Have you seen any good films lately? The over 16,000 attendees of the 2012 RiverRun International Film Festival in April sure did! They also saw stellar design…

Mitre Agency, one of the Southeast’s leading Brand Design firms, has been committed to supporting the community and the arts in the Triad since our doors opened over a decade ago.

One of the most exciting endeavors to date has been as agency of record for the RiverRun International Film Festival. A regional event based in Winston-Salem, it is one of the premier film festivals in the southeastern United States. Their mission is to promote the importance of cinematic arts.

RiverRun selected Mitre as their Agency of Record to draw on our expansive branding and design experience to create a 2012 visual identity that is distinctly RiverRun, communicate diversity in programming and events, and was extendable across a multitude of mediums.

The visual theme this season was based on the idea of Mid-Century Mod. The designs communicated that like the pioneers of modernism, today’s independent film makers share an optimism and enthusiasm for new thinking – a desire to “re-examine every aspect of existence with the goal of finding that which was ‘holding back’ progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end”. This also created a nice platform to introduce science fiction film programming that was added this season.

The 2012 festival was a huge success with a 13% increase in tickets sold vs. 2011. This year showcased 142 Films from 25 different countries and drew in a variety of celebrities, such as, Paul Schneider, Ron Livingston, Will Patton, Hal Needham and Brady Corbet.

“Looking back on the past year, I don’t know what we would have done without Mitre. They helped us to further identify and refine our brand, launch an exciting new visual identity and implement a wide range of top-notch marketing and promotion activities for RiverRun. Their perspective and opinions have quickly become an integral part of all our efforts to position and grow the Festival in the years to come. They are passionate about the arts… committed to their community… and absolutely dedicated to their clients. Put simply, I cannot recommend the team at Mitre enough!”
Andrew Rodgers, Executive Director
RiverRun International Film Festival

Yes, we mean “and”, not versus, either/or, good/bad. When used correctly, brand design and advertising work together to build a brand’s reputation with consumer experiences that develop brand loyalty. Similar to the age-old question, which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Design informs and establishes brand value; advertising persuades and sells the established value. At Mitre we look at it like this: Your brand is your house. Design is the framework and the foundation: steadfast and true, consistently telling the same story. Advertising is the interior decorations: builds on the existing framework to draw attention and interest. It has the ability to change within the framework of the house.

As we are all painfully aware, consumers have more reasons than ever to ignore a brand. The communication channels are vast. Consumers want transparency and experiences relevant to them as individuals– they want to feel a connection to the brands they love and support. Executing mass messages is no longer as effective as it once was.

Scientists still aren’t sure if the chicken or egg came first. But, when it comes to branding, we do believe that to create and maintain a strong brand, brand design should precede advertising and remain a constant element. Brand design creates long-term relationships with consumers by creating an experience. There’s nothing gimmicky about that.

Formica Flooring builds beautiful floors that stand the wear and tear of every day life. However, their website, the primary communication with the end-user, was not built to last. With changes in technology and changes in the brand message, the website needed to be revisited. Mitre was selected as Formica’s digital branding partner. The challenge was to create a new website from concept to launch that visually aligned with their brand, and technically accommodated their growth. The end result was a website creating a better user experience, viewable on mobile devises, introducing consumer tools like a flooring calculator, SEO optimized, and utilizing a user-friendly CMS.

View the site.

AFTER

BEFORE

Panera Bread Co., creator of the “fast casual” food industry, boasts the largest collection of bread-based artwork in the world. This artwork can be seen hanging throughout their 1400 bakery-cafe’s around the U.S. and Canada. Some of the newer additions to the collection were the result of Mitre’s efforts. In addition to creating some of the artwork ourselves, we also art directed commissioned pieces from illustrators and artists all over the world, such as Yulia Drobova, Gwenda Kaczor, and Beppe Giacobbe.

YULIA DROBOVA

GWENDA KACZOR

BEPPE GIACOBBE

As the agency of record for Zero-The Project to End Prostate Cancer, Mitre works on all aspects of the brand from digital to print to events. A recent example was an initiative to redesign the company’s fleet of mobile vehicles and create an improved event experience. Zero is the country’s leading prostate cancer non-profit organization which reaches millions of people by hosting run/walk events in 32 cities as well as many golf tournaments. The mobile marketing units are a vital part of their education efforts, traveling from event to event providing free prostrate screenings, increasing general awareness and raising funds for research.

Mitre’s goal was to create a more engaging, less clinical event experience– one that appealed to a male audience. Vehicle graphics became more dynamic while the space outside the deployed vehicles was more inviting with educational information easier to access.

Mitre applauds and supports Zero’s fight to end prostate cancer. This is a cancer that can be effectively treated if detected early. To see if there is a free screening event and/or a race near you visit greatprostatecancerchallenge.com or visit zerocancer.org.

BEFORE

There are 33.4 million people living with AIDS worldwide.  With no cure available, those infected live their everyday life on a rigorous schedule of pills and other treatments to help keep symptoms at bay and improve their quality of life.

