don't drink the kool•aid

hello friends and followers of victory dog design, <--- (that makes it sound like a cult)

this is brennan. erin and I are jamming out to country music, mostly Tim McGraw and the Dixie Chicks, pounding out some work for a whole bunch of deadlines this friday. I'm half-convinced that Erin is actually living out of the office lately, despite her claims to the contrary.

the blue oak grill is going to be here before we know it, so we've been working on the menu and Erin's been messing with their fabulous website. the food sounds amazing, so I can only work on the menu for about 20 minutes at a time (computers are surprisingly vulnerable to drool).

we've also been doing a lot of updates to the Austin FASTFRAME website - honing our search engine optimization skills and trying to raise it in google searches. right now it's at number 2.

we also sent along lovely art to a screen-printing shop in austin for quotes on t-shirts. how many of you would be interested in a victory dog t? personally, I plan to slowly phase out all my other clothing, slowly replacing my wardrobe with this shirt in a variety of colors. well, maybe not. but they are pretty cool.

well, friends and lovers, that's all we've got for today. check back with us soon!

xoxo,

brennan

the junk shot

Hi friends,

This is brennan. I've been banished to blog from my previous project, because Erin has WAY too much junk on her computer. Photoshop will no longer let me crop images because the startup disk is too full -- I didn't even know that could happen. So while I'm moving things over to the hard drive, I'm playing on the blog and facebook.

Not that I have time to be spending on facebook. It's only Monday, and there's already tons of stuff to work on. Already today we've sent off the newsletter we were working on to the folks at Keller Williams, started work on an event logo for our friends at Operation Honor Our Heros for their Shadow Run 5 and 10K and worked on website updates.

I also spent a little bit of time trying to learn about CSS3 -- all in pursuit of sexing up the Victory Dog website a little. (you know, in our gobs of free time around here).

We're also working on getting registered with the Austin Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as an LGBT-friendly company.

It's been a busy, busy Monday -- but that's how we like it!

Summer Time!

So, I'm going to try really hard to write this quickly - not my normal stress-over-every-word type stuff.

These last couple weeks have been quite the adventure. First off, let me tell you, I have certainly learned my lesson about starting new clients on some sort of pre-payment system. Maybe I should have new clients put down a deposit? A couple hundred dollars as a security deposit that rolls into the first invoice - doesn't sound unreasonable right? Of course not. I should start doing that.

We are in the middle of a handful of lots of very different projects. A logo for a Video/Television Producer. A logo for a real estate broker. A package design for an engine oil dip stick. A new restaurant menu & website. Another new restaurant website. A plastics engineering & manufacturing company's website. A quarterly newsletter for Keller Williams International. One-sheets & social networking for our favorite art dealer & broker. An ad for Equality Texas. A PR microsite for Outside Magazine Television. An event poster for a father's day party for Austin Music Foundation. An invitation for an exclusive happy hour at Maria Maria. This is all stuff on my list for THIS WEEK. OMG. I won't even mention all the stuff that's in the works.

Brennan & I had a little video chat with Eleanor yesterday. I really do miss her. She was talking about how her exclusive NYC internship is only kind of awesome & she's not as in love with the city as she thought she would be. The trains, though, she likes. In a weird way, the subway is always my favorite part of New York, too. The A train into Manhattan, the Garden State soundtrack & trying to figure out how to get to the Met. LOVE. I'm going to fly up there in August, I think. The thoughts of seeing Chappy, Lauren, Jean, Meredith and Eleanor constantly tug at me to buy a plane ticket.

Anyway, since I've got to come in on Sunday to get caught up & for a new client meeting, I'm going home. Weekend. YAY.

Next time it's Brennan's turn to post for us.

Smoochies,

erin

alcohol is not a drug

Well, it's been another great day in Victory Dog land -- even though, much to Erin's dismay, I am still not Eleanor. But I'm confident that given our similar tastes in men, music and snarky blog humor, I'll be a decent replacement.

This is Brennan, by the way. I had a cameo appearance in Christina's last post, but they've given me the wheel for today.

I think everyone had a blast at Pachanga. I ate about 20 GoodPops and drank my weight in beer, but we walked around a lot, so maybe I broke even. Spent plenty of time in the swanky, air-conditioned VIP area, sampling salsa and lots of yummy food. Apparently some bands even played, or something. KIDDING. If I could move more than one body part at a time, I would have danced the whole time.

I've spent most of my time today mocking up some business cards for the Blue Oak Grill in Round Rock and trying not to cut myself during Erin's "I'm-an-emotional-girl" mix. And LOVING it.

xoxoxo,

b

This is it!

