:: Little Planet. Big Plant. eeko studio launches Earth Day sale! ::

Little Planet. Big Plant.

eeko studio Earth Day Terrarium Sale

We’re mixing it up a little for Earth Day 2011. eeko studio, your favorite, little design boutique, rolled up our sleeves, dug our nails in, and began gardening. Our goal? Unique terrariums. A living, breathing part of the earth. It grows, suffers, and feels as our big planet does.

Add it to your desk at work to bring a little earthy love to the cube, put it in a kitchen window for some sweet morning happiness. They’re also easy to care for — these little guys just need a few drops of water here and there and they’re good to go!

Our little terrariums go on sale this week until the end of April. First come, first served! All terrariums vases are salvaged from Goodwill stores and the plants are specific desert plants, perfect for our dry weather. They are handmade, one-of-a-kind terrariums. So love them, care for them, smile at them.

100% of the proceeds will go to supporting our neighbors over at the Grow House, a collective community garden located at the corner of Garfield and 6th Street in Phoenix. Sorry, local sales only as we cannot ship them.

Happy Earth Day!

View: $20 Terrariums | $25 Terrariums | $30 Terrariums | $35 Terrariums | $40 Terrariums

:: Project: Creative Butters Brochure ::

You know we’re big fan ladies for our clients. It’s because they’re awesome. What can we say? We love the passion that our clients have. If there is one thing they all have in common is they’re stay-up-all-drinking-coffee-eating-cliff-bars driven. We live in a city that let’s us do really whatever the hell we want. We’re in the wild wild west, and nothing is going to stop us from taking over! And we’ll cheer for anyone with passion. So when Jennifer from Creative Butters calls me to build her a brochure we say, challenge accepted.

This is not any brochure. This is a brochure that speaks her brand and tastes of her butter. We extend our mission of spreading gourmet flavor through recipes to a brochure/tear-off postcard book. Plus, have to give props to the amazing Dean Shirley for his great product shots that are used in this brochure.

Take a look see.

:: Project: Lotus Wei Site ::

You remember Katie from Lotus Wei? Of course you do. :) We can’t stop talking about her.

Well, the long awaited site is finally live! Check it out. We kept with the consistency of her branding by using the same “game” as we used on her cards to really involve the customers in developing the right floral essence for them. Let us know what you think!

:: Project: Fresh Words Market ::

Our favorite kid-friendly client Children Inspire Design has a new older brother. His name is Fresh Words Market. He is worldly and loves helping people and countries in need. Check him out below.

This new project has been one of our favorites here at eeko studio. We had the opportunity to create something that was part vintage, part modern. And here’s the kicker. The business model is centered around causes.

“Fresh Words Market is a line of modern art for the spaces where adults and children meet. But FWM is more than just an art collection, it’s a movement. For every print sold, Fresh Words Market donates 20% of its proceeds to women and children focused initiatives around the world. We believe that great art coupled with the passion to help those in need will indeed help to change the world.”

FWMKT sells artwork that is culturally sensitive, inspiring and motivational. They use this “market” as a fundraising tool. They ask organizations with causes to contact them and they will use their market products to sell art and support their cause.

We are proud to have been a part of the creation of this identity and site for Fresh Words Market. Keep your eye on this for we  plan to be a big part of it in the future too. There is a lot of saving to do out there and we are, afterall, the little design studio that could.

Learn more about Fresh Words Market

:: eeko studio launches CO+HOOTS ::

If you haven’t heard, I decided to add more work on to my workload here at eeko studio. On July 2, 2010 eeko studio launched CO+HOOTS. With the help of a HUGE group of friends, friends of friends, family, community supporters, news organization, etc. Phoenix has it’s own coworking space. CO+HOOTS. What is coworking? Read more here.

But how does coworking benefit your business?

I can’t speak for others. I can only speak for myself. And for me, CO+HOOTS is my work framily (Friends + Family, coined by Marianne). The people who occupy the desks around me are friends who are passionate, driven and keep me pushing forward. They are the support group, the community, the sisters and brothers that tell me when I’m being nuts and high-five my successes. They are my sounding wall when I’m trying to come up with a headline, or when I have a project that I can’t quite figure out. Combined, they know all the people I don’t know. Our six degrees of Kevin Bacon is more like 1 degrees.

