kor kitchen » Branding

We’re #1

James — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:25:37 +0000

Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Management was recently ranked #1 part-time MBA in the nation by BusinessWeek. kor group led the cross media advertising campaign with Redhead Media, and the marketing team at WPI. The branding and design had to work on various applications; from a 1″ sticker, to an outdoor billboard, online and on-air. We kept the design bold and simple to promote this exceptional ranking as clearly as possible across all media. WPI has been known as a leading technology school for years. With this prestigious ranking, and kor’s help branding the campaign, we hope to inform the nation that WPI is also a leader in business. Congratulations to WPI, for being #1!

I-90 Billboard

Logan Airport Diorama

Annual Report Wrap

Sunday Telegram Newspaper Ad

Boston Business Journal Online Ad

WPI MBA microsite >>click image to visit site

Gold Foil Sticker

Extending the Merrimack brand

Jim — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:55:55 +0000

We recently created some new marketing pieces for Merrimack College that complement and extend the suite of materials we created last year (for which we won a bronze award in the total recruitment category for the Higher Ed Marketing’s Annual Education Advertising Awards).

For these new pieces, we pulled colors and fonts from the overall standards that we originally created and added a brighter, secondary color palette to the existing one, thus freshening the brand that will continue to evolve as new needs and challenges are met. These brighter colors are incorporated into the parent newsletter, four school brochures, and the junior discovery brochures.

Parent newsletter masthead

Parent newsletter interior spread

School of Science and Engineering brochure

School of Business and International Commerce brochure

Cover of the junior discovery brochure

Interior of the junior discover brochure. We designed two different interiors; one male, and the other female

10 Years of Palm Beach Event Branding

Jim — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:17:05 +0000

Last weekend Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, held their annual fundraising event in Palm Beach, Florida for their community of donors. kor group has partnered with BIDMC and branded their events and communications materials since 2000 and 2010 was no exception.

This year’s event was focused on the topic of healthcare reform. The design reflects a more serious typographic approach, while still communicating elegance and festivity. We created this system of materials using a rich color palette, soft transparencies and innovative shapes which are formed from the letters and numbers in PB10. Congratulations to BID for yet another successful fundraising event!

Invitation cover

Invitation with save the date postcard

Invitation interior with overleaf

You’re Accepted!

James — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:54:55 +0000

kor group recently created multiple admission acceptance kits for some of our higher education clients: Assumption College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Merrimack College, and Wheelock College. We understand that admission marketing is not just about getting prospective students to apply, but to yield. The goal of these kits was to excite the accepted student, and to immediately make him or her feel welcomed into the school’s community. Beyond the beautiful printed kits we included information for accepted students to connect with their future graduating class on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Assumption College Accept Kit folder

Assumption College Accept Brochure

MCPHS Accept Kit Folder

MCPHS Accept Kit Folder (Post-It Notes)

Merrimack College Accept Checklist

Wheelock College Accept Kit Folder

Wheelock College Merit Scholarship Award

Assumption College: hot off the press

James — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:59:23 +0000

After working with Assumption College for the past two years on their brandÂ positioning and interim collateral, we are happy to announce that we areÂ rolling out Assumptionâ€™s â€œbrand bookâ€. This piece outlines the key messagesÂ developed from the brand positioning as well as giving a full sense of theÂ academic and campus life at Assumption. It is meant to present the essence ofÂ Assumption College. Throughout the piece there are call outs that link theÂ reader to academic departments and stories from students, faculty, andÂ alumni that can be found on their web site: assumption.edu. We created andÂ launched their web site in the Spring of 2009. For this piece, kor group hasÂ been working with photographer Len Rubenstein to develop their photo library as well as continuing to useÂ existing images from Assumptionâ€™s photo archive. Our writing partner,Â Libretto, has been working with us to develop the brand strategy as well asÂ the content for this piece. The brand book was printed at Vermillion inÂ Nashua NH. We were very pleased, as usual, with the quality and service weÂ received. The paper that was used was 80lb Rolland Enviro100 cover and text.Â This is a 100% PCW (post consumer waste) stock, and we were more thanÂ impressed with itâ€™s performance. The cover was off-line printed with a pearlÂ foil stamp by Matheson-Higgins. This gave the piece a very unique effect andÂ tactile quality. We are in the process of working on many other projectsÂ that deliver on the Assumption College brand positioning. Stay tuned…

ready. set. design.

James — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:34:24 +0000

Last monthÂ MBÂ Jarosik and I (James Grady) wereÂ invited to speak at theÂ CASE Design Institute: Creativity in a Challenging EnvironmentÂ conference.Â Our lectureÂ focusedÂ on ourÂ process of getting started, vetting new ideas and engaging clients with nontraditional designs. We talked about our effective methodologies and presented some of our cutting edge educational communications.

In order to deliver effective and creative results, kor groupÂ feels that no matter what the economic state or the clients’ budget is, we must follow a simple process with our clients in order to achieve their objectives.

get ready: beginning the relationship and scoping the process.
get set: presenting and vetting the findings that will shape the communications.
design: gaining approval for creative concepts that are unlike traditional approaches.

We showed examples ofÂ effectiveÂ strategies, and crossÂ platformÂ communications for some of our higher ed clients such as; New England Law | Boston, Emerson College, andÂ Assumption College.

We also walked through some of our sketches and creative processes for Berklee College of Music and MIT.

Download the full presentation here.

We just received our feedback from CASEÂ and participants seemed very pleased and informed with our information.

Be on the look out for our next lecture.

Cheers!

What does your brand really say?

Dan — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:11:27 +0000

People spend lots of time and money trying to distill exactly what their brand communicates. Focus groups are held, competitors analyzed, and reports are written to answer the question “What do people really think of us?” ThisÂ approachÂ produces a highly refined product.Â Brand TagsÂ offers the exact opposite. It gives the world the opportunity to define many different brands in one word. The result? A tag cloud that reveals the sometimesÂ horrifying, other times encouraging, truth. Browse around while you wonder what your brand would look like if it were tagged by the public.

Thomson Rebrands

Rachel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:36:56 +0000

On my walk into work this morning, the street was much brighter. Thomson Financial, our neighbors, rebranded following their acquisition of Reuters. The signage must have gone up last night/this morning, and I like the logo quite a bit. It’s very bright and clean and eye-catching. I’m not a designer though, so I am curious to see what the response is from the rest of the crowd. Here’s my fuzzy cellphone camera shot:

And the two previous logos:

What do the designers think?

Updated: Gawker has their own special take on the brand rollout.

Throwbuks

Dan — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:51:45 +0000

In a flailing attempt to return the brand to it’s core values,Â Starbucks is now serving up their overpriced lattes in a new cup that features the company’s original logo printed in brown for a limited time. It’s not like they haven’t done this before. Now they’re just doing it with a bit more hair, for umm… coverageÂ purposes, and just to shake things up a little. The company’s CEO says:

Â â€œI think the logoâ€™s going to be somewhat disruptive, We want people to talk about it.â€

Reaction to the awareness scheme seems to be overwhelmingly negative. People don’t seem to care for the logo, the color, or the experience ‘Buks is offering now-a-days. Will bad press be good for business? Starbucks has been awfully transparent about their financial woes and plans to rectify the situation. It would appear that Starbucks has jumped the shark with this retro redesign and their consumer base knows it. Check out the comments on the WSJ.com article to see what I mean.Â

Sing Your Brand

Rachel — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:50:40 +0000

Spinner.com lists the best 25 band logos, including the highly recognizable (and oft tattoo’d) Nine Inch Nails, Aerosmith and Black Flag IDs.

Idolator quickly points out that Run DMC’s iconic logo is missing. How iconic is it? Enough to inspire this “Dim Sum” ripoff at a NYC Chinese eatery. Imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery.