i-tees

Yesterday was the third annual Everything Jersey City Festival. What a marvelous day! The vendors came out, set up their tents, and the music was playing. This festival had just about everything I can imagine. A soccer field set up, kids activities including a wall to climb, face painting for all ages, & tattooing. All kinds of art, accessories, baby clothes, skin care and more. The restaurants had outdoor spaces or tents with all kinds of yummy things.

There were 4 sound stages with different music or performances at each. You’ll see in my photo gallery, I caught Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU, The Benjamins and more.

I walked around to the various booths and met many new people and businesses. My friend and client Florence of Hudson Theatre Ensemble was manning the booth for Hudson County Theatre Alliance, and we got a shot together.

So many interesting people came by. Being an environmentalist as well as a designer, and trying to spread the message about Frogs and amphibians being in trouble (Frogs Are Green) I was greeted by two guys, one with a snake around his neck, the other with an iguana. The frog lady just had to get in there…

Anyway, it was a banner day for Jersey City Heights! Gallery photos!

In my last post I wrote about attending the all day event of Rock The World, given by Savor The Success. Listening to the speakers and meeting other women entrepreneurs, I have learned so much.

Michael Gerber of Origination asked us to write this down: “What do I want?”

For about a week I walked around saying different things to myself and it finally came to me.

I want to make whatever I come across better, whether it’s by creation, design or spreading environmental awareness.

I started thinking about how that is reflected in my company, SNDI.

Before when visitors came to my site there was a splash page and I had you select a link to go inside, but unless you dug deeper, visited my profile page or company page, you didn’t see me, the site was all about design and the portfolio.

I realized that what separates me from other design firms is ME! It’s my visions and conceptuality. What I come up with to brand a client or their product, is what makes me unique. It’s also what helps me retain clients year after year, they trust me, respect my expertise and know that whatever I create is solely for them, to help them shine.

New Branding YOU Better! Logo

So, I have started revising my site by branding the new phrase geared toward clients, “Branding YOU Better!” I removed the splash page and put my photo and a quick animation of a few client projects showing the branding I created for them. This is more direct and immediately separates me from other design studios. Next, my plan is get new headshots, create more graphics that show the continuity and style from print to web for many of my clients, and to add photos and video of my clients with their testimonials and perhaps new shots of them surrounded by the materials I created for them.

I also registered the new domain for Branding YOU Better! and will build a new site there, that is simple and direct. It will have just enough branding samples to make the point, and will use the latest javascript animation or programing techniques so I’m showing by example that I can create whatever a client wants or needs.

I also learned that when you have a design and logo that you’re using, you must make sure that you’re using it throughout your social media as well. I had been using my logos of course but forgot about the backgrounds. So I took that splash page and dropped it into Twitter (@sndinc), and did the same for our Frog Blog, you’ll see that the background on Twitter (@greeninnature) is now the same as Frogs Are Green. All banner ads I create are also using the same appropriate graphics.

This all helps to support my brand and creates trust for clients who know me and for new clients who have just discovered me.

Sunday, May 2 felt more like August 2! It was 90+ degrees, humid and as I walked around, seeing friends, listening to musicians and handing out postcards for Frogs Are Green, the day was exhausting, but great as usual.

It was great seeing so many friends who’re also artists, among them were, Anna (Art by Anna, I have quite a few pieces of hers already!), Beth (Baublettes, have some rings and earrings), Florence (Hudson Theatre Ensemble, who was out there with my latest poster for “the 3 Little Pigs” advertising that next production which is coming in June). I didn’t get a chance to say howdy to Sissi (Face Capades) because the line sure was long with kids, (Hi Sissi!)

For the last few festivals, Mother Nature hasn’t been too kind, rain outs and wind, but when it’s a nice day, thousands of people flock to Washington St. I’m not sure how well the sales were given the economy, but they couldn’t have a bigger turnout, so hopefully everyone did well.

I met up with Mary Jo, my business partner for FROGS ARE GREEN, and off we went wearing our matching company t-shirts to alert all of Hoboken about our cause. We walked down Washington St. looking left and right to see the booths and handing out postcards as we walked. Once we got down to Newark St. we decided we needed to find a shady (and cooler) spot with good foot traffic.

Red-Eyed Tree Frog poster and postcard

Slightly around the corner from Starbucks was perfect! People coming from the PATH and people leaving to get to the PATH. What was quite interesting was the different types of people walking back and forth, and who was interested in what we were doing and who snubbed us. Older people, and families stopped and when kids saw our graphic with the lovely red-eyed tree frog, they’d squeal, ooooooooohhhh!

However, they don’t call it the “me” generation for no reason. I’ve never seen so many self-absorbed young adults in my life. They’d walk past ignoring us, texting into their phones or shooting dirty looks. Geez, I hate to tell you young people this, but this planet you’re living on—is yours too… so you better look around at what’s happening.

Anyway, we did hand out hundreds of cards, and hopefully each person at least read the card, even if they then trashed it. That’s our goal. To enlighten. We don’t care if they hang the card up, just that they are now aware of the crisis frogs and other amphibians face.

Later in the afternoon, I walked over to listen to Freedy Johnston (click to see Gallery shots). He’s awesome and wowed the crowd. If you haven’t yet heard him, check him out!

Freedy Johnston performs at the First Street Stage, Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, May 2, 2010

By the time I got home, I was beat, but it was a great day for us and for the FROGS!