Marketing By Design

e had a grand time at the Gubernatorial Debate on the UC Davis campus on Tuesday evening. After a sweltry wait in line we were ushered though security at the Mondavi Center and met our good friend, Constance Crawford, Marketing Director of Capital Public Radio. After a quick behind-the-scenes tour we nabbed some great seats in the third row, not far behind Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

It was a remarkable feeling to be there in person, witnessing Whitman and Brown face off for the privilege of inheriting a great state in a terrible situation. What did we think of the debate? I give Whitman points for clarity and poise. I give Brown points for passion, savvy and experience. Whitman looses points for too many attacks and talking points. Brown looses points for being chaotic and gruff. Both seemed to know their base audience and pandered well. Of course we won't call a winner, but we will say we had a great time. Special thanks again to Capital Public Radio for the opportunity to be a part of history.

Della Gilleran and Phil Tretheway outside the Mondavi Center before the debate. (We're not really that odly shaped, it's a fish-eye lense)

: : :
What did you think of the debate? Let us know with a comment below.

Illustrated Drop Cap by Jessica Hische

We're excited to share that Della and I (Phil) will be attending the highly anticipated Tuesday night California Gubernatorial debate. What will happen when these two political forces collide? We don’t know, but we’re excited to be there in person to watch the fireworks.

We have to thank our good friends over at Capital Public Radio for inviting us to join them at the event. We've been working together for over a year and it’s truly a pleasure to work with the great people there. For Della and Joel, who are CPR/NPR addicts, it’s a natural fit.

This will be a hotly contested political race and debate, but we obviously can’t share if we are rooting for Whitman or Brown, but we’re sure it will be an exciting evening. We’ll be back to give you a wrap up blog post after the event and share any intriguing tidbits or stories that may not make the morning news.

Free Tickets for What?

We have 5 tickets to give away for the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s annual Metro Expo on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The Metro Expo is the foremost business-to-business trade show in Northern California. Join us and 200+ other local exhibitors, mixing and connecting with 1,500+ attendees.

How Do I Win?

Peruse the Portfolio on our brand new website and pick out your favorite project to share with the world. Now there's two ways to win a ticket.

1) Tweet out a link to your favorite MbD portfolio project with a brief description and use the hash tag #MbDgiveaway. You must be following @mktgbydesign to win. We will randomly select 3 winners through your tweets.

Example:

Just saw this innovative Ad Campaign by @mktgbydesign check it out: http://ow.ly/1OnVx #mbdgiveaway

2) For our friends not yet on Twitter, comment on this blog post with a link to your favorite MbD portfolio project and a description of why you liked it. Be sure to leave your first name, last name and email address when commenting. We will randomly select 2 winners from the comments on this blog post.

Deadline for all entries is Monday, May 24th at 4pm.

What do I win?

One full day admission to the Metro Expo on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 ($40 value). Includes admission to the Metro Expo Opening Ceremonies, tradeshow floor, procurement pavilion, workshops and networking reception.

Did I Win Yet?

Winners will be announced Monday, May 24th at 5pm.
Winner must pick up their tickets between 9am and 5pm at 2012 19th Street, Suite 200, Sacramento, CA 95818.

We are delighted to share that Marketing by Design has been profiled in the Sacramento Metro Chamber's Metro Business Quarterly publication. If you are a Metro Chamber member you should be getting one in your mail box soon. If you're not a member you'll have to drop by the Chamber to pick one up or find a friend who is a member. It's a great little Q&A where you can learn more about who we are and what we do.

:: :: :: :: ::

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the article. Leave your comments below.

Lucky us. After several rounds of submitting resumes, cost sheets, and forms, were invited to make a presentation of our work to Sandia National Labs in Livermore. I love science as much as I love design, and this could be a great opportunity to work on making nerdy projects accessible. But with short notice, my loathing at making anything look good in Powerpoint, and the idea that we’d be compared with megashops in the bay area, it was a fun soul-searching process to think about who we are… just the right amount of: creative, smart, nimble, and fun. 

Especially considering the notion that most in-house creative staff have to crank things out and sometimes forget when to stretch the boundaries to create a more effective result, the fact that we can stretch ‘just the right amount’ while still being fast and service-minded is a nice quality to bring to the relationship. I also realized that with them having designers on staff, our bringing ‘a vision’ and ‘art direction’ might be welcomed as a unique piece of the puzzle, beyond the regular design, production and project management.

If all goes well, we’ll be designing brochures, report covers and exhibit panels for some new smart transportation technology and other cool things that scientists are researching; things that need to be explained to policymakers, funders and the public. Wish us luck!

We're very excited to share that Della will be speaking this Friday, March 25th, at ADAC (Art Directors and Artists Club). She was asked to prersent as part of thier ongoing Words of Wisdom series. We welcome you to come out and join us. See the offical event descripton below:

Words of Wisdom series: Della Gilleran, Marketing by Design

With thirty plus years of experience, Della Gilleran has effectively merged her experiences into a skill set that has helped grow Marketing by Design to be the successful business it is today, and balanced that with...life. Join ADAC on Friday, March 25th at 6 p.m. where Della shares her story... From unpaid sales tax to a kid in college: one day at a time.

Open to both members and non-members. Free for members, $5 for non-members, $3 for non-members students (Student ID required).

All Words of Wisdom events will be held at AIA Central Valley building, 1400 S Street, Sacramento at 6 p.m.

MbD would like to announce that it is the proud owner of a little green alien.  A very green, very English alien, named Isla Waite. Isla has been an intern for the last few months and has been working on improving her production skills under our wing.

Isla met Della while she was still in school, and took an instant fancy to MbD. Through (self-described) pestering and bribes she managed to secure an internship straight out of school, and since we would miss her out-of-tune covers of Pandora, we decided to keep her on for a little longer. Isla has been working on projects for CSPC, and the Sacramento Tree Foundation. (Check out the STF “lazy days grow here” billboard below, which will grace the city skyline in July).

Isla arrived armed with a BA Dual Major in International Relations and Media Studies, and an Associates degree in Graphic Design. Her previous life involved ordering pilots around in the skies of Europe as an Air Traffic Control Officer in the British military. A two year stint as the Operations Manager of a retail store was all she needed to convince herself to follow a brand new path, with a life-long passion...in design. We’re really happy to have her around and it’s so much fun watching our green alien grow!