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Chelsie Hall

May 28
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Jack Daniels Label

Fonts and Whiskey: These are a few of my favorite things

By Fonts No Comments

Those who know me, know that I don’t drink often, but when I do, whiskey is my go-to drink. My love for the mellow taste of Jack Daniel’s Sour Mash Whiskey is only amplified since Hall or Nothing Designs has relocated to East Tennessee.

In my perpetual search for unique fonts, I stumbled across a project brief that combines my appreciation for the Tennessee whiskey and my affection for beautifully crafted typography.

Arnold Worldwide, the agency of record for Jack Daniel’s Distillery, has developed the three lettering styles on the famous 1904 Black Label into complete fonts.

Jasper font
Top and center is the Jasper font, based on the familiar Jack Daniel’s logo lettering (and bearing Jack Daniel’s given first name).

Lynchburg font
The real visual centerpiece is the refined yet approachable Lynchburg Script, based on the Tennessee lettering in the label.

motlow
Rounding out the set is the solid, industrious typeface named for Lem Motlow, the nephew of Jack Daniel who managed and later inherited the Distillery.

Now the challenge will be to locate the fonts for download, but I imagine the agency is going to keep these iconic brand elements locked up tight.

Jan 20
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Mobile Purchase

Mobile Matters More than Ever

By Mobile No Comments

The “mobile first” revolution is in full swing. If you are a marketer who isn’t considering putting a large chunk of your budget to reach your mobile customers, you might want to check out these numbers:

What do the mobile stats mean for your marketing

The number of people using mobile devices worldwide is skyrocketing. This means that you now have more flexibility in reaching your end user. For companies that collect and track customer usage, you’ll enjoy an increase in the amount of location-based data for use in focused marketing efforts. With targeting messaging, mobile is sure to become your customers preferred method of communication.

For companies looking to increase your mobile sales, mobile users are beginning to trust this channel and many have begun to prefer this buying platform. Tracking is imperative to learning more about your customers, gaining more messaging opportunities, and providing a richer buying experience for your customers.

So put your marketing dollars where your customers are. Mobile matters!

Nov 04
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Plastic Business Cards

Impactful and Durable: Plastic Business Cards

By Printing No Comments

We love plastic business cards at Hall or Nothing Designs. When you hand your prospect a semi-translucent frosted plastic business cards, you set yourself up for a successful relationship right from the start. The substantial feel of the plastic, coupled with the modern design aesthetic of using clear or frosted plastic gives your customers the impression that you have high standards, and therefore must offer a quality product or service.

Don’t limit your creativity to just business cards. Plastic cards would make great general membership cards, loyalty or rewards cards, or discount cards . We could design a blank area on the card for you to be able to write a customers name using a permanent marker or sharpie. We could even print a scannable bar code to apply a discount at checkout—a great way to track your customers! You could even use these cards as clothing hangtags, employee badges, tickets to an event, or tags for a gift basket.

Printing on plastic is popular for the following reasons:

  • Stand out from the crowd. Not many of your competitors will have a plastic business card, so you’ll immediately stand out.
  • Water-proof. If you own a pool cleaning service or other water-related industry, you may benefit from the water-proof nature of plastic.
  • Durable. Plastic business cards can stand up to abuse, a quality that might demonstrate the rugged personality of a construction company, or it’s durability might be necessary for the element explosure at a restaurant.
  • High-tech. Plastic has a high-tech feel that would serve a software or communications company well.
Oct 30
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AkuaFoil Business Card

Akuafoil Versus Cold-Foil Printing

By Printing No Comments

For some time now cold-foil printing has been the go to process when you want to dazzle clients with your printed collateral. With cold-foil printing, the printing process uses a standard printing plate to apply an adhesive to the substrate. The adhesive is then used to transfer foil onto the substrate. Finally, a CMYK full color process is used over the foil to create a shiny foil finish with the color of your choice. While this process is still very much a reliable one for long-run print jobs, a new process, called Akuafoil, has risen to the top for shorter runs. While the file set up for Akuafoil printing is much like that for cold foil printing there are a few fundamental differences that separate the two different processes.

