Once again, OneFire supplied a wonderful final team brief for the Brand Experience students to tackle (in teams). Thank you Jim, Kristie, and Cara for your time and giving the students such a strong ‘real world’ experience.

And congratulations to ‘Team HIRK’ for being the best presentation overall!

Extract of brief:

Background (Describe the market, history, client activity, and competitive environment that is relevant to this project.) Expedient Technology Solutions is a leading Cybersecurity-focused Managed IT Service Provider (MSSP / MSP) serving the Ohio valley primarily concentrating on growing their business in the greater Dayton region. They have been successfully providing these services since 2004 while focusing on both their employees and clients to reshape the IT experience. They are consistently successful by delivering the highest levels of client service while maintaining an enjoyable and collaborative working atmosphere. They highly value each client relationship and take great pride in providing business leaders with responsive and knowledgeable service, a strategic plan to utilize technology to enhance their organizations, and delivery of Stress Free IT®. Their distinctive service-first company culture enables each team member to deliver the highest quality of service that we promise to every client.

Mandatories (What must be included–logo, address, theme, etc.)
● Expedient Technology Solutions company name
● Current Logo
● The client likes their tagline ‘Stress Free ITR’ and today it is not used much, so make it
more prominent
● The current website and overall Brand positioning are relatively ‘bland and are in need of
some updating, this is a conservative business category, but there is an opportunity to
differentiate them from their competitors and have them look more progressive.
● Website recommendations
● Recommendations for an integrated marketing strategy, include–
○ Thought leadership initiative, through the creation of assets (print, video, etc.)
that help to differentiate them from competitors and position them as the ‘go-to’
resource for IT services
○ Lead generation program that will help to grow the number of inbound leads that
can be nurtured over time to become new customers
○ Paid online initiative

Brief

While we are proud of all that we have accomplished over the past 113 years and the level of value we continue to provide our members, we are facing significant challenges.  Our current branding, including our logo, website and overall image has become a bit dated, and our goal is to be seen as the future of Peoria, not just its past.  Our primary project for the next ten years revolves around attracting diverse and dynamic talent to the Peoria area, and this requires our brand to resonate with that audience; currently it does not.  We are hoping to build a new brand identity that better represents the Peoria we are trying to build, not simply the Peoria that exists today, or that once did.  We are looking to build a brand that is fresh, cutting edge, yet still professional and clean. Peoria’s story is Whiskey, Agriculture, Heavy Equipment Manufacturing, and Healthcare; but it’s also so much more.  It’s the arts, it’s diversity, it’s entrepreneurship, it’s activism, and we want to encapsulate all those amazing stories and then some in our brand.  Our current logo has been around for about 20 years, and is long overdue for a refresh, as are all of our digital and print assets (business cards, calendar, etc.) and brand identity in general.

*Although no single idea was selected as the potential new logo for PACC, this was a wonderful oportunity for the students to create, execute and present to a ‘live’ client. Thank you PACC for making this possible.

Continue reading “Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce (re)Brand/logo”

Performances April 27 – 30, 2023

The students of our new vocal performance workshop, led by legendary Peoria music director, Susan Somerville Brown, round out the season with this enchanting revue of theatre songs spanning the American musical canon.

---

by Agatha Christie
Performances April 12 – 16, 2023

The mother of all murder mysteries and the longest running play of all time- still going strong in the UK after 70 years! As news spreads of a murder in London, a group of strangers find themselves snowed in at a stately countryside guest house. A police sergeant arrives and informs the guests, to their horror, that a killer is in their midst. Who is the murderer? And who will be the next victim? The original stage mystery that started an entire genre.

As always – a great challenge to present the tone of voice that captures both the play and the directors rendition, while avoiding the cliches for this timeless murder mystery.

Tyanna Buie. 38th Bradley International Juror. Printmaker, College of Creative Studies

For many years the beautiful Bradley University Dingledine building has hosted a vast array of incredible musical events. However everyone passing through its lobby has had more of a sense of a funeral home than a place of music and joy.

I was tasked with creating a visual element around the walls of the lobby that connected with the branding already in place in and around the Department of Music. One major ‘obstacle’ was the existing framing already in place on the walls – however this challenge turned out to be the perfect space to locate the new visual elements.

Designing, printing, mounting and installing resulted in a LOT of creative/alternative thinking to work with the space, but I think the outcome, along with a new paint job, and proposed floor tiles, has given the once dour lobby a fresh new look to welcome our audiences to Dingledine for many years to come.