I can’t do this at home by myself in my home office. Well, I can. But it would just be me, talking to a wall about Kevin Bacon.

Instead of sitting alone and tearing my hair out about a problem, I approach any of the people in CO+HOOTS. Their combined business knowledge gives me an edge over others that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

I also find that these people genuinely care about my growth. There isn’t a sense of competition here. And the name CO+HOOTS really encompasses this idea. We are all in this together, your success is my success. Seeing one of my fellow coworkers succeed, means we have a strong creative community here in Phoenix and this is what I want for us. Just being in a space together with that kind of energy is exciting.

Other people have other reasons for being a part of CO+HOOTS, but for me, it’s because they inspire me to be better.

:: Project: Upcycle Living ::

Upcycle Living, a Phoenix builder company specializing in converting shipping containers into affordable housing needed a site and brand refresh that communicated their unique style of work. This inspiring project gave us the opportunity to learn all about the upcycled shipping container culture. If you haven’t heard of it before check out inhabitat.com to see how shipping containers around the world have been transformed into affordable housing. Upcycle is the first to do it here in Phoenix, so we were excited to see them succeed. In building their site we focused on the culture and lifestyle of shipping container housing. We were inspired by the hand crafted feel of the build, the materials they used and the tools that come with building homes. What do you think?

:: Project: Creative Butters ::

Jennifer VanInwegen came to eeko studio unsure about how to take her brand of locally made butters to the next level. She had been selling in local farmers markets for the past year and was ready to expand into retail stores. She needed something that would stand out and highlight the butter.

Something sweet and professional, but with a punch of home-town goodness. We worked with her on building her messaging to be in line with the visuals we will be building. After a few weeks of tweaking and gathering ideas, the Arizona gourmet butter company was golden. Armed with a new tagline, a direction for the brand and a vision for the future we started on Creative Butters, Spreading Gourmet Flavor.

We started with a logo and expanded to cards and labels. The cards, double as recipe cards. Each card highlights a recipe that can be used with the butters. A throw-back to the traditional way of trading recipes.

We moved to the web site where we again highlighted a recipe section and showcased the company and products. The process was great. We worked hand in hand with Jennifer to define a brand that made sense to her market and centered around her original goals.

:: Project: MASK the Magazine ::

MASK the Magazine is the result of the blood, sweat and tears of Kimberly Cabral, Michelle Cardini and Pamela Baumann. eeko studio was called last year to meet and plan the creative strategy for their new project. A new, 100 page, full color, witty baby.

I met with these women last year and I was immediately inspired. (High-five for  passionate women!) These women started MASK, a non-profit based in Scottsdale 4 years ago, after seeing the need to educate and communicate the issues that were happening in their own kids lives. Books were outdated, and there isn’t anything out there that addressed school-aged children and how to communicate to them as parents.

They started the organization by visiting schools and speaking out about the value of “talking to your kids”. They developed forward thinking communication strategies to reach out to kids about texting while driving, drugs, bullying and other sensitive issues. They reached out to kids who really didn’t want to listen.

And they got them to listen. How? Through a trauma drills, awareness programs and building a relationship with kids.

So now, we’ve teamed up with MASK to build the new quarterly issue of MASK the Magazine, a 100 page magazine that guides parent’s through the trials of school aged kids as they grow with a simple goal. Educate. engage. empower.

Check out MASK the Magazine at Barnes and Noble and in newstands starting March 8.

:: Project: Fruitealicious tees ::

Fruitealicious is a boba tea shop in Texas that is … OMGCUTE! Their poppy colors and high energy brand needed some fun tee shirts made up. They have a huge gaming/japanese manga following. So we created a little creature to go with their brand. Mr Boba is the orange guy and Lulu is his friend in yellow.

http://www.fruitealicious.com

:: Haiti. Day 7. Bel. ::

LES CAYES, Haiti — Haiti is beautiful.

There is enough trash in the cities to form an island nation. Enough tent homes to build mountains.

Haiti is beautiful.

Sulfur mines are jealous of Haiti’s smells. Its poverty level the envy of hell.

Haiti is beautiful.

These are three words every Haitian deserves to know is true. Read the rest of this entry »