Virtual Farm Creative - Advertising, Marketing, Web Design, Chester County, Pennsylvania - Cultivating Business Personalities

Big Brand Impressions for Small Business

Virtual Farm Creative — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:35:54 +0000

Make your brand’s presence powerful and consistent with VFC promotions.

Coreprofit Solutions
Colorful, bold and highly readable pop-up banners are an easy and economical solution for successful trade shows. CoreProfit’s banner stands included spot lighting and the ability to swap messages.

Express Data Systems
VFC injected a sense of excitement into the Express Data Systems’ trade show effort that included high-energy photography, motivational messages and splashes of color that got the payroll processor noticed.

Geemacher
Geemacher’s trade show effort is corporate and understated, subtly communicating the features and benefits of the Geemacher product and relationship.

Virtual Farm Creative - Advertising, Marketing, Web Design, Chester County, Pennsylvania - Cultivating Business Personalities - Cultivating Business Personalities.™ | Virtual Farm Creative - Advertising, Marketing, Web Design, Chester County, Pennsylvania - Cultivating Business Personalities | Big Brand Impressions for Small Business

Educate. Engage. Inspire.

Virtual Farm Creative — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:27:27 +0000

What is TEDxPhoenixville?
Although our clients and friends continue to become more educated about this creative, engaging, inspiring day of Technology, Entertainment and Design, the event still poses three questions: What is TED? What is TEDx? What is TEDx Phoenixville?

In an attempt to further educate and engage the Phoenixville audience, VFC created this one-of-a-kind, interactive, self-standing kiosk to be located at the Phoenixville Farmers’ Market. Potential TEDx-ers are invited to engage, share their ideas, win tickets to the event and most importantly; have their questions answered:

WHAT IS TED?
TED is a nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading". It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment & Design. Since then its scope has become even broader.

WHAT IS TEDx?
In the spirit of "Ideas Worth Spreading", TED has created a program called TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At TEDxPhoenixville, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection within our unique community.

WHAT IS TEDx Phoenixville?
TEDxPhoenixville celebrates the creative, innovative and inspiring, happening right here and all around the world. Our objective is to present thought-provoking ideas via an annual day-long event featuring compelling, groundbreaking and transformational speakers, artists and performers. TEDxPhoenixville precedes the live event with monthly salons that educate people about our platform and facilitate opportunities for spontaneous, intelligent discussion among guests to point us toward a more engaged and purposeful future.

Tickets for this year’s event go on sale JUNE 3. Click here to find out more!

Serving up Hope

Virtual Farm Creative — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:50:03 +0000

Good Samaritan with Great Taste
Long-time regional food event in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania points out the delicious benefits of serving up hope.

For more than ten years, the Good Samaritan Shelter’s largest fundraising effort has been an annual event that that brings the community together like no other. Taste of Phoenixville invites all of the best restaurants in Northern Chester County to contribute to something that will improve the community in which they operate their business. Held at the famous Phoenixville Foundry, Taste of Phoenixville features the best area restaurants serving up their best offerings including wine and beer samples. The money raised through ticket sales and an impressive silent auction is significant, but it’s not enough.

The Good Samaritan Shelter had yet to attract title sponsors or high-level donations and corporate partners although they did publish levels and communicate with a letter to the regional business community. Virtual Farm helped the Shelter develop a more focused and strategic plan and developed a sponsorship program that was professional, competitive and compelling. VFC helped the Shelter clearly communicate the multiple benefits of sponsorship while streamlining the event image to attract a wider group of potential sponsors.

The effort include logo, tagline and brand standards as well as an impressive partnership brochure and social media elements. Please plan on attending the Taste of Phoenixville on January 16, 2014 or, better yet sponsor the event and serve up hope!

Beer, Goats, Cinco de Bock Fest!

