Schaeferites are inspired by all kinds of things. One look at our desks will tell you that: toys, baseballs, elephant figurines, mugs from places we’ve been, etc. The nature of explorers is that we go out into the world, gather inspiration and bring it back. However, sometimes that inspiration comes to us. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Moondream, the paper that turns translucent when you emboss it.
“Oh. Hey. Christmas card.”
But what should we emboss? How about our building? Yeah, our building. From our home to yours? Yes. Christmas or holidays? Christmas. Candle to put inside? DO IT. Wait, too expensive. It’s okay, people have candles. What if they burn their houses down? Include instructions. Who’s going to fold and stuff and stamp them? We are.
And that’s the brief but accurate history of this year’s Christmas card. Hope it finds you well.
Pinnacle Healthcare Advisors, Inc., is focused exclusively on partnering with healthcare providers to improve clinical, operational and financial performance. Their consultants have an average of 20 years of experience in healthcare, which includes working for both healthcare providers and consulting firms. Additionally, their consultants have both clinical/operational and IT experience and are experts at fully leveraging system capabilities to meet end-user needs. It’s this unique breadth of knowledge and experience that sets them apart.
Schaefer was tasked with updating the Pinnacle brand to match their highly specialized offerings and vast experience in an ever-changing industry. We worked through branding and collateral materials to give them a solution that separated them from their competition and gave them an identity that could work hard for them with a bold, strong presence.
The new logo eliminates the separated icon of the original and instead incorporates an angular flag into the letter P. It’s a simple design detail that simplifies their logo and creates a clean, modern look. The bold color palette of red and electric yellow was selected to stand out from the ocean of ‘waiting room’ blues and grays found throughout any healthcare sector.
Like most of our clients, Pinnacle’s offerings were already the top of their industry, what hey needed was a consistent brand identity with a personality. Now, they have the proper brand foundation to build on as their company continues to grow.
The annual Schaefer Christmas party is always preceded by several months of planning, intrigue and lies, resulting in something of a cat-and-mouse game between the party planning committee and those who get off on ruining surprises.
After a concerted effort to make us all think we were flying somewhere (convincing many), we loaded up on Thursday morning and drove to our destination: a 16,000 square foot mansion on Lake Travis near Austin.
Arriving earlier than expected, the party planners called an audible – a wine tasting and tour at nearby Flat Creek Estate. Not a bad way to kill an hour.
After unloading the trailer and exploring the enormous house and grounds, we began the business of the day. This trip was to be part year-in-review, part looking ahead and part Burning Man. That is, a tamer, fully-clothed Burning Man without all the costumes and glitter.
Nicknames were earned, lingo was added to the already expansive Schaefer lexicon and we all came away with a clear vision of our goals for 2015. Some people also left with a headache.
Stay tuned for big things next year. Thanks for being a part of this one, even if it was just by reading this blog. There are a lot more photos to look through on our Facebook page, so head on over there now, please.
Merry Christmas from all of us at Schaefer.
For the third year in a row, we partnered with the Fort Worth Opera to develop the invitation design for their largest and most impactful fundraising event of the year – the Opera Ball. Proceeds from this event go toward programming, community outreach and the annual FW Opera Festival. The Opera Ball committee had chosen a sci-fi theme for this year’s ball. Not saying we’re nerds or anything, but our minds quickly went into hyperdrive upon hearing this. Get it? Of course you do. The Fort Worth Opera Ball competes with several high-end donor events within the city, and it was imperative that our materials grab people’s attention and get them excited to attend.
We ultimately named this year’s ball the Galactic Gala and included references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and other stellar movies. See? We can’t help ourselves. With a minimal print budget, we were still able to create a printed invitation that people could interact with. When you pulled the invitation from the sleeve it looked as if the light saber was turning on. Many people felt compelled to make their own sound effects. Some were better than others, and we may or may not have looked it up on Youtube to see who was closest.
The Story
TTI, Inc. is a $2B Berkshire-Hathaway company that supplies electronic components to practically every major electronics company in the world. A few years ago, Schaefer created TTI’s spokesman, the Specialist, whose ongoing adventures have been a successful video series for the company. Three seasons in, they asked us if there was a way to expand the Specialist into other media and broaden his reach.
The Work
Comic book movies are coming out left and right, but our idea was to do the reverse. The Specialist had always been a live action video character. Why not got 2-D with it? We proposed comic book-style direct mail series that would take the Specialist and his adventure directly to the desks of our target audience. We sourced an illustrator who could do the old-school comic book style, and wrote a series of adventures involving everything from jetpacks to spaceships – two things we (so far, at least) haven’t been able to pull of in video.
The Results
In just a few months, TTI was able to grow their direct marketing database by 500 leads, and they have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both clients and partners. To date, we’ve produced seven issues of The Adventures of The Specialist and have more issues in the works. What crazy jam will the Specialist find himself in next time? Schaefer only knows.
Check out this video we put together for logistics client, Source Support Services. It only takes a couple minutes to watch, and you’ll learn way more about logistics than you were planning to learn today.
Check out this video we put together for logistics client, Source Support Services. It only takes a couple minutes to watch, and you’ll learn way more about logistics than you were planning to learn today.
At this year’s Spice World expo in Austin, Texas, Schaefer client McAfee Security was there in force to help all those IT professionals keep both their I and their T safe. The concept, Malware Apocalypse, likened all the computer-eating monsters roaming the internet to our favorite brain-eating monsters roaming various movies and TV shows.
We helped deck out the booth (and the humans) in all sorts of zombie hunting gear. We had zombie themed props and giveaways – we even had makeup artists at the booth to give people the undead makeunders they always wanted. No surprise, it was a hit. The client agreed it was one of the most successful Spiceworld showings yet, and there’s no doubt that our concept left a lasting impression on attendees.
If you think a corporate planning session sounds kind of boring, you clearly haven’t been to one that was hosted by Schaefer and TTI. This long-standing client tasked us with inviting their company brain trust together to discuss the coming year’s business and marketing strategies over fine wines and delicious food at Del Frisco’s Grille in Fort Worth. Designer Blair Babineaux came up with this cheeky little custom wine label that paired perfectly with the evening (which was a big success, by the way).
The Scan—a web video series on technology security—came about just like any other project. A former Schaefer employee who now works for McAfee Security saw some silly videos we made and posted on our Facebook page. She thought, “Hey, that might work for us, too!” Happens all the time, right? She called, we said sure, then we had to figure out how to make it happen.
All we lacked were studio lights, a teleprompter, microphone, sound recorder, editing software and the know-how to use it all. Other than that, we were set. So in true Schaefer form, we got the things we needed, figured out how to use them and created a well-received web series that’s been going strong for a year. Take a look at the episode below, then go watch all the rest on YouTube.
