[Project Complete] Financial Marketing Agency $450

[townes]

(Admin code added by Palmer - DR1564252)

Overview:
The site is for a direct marketing and advertising agency, with offices in Chicago and Baltimore. Our core client industry is banking and financial, with an emphasis on mid-size community banks. We’ve spent our past careers doing lots of big corporate banking and lending work (from inside and the agency end) and want to communicate our depth of expertise, brought to a smaller market.

We’re looking for clean, easy to navigate design that stands on its own. Don’t try to visually cover the industry with bank tellers and photos of middle-aged white guys shaking hands. While we may choose to add portfolio samples later on, our selling proposition is return on investment to a dollar-driven audience.

That said, while strategy and planning are what often gets us in the door, a good part of our billings are in print advertising, collateral, and direct mail execution. Thus, we need to look imaginative and contemporary. Even the dollars-and-cents client wants to look sharp and have an agency that reflects that. We don’t need to go over the top with site gimmicks, as some agencies are prone to do.

Specifics:
We have no current site. It will be at www.ledirect.net. Logo prints in PMS 2613 and this purple may be employed elsewhere in the design if you choose. Otherwise, color palette is entirely your call.

The subpage titles are:
About LE Direct
Limitless Expertise
Performance Tools
Case Histories
FAQs
Contact Us

We’re looking for template for primary and one sub-page.

Competitive industry sites:
These have some audience overlap with us, but most are selling McAds. They are not design models.

http://www.financialmarketingservices.com - group that focuses on start-ups with packaged marketing products and brand identity.

http://www.bankadpro.com - Instant ad, drop in a logo.

http://www.leadsource.com - more turnkey bank marketing programs

http://www.allison-mitchell.co.uk - best equivalent to us, serves the UK

Site we like:
http://www.cliffordpr.com - clean, informative, and professional

Deadline:
August 31, 2004. If we find the right thing, we'll declare an end earlier. We'll be monitoring entries from two cities, and will provide feedback as promptly as possible. Any questions, let us know. Who's in?

[Pawel]

Very nice, I'm in.
Do you want the pages to be coded x(html)/ css or you only require PSD files ?

[townes]

Great, glad to have a hand raised already. We would like it html/css coded, please.

[Pawel]

Hello townes,

Do you have any content for the front page ?
Thanks

[townes]

In terms of text? We'll drop some intro/teaser copy--a couple of paragraphs, 100 words or so. For the time being, greeking of that is fine. You are welcome to play with "The power of limitless expertise"--which has been employed as a tagline in some presentation material. Just to expand a little on the brief: we're purposely not putting to-date print material in front of you. First, because it's early enough in our evolution that there isn't an internal brand bible for our agency. But primarily, aside from the logo, we don't want you to feel limited by any of the design choices made up to this point. Visually, you can go with office/environmental/financial ideas. Our main point is that it doesn't look like "bank lite." It's enough that we counsel clients to get away from stacks of dollar bills and smiling families in front of their Brand New House, without falling into too many cliches ourselves.

[Pawel]

Hello townes,
Is this what you had in mind ?

[townes]

That was far faster than I expected for a first entry. Thanks for the quick work. Pawel, I'll be able to comment more specifically on designs beginning Friday, when my counterpart in Chicago returns to the office and will be there through the deadline, so we can avoid holdups. I'll say initially on my own that first impression is that it feels like an investment advisor. It fulfills the functional aspects, but I don't get much sense that this is coming from a creative firm. I'm putting as few creative restrictions as I can, while trying to communicate what we do and what our clients do. If an entry needs to be pulled back from the edge, trust me, I'll say so. But we're not all starched shirts and three-piece suits, so don't feel limited. And again, Pawel, I'll distill decision-makers comments by late morning Friday.

Anyone else in the mix? Any questions I can answer in this early going?

[splunking]

Hello there

Expect an entry from me in the next few days, or even as early as today.

Thanks
- Cindy

[townes]

Terrific, Cindy. We'll be on the lookout.

I know it's crunch time on a couple of other threads. Anyone else from whom we should expect something in the coming days?

[Trifolic]

Do you have the PSD for that logo?

[splunking]

Hello townes,

Here is a shot. I really went for a minimalist style. If you want me to kick it up a notch, le tme know. Or I can start over from scratch.

LE DIRECT INDEX PAGE

Thank you for your time,
Cindy

[Pawel]

Hey townes,
Thank you for your comments,
I'll revise my entry, do you by any chance have any pictues that would be suitable ?
Thanks

[townes]

Jason- no photoshop file, but I do have the Illustrator .eps logo file attached below, if that will help.

Cindy- Great, thanks. I'll start getting feedback from the Chicago folks in the late morning on Friday.

Pawel- I don't have a particular image in mind--really I'd like to see what you all, as designers, come up with. As guidance, don't let yourself be limited to those "usual suspect" stock shots of people in suits pretending to talk. It could be office environmental, could be business district street scene (generic or particular to our location cities), could be something else that you think works. Remember that we're an advertising agency first, so consider your vision of what that looks like (you can skip the hangovers and everyone dressed in black.)

