Red House Media

This past Friday we had the privilege of assisting Deerwood Bank with a 100 year anniversary at their founding bank in Deerwood. Throughout the brainstorming sessions while planning the event we collectively aimed to create a lasting visual memory for the communities of Crosby, Ironton, Trommald, Riverton, Cuyuna and Deerwood.

The video below showcases the event, where Deerwood Bank made their long standing customers the guests of honor and thanked everyone in the community for being a part of their 100 years of success. What was especially sweet in my designer mind was having the opportunity to drape the building. I’ve always wanted to do this, we finally did. I love how the tension of not knowing what is under the cloth builds value to the experience. We actually had the building draped in cloth a few days prior to the event, so much fun!

Looking back now I recall a few months ago driving around the bank on a Saturday, staring at angles, features of the building, and where we could naturally place this brand message on the bank. When I was taking photos of the bank to design from I thought for sure a police officer was going to drive by and say, “Um sir, just what are you doing?”

The canvas of opportunity was on the front of the bank, a natural horizontal plane that screamed to me “Put my 100 year message right here.” We did just that. Dain and I worked up the artwork for the 100 year celebration a few months back which features a solid 100 using the 1 and deer icon from the Deerwood Bank logo itself. And then placing the words Established 1910 to further communicate the purpose.

The end result is awesome. The signage fits the building naturally, and visually thanks the community for making it happen. The event also was published on the front page of the Crosby Courier newspaper. We were also aware of being a good steward of the bank exterior, so, should Deerwood Bank decide to remove the 100 signage with they officially turn 101 in March of 2011, we can do it, without leaving any exterior marks and/or holes. Pretty cool!

We’re fortunate to have the ability to work with Deerwood Bank now 100 years in. What a blessing, what an opportunity. Thank you to everyone at Deerwood Bank all the years prior to today who laid the ground work to make this celebration possible. And if you’re on the fence with your current bank, move your money to Deerwood Bank.

Have a blessed Easter everyone.

Peace out.
Aaron

Every designer has a goal, maybe even a few hundred of them. I’ve had a few since the time I moved to the Brainerd Lakes area in 1996. Generally speaking, these design goals come naturally from driving around town and seeing places for doing unconventional ad art if you just had just the right opportunity and timing.

The two billboards as you enter Crosby always intrigued me. They were so perfectly in-line left and right, so perfectly matched for each other, but up to this point they always featured different messages promoting different things for different companies. Same old, same old. For the most part past billboards in these two locations also featured non-enlightening messages for visitors and residents as they passed into the city gates. I recall billboards saying “don’t burn your garabage,” “click it or ticket,” “over the limit, under the influence.” Let’s be honest, these messages are good causes and important, but they never really set a good mood as you drove into town.

5 years ago we started working with the Cuyuna Regional Medical Center on the Medical Campus in Crosby. From that point in time I wondered and thought, “how can we use both of these billboards to create not only a welcome to the city, but a brand statement for the hospital.”

Well, it took 5 years to find that solution. When Peter Smith and I worked on a new campaign for the hospital, Pete said to me, “What do you think of this: Crosby Cares.” I knew he once again struck gold. And in that moment we had the two words that allowed us to bridge the billboard gap and create an uplifting message while driving into town. Since launching the billboards we have had countless people who have called and eMailed asking if we were behind it. I’m so grateful we were, it’s so cool.

It’s fun to live in the same community you work in. Everywhere we travel we have the ability to see our design not only promoting our client brands, but also collectively increasing the awareness of effective advertising art in our communities. And that my friends is why I do, what I do.

Until next time, let’s all be sure to exercise our creative license.

Happy weekend.
Aaron

(PS) If you see a spiky hair guy under these billboards applauding his own efforts, that’s me. I still get a kick out of it and a super wide grin every time I drive through the boards. Not sure why, I just love this stuff. I guess the judges at the AdFed competition didn’t mind it either as it won a Silver Addy Award. As the design now goes on to Region competition we silently hope for even more. (Well I guess that wasn’t real silent.)