Akuafoil provides the same elegant foil finish as cold-foil printing. However, Akuafoil utilizes a different printing process than traditional cold-foil printing. With Akuafoil, a layer of silver ink is applied under regular colors, resulting in glimmering metallic accents on your printed pieces. Like cold-foil, Akuafoil uses CMYK colors, offering you the chance to brand your business cards, post cards, brochures and so on with a variety of hues. Akuafoil even offers gradients in any CMYK color.

Akuafoil printing is simple and affordable for short-run print jobs. Hall or Nothing Designs is proud to offer Akuafoil printing as well as cold-foil printing for larger jobs. Contact us today to get a quote and brighten up your image among customers with luminous Akuafoil printing.

Oct 24
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Oxford Comma

The Oxford Comma: Either way, be consistant

By Copywriting No Comments

I was trained by very passionate proofreaders in my early agency days to love the Oxford Comma (also known as the Serial Comma or Harvard Comma). Because of this and several real-life scenarios that made the case for the Oxford Comma, Hall or Nothing Designs pitches its tent in the “Pro” camp. Do you know what camp your brand is in? You should. Here’s some examples that will help you decide where you want to pitch your tent. Then be consistent with its application.

The argument in favor:

The Oxford comma is common in many non-English languages of Latin descent, like Spanish, Italian, Greek, and French, to name a few. The Oxford Comma eliminates ambiguity. The most popularly illustrated example shows how the same sentence can be interpreted with clarity or hilarity:
With: “We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.”  I’m sure JFK and Stalin will enjoy the entertainment.
Without: “We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.”  JFK and Stalin apparently have night jobs.

The argument against:

The Oxford Comma was eliminated by the Associated Press in an effort to save precious column space in publishing, a decision based solely on brevity, not clarity. The problem with the above example is that the serial comma could just as easily cause an undesired interpretation:
With: “We invited the stripper, JFK, and Stalin.” Stalin is going to see JFK take off his clothes.
Without: “We invited the stripper, JFK and Stalin.” Three people were invited to the party.

Rephrasing is preferable

In any case, these rare problems can be easily resolved with rephrasing:
With: “We invited JFK, Stalin, and the strippers.”
Without: “We invited JFK, Stalin and the strippers.”

Related items in a list

The Oxford Comma is most useful in presenting complicated lists.
“I have packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna salad sandwiches, and a trail mix containing peanuts, raisins, and m&ms for our picnic.”

The following infographic might help you decide which style you want your brand to follow:

The Oxford Comma

Sep 18
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Connections 2013

Good vs. Great – Connections 2013

By Events No Comments

It’s the first day of ExactTarget’s Connections 2013 in Indianapolis.

The opening keynote speaker, Jim Collins, lets us in on his quest to discover what seperates the good leaders from the great ones. Greatness, he attests, is not primarily a function of circumstance. It is a matter of conscious choice and discipline. Companies who survive turbulent times aren’t reacting to them, but are instead persisting through them.

With nearly 6,000 in the audience, nearly all raise their hands when Collins asks, “How many of you have a to-do list?” The number of hands that raise when he follows with, “How many of you have a stop-doing list?” are much fewer.

We all only get 24-hours a day times the number of days we will live. What will we do with them? Good leaders are driven by personal gain or accomplishments. Great leaders have a passion for a larger cause. A company’s culture is its strategy

Collins closing says it best, “Life is people. Be useful.”

Sep 12
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Welcome to Tennessee

Why yes, that’s Volunteer orange

By Events No Comments

Green is still my favorite color, but orange is really growing on me.

Many people flock to Florida for the sand and sun, but Florida doesn’t hold a candle to what east Tennessee has to offer. Hall or Nothing Designs is pleased to have escaped the opressive heat of Orlando, FL and proud to be opening its doors in the fine city of Maryville, TN.

We hope to bring creative inspiration and marketing success to local small businesses. We’ve been designing graphics and creating printed and online marketing materials for over 14 years. We look forward to getting to know the business owners of Knoxville, Maryville and surrounding areas and can’t wait to help you achieve your business goals.