Virtual Farm Creative — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:34:31 +0000

Cinco de Bock Fest!
Since 2005, VFC has been providing event support for the regionally famous Sly Fox Brewing Company Bock Festival and Goat Races. Each year VFC creates an original image for the festival that is translated onto t-shirts, glassware and much more! The inspirations for each year’s Bock Festival design are diverse and compelling, always yielding a professional result anticipated by attendees!

This year was no exception… As concepts were brainstormed it wasn’t long until we realized that this year’s event fell on May 5– it happens every seven years or so for the festival that is always held on the first Sunday in May! As everyone experienced at looking for reasons to party knows, that’s Cinco de Mayo. Now we could have gone literal and put a sombrero on a goat– the festival is heavily attended by people interested in the unique, multi-heat goat races– but that seemed to obvious.

We’ve always been fans of the intricate symmetrical detail, bright colors and ominous designs of sugar skulls– the macabre symbols for Mexico’s Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead holiday, although normally celebrated on November 1 and 2 celebrates those who have passed on. It’s our intention to celebrate all of the festivals that have come before this one in this design and to create a memorable brand for the festival. Above you can see some of the process for developing the goat sugar skull including the final design that includes hidden supporting brand elements from other Sly Fox Brewing Company packaging design.

We love craft cans

Virtual Farm Creative — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:12:21 +0000

Artistic canvases customers
can hold in their hands!
This month VFC sent three new beer cans into production and, as more and more craft breweries discover the value of cans over bottles, we expect to do more… perhaps the most compelling design is coming in May, 2013.

SLY FOX BREWING - HELLES GOLDEN LAGER
A long time favorite in the Sly Fox Brewing Company’s suburban Philadelphia pubs, this Munich Light Lager is more complex, interesting and, well, tasty than most mainstream lagers and we wanted the can art to reflect that and the historical story of Helles. Additionally, this can introduced a new lid technology that allowed the entire top to be safely removed so the can can drink like a glass leading to a wider audience seeing this bold can design.

CENTER of the UNIVERSE – MAIN STREET VIRGINIA ALE
We like it when small brands are proud of their heritage, their culture and their home. Building a strong sense of community is something a chain, national brand or public company can never do and it’s an awesome position to exploit for smaller players. Here, a brewery based in Ashland, Virginia embraces the name in the brand and the image of the community in the art and flavor of one of their flagship brands.

CENTER of the UNIVERSE – RAY RAY’S PALE ALE
Ray Ray isn’t a person but he is a clever marketing device that helps to position a product in a universe filled with heavy competition. Brothers Chris and Phil Ray, a former Major League Baseball pitcher and NASA engineer respectively, run the brewery that makes this Pale Ale– a tribute to themselves and their partnership. VFC expects that the Janus-like art treatment will become popular as the brewery expands promotion.

What’s new at VFC?

Virtual Farm Creative — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:07:14 +0000

Three nice sites launched in March… more on the way in April!

Pottstown Area Industrial Development- Pottstown, PA
VFC created a web presence for Pottstown Area Industrial Development– the economic driver for the reinvented town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania– that combined compelling visuals and unique navigation features in an interactive website that was both informative and engaging. By presenting a professional web presence, PAID more effectively communicates with its target audience of residents and developers.

Check it out!

Spring Creek Design- Honey Brook, PA
When Spring Creek Designs needed to construct a strong internet presence that spoke to potential customers, they turned to VFC. We created an internet presence to clearly articulate Spring Creek Designs’ differentiating features in a crowded marketplace. By highlighting the unique process and projects of Spring Creek Design, the website connects with prospective clients and is flexible enough to continually evolve.

Check it out!

Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin- Exton, PA
Through the coordinated use of water imagery, the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin website is clearly organized to promote education and to encourage advocacy throughout the Delaware Valley. The clarity, simplicity and logical design of the site creates a clear call-to-action, with relevant links for community members to quickly find appropriate resources to connect with other organizations concerned about our environment.

Check it out!

