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Visual Lure Awarded with 12 Logos in LogoLounge 10

Posted on June 13, 2017 by JUSTEN HONG

Logo Lounge 10 awards announcement graphic

When we see an email in our inbox from LogoLounge with a subject line that reads “Congratulations from LogoLounge, Your Work Selected!” we get happy. Real happy!

It means that our hard work has paid off, and that some of the greatest logo designers in the World think our logos are some of the best made on planet Earth. This year, there were over 40,000 logos submitted and reviewed by an international judging panel of design superstars, including Andreas Karl, Aaron Draplin, Von Glitschka, Alex Tass, Chad Michael, Yo Santosa, Emily Oberman, Su Mathews Hale, Felix Sockwell and Alex Trochut.

We are both honored and humbled that designer of this caliber have selected our work for LogoLounge 10. This will be the 7th LogoLounge book that our work is featured in, with a total of 31 logos to date. It also beats our previous record of 8 logos in one book – with 12 this time around.

Here are our award-winning logos selected:

St. Louis award winning logos in LogoLounge 10

Brief descriptions of the chosen logos:

from left to right, top to bottom…

1. All Stars Tree Solutions: this was one of our proposed logos that was not selected by our client. It features a shield/crest with a star tree surrounded by four leaves that represent the seasons, and roots that represent strength and experience.

2. Midwest Mulch & Compost: this was an unselected logo that features two trees and two piles of mulch (in the negative space) that also form a subtle letter M. The final logo is very similar with two trees hidden in the negative spaces of the M.

3. Jeff Allen Photography: this too was an unselected logo. It features a timeless merged JA monogram.

4. Unposed Photography: this was a runner-up logo that almost made it. It was designed for a Galena, IL commercial and wedding photography studio.

5. Hannah Marie Photography: logo options for a well-known Canadian photographer featuring a monogram with a diamond motif border.

6. Studio O Photography: this was a logo that got buried after we decided to change the name of the studio. It features a merged monogram that is both the letter S and O.

7. Like Home: unselected logo option for a St. Louis, MO based French pastry shop.

8. Hopkins Craft Whiskey: this was our favorite logo design option for a St. Louis, MO craft whiskey distiller. They went with a different logo.

9. Salt 911: another logo that underwent a name change after the first round of logos. It features a shield/crest with eagle, stars and leaves mimicking a police badge.

10. Giochi Board Game Café: what better way to represent a board game café than with a chess piece drinking a cup of coffee. This was an unselected logo, however the final logo uses the same exact concept, just rendered using a different design style.

11. Lee Stark Photography: Here’s a logo that was actually selected by our client. Lee is an outdoor photographer who specialized in rustic landscape photography. The logo was hand-drawn with a sharpie, scanned into the computer, and converted into vector artwork.

12. Pam Baumann Photography: Pam is a photographer from Limerick, Pennsylvania. She wanted an “earthy/rustic” logo so we designed her a camera shutter made out of colorful earth-tone leaves.

Final Logo Comparisons

A couple people on social media thought it was odd that so many of our logos selected for the book where not selected by our clients. So we decided to show the actual final logos that were chosen just for comparison. Here they are in the same order as above:

Our client's final logo selections

About LogoLounge

LogoLounge is without a double the greatest series of logo design publications in the World. Designers, both new and established, submit their work annually and a panel of world-class judges select the cream of the crop.

LogoLounge is also know for releasing their annual logo trends report which showcases the latest design aesthetics and styles of the year. Learn more at LogoLounge.com or find there books at any fine book store.

The LogoLounge Website Features:

  • Over 250,000 searchable logos
  • Fresh inspiration and ideas, with new logos uploaded daily
  • Network of designers, including leaders and legends in the industry
  • Logo design news and articles

LogoLounge10 Cover Design

Want to see more of our logo design work? Click here to view our logo design portfolio, or click here to view some of our branding packages.

