Novafloor 2020 Portfolio

June 8, 2020

Explore the Possibilities

Novafloor 2020 Portfolio

Novalis tapped Widgets & Stone to update their catalog design — hoping to keep the clean and clear design we introduced last year but also add an element that might spark creativity for the viewer, both DIY and professional designers alike.

The resulting design for the catalog incorporates vignettes of material boards — Novalis’ product paired with complimentary design materials as well as collage pages that pair room scenes with potential paint pairings and inspiration imagery.

Widgets collaborated with photographer Grant Dotson to capture the materials board vignettes, Adams Lithographing brought the piece to life using a subtle soft aqueous and deboss on the cover, as well as hitting each vignette and collage with spot UV gloss, creating a contrast to their matte Sappi Flo paper backgrounds.

See a video of the printing effects by clicking here.

Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Design: Liz Tapp, Stephanie Fast, Travis Hitchcock; Photography: Grant Dotson; Printing: Adams Lithographing

What if moving was fun?

January 31, 2019

What if moving was fun?

Bellhops Promo Video

Bellhops provides manpower and online resources to help you with your move – anywhere in the US. This Chattanooga startup has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the moving industry. In late 2018 they launched a new brand identity designed by NYC based Gin Lane.

To coincide with the new brand launch, Bellhops Art Director, Adam Ewing, tapped Widgets & Stone to help create a promo video. Design Director Liz Tapp guided the team to create this playful video, showcasing Dotson Commercial’s photography and the new logo.

See the video here.

Creative Direction: Adam Ewing; Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Designers: John Le, Athene Ruiz, Victor Tyler; Photography: Dotson Commercial; Identity Design: Gin Lane.

Love at First Sift

October 5, 2018

Graincraft Ad Campaign

Love that’s passed down

Graincraft is America’s largest independent miller of commercial flours. Because the company is made up of three great millers, Grain Craft actually has a 100 year history in the industry.

Widgets & Stone partnered with Grain Craft to develop the look and feel for a new ad campaign. With keen guidance from Grain Craft leadership, the creative team landed on designs and photography that bring their great products into view with contrast and depth.

“Just like a recipe that’s passed down with love from one generation to the other, there’s a shared passion for flour as it’s delivered from the hands of our farmers to our millers, and finally, to our bakers.”

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Art Direction & Design: Mark Slawson; Writing: Jacob Biba; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Optimism and Opportunity

May 26, 2017

Optimism and Opportunity

PEF Annual Report

PEF is an independent, nonprofit, community-based organization that for over twenty‐five years, has provided training, research and resources to teachers, principals and schools in Hamilton County and surrounding areas. Their mission is simple: to increase student achievement so all students succeed in learning and in life.

Widgets & Stone worked closely with Shannon Edmondsen of PEF to tie the human story in with the statistical data and tell the impact of the foundation during the 2016 year. Mandy Lamb and Mark Slawson used photography and hand lettering to quickly bring together information in an easily understandable manner visual.

Creative Direction: Mandy Lamb; Design: Mandy Lamb and Mark Slawson; Writing: Lindsay Gaff; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

The Shape of Things to Come

January 13, 2017

The Shape of Things to Come

Surfaces 2017 Viewbook

For the second year in a row, Widgets & Stone created the look and feel for Mannington’s view book for Surfaces, the international event for floor covering. The design team worked from the client’s theme: The Shape of Things to Come and new product development to produce the clean and elegant overview.

Laura Michael took the lead on design, art directing the still life photos by Dotson Commercial and creating the entire layout of the booklet. Travis Hitchcock and Liz Tapp contributed cut-out customized type design for the cover.

Design Direction: Mandy Lamb; Art Direction: Laura Michael; Design: Laura Michael, Travis Hitchcock, Liz Tapp; Photography: Dotson Commercial; Writing: 26 Tools.

Every Product Tells A Story

March 18, 2016

Every Product Tells A Story

Product Brochure Design

The Widgets & Stone team worked closely with Mannington Commercial & Residential and Dotson Commercial Photography to produce a product brochure for the 2016 Surfaces Trade Show. Design Director Mandy Meredith led the overall aesthetic and developed an inventive solution for new products in development that proved difficult to acquire for photography.

The end result is a lively and diverse overview of the Mannington line of products.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Design: Liz Tapp and Laura Michael; Photography: Grant Dotson.

Cognitive Training

February 4, 2016

Cognitive Training

Identity for drug-free, alternative treatment to ADHD

Entrepreneur Chris Wright is using a highly focused form of cognitive therapy to treat ADHD in young adolescents. The new treatment centers will utilize brain mapping technology to identify what parts of the brain are not functioning at potential, then “brain games” and exercises will be employed to improve brain and concentration abilities.