Workin’ it

Virtual Farm Creative — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:56:14 +0000

We spend a lot of our lives at work and when we’re not there we’re thinking about it.
Work is an important part of the human condition. For most people on the planet, work defines who and what they are.

Right or wrong, you can make a lot of judgments about people by the type of job that they have. I have a friend who is a great artist. His talent with oils, acrylics, brushes and canvas is amazing to me. I am constantly trying to support his art with referrals, praise, projects and branding assistance. But by day he does something else… something he can rely on to supply the money he needs to survive.

For years I have been encouraging him to paint full-time but he recently added a wife and then a baby to his life. Leaving the security of the full time job is not in the reality cards.

My friend is a butcher. He cuts meat.

The butcher is not resentful that this is his job nor was he resentful prior to it becoming his life. He has always embraced the butchering lifestyle and, as far as I can tell from the periphery, has even crafted it into its own art form.

I admire my friend for the way that he approaches his work life and how it is intertwined with his real life. He doesn’t think about meat 24 hours a day like I do about my multiple client’s multiple issues. He’s at peace with the reality that work is a necessary part of life but he has also made his job and his life something to be admired!

Sometimes we all need to step back and realize that work is a part of who we are but it is not all that we are. We always have the power to change its definition whether that means modifying your existing reality or creating a new one.

We can define how we work but we don’t need to let our work define us.

We can approach every day like it is art.

VFC’s Five Rs for Brand Management

Virtual Farm Creative — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:30:32 +0000

The earliest educators simplified their goal with discipline-deprecating humor that really got to the core of the matter and was easy for generations of students, parents and teachers to laugh at and remember. The three Rs were essentially what school was always all about and, even though art, music and fitness are occasional electives, reading, riting and rithmetic have always been the core of the educational mission.

In recent years, the ever-progressing evolution of civilization has dictated a greater focus on instructing students to think critically. So, teachers in schools where science has been added to the mix should now be proficient at teaching, hmm… reason.

Any enterprising Ed consultants who happen to read this blog are welcome to borrow that upgrade for your next presentation… so long as you footnote VFC!

At VFC, we are all about simplifying.

As a brand management agency, VFC identifies our client’s core mission, make it easy to understand and apply solutions that are clearly defined… standardized and stylized. It’s our objective to creatively simplify the client message to help reach their goals.

In that spirit of continual simplification, VFC recently brainstormed what our three, four or five Rs might be (and if they might all be spelled correctly, unlike the original bromide). Here’s what we came up with:

RECOGNITION: First we need to strategize and execute ways to get clients’ brands seen. This generally involves refining or reinventing (two great R words) existing brands and competitive research, naming and identity development for start ups. We are intimate with the usual vehicles and explore more unique options all the time.

RETENTION: VFC’s next goal is getting a significant portion of a target audience to remember (hey!) our client’s brand in a positive way. This is best accomplished with repetition (wow) in places the target audience frequents.

RELIABILITY: Beyond the design and image of a brand management campaign– the sizzle– is a story that communicates the brand value and positioning to the client’s audience. In other words VFC creates reasons why consumers should care more about our client’s brand than their competitors.

REVENUE: An improved bottom line is the real reason clients partner with VFC and we are always focused on the biggest bang for the buck! Our brand management campaigns are strategic, organized, creative and original but, in the end, they are also effective and efficient with the ultimate goal of maximum return.

REVERENCE: The brands that VFC works with are, for the most part, owner-operated and someone’s entrepreneurial dream. It’s our collaborative mission– with our partners/clients to cultivate a personalities for their brands that have longevity and demand respect.

Somehow you knew this would all end with an R, right?

A toast to the NEW YEAR

Virtual Farm Creative — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:24:38 +0000

A toast to the NEW YEAR,
… and a fond remembrance of the year that was!

Twenty twelve is all but gone and VFC is looking toward a new year in a not-too-distant future with hope and confidence!