And so it begins ... my name is Christina and I just started working for Victory Dog and am so excited to learn everything! I'll be working as a marketing & design assistant and already love it. I've only worked 2 days and it's been great! Right now we're working on various projects for Pachanga, a latino music festival THIS WEEKEND (May 22nd) in Austin! Yall should check it out at their website. We're also working on logos and other projects for the Blue Oak Grill, a new restaurant opening soon in Round Rock. We also have a new intern that just started, Brennan, who is gong to be a senior at UT this fall. This summer's going to be fun and I can't wait to see what all it has in store for us!

Around the shop...

Hi everyone!

As it turns out, Eleanor did receive a fancy internship in New York City for the summer, so we are definitely looking for more summertime help in the internship department. If you're interested, check out some of the clients listed on our website, and please feel free to shoot Erin an email at erin@victorydogdesign.com. If you have any questions about what it's like to intern here, you're more than welcome to email Eleanor at eleanor@victorydogdesign.com

Over the next several months, we're hoping to grow our company and develop a distinct brand for ourselves within the marketing and design world.

Some other noteworthy news – our dear friends and office mates at Giant Noise are busy gearing up for Pachanga Latino Music Festival on May 22nd. Please check out the festival website for more information, including lineups, ticket sales and artist bios. It's sure to be a fantastic time!

Giant Noise has also gotten some really great press lately several of their many clients. Check out their press page to see the link to the New York Times' review of Austin landmark, Hotel Saint Cecilia.

Lately we've been working on several branding projects and hope to start some websites soon. In the meantime, here is a look at the logo concepts for Blue Oak Grill that we've submitted for final review:

Intern Recap

Wow, it has been a crazy / busy / amazing eight months.

In case you are new to the blog or missed the memo, I'm Eleanor Bartosh, the intern for Erin Morrill's creative marketing firm, Victory Dog Design. I've been working here since roughly the end of August, and have had the absolute pleasure of working with Erin and members of the Giant Noise PR team, with whom we share an office.

Due to the fact that I may possibly be taking a brief hiatus from Victory Dog during the summer (but never fear, I'll be back in the fall), Erin and I thought it would be a great idea for me to write a re-cap of sorts, so all of you dear readers could get a glimpse of the behind the scenes action.

While we do spend a lot of our days designing logos and posters, developing and updating web sites, employing social media for our clients and creating the occasional proposal, we also do a lot more:

The past two semesters have also been filled with countless trips to the printer (have you ever been in a print shop? They smell awesome.), working in a VIP lounge during ACL, helping to re-open an old restaurant and re-brand it into something else entirely, marketing an upcoming art show, spray mounting until 9 p.m. on a Friday and eating way too much gourmet food at the Texas Wine and Food Festival (not that we minded).

Below is a recap of some of the things we've done for (and some funny things that have happened with) our wonderful clients:

Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival --

Next to my work at UT's Cactus yearbook (which is a totally different animal), I have never been involved in a project whose branding, development and production was spread out over such a long time. I remember it being Thanksgiving time and discussing poster concepts for the 25th annual festival. I also remember an afternoon of food-based photographs for an initial poster campaign concept, after which, we ate blackberries off the white paper background. (That idea was scrapped, but anyway...) Five seemingly solid months of web site creation (and more updates than you could imagine), sponsors, posters and signage production later, I found myself standing at the most popular event of the festival. That evening we all ate and drank copious amounts of local gourmet food and champagne. (This event went much more smoothly than the one the night before, where we all ended up soaked and greeting unhappy attendees to tell them that their "rain or shine" event would not actually be shining that night... All jokes and unpleasantness aside, however, Victory Dog Design received a great deal of praise for our customer service and help that evening.)

One day, we decided to make some press books for Bunkhouse. Now, these weren't your normal press books... There were four, handmade copies of 90-page, mounted press booklets, which would be used for a business presentation shortly after we made them. And, yes, we definitely stayed up in the office until 9 p.m. that Friday night. (A big thank you to the cleaning lady for cleaning our spray-adhesived floor.)

Client meetings have definitely been some of the most interesting parts of this internship. It's been great seeing how Erin interacts with people, whether it be in person for the first time, over the phone or just a standard sit-down and catch up meeting. I've learned a lot from her about how to interact with people you don't necessarily know very well, and still make them feel comfortable.

As for work I've done on my own - I did some minor site updates (think replacing out-dated flash buttons with newer standard rollovers, and swapping photos) for a client, Shelton Home Services, a while back. I also was responsible for building the VO2 fitness website after Erin designed it. I largely helped to launch www.earlytexasart.com for our client, Russell Tether, after Erin built the slightly-complicated code, and have basically been the point-person for updates for both of Russell Tether's websites.