Cognitive therapy and training has been used for decades to improve all types of mental faculties, but Foci is honed in particularly on helping adolescents struggling with ADD and ADHD.

Chris Wright created the business concept and chose the name Foci (the plural form of “focus”). He turned to Widgets & Stone for help in creating a basic identity to capture and communicate the essence of the new brand he and his team are building. The ideas of concentration and focus are at the heart of the visual language the team generated.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design Direction: Mandy Meredith; Design: Travis Hitchcock; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Floor Foto

January 13, 2016

Floor Foto

Styles for Mannington Floors

Over the past several years, Widgets & Stone has been working with Mannington Mills (Commercial and Residential flooring) to create all kinds of designs. As part of that work, Design Director Mandy Meredith has been creating photography styles — both settings to show off the floors, and actual floor designs themselves.

Photographers, retouchers, designers and even clients have been essential collaborators in creating a body of work that showcases the new design-forward approach of Mannington.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Photography: Dotson Commercial; Marta elena Vassilakis; Photo retouching: Dotson Commercial, H2B.

Life’s Intermission

January 12, 2016

Life’s Intermission

UltraSite Catalog Redesign

UltraSite is a PlayCore Company that manufactures high-quality commercial grade outdoor recreation products including a variety of site furnishings, park amenities, picnic tables, park benches, and much more.

UltraSite’s product quality and customer service are quite high and the brand has strong equity in the industry. However, the company’s leadership felt that the current catalog design was not communicating that quality. Led by Stephanie Devine and Mimi Marler, the UltraSite team collaborated with Widgets & Stone to create a new catalog design to communicate the brand’s excellence.

Design Director Mandy Meredith and designers Amy Harmon and Laura Michael crafted a clean and elegant catalog design to showcase the great products and photography. Dotson Commercial provided some excellent key images of the product as well.

Hot off the presses, both salespeople and customers alike are praising the clarity and style of the new catalog.

Change Your Colors

June 10, 2015

Change Your Colors

New look and feel for Aquafil USA

Aquafil was founded more than four decades ago and the Aquafil Group now spans eight countries on three continents, including here in the US as Aquafil USA.

Aquafil’s polymers and fibers are used in the manufacture of hundreds of products that meet the needs of a wide range of worldwide markets – corporate, industrial, travel, design and home. Aquafil’s sustainable manufacturing processes produce fully regenerable nylon 6 – so every product that comprises one of ours becomes a little more eco-friendly.

In an effort to bring their communications and promotional materials up to date, Brand Communications Coordinator Abby Dayton partnered with Widgets & Stone to create new collateral and advertising.

Mandy Meredith and Caleb Ludwick combined with Dotson Commercial photography to create a series of ads for Aquafil USA.

Art Direction & Design: Mandy Meredith; Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

The Art of Engineering

April 1, 2015

AdTech

The Art of Engineering

AdTech (Advanced Technology) Ceramics specializes in engineered, mission-critical ceramics for challenging environments. They deliver on complex challenges that other manufacturers avoid, producing the finest quality ceramics in any industry. Shaping them to be stronger, more durable, more precise than what seems possible.

AdTech has a long and rich history in engineering high performance ceramics, but the company’s market share had declined over time. AdTech’s promotional materials and web site were woefully out of date and did not reflect their high tech capabilities accurately.

Widgets & Stone and 26 Tools worked together to craft new brand communications tools. Along with writing headlines and marketing messaging, the team proposed new graphic treatments and photo styles to reflect AdTech’s expertise.

Dotson Commercial photographed the impossibly small and detailed ceramics that the company makes. In order to capture the extreme precision and beauty of these pieces measuring just inches across, Dotson designed a custom lighting solution and used dark and light reflective services to highlight the materials in isolation. Extensive editing and retouching was required to remove some proprietary elements of the ceramics.

The creative team’s work is now providing the basis of a complete web overhaul being designed and built by Tubatomic.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Design: Mandy Meredith, Kerry O’Connor; Writing: 26 Tools; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Escadrille Product Photography

November 20, 2014

Escadrille Product Photos

Photography style for catalog and promotional materials

Dotson Commercial took a basic photographic concept from Paul Rustand and turned it into beautiful images of Escadrille’s products.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Working Together Works

November 3, 2014

Working Together Works

EPB 2013-14 Annual Report

EPB’s mission is to enhance the quality of life in Chattanooga, TN by providing top-quality energy and communications services to the city. Each year the company issues an annual report and, naturally, it covers pertinent business and financial information but EPB also uses the report to tell stories of the great work being done by their employees.

