Measuring Humanity: The Value of Qualitative Data

By Kris Travis | May 27, 2020

KPI, ROI, conversion rates, likes, bounces, clicks, followers, page views…the list goes on and on when it comes to the hard data in marketing metrics. As a designer, how something looks and feels has always been most important to me, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t consider whether a design was achieving its marketing […]

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Winning Corporate Holiday Cards

By Kris Travis | Dec 12, 2019

Is your company sending a holiday card this year? While year end is often incredibly busy, it’s also the most wonderful time of the year to remind clients how much you value their partnership. A simple holiday greeting will suffice, but what if you want to go all out? These organizations got especially festive with […]

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Why Color Theory Matters on Social Media

By Natalie O'Grady | Aug 8, 2019

Images are king on social media. The 3.2 billion active users across all platforms are eager for relevant content, and imagery is an essential piece of capturing their attention. 65% of people retain information they saw paired with an image, compared to 10% of people who simply heard a piece of information. Facebook posts with images receive […]

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A Brief Overview of the Design Process

By Kris Travis | May 21, 2018

As part of our regular internal brown bag meetings here at A.wordsmith, I recently shared an overview of typical design project processes. For clients who have never worked with a designer, they don’t always know what to expect as we embark on a design project, whether it be a logo design, larger brand suite, or […]

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How expensive is that font?

By Kris Travis | Apr 4, 2018

“How much would it cost for you design a custom brand font for us?” While I am not a font designer, it’s a question I’ve heard, and a creative endeavor I’d be curious to explore if I had oodles more time and quite a bit more training. Font design is a complex art, with a […]

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Sustainable Brand Design

By Kris Travis | Sep 29, 2017

Environmental concerns are increasingly top of mind for companies across the globe. And rightly so–global warming, growing populations, and shrinking resources mean environmental responsibility must become a priority for huge brands, especially those that are consumer-based. As long as people buy things, there will be resources used and waste produced. But there are many ways […]

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6 Design Tips for Better White Papers

By Kris Travis | Aug 3, 2017

In our digital world of social media attention spans and interactive brand experiences, the traditional white paper isn’t necessarily the most exciting way to convey content. But white papers still play an important role in many B2B organizations, as objective and informative pieces to aid sales, act as lead generation tools, and provide a means to position […]

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Design Week Portland 2017

By Kris Travis | May 1, 2017

To be honest, I was supposed to post to our blog last week, but I was too busy checking out Design Week Portland 2017. Did you experience any of the great events last week? For those who haven’t heard, Design Week is an annual celebration of all things design-related: architecture, art and craft, graphic design, […]

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Inspiring Women in Graphic Design

By Kris Travis | Mar 22, 2017

To continue the month’s celebration of women’s contributions to history and the world, I thought it would be fitting to highlight five super talented women doing big things in the field of graphic design. There are so many inspiring women in graphic design right now; I love learning from their unique styles, career challenges and successes, and perspectives on what design means to […]

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The beauty of a brand manifesto

By Kris Travis | Feb 21, 2017

I’ve talked about the moodboard process, as well as the importance of brand guides, but have yet to touch on one of the other tools in the master brand toolkit: the brand manifesto. What is a brand manifesto? As a manifesto is “a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer” (Miriam-Webster), […]

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Designing for Gender Equity

By Kris Travis | Jan 23, 2017

On Saturday, the Women’s March on Washington took over not only the streets of DC, but cities all over the world. Participants had innumerable reasons for joining, but women’s rights and equality were clearly at the event’s core. No matter what your thoughts are about the march itself, it did bring attention to a range […]

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Incredible Corporate Holiday Cards

By Kris Travis | Nov 29, 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for beautiful, festive holiday cards. A team photo or holiday graphic gets the job done, but how do you make a corporate holiday card really stand out? They are very much different from cards and lanyards for conferences. Here are a few examples of amazingly creative holiday […]

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