25. We’d love to talk about
your next project and how
we can help!
Keren – 303.550.8657
Keren@LTCMedia.com
Editor's Notes
I’m Keren with Lightning Tree Creative Media. We bring creative ideas to life.
Michael and I love exploring, especially on our motorcycles.
One of the things Michael and I love to do most is ride our BMW motorcycles. We’ve ridden coast to coast and from the border of Mexico to the Ice glaciers in Canada. We have made some really close friends in this group and often go motorcycle camping with them and pack everything we need on the back of our bikes. We just returned from a 10 day trip through Utah and down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
My career started with book publishing at a time when typesetting and blue lines were the standard. I have published over 100 books for various authors. I can take a book from a rough manuscript through the entire process of editing, layout, cover design, printing, and marketing.
I fell in love with graphic design years ago when I saw how cool a well-designed piece can be and how much can be communicated through design. I especially enjoy the overall result that typography, images and colors can give to good content. This book called “Free to Create” was a hard-back coffee table book of an artist’s work and was one of my favorite projects.
I’ve published for many different types of authors including a book about the Coptic Orthodox Church, a text book for a college professor, a fairy tale, a number of biographies including a book I’m working on now called “I Choose Adam.”
Logo design is one of my favorite things to do.
A logo design starts out with a conversation to find out what the client is looking for.
Questions like:
What colors do you like?
What types of images do you have in mind?
Do you like a round shape, an oblong, or no borders at all?
What types of fonts do you like?
How will the logo be used – online, in print, on t-shirts?
Once I have a visual idea, I design several different versions of the logo and present them to the client.
The client then chooses one design or some of the different elements of each design and we then work with that design, tweaking it until it is just right. A logo generally runs between $350 and $400 and the clients receives all the original artwork along with every file type they would need.
About 10 years ago I started doing T-shirt designs for the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado that we ride with.
These logos are used online, in print, and on T-shirts so they have to do a number of jobs. They are part of the brand strategy of the organization.
The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand. Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages.
Consistent, strategic branding gives value to your company's products or services. The first steps to branding are…
1. Get a great logo.
2. Integrate that logo everywhere. It extends to every aspect of your business including your e-mail signature
3. Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel on everything. You don't need to be fancy, just consistent.
My other passion is building WordPress sites. I like WordPress because of the flexibility that platform provides and I like my clients to have access to their own sites to update information and be able to post their own information. Registration and payment functionality is also easier on WordPress and my clients can log into their own site and download XL spreadsheets of all the data for a specific event.
Myranda Bennett’s Boundless Healing website included a woo commerce shopping cart and a class reservation and payment system.
The BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado site included member registration with members only pages behind a login. It also included a Club calendar with every event for the year and a registration and payment system for several of events.
A website is one of the most important aspects of a business even if you don’t actually sell on line. The first place someone looks when they are considering doing business with you is your online presence. Like I mentioned, it doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, but it does need to have good content, make sense navigating through the pages, and communicate your core message well.
But the most important marketing tool is your business card. Dr. Misner, in his book “Givers Gain” states that “the business card is typically the smallest, most portable, most attention-getting, most collectible, and often most cost-effective of all a business person’s promotional materials.” p. 71
A business card communicates the most important information about your business and presents your brand to the public.
At Lightning Tree Creative Media, we bring all kinds of creative ideas to life. Ideas that are communicated through print, through books, and through online media. And I love what I do! Thank you!