We’re inspired to make 2013 our most creative and productive year yet with some cool new clients and projects in the works even as we write this.

Enjoy welcoming in the New Year and make a resolution to make the next one the best one!

From your friends at

Virtual Farm Creative, Inc.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here’s a little HOLIDAY GIFT… a short film you watch on your day off:

FAKE CLOUDS was an Official Selection at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and it’s only 8 minutes long!

Feelin’ Rejected

Virtual Farm Creative — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:04:45 +0000

When you boil it down, there are two rejected
concepts for every selected direction.

When you boil it down, we like to say that…
VFC works hard to understand our clients’ businesses and their offerings and we help them to effectively and professionally communicate their mission and value to various audiences with different motivations to ultimately reach specific objectives like increased exposure, visitation and sales.

When you boil it down even further, we like to say that…
VFC understands our clients’ offerings and creatively explains them to defined target markets to reach specific objectives like increased exposure, visitation or sales.

When you boil it down even further, we like to say that…
VFC creatively positions clients’ offerings to increase exposure, visitation or sales.

When you boil it down further still, we like to say that…
VFC cultivates business personalities!

Virtual Farm Creative creates personalities for businesses with specific goals in mind. How we do it is a mostly closely guarded secret, but we generally undertake competitive research and market studies; develop a creative brief with meaningful creative criteria and present three (3) concepts and three (3) complete iterations for each project that will inform the band’s personality.

MORE WITH LESS
In the case of corporate and organizational identities—indeed with most of the projects for which VFC presents three concepts—we attempt to develop a safe choice, a middle of the road choice and an alternative that meets the criteria, accomplishes objectives, targets the defined audience AND pushes the envelope for design and/or message.

It’s why everyone who works in advertising, design and commercial art all got into the business in the first place—to spread our creative wings. Many account relationships eventually devolve into the clients telling them exactly what to do but, until then, every creative director, art director, copy writer, designer and graphic artist worth a pixel will always try to do more with less.

We want to engage more people with communication arts by making them think, laugh, sigh and cry. Much of our daily existence is spent staring at an illuminated box in the execution of the plans to cultivate personalities for businesses. When we have the opportunity to plan, strategize and propose clever creative we get very excited. In fact, you could say it is what drives us here at VFC.

FEELIN’ REJECTED
Most times, the out of the box campaigns are well received by forward thinking, progressive clients who respect and value the diverse, collective experience that VFC team members bring to the table and some iteration of the concept will see the light of day.

Other times—and the reasons are many—the more extreme, radical and, in our opinion, effective of VFC’s three conceptual campaigns are passed over in favor safer choices. And, sometimes VFC identifies a need that the brand owner doesn’t agree with or see the value in.

In other words, VFC will often present a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist and that will result similarly in an unwanted or rejected campaign concept. The rejected concepts can be plans, tag lines, headlines, programs, web applications, layouts, logos, anything… In any case, there are at least two rejected concepts for every selected direction.

Here are some recent corporate identities that were not used that we always felt had a lot of promise:

Maybe the client used an alternative choice, maybe they didn’t use any, maybe they took our concept to a different designer, maybe they weren’t even a client at all and we tried to help them! Que sera sera because, when you boil it all down, VFC is here to cultivate business personalities.

Checkout more of the personalities VFC created in our portfolio

Virtual Farm Creative - Advertising, Marketing, Web Design, Chester County, Pennsylvania - Cultivating Business Personalities

Big Brand Impressions for Small Business

Educate. Engage. Inspire.

Serving up Hope

Beer, Goats, Cinco de Bock Fest!

We love craft cans

What’s new at VFC?

Workin’ it

VFC’s Five Rs for Brand Management

A toast to the NEW YEAR

Feelin’ Rejected

When you boil it down, there are two rejected concepts for every selected direction.

When you boil it down, there are two rejected
concepts for every selected direction.