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I have headed up Imagine Group's marketing efforts for many years. In that time, I have overseen the development of many beautiful postcards, ads, and web pages. I have worked with the excellent graphic artists and copywriters, and had great outcomes. And still, there is something uniquely thrilling about getting to be the "art director" of a photo shoot.

 

Watching Steve and Jacob work seamlessly with barely a word, to move equipment and props around in the studio to get the light just right is always impressive. Watching Steve get that gleam in his eye when he thinks of something that would improve the shot and then seeing him rapidly shift his vantage point or the lens he's using or whatever, is like watching creativity itself. And just being in that dark, somewhat mysterious space of the photography studio and watching the images appear on the laptop screen only seconds after they've been shot, so we can make minute adjustments right away, is so very cool. Magic happens, and I get to be a part of it. There's nothing quite like it.

 

This is a behind the scenes glimpse at a shoot Steve did for me recently. We drove our newly wrapped Imagine Fleet Graphics vehicle right into the studio and Anne was our model for the day. Below is the shot we ended up with, that we now have on our website and in our showroom and the ad that just came out in Blue Chip. Pretty sweet, huh?!

And here are a few other behind-the-scenes peeks into the photography studio during a shoot.

 

 

The first is from a shoot we did for Burley, of their cool new cargo trailer, the Travoy. Don and Jamie from Cappelli Miles were the art directors there. The second is a shoot for Dari Mart, with art direction by Cawood Communications. Lots of teens, kids, and adults were enjoying milk, egg nog, ice cream cones and banana splits that day!  It's never a dull moment over there at the studio.

Having professional photography as the "feedstock" for our marketing efforts has dramatically improved how we are able to present ourselves to the world. And who knew getting the photos made would be so much fun!

If you're the kind of person who likes to look behind-the-scenes and see how things get made, this post is for you! Here are some pictures of a set of boulevard banners being made for the wonderful Oregon Bach Festival which is coming up soon.

Print files in the Graphics Department         Jon carrying printed banners to be cut

 

These double sided banners are getting cut out on the digital cutter, readied for sewing

 

Nikita hemming and sewing in rod-pockets     Jacob doing the final finishing with grommets

There's also an unedited 2 minute video of the the digital cutter in action, if you really want to see behind the scenes! We love producing beautiful projects like this one, which, by the way, was designed by Ms. Alex Wijnen-Hannon of Defteling Design. Great work Alex!

In last Sunday's NY Times, Adam Bryant did an interesting interview of Barbara Krumsiek, the CEO of the Calvert Group, a socially responsible investment firm. She was asked about her experiences when she first became CEO and I thought her answers could be utilized by a business owner at any stage of a business' growth.

 

 

She said she was given advice by an executive coach to ask each executive to, "Tell me about your job, but now tell me what you think you do here that is not in that job description that you think is really critical." And then she also asked people to tell her "one thing that's going on at Calvert you think I don't know that you think I should know." Both questions would elicit a fascinating perspective on where the company is heading and where it needs to be heading so she could steer the ship accordingly.

She also said she doesn't like the metaphor of career ladder but prefers the analogy of a group of people on an obstacle course because that more accurately reflects her win-win value system in the workplace. My success doesn't impede your success. I like that. That is how we operate at Imagine Group, and I think in the workplace of many of our small business clients.

The other thing I found really fascinating was how she describes her role in the company. She says "I'm the kind of person who delegates everything. On a day-to-day basis, I feel I get paid to make a couple of judgments. I get paid to identify what is really working right now for Calvert. I want to stay on top of the two or three things that are, at this moment the most important things driving our good results right now. On the other hand, I get paid to identify the two or three things that are really broken and stay on top of those. So if you're on either end of that spectrum, you're going to see a lot of me."

In a small business, the delegation part is not usually the norm, but there is still great value in stepping back and trying to assess what your businesses core strengths are and what are the few broken things that need attention. Getting that perspective can help guide every day decisions and lead to increasing success.

Thanks for the advice, Barbara!

Here are a few fabric projects we've made recently. Fabric is such a vivid, rich, easy to use material. Really projects a classy air too.

 

 

Beautiful design by Lillian Winkler-Rios.  MIUSA is a fabulous organization organizing life changing international exchanges for people with disabilities.



Olive Grand is a cool new specialty food store at 1041Willamette.  Great logo designed by Funk/Levis. This combination of a fabric backdrop and table runner, really makes a lovely presentation at events and trade shows.

Use social media as one more way to connect with potential or current clients.  It's an addition to your web site, print ads, sponsorships, etc.

 

Go where your clients are.  Start with the social media site that your clients use the most.  Then you can add the second most popular site as you become more comfortable with the medium.

 

Voice:

• Social media is informal but must still reflect the brand.
• Develop a voice that is large part journalistic and small part marketing.
• If there is more than one person from your organization posting, use the poster's name with each post so your readers can connect with you.  Being anonymous dilutes your voice significantly.

Content:

• Fun interactivity: Create a way for clients to participate and to encourage interaction among fans (an event, contest, prize, question, etc.)
• Talk about your clients' business/organizations (after asking their permission)
• Share resources (interesting articles, how to's etc.) It shouldn't always be about you.
• Give credit to others when they're involved.  It's the polite thing to do.  Plus they might share your post.
• Photos and links:  Use photos and links as often as possible because they are quick and interesting.  If you can find an easy way to post photos on your website and drive people there rather than to Flickr or Twitpic, you create an opportunity to have someone see your website.

Cross pollinate frequently:

• Link to social media site from website, email signature, email newsletter and blog
• Use Social media posts to direct people to website and blog when relevant
• Encourage fans to share the info with others by posting useful or widely interesting posts
• Post on clients' social media pages

Imagine Group Great Giveaway Game:

• Goals of the Game: help non-profits, Give back to the community. Publicize Imagine Group and the 3 divisions.
• Mostly electronically promoted (with some after the fact PR)
• Publicized via our eNewsletter (3600 people), Facebook fan page and our individual FB accounts, Twitter
• Results: 112 nominations for 49 different organizations (61 from Facebook, 46 from our website's blog, 3 from Twitter, 2 via e-mail.)

Remember, people are reading even if they never post.  Seeing posts from you and others is why they read.

 

Today we installed our 3 new murals on the south exterior of our building. No more stock photos for us! These carefully crafted photos are all by Steve Smith himself.  And all the subjects are locally grown, so to speak.

 

The first image is a dried scabiosa pod I found at Passionflower Design on Broadway.  The second is my son's wooden top, spinning, and tilted just so.  And the third is Ruby the beautiful Nubian goat who I chose for our model from the many goats at the Lane County Fair.  She is from Angel Hills Farm on Spencer Creek Rd. We had a lot of fun getting her to stand where we wanted her, up on a hay bale above Steve, looking down! 

 

A note about resolution: When you need to enlarge an image of a 2" dried flower to 14' square you need really high resolution to avoid ending up with a blurry image.  Steve's equipment is up to the challenge.  Drive by and see the detail on these stunning and fun murals for yourself. 

 

 

We also just finished printing a set of boulevard banners for Junction City's downtown. Festive, cheerful and bright, they'll surely dress up the main street.  Banner models shown here are Anne, Rhonda and Katrina !

 

And did you know there's a mobile bicycle repair guy around town now? Check out the graphics on his cool Sprinter van that Imagine Fleet Graphics recently did.And give him a call next time you need the convenience of on-site bicycle work.