by OnSight | Feb 2016 | Branding, Campaign, Graphics, politics, Trends
From Jeb! to Hillary, this campaign season is bringing us a crop of new campaign logos to admire and to scorn.
Bright colors, corporate vibes, and a trend towards first-name-only branding define the direction of this batch.
The flexible graphic identity from Obama’s 2008 campaign is now regarded as archetypal political design. The combination of a bright primary-color palette, the sunrise O and bold typography implied a confident candidate with a clear vision for the future. Whether President Obama could ever live up to this image, his campaign’s savvy and powerful use of design set the bar for today’s presidential candidates. While none of 2016’s campaigns rise to the level of Obama 2008, some intriguing ideas and shared visual themes have emerged from the field.
Read more analysis at Washington Post.
by OnSight | Dec 2015 | Elections, Graphics
99% Invisible is a really fantastic podcast that focuses on design of all kinds — from the built-in sound effects on your mobile device to urban planning, almost everything gets designed at some point in its development. And those times when it doesn’t — when a lack of intentional design is the story — well, 99PI covers those examples, too.
Ballots are an essential component to a working democracy, yet they are rarely created (or even reviewed) by design professionals. (Text from 99% Invisible, photo via Wikimedia)
Last week, 99PI did a great piece on ballots, and this one definitely falls into the latter camp. Because of the history of election management in the US (a history the podcast briefly delves into), what we see when we go to cast our vote varies enormously from county to county across the country…and is almost always developed by someone who doesn’t have the tools to think about good design.
And this can have serious implications! From ballots printed in 6-point type ALL-CAPS typefaces to the infamous “butterfly ballot” that arguably changed the course of the 2000 presidential election, 99% Invisible makes the case that good design is ignored at our peril…in elections as in everything else our society takes on.
by OnSight | Jul 2015 | Branding, Ed Perlmutter, GOCO, Graphics, Keep Colorado Local, Web Communications
You know the old sayings…
The web site is mightier than the sword.
When the going gets tough, the tough build a new web site.
There’s no place like your home page.
Those might be a little different than you remember, and that’s because we want you to look at OnSight’s work in a new way: digitally.
While OnSight has offered creative services for years, our creative team has recently kicked it into high-gear, designing and building new and innovative online homes for a number of our clients. Below, we’ve highlighted a few to show you how we’re helping our clients tackle issues with new solutions, fresh design, and innovative web sites.
Since “fortune favors the bold web designer,” we aim to evolve as quickly as the new technologies and trends in our industry. Let us know if you have a bold new idea for your website, and we’ll help you make that happen.
Keep Colorado Local
Visit KeepCoLocal.com to learn more.
Out-of-state corporations want to change the way we do business in Colorado by allowing chain stores to sell alcohol. Their goal is to boost profits, and what they won’t tell you, is that the effort will send money out of our communities, force hundreds of small businesses to close, curtail Colorado’s thriving craft industries, undermine safety, and give underage kids more access to alcohol.
As you can imagine, Coloradans won’t take that kind of thing laying down, and so a group of locally owned and independent businesses formed a coalition called Keep Colorado Local. In order to help this coalition share their message and gain new members, we knew we had to build a unique and dynamic system. The Keep Colorado Local web site not only informs supporters, allowing them get active and share our message, but also gives coalition members access to resources and communications tools.
As this coalition continues to grow and create new innovative ways to preserve Colorado’s unique business climate, our web site will be the dynamic online home for these efforts.
The Outdoors Summit
Learn more at TheOutdoorsSummit.com
Kids today spend half as much time outdoors as their parents did. Colorado may boast the nation’s healthiest adult population, but its youth obesity rate is rising rapidly. Barriers like time, transportation, money, access, and lack of interest keep kids from getting outside and developing the lifelong passion for the great outdoors that is vital for the well being of Colorado citizens, our wildlife, and our way of life.
Changing this trend is no small undertaking, and that’s why Governor Hickenlooper, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and Great Outdoors Colorado teamed up to tackle this head on. OnSight worked with these entities to develop the strategy, messaging, and of course, the online hub for the announcement of these new initiatives, which synthesized into the Outdoors Summit. In June, OnSight helped organize the Outdoors Summit, an unprecedented gathering of national and state leaders, advocates and visionaries focused on connecting Coloradans, especially our kids, with the outdoors.
Our creative team developed the logo, web site, and conference materials to promote and brand this unprecedented day-long summit.
Perlmutter for Colorado
Learn more at PerlmutterForColorado.com
OnSight is proud to work with the hardest working man in Congress, and this spring, we took on the overhaul of Ed Perlmutter’s campaign web site. The new Perlmutter for Colorado site is now mobile and social-friendly — critical components for any modern campaign — and features new interactive tools that allow supporters to learn more about Ed and get engaged in his campaign by volunteering, sharing testimonials, and donating.
by OnSight | Mar 2015 | Beer, Graphics, Keep Colorado Local, Press and Media, Print Communications
You’ve heard of shopping local, but voting local might be next.
In March, over 100 Coloradans from craft breweries, local vineyards, distillers, and local businesses got together at a local liquor store. No, that’s not the start of a joke. It’s the start of an effort called Keep Colorado Local.
The Keep Colorado Local coalition represents over 1,000 local businesses. These independent businesses joined the Keep Colorado Local campaign to fight out-of-state corporations and keep them from changing our liquor laws and allowing chain stores to sell alcohol. OnSight is proud to build this effort and grow a coalition to defend local businesses, preserve public safety, and protect Colorado’s craft culture.