Widgets & Stone teamed up with regular collaborators 26 Tools, Dotson Commercial and Tubatomic to build the all digital annual report. After meeting extensively with the EPB team (led by VP Danna Bailey), the creative team met to brainstorm how best to tell the stories of the past year. Inspiring ideas came by starting with design, writing and photography solutions the team had wanted to use in the past, but had not had the opportunity to implement. The final style of the annual report is a perfect blend of solutions contributed by every member of the team – photography, typography, writing and interface.

Building on the design styles established by Widgets & Stone, Tubatomic made the site adaptive – working differently on laptops than on tablets and smart phones. PDF versions of the annual report and the financials reflect the overall style while adapting it for yet another format.

Visit the actual site here.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith; Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Design: Bradley Dicharry, Travis Hitchcock, Kerry O’Connor; Web design + buildout: Tubatomic; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Come As You Are. Get Where You Want To Be.

September 22, 2014

Come As You Are. Get Where You Want To Be.

Forte Fitness Identity Design

After a decade of working for a national franchise, owner and personal trainer Julian Kaufman decided to start his own fitness studio. Through years of working as a one-on-one personal trainer, Julian had developed an excellent client base and reputation. He turned to Widgets & Stone to help him create an identity that would reflect that excellence in his brand communications.

Widgets & Stone worked with regular collaborators Caleb Ludwick and Grant Dotson to create the name, the writing, the designs and the photography to properly represent the new endeavor. Forte Fitness was the result.

The name and overall look and feel were inspired by Julian’s Italian heritage. The name means strong in Italian, and is familiar to those who don’t speak the language. The Italian flag’s colors made their way into the logo and the “azurri” blue of the national teams plays a complimentary role in the palette.

Dotson Commercial is currently working on photographs that show how training and lifestyle go hand in hand at Forte Fitness. The black and white images stand out in the marketplace, but also match well with the colors and type.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith; Design: Amy Trumbull Harmon, Matt Greenwell, Brian Wleklinski; Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Style In Store

May 22, 2014

Style In Store

Amtico Custom Design Photo Styling & Ad Design

Creating ads that showcase great products isn’t difficult, but what about when those products don’t yet exist? Showing custom flooring designs to interior designers and architects can be tricky. Led by Design Director Mandy Meredith, the Widgets & Stone team worked hand-in-hand with client Mannington Commercial to design a custom floor pattern for their Amtico Collection.

Mandy and Mannington’s Natalie Jones worked together to not only create a floor pattern, but also to select colors and materials, then to assemble it and create a small section of a sample floor. Widgets & Stone then identified a great retail space to photograph in (Amanda Pinson Jewelry) and a great photographer to composite the floor, Dotson Commercial.

The result is a great example of the client’s custom capabilities, as well as a lovely ad.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Design: Mandy Meredith, Amy Trumbull; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Collective Action Drives Change

April 3, 2014

Collective Action Drives Change

Benwood Foundation Rebrand

The Benwood Foundation has long been a “silent giant,” bringing a wealth of insight, knowledge, and generosity to the community it serves. With a new President and strategic plan in place, its Trustees decided that the time had come for the foundation to step out front, in a leadership role. Asking brave questions, funding Betas, and sharing risks.

Widgets & Stone, along with collaborators 26 Tools and Tubatomic, were asked to help position this shift, through messaging and a strategic web rollout of their new identity. Building upon a presentation of education research that we developed in 2013, we helped redesign the foundation as a convener of challenges, and the table around which people gather to move forward.

The new identity design was based on a straightforward, honest and plainspoken personality. Clean and simple typography based on a basic grid system, with hints of color applied sparingly to accentuate photo-journalistic black and white photography by Dotson Commercial.

When it came to the web site we thought: why not a new kind of homepage? Rather than just presenting projects and priorities, benwood.org is a living dialogue between 15 community members who represent all corners of the city – and are working in key areas. Engaged to point to real community needs as well as encouraging progress, these writers are sparking conversations about what is, and what’s possible. With new articles posted every 2-3 days, the home page is quickly becoming a hub not just of hope, but of connection and actionable insights.

See more images on Behance.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith, Caleb Ludwick, George Bairaktaris. Design Direction: Mandy Meredith, Paul Rustand; Design: Ben Dicks, Amy Trumbull, Nick Turner; Photography: Grant Dotson; Web Design: Alex Ogle, Brian Wleklinski.