All in all, though, what it boils down to is not just how hard we work, how many hours we spend in the office or even what awesome parties we get to go to. What is great is coming to work every day when you really love what you do, what you're learning, the people you work with, and the one for whom you work. I cannot begin to explain or quantify how much my knowledge has increased over the past eight months, and if I do end up leaving for the summer, I already can't wait to be back.

xoxo,

Eleanor

And before I forget...

If you're interested in becoming a fan on Facebook, or following us on Twitter, we'd love that. :)

April Update

Hi, everyone!

Can you believe it's almost summer? Time has been flying by, and we've been incredibly busy lately.

Here are some samples from work that's been keeping us occupied since March...

1. Wine and Food -

After five or so months of planning, concepting, designing, executing and printing, The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food festival took over our lives (and we loved it) from April 15-18. Here are some graphics from the festival:

2. Jason Industries -

We've recently taken on a new client who needed complete branding and identity done for his company, Jason Industries. We're almost done with his logo concept and will shortly begin working on his web site. In the meantime, here are some rough drafts of the logo concept. The first one uses a customized font and the second focuses more on a graphic or mark-based identity.

3. Early Texas Art

It finally launched! Take a look at it here, in all its glory. Also, make sure you check out an upcoming exhibit Russell Tether is participating in at the Austin Modern.

4. Blue Oak Grill

Right now we're also working on a second branding and identity project for a new restaurant. Here are some sketches Erin has done, and the color palette:

That's all for now, folks! See you soon...

Lately.

Can't believe our last post was back in January!

We've been crazy busy lately, taking on several new clients while managing to keep our old ones happy. We've been spending our days creating ads for the Texas Wine and Food Festival, working on a few web sites, creating 4 copies of 100-odd-page press book, and designing an invite or two.

Stay tuned for more, and happy SXSW!

Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival

The past couple weeks have been a rush of Texas Wine and Food Festival work. We heard back from the board and they chose the following concept for the festival's poster:


From this design, we made two "Save the Dates" - here is one for a media party held this past Monday at Whole Foods:

Speaking of the media party, here are a few photos of the event. All photos by Celeste Casas.







We also distributed a one-sheet, or program, that Eleanor made. You can see it here:


Finally, Erin whipped up a brand new web site for the media party. You can see it in all its functioning glory here, but here is a screen shot as well:


Tickets for 4 events are now currently on sale, with Sunday Fair tickets on special for $25. Go check it out.

Russell Tether - Fine Arts Associates, LLC

Over the past couple months, we've been in discussion with out client Russell Tether about creating a new site for him to display early Texas art, only.

We originally set up a tumblr platform for him to showcase his early Texas artwork, thinking it would be easiest for the client to update and fairly low maintenance overall. After more discussion, however, we came to the collective decision that it would be better for him if we just built a new site from scratch. You can see preliminary mock ups below.


They're in a similar style to the tumblr layout we were playing with, but also reference the color and font schemes of his original web site (available for viewing here). The idea is that all early Texas artists would be listed down the side, and artwork is shown per square. By clicking on a square, you'll be taken to the second layout where you can see the artwork larger, as well as all other artwork by the same artist below.

Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival

The Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival is by far one of our longest and most time-consuming projects. Held every year around April, this year will mark the 25th anniversary of the festival.

For the anniversary, Erin revamped the logo to make a more 'commemorative' silver edition, if you will:

We've been concepting since late November / early December and have experimented with a photographic poster campaign, pencil and paper drawings and finally come back around to a more illustrated approach characteristic of Erin's style. Below you'll see a landscape mock-up with the Austin skyline, as well as a few mock-ups in a 'block' concept.


The festival committee chose the block concept (which also included at least six other color combinations), but hasn't come to a solid decision on which color they prefer. Once they do, we'll be off!

IJK Consulting

Erin also recently took on a new client who, as a consultant in the engineering world, needed a Web site. As part of the project, Erin tweaked his logo, created a business card and web site.

Inspired by this engineering-related graphic, the client had previously created a logo for himself seen below the graphic.



Erin's tweak of the client's logo included the four variations seen below:


She finished the project off with a Web site that you can view here, and the business card shown below.

Merry Merry Martini Mixer

Erin recently teamed up with Equality Texas to work on their annual Merry Merry Martini Mixer coming up this Saturday, January 16th.

The event, which sold in about four days at $35 a ticket, will play host to almost 400 people. Between ticket sales and proceeds from a few sponsors, the organization will raise about $14,000 for Equality Texas.

Along with helping to coordinate the event, Erin gave the previous Merry Merry Martini Mixer invite a freshening up.

You can see the original here:


And here is Erin's updated version for this year's event: