks in this post.
Which one do you like best?
And which one did I send? That, my friends, will be revealed on June 1, when we all get back together at FK Photo Studio for the big slideshow. Hope to see you there.
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