 

New Custom WordPress Website for Ideal Landscape Group

Posted on April 5, 2017 by JUSTEN HONG

ideal landscape group WordPress website design

Ideal Landscape Group recently contracted Visual Lure to help improve their online presence by redesigning their website. Ideal is a premier St. Louis commercial landscaping company that specializes in commercial groundskeeping, construction, irrigation, snow & ice removal and playground installation. In addition to design and development of the new site, Visual Lure coordinated the copywriting and photography through our strategic partnerships. Cindy Sorgea wrote the copy and Matt Marcinkowski captured the imagery.

The new custom WordPress website features:

  • Sticky navigation (main sidebar and secondary navbar on template pages) for convenient navigation
  • A custom Core Services section with navigation
  • Custom developed section/WordPress post types for the projects gallery that makes it easy to add, edit, organize and remove featured projects
  • Slider style photo galleries that use WordPress’ native gallery for easy maintenance with a stacked image transition on mobile
  • A seamlessly integrated blog with featured image and excerpt landing page
  • Added column structures to expand layout options
  • Search engine optimized for St. Louis commercial landscaping and all their core services

Old Homepage Design:

old Ideal Landscape homepage design

The old website (home page shown above) was extremely dated; at least 8 years old. It was not mobile friendly or responsive, therefor providing a bad user experience on mobile devices. It had a strange layout, all types of spacing issues and dated photography. Over the years, and especially since Google’s “Mobilegeddon”, the site had seen a steady decrease in traffic and drop in organic rankings.

New Homepage Design:

new Ideal Landscape homepage design

The new home page design is now better organized with a much improved flow. The side navigation bar is sticky, staying in place while the user scrolls. This makes it easy to navigate the site, no matter where you are on the page. There is a custom Core Services section (slideshow) showcasing a featured image, intro copy and learn more buttons to drive users to those landing pages. Below that is an Affiliations section that uses a simple WordPress image widget to add, edit, remove or reorganize the affiliate logos.

Website Photography

We had the pleasure of working with Matt Marcinkowski for the new site photography. We art directed a couple of shots, but it was mostly just Matt doing his thing. With some of the locations providing limited photo opportunities, Matt really turned nothing into something great. Below are some samples of the new photography.

ideal landscaping photography 1ideal landscaping photography 2ideal landscaping photography 3ideal landscaping photography 4

The Results + Organic Search Rankings

Since the new site has been indexed by Google, the (now properly search engine optimized) website has skyrocketed into top positions on the first page of Google for almost all of their core targeted search terms. Currently the website is ranking #1 on the first page of Google for “st louis commercial landscaping”, “st louis commercial landcare”, st louis commercial groundkeeping”, “st louis commercial landscape construction” along with most variations of those search terms. This has led to a solid stream of high value leads for Ideal and they are currently bidding on a handful of projects (leads acquired through the new site) that would pay for the new website 10 times over.

Visit Ideal Landscape »

Click here to learn more about our website design and development services »

New Website Design for Cricket’s Photo & Cinema

Posted on January 11, 2017 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure recently launched a new website for Cricket’s Photo & Cinema. Cricket’s is a premier photography studio serving the greater Orlando, Florida area with its studio located in Winter Garden. We originally designed Cricket’s logo a couple years ago, and they came back to us when they were ready to improve their online presence. The new website was built in WordPress utilizing a fully custom, search engine optimized, responsive (mobile, tablet and desktop friendly) design.

The new custom WordPress website features:

  • A sticky header for convenient navigation
  • An easy to maintain home page slideshow
  • A custom testimonials widget with smooth transitions
  • A featured image blog feed
  • Masonry style photo galleries that use WordPress’ native gallery for easy maintenance
  • A seamlessly integrated blog with featured image and excerpt landing page
  • Related blog post feed for improved click-through rate
  • Added column structures to expand layout options
  • Search engine optimized for multiple photography focuses

Old Homepage Design:

Cricket's Photo & Cinema's old website home page design

The old website (home page shown above) was not very user friendly. The blog was completely hidden, only to be found if you hovered over the four images towards the bottom of the home page. There were too many main navigation tabs, some links where the same color as the background, therefor completely hidden unless you accidentally hovered over them. The photo galleries and blog landing page took forever to load and the site wasn’t properly search engine optimized. Lastly the old template limited how content could be displayed and gave the site a generic cookie cutter feel.

