Northern Virginia’s Winery and Vineyards tours would not be the same without “Drinking Naked” – the famous tag line of Naked Mountain Winery and Vineyards. New owners, Randy and Meagan (and the entire Naked Mountain family), sought to honor the history of the winery while working tirelessly to ensure it reaches a new generation of passionate Virginia wine enthusiasts. We were proud design and create the complete rebrand of their logo and company image. With wings reminiscent of vineyard rows and the body of a wine glass, the new hawk embodies the spirit of honoring the winery’s past while looking to the future. We recreated all of their print materials as well as designing and developing a new website, complete with SEO, social media and blogging.

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Futron Inc., a government solutions provider based in Northern Virginia, focuses on three primary core business units that are supported across the US and globally. The latest brochure in a series of 5, TRUE creative services continued to translate the company brand into related sister brochures for their various core services. This brochure visually illustrates Futron’s Intuitive Real Estate Solutions which provide their customers with the unique ability to Design, Build, and Manage single or multiple facilities in an economical fashion while simultaneously allowing them to meet Federal, Agency, State, and Local environmentally friendly standards.

We were also proud to have been contracted to name their new Blush wine, now being bottled with the delightful tease “Make Me Blush.” We wanted to incorporate the playful “Drink Naked” tag line to celebrate this wine’s beautiful hue of pink. Go have a taste, and tell them we sent you!! Enjoy!

The weather afforded a beautiful artistic filter - no Photoshop needed!

Marketing Virginia Wineries is a fine blend of appealing to the consumer’s tastes, desires, and emotions. Appealing more and more to wine enthusiasts is the “destination winery”. These are the wineries and vineyards that offer spacious tasting counter(s), ample indoor and outdoor seating, a welcoming atmosphere for sitting and enjoying wine purchases with friends and family with tasty snacks – either purchased at the winery, or brought from home, live music, stunning views, and friendly, knowledgeable owners and staff. A winery with these qualities will rely heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. Owners must invest in social media marketing through vehicles such as Twitter and Facebook, a Search Engine Optimized (SEO), well organized, attractive and informative web site with social media tools, blogs and contact-capturing forms for direct contact with consumers.

One of the tasting counters at Barrel Oak Winery

My recent trip to Barrel Oak Winery – even on a rainy day – demonstrated this very point. The atmosphere of the tasting room was warm, friendly and welcoming and the owners, Sharon and Brian Roeder, were delightful, passionate, and a wonderful source of a marketing success story. Heavily invested in Social Media and on-site face-to-face contact with visitors, Barrel Oak Winery has quickly become a marketing success story.

Karl Stoll entertaining at Barrel Oak Winery

Adding to the atmosphere was the added bonus that my friend Karl Stoll was entertaining us with music and song. I found Barrel Oak to be an excellent example of a “destination winery” that I will return to with friends again and again. Great atmosphere, great marketing!

While we are still in the creative process, I could not help but give a sneak peak and give my cheers and applause to Randy and Megan, the new owners of Naked Mountain Winery & Vineyards.

We have been doing intensive research of the Virginia winery market and found a great list of all Virginia wineries at VirginiaWine.org as well as Virginia’s wine trails. Our journey of research, consultation and brainstorming has brought forth the creation of a new, modern, sleek and sophisticated logo that pays homage to the history and background of the now “vintage” brand. We are looking forward to applying the new logo to promotional items and wearables and proudly wearing the wineries tongue-in-cheek tag line – “Drink Naked!”

Randy and Megan have been positively delightful to work with and I have enjoyed my many afternoons with friends and loved ones sitting on the lovely deck overlooking the vines and beautiful mountain views. Their tasting room is warm and inviting with a welcoming feel that matches the owner’s personalities. We are looking forward to helping to promote their upcoming events such as their ongoing lasagna lunches and appearances at various Virginia wine festivals and events. I plan on “Drinking Naked” outside and enjoying the mountain air as the weather warms!

We are still working on the new website and wine label creation for current and new-release wines. (Incidentally, we are very much enjoying our tireless hours of research)! More exciting updates to come!

While many members the associations thought to be web-positive, surveys found that at the end of the day many of these computer-savvy professionals simply did not want to look at their computer to get information when they had been on their computers all day. Others, due to alternative factors, were not in fact as computer savvy as hoped.

While it is unquestionably more cost-effective for the association to provide their communications electronically, the goal of the association should be to provide desirable value to it’s members – thereby maintaining member renewal. In economic times such as these, associations need to really prove to their members that they are listening to what the membership needs all year round, and not just at renewal time.

Also important when preparing information for web posting, is that just because you are creating a PDF and not a printed piece, it still needs to have a well thought-out design, be visually attractive and have a professional appearance that maintains the brand and image of the association. Also, don’t give into temptation to over inform – just because your aren’t paying to put ink on paper, that does not lengthen your viewer’s attention span. A poorly presented electronic file will be sure to discourage your members.

Our summary: When deciding to cut back on your printing budget make sure your members support the decision and when creating materials for web download and email, make sure to maintain the professionalism and quality of presentation that represents the image of your association.

Thank you to all of the association professionals that gave me 20 minutes of their day to meet with me in person to assist me in my research!

Kris Brinker
President

We are done! We are thrilled! We are tired! AND, we are happy to welcome you to the unveiling. Please have fun and become informed as we post useful tidbits of knowledge and experience that we have gained over our 20+ years of serving clients.

As the TRUE alternative to other ad agencies, marketing agencies, and graphic design and website design firms, we want our site to not only be a marketing tool, but also be a resource for information for our clients and associates. We also hope that we can be an occasional source of levity and smirks. Please check back in to peek at our blogs and visit our frogs. (OK, levity, smirks, and maybe some groans and eye-rolls).

Christie-Adam Salon & Spa, a Northern Virginia salon and spa with multiple locations, approached us to implement the graphic design for their new marketing strategy. We started with store signage and table-top displays to give them a new, upscale image – more in line with their target market. We then applied the new feel and message to their corporate brochure and an exciting direct mail campaign. We will soon be translating the new image and brand to the Website and Email campaigns.

We were asked by FindWhere, a Northern Virginia-based technology company that specializes in advanced GPS, satellite mapping, and wireless communication for consumers and businesses with precision tracking and location services, to create a series of magazine ads for their company to run in a national publication. We designed bold, eye-catching imagery and highlighted their top selling points.

The Carifo Group’s clients utilize their services for executive, sales, marketing and merchandising meetings as well as incentive travel and fund-raising events. They also assist in the coordination of specialized corporate events. TRUE creative services designed and developed a unique and eye-catching Website utilizing Cold Fusion at the client’s request.

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