One of our best buddies and colleagues, Lee Buckner, is having a show of prints and paintings, starting this weekend at the Push Skateshop in Asheville. If you’re in the area, check it out.

He does great work, and he’s a reasonably decent guy. Since he hangs with us, please don’t judge him by the company he keeps.

Congrats, man!

Well – it happens in every industry. Places close down…

Alpha Group, one of Asheville’s oldest ad agencies, is closing it’s doors at the end of August. Full story, thanks to Citizen Times, right here.

Alpha Group handled a lot of real estate in Asheville, along with a few very, very heavy hitters in other industries – like Ingles and a few others. It seems that a lot of places have scaled back in a sluggish economy, and while we certainly understand (we’ve gone from 8 pots of coffee a day to 7 and a half) there is also a lot to be gained if businesses are willing to step out and advertise right now.

When the economy dips, it makes a LOT of sense to get out and advertise. People still have money to spend and are looking for quality ways to spend it. You need to provide excellent service, high value and a lot of bang for the buck – but the real way to get that message out there is to ADVERTISE.

So, whether it’s a new brochure, a newsletter update, a website, an identity overhaul or a focused ad campaign, now is really the time.

We’re not as big as Alpha Group – and we probably never will be. But we have just as much experience, and we know what you’re looking for. We also know what your client base is looking for. Great design that is completely thought out, fresh and now.

We’re here. We’re ready. We’re happy to jump in and get you noticed.

Now, where did we sit that coffee…

We’re proud to announce that we’ve launched a great new service – ISEmailCampaignManager.

It’s a simple way to design and manage your own email campaigns. There are many designs to chose from, a lot of great features, and the ability to administer everything in your email campaigns.

With an extremely easy, friendly user interface, all you do is log in, pick who you want to send it to, what you want it to look like, what the content is going to be, and click send – that’s it!

You don’t have to worry about spam or server issues. You don’t have to worry about HTML. You don’t have to worry about contacting us – it’s truly self-serve!

Of course, we’re always more than happy to help out, but we’re also always looking at ways to put the power in your hands.

Get started today – send us an email, we’ll set you up an account, and you’ll be off and mass-emailing in minutes!

We’ve been busting it at Independent Studios.

Graphic Design requires a lot of inspiration, and thankfully we live and work and breathe in Asheville, NC. Things are getting green, the tomatoes are starting to come in and we can get out and mow the grass. It’s a beautiful spring here in Western North Carolina, and we’re happy that things are warming up – both in the air and in the office.

We’re working on new logos, new websites, and collateral of all sorts. Posters and identity, brochures and packaging. It’s a lot of work, and we’re excited to be serving up some great design our varied and wonderful clients.

We’ve got a lot going on – but never fear: If you need excellence in design, the utmost in creativity and the height of customer service, we’re here. We’re here. We’re ready. We want to serve it up for you! Contact us and let us get started on your project!

It’s spring. The time year when we yearn to step away from our computers and all the html and print design and pixel manipulation and step out the doors of the office and into the bright, warm, shining…

Snow.

Yes, it’s snowing here. Nothing sticking – but it’s April.

We should be designing tee shirts, logos for camps, and sites for small businesses looking for that spring push.

Well, thankfully, we’re still doing that. It’s just that we’re having to wear jackets while we’re doing it.

Shoes – still optional.

Thanks to our many wonderful clients (friends) for a great winter. Now that things will be heating up, we’re excited to see all the great things that we’ll be designing together with all of you!

Some days, we’re just not too sure.

Just testing WordPress 2.5′s swanky new features…

Enjoy!

we’ve finally finished up the move, and we’re starting to roll out a new look.

stay tuned for more updates, a fresher look and a more consistent brand across all our web properties.

thanks for visiting.

enjoy!

being busy is great – unless you plan on keeping your blog updated.

we’ve been knee-deep in a variety of projects. logos, flash animations, packaging, catalogs and magazine design have all been on our plate – plus a big move.

we’re moving out of hendersonville and bringing it all back home to asheville. with so many clients in asheville and the remainder being pretty well scattered to the four winds, we’ve decided to move the whole kit and kaboodle back to fabulous ashevegas.

the big day is planned for the first of march – and we’re sitting amongst stacks of boxes and the smell of packing tape permeates everything we do these days.

but – fear not, our loyal clients, we’ll be updating our portfolio and our news very soon.

stay tuned for more design goodness…

Seems our creative juices have been going towards a lot of packaging lately – as well as getting our heads wrapped around WordPress and some other content management system-related tinkerings.

Packaging design is always fun – and always a little different. You’ve got a pretty large amount of info to convey, but it has to be attractive and hard-selling. Not as concise as a billboard, not as wordy as a brochure. We’ve been kicking around a box design for medical flashcards – pretty straightforward and dry stuff, but the client has been a joy and allowed for a lot of freedom to create a fun little package.

WordPress is a pretty interesting beast. We’ve been tinkering with it for a while, and we’ve really started to implement the great features and SEO capabilities. This site is a WordPress setup, and we plan on doing a lot more.

Along with packaging design, websites and our usual load of logo designs, brochures and catalogs, we’re gearing up for the upcoming political campaigns. We’ve done several in the past (Tom Apodaca and a few other NC Senatorial candidates and District Judges,) and we’re looking at hitting that long road again in the spring. Should be an interesting year, since we’ll have turnover in the White House, we’ll likely have some turnover of other incumbents, too.

Stay tuned – we’re adding a lot more to the site. We welcome to you wander around and view our portfolio, contact us, ask us questions and pick our caffeine-addled brains. Mostly, though – we want to work on your design!

we’ve been working feverishly (well – not feverishly) on updating our site. maybe a little rough around the edges, but the bones are certainly up. we’ve updated the design portfolio, and we’re in the process of updating the web portfolio and rates pages.

if you’re here for something specific and you don’t see it – please contact us and let us know. we’re in the business of making all our work available for view, and we want to make a custom solution for you – and that starts with giving you the information and sample that you’re looking for.

thanks for checking us out – we look forward to working with you.