[townes]

Some feedback on these first two. First, nice work from both of you.

Pawel- I've already talked a little about this feeling a bit more like a financial institution than a firm that serves them, and my colleagues echoed that. Some other items: along the top, the logo feels a little "stuck in" (another comment: "trapped") in relationship to the navigation buttons. The duplication of home, about, contact at the upper right is probably unnecessary. "Feels a little heavy" on the left half of the page.

Cindy- First question was what happened to the logo. Solid dimensions and type style look different than our standard. Compliments on the cream color in conjuntion with the purple. Like the idea of a scaled-back/ghosted image, but classical statuary seems a little out of context. A little more text room than is needed. Might try navigation and headline in a font that creates a little more contrast with the logotype. Like the idea of dividing navigation between the top and left. No objection to breaking up the solid bar with some kind of knockout, but the "LE" at the bottom left doesn't add a lot.

Uniformally, the reviewers were pleased with the first shot from both of you and encourage you (and other submitters) to be bold and adventurous. "A prospective client may feel a little more conservative about their brand, but doesn't mind the agency cranking things up a notch for its own." We all look forward to more ideas and possibilities. Thanks!

[Anne]

Hi.

Here is an entry from me

Another one (only with small variations)

Looking forward to your feedback
Anne

[BrianDove]

And mine
Do you want changes made ? I'm at your service
Brian

[BrianDove]

and something else
Brian

[splunking]

Hello Townes,

Okay, I had a little fun with this. I tried to produce something creative and unique, while keeping it simple. Here is a second concept. Let me know what you think.

LE DIRECT TEMPLATE REVISION 1

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your feedback.
- Cindy

[townes]

Good morning, all

I have comments for Anne, collected this morning. Brian and Cindy, I should have feedback for you a little later on today. We continue to be very impressed with everything we're seeing.

Anne: I'm going to primarily address the first version, since we think it's the stronger of the two. Starting at the top, we really liked the way you made the logo feel more integrated with the overall design. It's a somewhat boxy, "defined" logo, and it didn't feel like an afterthought in the design--very nice. Using the curved lines in close proximity added interest.

There's some concern about the balance between text and graphic elements, with the text area being "heavier" and "too horizontal." Remember that on the index page, it's only going to be 100 words or so in paragraph form, and the text should be complementary to the graphic look--simply 'we've intrigued you at first glance, now go deeper to learn more.' In other words, we're not hesitant about being more vertical. This is also the case with the header area--it can take up more room vertically on the page, but it may need to be buffered a bit, so it's not going from text in the navigation directly into text on the page.

Other comments that came up: "beware of having the top (navigation area) be too dark and compact"; "experiment with some contrasting colors"; "nice font choice, but all the headers feel too uniform in terms of size"; "not Le Direct." Also: "Using What's New is a nice idea--could encompass links internal news, client projects, or exernal news sources." "Photo choice feels more 'consultative'--a good thing. But still feels a little more like a salesman making a pitch, than a creative place. Photo does not have to be face shots of people." All in all, Anne, very nice work!

[Anne]

Hi and thank you for the feedback.

Here's another entry from me.

- added some pictures to the header.
- added some contrasting colors.
- replaced the middle picture.
- changed the layout from horizintal to vertical (this can of course be changed back if you prefer the previous layout)

Anne

[townes]

Good afternoon. Comments for Brian and Cindy. Anne, your revision is being reviewed in Chicago now, and I'll post responses as soon as I get them. (From here: some very good changes.)

Brian: You've done some very good things, among them a little bit of psychic designing--I'll get to that. First, your work with objects--the eyeglasses, in particular--is a nice alternative. Also, we appreciate your willingness to play with strong color in the glasses photo. The bullets--for lack of a better word--for the page titles got comments all around; we've used a similar four-square device on presentations, which you had no way of knowing. The challenges here: the orientation, as I've discussed in other responses, is very horizontal--lots of long lines of text, so the overall effect is that the page is--well, shorter and wider. Narrowing the text column would be a good idea.The contact cue really gets lost at the top; we're happy if they read all the pages, but getting the viewer in touch with us is very important. Centering the logo was worth experimenting with, but both it and the framing of the left orientation logo end up feeling even harder edged than it is to begin with. The mixed case headline works much better than the all caps. And don't feel as though you have to use a headline or call-out font that's too similar to the logo. All told, some very good elements here.

Cindy: Some real strengths here, some of which took me a few views to catch on to. Big improvement in working with the logo--though as noted, framing it accentuates its inherent blockiness. (Reviewer comment: "the first impression is all geometric.") We like the fact that you've played with the background more; ghosting back text and using some background elements to soften the lines farther down the page are a nice touch. At least for me, it didn't hit the first time. Maybe that was a little screen glare here or the photo was a little too striking. (Comment: "the young woman in the photo is lovely, but it's rather intense.") You've done a very nice job of making the text box more readable. One thing we've learned: when the company name is one the same line (as opposed to the logo) 'Direct' should either be mixed case or small capped after the D. This avoids the French interpretation of the name. Can we try the headlines and navigation titles in a sans-serif, and give the navigation titles a little more space vertically? (Comment: "Even if the subpage titles end up as two-line or convert to individual button style, they feel kind of bunched up at the moment.") Cindy, we all like the fact that you've gotten more experimental in this revision. Nice work!

