The Art of Engineering

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 AdTech’s promotional materials and web site were woefully out of date and did not reflect their high tech capabilities accurately.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.

Working Together Works

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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.

Need vs Want

Need vs Want

Bridge Partners Brand Refresh

Bridge Partners, an executive search firm with unique expertise in attracting and retaining senior, diverse management, was approaching its ten year anniversary, and the partners felt it was time to update their web site. Having just seen the new brand and site for the Benwood Foundation, partner Tory Clarke asked Widgets & Stone and Tubatomic to help.

Bridge Partners was not interested in changing their logo, but they did want a fresh approach to typography and colors in their new site design. Widgets & Stone saw an opportunity to update the logo without losing its essence, and spent some time reimagining the mark while exploring type, color and potential photo treatments as well.

The brief design exercise was extremely well received, resulting in the refreshed design concept being selected as the new logo. Tubatomic will implement the core brand elements into a new site design to launch at the end of April 2014.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: D.J. Trischler.

Collective Action Drives Change

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.

Engineered for Sport

Engineered for Sport

Identity Redesign for NGI Sports

NGI Sports provides surface systems for sport, bringing together a legacy of innovation, enduring performance, and stewardship that reduces impact on the environment. All with a relentless commitment to finding the right materials and methods for each project. Engineered for sport, and installed for harder, higher, faster, longer play.

However, NGI’s existing identity and communications design was many years old and was not reflecting the attributes of the company.

Widgets & Stone, 26 Tools and Tubatomic worked together to bring a fresh new look to the company. A complete web redesign is in the works as well.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Bradley Dicharry, Ben Dicks, Nick Turner and Travis Hitchcock. Writing: Caleb Ludwick. Photography: Various found resources for presentation purposes only.

On the Node

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Brand & Communications Strategy

Variable creates platforms that make the real digital, and make the digital real. Variable is also a leading developer of wireless sensing technology, NODE. 

NODE is a Kickstarter success story, turned hardware development company. They are a listening company, a learning company. Experts and innovators. PhDs and MBAs. Users and rethinkers of technology.

NODE’s target market is shifting and expanding, and it is more important than ever that they have a unified and consistent message about who they are, what they do, and why it matters.

Variable’s new CBO Jonathan Bragdon approached the creative partnership of Widgets & Stone, 26 Tools and Tubatomic to help craft a brand and communications strategy for the next phase of the company’s growth.

The team built on the solid identity (created by D+J Brand Consulting) to expand the kit of design and communications tools — with new writing, new photography, a new brand hierarchy and new web tools. Utilizing both broad and narrow strategies: appealing to gadgeteers who can help expand how NODE is used, or to very specific markets in color matching.

“At Variable, we make sensory platforms that connect apps and smart devices to the real world, in new ways. 

NODE is a hardware platform, that transforms how apps let us make sense of the world.” 

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith; Design: Mandy Meredith, Paul Rustand, Brad Dicharry; Communication Strategy/Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Photography: Grant Dotson; Web Design: Tubatomic.