It’s fitting that this blog entry comes in December, the month when stores and homes are decorated with extra lights, garlands, and all kinds of shiny decorative objects. It’s a time when we put more glitter into our surroundings. Adding glitter in the form of great design is what Effusion Creative Solutions is all about. We call it making things look pretty with a purpose, and it’s a philosophy that started at an early age for our founder, Robert Pfeifer.

Apparently, when he was young he was in a boys group ... Continue Reading

If you knew me, you would know I’m a Food Network junkie. I also tend to collect cookbooks, which I often read like novels. My latest one is The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, one of Ina Garten’s from the late 1990’s. In it, she repeatedly advises to use the best ingredients you possibly can.

At Effusion we decided that the best way to provide the best services to our clients was to specialize in design (which is all done in-house) and partner with “specialists” in other areas on an as ... Continue Reading

This type of thinking applies not only to graphic design, marketing, and brand strategy but really any profession ranging from landscaping to interior decorating — you name it.

If you search the web there are plenty of companies that will design your logo identity for $100 and your website for under $500, you absolutely don't want to go this route. These types of solutions are typically sweat shop off-shore design companies that turn and burn out work throwing quality to the wind.

We can't tell you how many companies we have estimated projects ... Continue Reading

In the design profession there are two distinctive types of clients. Clients that appreciate your work, customer service as well as take your pricing at face value AND there are others that take the dangling carrot approach to entice a better price.

Simmilar to spec work "carrot danglers" typically are new prospects that love your work, respect your process, and don't want to work with any other firm — but they are looking for a discount on your proposal as they are resistant to paying market value for your knowledge, ... Continue Reading

When creativity and whitespace has become no longer important.

Every designer, artist, cook, etc. is influenced or inspired on some level by others in their field. Trends are often started this way. A look or design style starts as a seed and then blossoms across a field and sparks ideas, spin-offs, look-a-likes or those that fully without care steal the idea as their own.

Driving on the way to work today I was listening to entertainment news that involved the band Coldplay. Apparently they didn't just sample Joe Satriani's melody they completely ripped it off. Below is the video that compares ... Continue Reading

People typically come to Effusion because they’ve seen and loved our work or know people that have worked with us and want a similar experience. We sign-on new clients and referrals regularly throughout the year that trust our design expertise because of this.

Some clients are more hands on and that's fine, where others tend to micromanage the entire project which strikes us as odd since they hired us to make them look good in the first place.

Your Design Firm Are the Experts

While we can certainly appreciate our clients that have ... Continue Reading

Have visions of sugar plums started dancing in your head?

Scheduling your next marketing project by Dec. 19 with Effusion gets your company at least three holiday treats:

• An additional tax write off for 2008 • A jumpstart on your 2009 marketing • An amazing chance to win an iPhone 3G or iPod Touch just in time for the holiday gift exchanges

The first 10 clients to start a project by December 19th are entered into an iPhone 3G/iPod Touch give-a-way. Odds of winning are 1 in 10.

Yes the odds are really that ... Continue Reading

A brand is not a logo, it's not your company's identity or even a product.

A brand is an emotional and visceral reaction or connection to a business or product. Whether the emotion is love or hate the ultimate goal is an illogical reaction. Branding attempts to manage the signals that help evoke that reaction. Branding occurs in the heart and not the head, the "I want" and "I need" connection is invaluable.

Take Coca Cola for instance. Without brand value, they estimate their worth at 50 Billion, WITH brand value they estimate ... Continue Reading

I sure didn’t come from money. Still, I wasn’t deprived either. If anything, I can thank my maternal Grandmother for showing me how being thrifty and creative can make the things that we surround ourselves with really gratifying. That and a general belief that she had:

“It’s better to have one nice thing than to have many cheap things.”

Grandma wasn’t talking about straight label shopping. Grandma was talking about plain old quality — though we know many brands (or labels) that are associated with quality. In fact, that’s what Effusion Creative Solutions ... Continue Reading