[BrianDove]

Thank-you for your marvelous feedback, will make the changes asap
Regards
Brian Dove

[splunking]

Thank you for your feedback! It's nice to have such thorough ideas! I'll submit the changes shortly.

Thanks again!
Cindy

[Lilja]

Here is my atempt to create something original for you.

It's just an fast mock-up.

If you like it I will work more on it when I find the creativity i just lost It can't be that far away...must be near my computer somewhere. Maybe under the desk? Lets see....
As soon as I find it, I'll be back with an improved version.

Lilja

[splunking]

Here are a few changes. The new image is of the Chicago city scape from a birds eye view. I also removed the frame around the logo, and made the boxes rounded. I'm going to play with one more idea, that is less "boxy". Look for that later.

LE Direct REVISION 2

Thanks
- Cindy

[townes]

Good morning! Lilja and Cindy, I'll have comments this afternoon (or earlier, depending on the quirky internet connection at O'Hare airport.)

Anne: Positive feedback on this. This revision moves in the right direction. The greater depth given to the navigation header is a real plus, thank you. What provoked the most discussion were the images incorporated in it. The calculator is something that we generally steer clients away from, so coming from us, it got some attention. However, we've come around to the point that finding an immediate visual shorthand for financial/return-on-investment/banking, etc. is very hard, and the calculator beats the heck out of a pile of cash or (ick) a spreadsheet. So the calculator is okay. The challenge is balancing it with something other than a briefcase. Something that says advertising, creative, collaborative. The right combination could very neatly encompass both what we do and for whom we do it. The chess piece, while it does say strategy, is a little overused (we've been guilty ourselves) and we'd prefer to avoid it. Other comments: "upper portion of the page still feels a little top-heavy. Maybe more vertical white space below the navigation button area, before the left navigation and copy begin." "would like to see Direct in the 'Welcome to' line either mixed case or small-capped. Ideally, L, E, and D should be the only full caps in this line." "We're still LeDirect in the copyright line." Anne, very nice work.

[Trifolic]

Here's my entry.

For the header image, I also have a cityscape of Baltimore, I was thinking a very clean and subtle fading from Chicago to Baltimore with some text if you wanted using flash..

Or you could just have 2 seperate images and have a javascript randomly choose one each time the page was loaded.. I felt it would give the site a more "Dynamic/Active" feeling to it rather than just a static page..

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

[townes]

Good morning, everyone. Jason, we'll have feedback for you this afternoon. We have a dog-and-pony show to put on for a prospective client today, so we should be back to business after lunch.

Lilja-Everyone thought your approach was very interesting. The overall effect is cool and businesslike without being stiff. Reviewers commented that using visual word cues to say what we do was a nice idea. Using the silhouette was another good touch in terms of design. What we're not sure of about that is what that image is communicating: it looks like a tug-of-war. And while that neatly illustrates some past client relationships (not to mention internal ones in previous agencies!) I'm not sure that we want to give viewers that idea! Your treatment of the logo is another positive: I've talked before about it being boxed in, but you've embraced it and given it prominence that lets it stand on its own. Some very nice ideas here--thank you!

Cindy- Some good changes here. Softening the edges helps and the birds-eye Chicago is cool looking. (I'll confess, though, that one of our Chicago reviewers said, "Is that New York?" I guess we've been keeping him at ground-level too long.) We could probably still use more vertical space for the navigation buttons. For your consideration, a common comment seems to be: "I'm not getting much sense, if I found this page, of what the company does. The text would explain, of course, but there aren't any other visual cues that say advertising or creative services." I know you're working on some other elements, so we'll look forward to that.

[townes]

Jason:
Everyone caught up by last night, so I have some feedback for you. The Chicago skyline (and the options you mentioned for getting Baltimore in there too) everyone thought looked good. The design as a whole got good marks. The common difficulty they had was that, as much as the 'people' pictures at the bottom look "professional" and "consultative", there wasn't much visual sense of what the firm does. Obviously, as I've said previously, there will be body copy to say 'We're a marketing and advertising agency'--but we want to ensure that the overall presentation makes this point, and not just the words that will go in there. A couple of other very specific things that were mentioned: "Seems very copy intensive. The main copy, two news teasers and two 'other' teasers (with people pictures) add up to a whole lot of words." "I like that fact that the logo is offset a little, without being boxed in with equal white space on all sides, but my eye doesn't know where to go in the upper left quarter of the page. The logo, navigation buttons, news header, welcome header...feels a little overwhelming." "The name is correct in the 'about' button, but not in the welcome headline or copyright line." Overall, a very interesting and creative take on it.

[Anne]

Here's a new and improved design from me

Anne