Two leading pharmaceutical companies launched the initiative Positive Action that pledges to globally educate and create awareness of the HIV virus.  Because more than 1,400 children are diagnosed with AIDS on a daily basis The Positive Action for Children Fund was established to support and inform the global effort of mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus.  Its goal is also to improve the welfare of children and families already affected with this disease.

With a focus on family and togetherness, Mitre was charged with creating the visual identity for Positive Action for Children Fund for the 2010 International AIDS conference in Vienna, Austria.  The final concept, an iconic blanket that embraced family, told an inspirational story all its own.  Deliverables included a poster, invitation, pop up banner, tradeshow booth, t-shirt, tote bag, awareness ribbon, dolls and coloring books.

With a single snap of a smartphone, consumers have instantaneous access to your targeted message allowing you to be in the right place at the right time.

As reaching consumers continues to be an ongoing struggle, Quick Response (QR) codes are another means allowing you to target a specific message as it relates to your brand. The majority of QR codes link to a specified URL. Not only does this allow for direct messaging, but it also provides measurement of how consumers are seeking information about your brand.

QR codes offer endless options for information sharing. Below is a condensed list of how QR codes can help advance your business, share information, and collect vital data to be used for future consumer brand targeting.

What types of information to share:

1. “How To” Instructions
2. Directions
3. Coupons
4. Company information
5. Specific product information
6. Upcoming events/specials
7. Downloads (music, videos, pdfs)
8. Ticket Information
9. Sweepstakes Entry
10. General contact information

Where to put them:

1. Business cards
2. Print Ads
3. Email Signatures
4. Marketing Collateral
5. Business windows
6. Retail Packaging
7. Tradeshow/Convention name tags
8. Menus
9. Ticket Stubs
10. Business receipts

Let these codes work hard for your business. Provide the information your consumers are seeking with a single snapshot.

Triad Stage, now in its 11^th season, is a professional, not-for-profit regional theatre founded to serve the communities of the Piedmont Triad in the heart of historic Greensboro. For nine years now, Mitre has served as a creative partner of Triad Stage, helping to develop artwork for each performance and creating promotional materials such as playbills, seasonal brochures, posters and environmental graphics.

Triad Stage has become a celebrated theatre, winning countless accolades on national, state and local levels. The theatre company has been named “One of the Best Regional Theaters in America” by New York’s Drama League, voted the Triad’s “Best Live Theater” by the readers of the News & Record’s GoTriad eight years running and “Professional Theatre of the Year” by the North Carolina Theatre Conference. To learn more about Triad Stage visit http://www.triadstage.org/

Located in the heart of Greensboro lies a small school with a big history. Founded by Quakers in 1888, Guilford College became the fourth-oldest degree seeking institution in North Carolina. While remaining the only Quaker-founded institution in the southeastern United States, Guilford College still embraces its Quaker roots by infusing their everyday curriculum and administration with their values and principles.

As Agency of Record, Mitre has been working closely with College leadership to position the College as one of North Carolina’s leading private educational institutions, and define a brand voice that provides a context to frame the discussion about Guilford College.

Since their website is the primary point of access to the college, Mitre introduced the brand voice through a newly designed school website. Launched in the Spring of this year, the new website showcases all new imagery, a more engaging interface design and improved navigation. The site is the cornerstone of the integrated communications and marketing plan, so great attention was focused on assuring that in addition to being a useful tool, it also reflected the Guilford experience to students, parents and prospects. To see the new website for Guilford College visit http://www.guilford.edu/

Whether you are a rodeo girl or a girl that just likes a fun night out on the town, every girl needs a good pair of jeans that gives that extra boost of confidence. Wrangler called on the Mitre Agency to “think well-defined back sides” and create the name and design for their new technology. They enhanced their ever-popular premium patch jeans with “built in darts to lift and define your butt” and introduced the new Booty Up™ technology.

Mitre worked closely with the marketing team at Wrangler to develop the Booty Up brand name and visual identity, as well as retail promotions and social media presence. Booty Up was first introduced in the Denver market and is now available in stores nationwide.

As designers today, we are tethered to our computers. We click, key commands, scan and distort but we rarely play. So, we took a break last Thursday to explore without deadlines or purpose – completely raw, random, lo-fi creativity. We gathered in the parking lot using the sun as our ink. What we made were Sunprints, also known as cyanotypes. Sunprints are the oldest known non-silver photographic printing process. Making them involves exposing light sensitive paper to sunlight utilizing shadows to create the ‘print’ and then setting the print in water to develop. This was done without the aid of computers or even a sketch. We worked fast, learning as we went  and creating on the fly. Any object that cast a distinct shadow was fair game - from ivy and flowers to old transparencies - we exposed, dunked and waited for our images to emerge. It’s a great way to remind you that there’s nothing more gratifying than a “happy accident”. Below are samples of our discoveries.

Cat, one of our senior designers, has a new perspective on this final day of the week. On Friday, June 17, 2011 Cat delivered a beautiful baby boy.

Welcome Davis Colten Pipkin, the newest member of the Mitre team! Your days will soon be filled with storyboards, client revisions and creative meetings… with nap time and Dr.Seuss thrown in there - in the downtime of course.

Biggest Congratulations to Joey and Cat Pipkin!!