Th3 Wood || Yes the 3 should be backwards…

We just wrapped up the design phase for a new project we’ve been working on for the last few months. It’s called Riding Resource, and it’s a response to the equestrian community’s need for a better search engine. Our friends in Atlanta, Erik and Ainsley, got it started, and we designed a new logo and website/application for them. In addition, we’re helping them out with promoting the site with social media. We’re big fans of the social web, and while our efforts with Obama Baton were not quite as successful as we’d hoped, the lessons we took from that project are paying off big-time for Riding Resource. Already, they’ve built an active community around their idea, using a few tips and tricks from our bag.

The big payoff will be at the beta and gold releases of their site, in December and January. We’re excited to see how it all works out.

Over the last few weeks, thanks to our site being on NOTCOT, we’ve made some new friends. Primary among them is thirtysevenclick, a group of guys out in San Diego that make videos, websites and other cool things. Sounds a little like us? Yeah, but they’re the video yin to our web marketing yang. They contacted us for help promoting a new short film by some of the guys in Fall Out Boy & Yellowcard. The film will be called Moustachette, and we’ll be posting pretty frequently about our progress on this front.

We’re stoked. Nice to meet you, fellas.

Ahh, so the Obama Baton. As you might know, we went from a 160-line chat to a wireframe, to a live site in under 10 days. I won’t get into the how, but instead into the why.

Seth reached out to me about two weeks ago with an idea: running the NYC marathon with a blue baton to represent his support for Obama. The blue baton (and the act of passing it along to other runners) would be a symbol of the way Obama brings people together.

Seth’s question: what should be done about it online?

The answer? Talk it up. Get people to support. Get people to download the baton image and slap it on their blogs. Get people to buy a button and wear it on their book bags, jerseys, race numbers, and shorts. Get people to watch out for the baton as it goes by on race day.

So now, fair reader, what can you do?

1. Follow us on twitter, where you can find out when and where the baton will be running every day.
2. Check us out on Flickr
3. Buy a button and wear it around to show your support for us, and for the idea that we are stronger when we stick together and run toward a common goal
4. Help us out by commenting on our site
5. Join the Chicago team, even if you’re not running
6. Join the NYC team, again… even if you’re not running
7. Blog about it!

Thanks, y’all, for reading and offering support.

We love beer. We love our favorite local bar, The Beer Bistro. And we’ve convinced them that they should let us re-do their website. Which we’re gonna do. Check back soon to see how it turns out.

We’re pretty fired up. We just started up with Train Strong of Atlanta, Georgia. We’ll be working with them on their brand, their website, their logo, advertising, apparel design, and a whatever else comes their way. XOtech is going to do the back-end programming to make the whole thing work. Having a big project like this is always great. But this one in particular gets better and better by the minute. They are an energetic (could you have guessed), fun and smart group of people. And they give back to the community. Just the kind of clients we want.

In essence, they help people get motivated, get in shape and stay that way. It’s not about a diet, it’s not a workout fad… it’s bigger than all of that. And from what the Train Strong veterans (those that have been through their camp at least once) say, the program works. Just the kind of program we’d like to sell.

And from our first meeting, it sounds like they want some big ideas, and want to do things the right way.

Perfect!

HealthSPORT is a small chain of fitness/wellness clubs on the North Coast of California. They’ve been around for 14 years and have been quite successful. They’ve built their brand on being more than just a gym by providing a bunch of other services and programs that help their members achieve true body+mind fitness. But they’re in need of a refresh to their brand and communications materials. We’re going to help them make it consistent with the promise they hold to their members.

We love gyms. And we love sports. And we love health. I think we’re going to love working with HealthSPORT. Expect good things in about 7 weeks…

Our good buddy Ivor tabbed us to redesign and rewrite his website. But first, of course, he needed a new logo and tagline. As we discussed what Green Light Networks does best, we came upon the following observation, which we’ll use as we re-work his brand: small businesses have a really hard time getting good IT that scales with their business. Green Light provides scalable solutions to small and midsize businesses. Makes sense to us.

We’ve got a new client: XOtech, LLC of Tyrone, Georgia. We’re excited to be working with them, and by the looks of it, we’re going to have the opportunity to do some great work.

XOtech is a global IT services company that has built its reputation on developing financial- and logistics-oriented web applications for the US military. They’ve expanded their range of services in the last couple years to include consulting, and their major strategic focus over the next 5 years is to grow that side of the business. We’re intrigued by their ability to straddle two different worlds; they can achieve great things for government clients by using efficient, private-sector business practices. We thought this was a great starting point for their brand position. In a few weeks, you’ll see the fruits of our labor: a new logo, brand position and tagline, a new website and a series of posters.