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Branching Out

Over the last few months, we’ve been daydreaming about changing the name and branding of our business. We’re likely sticking with what we’ve got, so I thought I’d share one of the names and some of the design directions that we we were exploring for that name. We kept  the green “leaf” from our current logo for some continuity. What do you think?

Favorite WordPress Plugins

OK, so you know that we love WordPress for building new websites, and one of the reasons we do is that it is so extendable and customizable. There are literally thousands of plugins available for WordPress that add functionality or change the look-and-feel of your site, but which ones are our favorites? Click here for our Top 10 short list!

Read more about the cost benefits of using WordPress as your CMS solution.

NOLO is OPEN

We created new branding for the North of Lovejoy neighborhood in the Pearl District a few months ago to help promote shopping and dining in the area, now dubbed NOLO. Unfortunately, construction for new streetcar lines is threatening to disrupt the normal flow of business in the area. The Pearl District Business Association asked us to create a campaign for posters, banners and other signage to let visitors know that the area is still “open for business.” So, we came up with NOLO is OPEN which you will start seeing around the North of Lovejoy area in business windows, streetcar advertising and even parking lots.

Happy Earth Day 2010

We love promoting our wonderful clients’ businesses and products to our friends and potential customers. Especially when they’re doing great things for the environment! Today is Earth Day, so we’re happily calling your attention to a few of our clients who are doing positive, earth-friendly things with their businesses…

Wilfs Restaurant at historic Union Station uses locally-grown and sourced organic ingredients for their classic menu offerings with a modern twist. They also feature locally-grown and organic jazz music most nights of the week. And, proceeds from select menu items in April benefit Oregon’s SOLV!

Peter Champ is a Portland Real Estate Broker who specializes in green building and renovations. He is a trade ally of Energy Trust of Oregon and a certified Earth Advantage Broker.

JD Madison Home Furnishings showcases many furniture lines that are manufactured from recycled and reclaimed wood, and other renewable sources.

Their sister company, Madison Millinger Extraordinary Rugs features an incredible collection of wool rugs (the original green product!) in their Pearl District showroom. All of their beautiful rugs use only natural dyes and are certified child labor-free by RugMark.

Our newest client, Muffinhead (website coming soon) creates one-of-a-kind dog coats that are as stylish as they are sustainable — all made from recycled people clothes!

You don’t have to be a green business to work with DBD+A – contact us today and see how we can help your company grow, and maybe get a little greener in the process.

Stylish and Sustainable? Woof!

Hot off the presses: new logos and business cards for local pet accessory company, muffinhead. This new Portland start-up is making coats for dogs from recycled people clothing, creating one-of-kind jackets that are as stylish as they are sustainable. The logo-type is a fun combination of silliness and seriousness, nicely reflecting the sensibilities of this new company. Stay tuned, as their website will be debuting soon!

Imagine the Future Campaign

DBD+A designed all of the marketing and promotional campaign components for the Laurelhurst School Auction + Party, including posters, banners, t-shirts, buttons and the official website. The various pieces were very bright and cheerful, and really caught your eye when walking around the school! The beautiful t-shirt screen printing was donated by Ivy Studio. Click the thumbnails for larger versions.

Is WordPress a CMS? Yep.

A recent article in PC World, WordPress Guns for Web Content Management Duties posed the question, is WordPress finally at a technological level to be a qualified as a CMS (Content Management System)?

“There’s a debate raging within Twitter about whether traditional blogging platform WordPress is also a CMS,” wrote Tony Byrne in a blog post. Byrne is the founder of the CMS analyst firm The Real Story Group, formerly called CMS Watch. “Our take: many organizations are using WordPress as a CMS. That makes it a CMS.”

Our response is the same. For smaller websites, WordPress gives you all the control and all the muscle you really need to build a fully-functioning modern website. And if there’s a particular tool you need that’s not included, you can usually find it as a plugin from the WordPress Website. In fact, there are now over 9,000 plugins available that let you add calendars, custom contact forms, slide shows, e-commerce, expert SEO and more!

And, all of this power comes with a price-tag that is usually significantly less than building a website in Drupal, Dreamweaver, or Expression Engine. In fact, cost is one of the big benefits for smaller businesses. Why use a jack-hammer to build a site, when a small hand-held hammer will do quite nicely?

For WNET, using WordPress cut the cost of setting up a television Web site, from an estimated average of US$25,000 to $40,000 down to $5,000 to $10,000, according to a white paper posted by WNET and digital design firm Tierra Innovation, which helped with the implementation.

Ready to have your new website built quick and cost-efficiently in WordPress? You can contact us today (via our Contact Form plug-in) or learn more here.

Logo for Fierce Coaches

Feroce Coaching is a team of Life and Career Coaches who offers themselves to their clients as “Guides for Fierce Living”. Feroce translates as fierce or ferocious, so we created this logo of a lion with a flaming mane to show that spirit to its fullest. Their new website (coming soon) has a safari theme, which is a nice metaphor for exploring the inner mind and discovering personal dreams, and it dovetails nicely with their new logo, too.

Candy Colored Buttons

Buttons promoting the 2010 Laurelhurst School Auction. “Imagine the Future” is the theme of the event. We are producing flyers, posters, banners and the Website for the Auction.

Website CMS for Real Estate Broker

Here’s a nice, simple and uncluttered CMS (content management system) website we put together in WordPress for local real estate broker, Peter Champ. The site’s content can be easily updated by the client after logging-in and using a simple Word-like interface.