These local businesses are working on this issue together, because it could be on your ballot sometime soon. Out-of-state corporations are gearing up for a ballot measure in the 2016 election, and Colorado businesses aren’t wasting any time to spread the word about the dangers of alcohol sales in chain stores.
The Keep Colorado Local campaign keeps the focus on the businesses, people, and Colorado culture that would be hurt. As many as 700 local stores would be put out of business, and we’d lose over 10,000 jobs. Our craft selection would be completely watered down, and the small brewery or distiller would lose out on shelf space because chain stores prioritize mass-produced products. Alcohol in chain stores would also mean easy availability for minors to steal or illegally buy alcohol.
Onsight is building a strategic campaign to share this message online, in businesses and in the news:
Homepage features quick links and key messaging.
Web Site
The Keep Colorado Local web site features a dynamic homepage with a mobile-friendly layout. The online home of Keep Colorado Local is designed to feature key information and house an expanding archive of stories, voices, testimonials, videos and tools for supporters as the campaign grows. Check it out and sign up for updates at KeepCoLocal.com.
Social Media
The Keep Colorado Local social media hubs work seamlessly with our web site, encouraging readers to move in between our online portals, learn more and share our content with their friends.
Testimonials from business owners, for example, are featured on “The Culture” section of the web site with buttons to make sharing that content on social media as easy as possible. These testimonials are also featured in our social media posts, encouraging readers to visit the website and view more.
You can stay up-to-date with Keep Colorado Local and our coalition partners on Facebook, Twitter and our email updates.
Print Collateral
From stickers to palm cards, table tents to coasters, bottle-hangers to window clings, and much more, OnSight is providing coalition partners with the visibility tools they need to spread the word and grow our Keep Colorado Local team.
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 Point of sale and outreach materials available for download and order on the KCL web site.
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 Custom banners and point-of-sale signage |
 Outreach collateral materials |
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 Bottle tags.
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News
Over 100 people from local businesses gathered at Argonaut Liquors in Denver to launch Keep Colorado Local and deliver a clear, united message: alcohol sales in chain store would harm local businesses, Colorado’s economy, and our craft culture.
Onsight works to facilitate communication with the press and ensure that the Keep Colorado Local coalition’s efforts are in the news:
Fox31: Liquor stores, brewers join forces to keep alcohol sales out of grocery stores (video)
Liquor store owners and breweries are joining forces to fight an expected ballot proposal that would allow supermarkets in the state to sell alcohol. The store owners and breweries are calling their campaign “Keep Colorado Local” as a way to keep alcohol sales out of big-store supermarkets.
Durango Herald: Beer and wine in grocery stores? Brewers, vintners, distillers and liquor store owners oppose effort
Brewers, distillers, liquor store owners and vintners are not toasting a proposed ballot initiative that would allow the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores. They stood together at a news conference Thursday at Argonaut Wine and Liquor in Denver where the Keep Colorado Local coalition expressed concerns about the initiative led by larger retailers.
Denver Business Journal: Opposition launches campaign against full-strength beer sales at grocery stores (video)
Colorado’s first ballot-issue battle of 2016 is underway, and it is about beer.
A coalition led by the Colorado Brewers Guild and the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association kicked off the “Keep Colorado Local” campaign on Thursday, hoping to defeat or avert a potential ballot measure that would allow grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine.
Westword: CRAFT BREWERIES, LIQUOR STORES RALLY TO FIGHT GROCERY STORE BEER SALES INITIATIVE
For the last few years, Colorado craft breweries and their allies at local liquor stores have worked on convincing state lawmakers to keep grocery and convenience stores from being allowed to sell full-strength beer, wine and booze. Now these small and medium-sized businesses are cracking open a consumer campaign in advance of a possible effort by the supermarket chains to take their case directly to voters in 2016.
by OnSight | Mar 2015 | Elections, Graphics
We’ve known the results of the 2014 election for some time, but results on voter turnout and voter behavior under Colorado’s all-mail ballot voting system are just now beginning to come in. The headlines: turnout in Colorado is incredible, and voters prefer to return their ballots in person rather than through the mail, particularly in more populated areas.
by OnSight | Apr 2014 | Campaign, Graphics, politics, Press and Media, Trends
They call it “The Eye”…
Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group — a global PR research and analysis firm — has been collecting campaign ads. And now that they’ve got 10 years worth (upwards of 50,000 ads from the federal, state, and local level), they’ve done something amazing with them.
This stunning (and initially kind of overwhelming) interactive graphic breaks down the ads by party, topic, race, and relative airtime. It’s a stunning piece of datavisualization, and it links to every single one of the ads it has tracked, providing not just a graphical representation of an almost ungraspable amount of data, but an actual live database of the component parts (in this case, each unique ad), as well.
In addition,
Filtered by “President” and “Taxes”.
What’s this a reflection of? A smaller battleground in 2012 meant those presidential ads aired across fewer markets, which held down occurrences. But beyond that, the 2012 Obama campaign targeted many of their ads more narrowly, keeping as many as 20 unique commercials on the air at any one time. Many 2012 presidential ads also aired for shorter periods of time than ads in previous races because they were produced to either drive, or take advantage of the news cycle—a growing trend for political ads.
