A Girl, a Boy and an Alpaca

Have you ever found yourself day dreaming about up and leaving your job to raise alpacas on the top of a mountain in upstate New York? That’s exactly what husband and wife team Cameron and Katherine Sands did last spring. They then approached TRO to help them name and develop an identity system for their new farm.

TRO recognized the opportunity to create something really special in an industry that’s pretty bleak design-wise. Following initial meetings and research we presented brand boards, each communicating a high level concept, look and feel.

Katherine and Cam selected the board that explored a more illustrative direction and focused on telling their story—a young couple running their farm and raising alpacas in their own unique way. They’re self-admittedly a bit goofy, and liked the idea of embracing humanity, quirkiness and perhaps a bit of the unexpected in their new identity.

Our first logo presentation was met with a great deal of excitement. There was a clear front runner when we got off the phone. However, after much contemplation and discussion, Katherine and Cam requested we use a new name and explore the theme from the second brand board instead. They were concerned that the DIY approach they had initially selected might portray them as inexperienced rather than hands-on entrepreneurs.

So from there it was back to the drawing board. TRO’s second board was über sophisticated and elegant, promising an elite, white-glove brand experience to its clients. In approaching the next round of logos, we wanted to maintain some of the whimsy they liked from our first exploration while still capturing the refinement of the second board.

After one more round of design, we finally reached a solution. Here are some of our favorites. Can you guess which one they picked?

Check back to find out which name and mark Katherine and Cam selected, and see how TRO builds out their identity system.

POSTED BY:
astrauss at 5:42 PM
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Design, People, Projects, Uncategorized

4.25 Time Tracking Tips

(Image from www.trackthetime.com)

I’m sure all of us have experienced one of those days where you wonder, ‘What exactly did I do today?’ This question is even harder to answer when you’re trying to remember a week’s worth of time when entering your hours for work. When it comes to logging hours for multiple projects, it can be a daunting task if you don’t have a good system in place. (Especially when you need to measure your life in .25 increments.)

As tedious a task as this may seem, to a Project Manager it’s one of the most important aspects to a job. Not only is entering accurate time vital to keeping the assignment on budget, it’s also important for estimating hours in upcoming/new work. Many times, projects can have similar deliverables and timing; knowing how long a past project took (and if you were close to your hours estimate or over) will help to better scope the new job in the future. Even if you’re working on a fixed bid project, as opposed to Time-and-Materials, it’s important your team members enter accurate hours since this will also aid in providing realistic estimates in the future.

Is it fun to enter hours? No. Is it necessary? Absolutely. No one really enjoys entering time, but I’ve found a few helpful ways of making the process less painful: Read More …

POSTED BY:
maynard at 1:21 PM
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A Very Modest Cottage

Personal friend of The Order as well as multi-talented creative director, decorator and author Tereasa Surratt decided (and then convinced her husband) to haul an abandoned cottage in Beardstown, Illinois some 250 miles to their country home on Lake Wandawega, Wisconsin. Aside for the logistical challenge that this represents, Tereasa discovered that her little cottage was actually a treasure trove of rural midwestern family history. Hearst Publishing found the story compelling enough to publish, so we designed the book and a web site to help promote it.

Visit A Very Modest Cottage, and check it out.

POSTED BY:
hogan at 2:24 PM
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Design, Uncategorized
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