New Homepage Design:

Cricket's Photo & Cinema's new website home page design

The new home page design in much more content rich, which is great for search engine ranking, along with enticing users to click deeper into the site. The sticky header, as mentioned above, allows the user to navigate the entire site at all times – no matter how far down they scroll. Social media tabs are tied directly into the navigation bar, along with a slider search field. Below that is an easy to maintain slideshow and a custom testimonials section. Next we added a “Types of Photography” section allowing users to scroll/slide to any of their services. Following is a videography and wedding tips area, and the homepage is completed with a latest blog post and affiliation section.

Visit Cricket's Photo & Cinema »

Click here to learn more about our website design and development services »

Website Redesign for a St. Louis Metro East Home Builder

Posted on December 5, 2016 by JUSTEN HONG

statecon3-web-design

Visual Lure recently completed a new website for State Construction, a premier residential home builder based in O’Fallon, Illinois. The company was started in 1967 with the goal of building quality luxury homes at affordable and competitive prices. They have a great local reputation for building superior-quality homes, and for having a completely transparent construction process that eliminates all pricing surprises.

The new website was developed responsively in WordPress with features that include:

  • an easy to maintain home page slideshow
  • custom page templates for the subdivisions and home model sections
  • easy to update masonry/lightbox style photo galleries
  • a sticky header for convenient navigation of the site
  • a custom home models section for quick view of each home
  • short code columns for layout flexibility
  • a custom testimonials widget and more…

Old Homepage Design:

State Construction old website design

The old website was extremely dated. It was not mobile friendly, or responsive, therefor delivering a bad user experience on tablets and particularly on smart phones. In additional to this, the design was distracting with no real focal points, two random tiers of navigation, the color palette was unsophisticated making the site feel cheap, and an extra logo and random content seem to be used to simply fill up space.

New Homepage Design:

State Construction new website design

The new home page design features their phone number and client login access right in the header for convenience. The two tiers of navigation have been consolidated into one bar, and now houses a search field. The new slideshow replaces random house photos with the three main strengths of their brand: Uncompromising Craftsmanship, Superior Quality and an Impeccable Reputation. Next it features the company’s current three subdivisions and their five main home models, which after some basic research, proved to be what potential customers were looking for. Below that is a video and description of their transparent construction process. The homepage is completed with a custom testimonials widget and a footer with important contact information.

Click here to visit the new State Construction website »

Click here to learn more about our website design and development services »

Logo & Package Design for a St. Louis Supplements Company

Posted on November 10, 2016 by JUSTEN HONG

2nd Impact is a St. Louis, Missouri based supplement and nutrition company that produces a superior line of Whey Protein and Creatine products. They use the most expensive, highest grade ingredients to produce a premium line of supplements. They initially came to Visual Lure for a logo, and after completion of that, they immediately engaged us to design all their packaging. See the progression of the logo and packaging below.

2nd Impact provided the exact colors they wanted and requested a simple text-based logo. Here are the initial logo design options:

2nd Impact logo design round 1

…and here is round 2 of the logo…

2nd Impact logo design round 2

…and here are the final logos in both color and black and white:

2nd Impact final logos

Once the logo was completed we immediately went into designing the packaging as they wanted to get into production right away. Here are the first two design rounds of the package design:

2nd Impact packaging design options

…and here are all the final labels for their initial product line:

2nd Impact Packaging Design All

View the entire branding package here »

Click here to view our entire package design portfolio, or click here to learn more about our packaging design services.

 For a package design quote, please call 618.407.9231 or email us at info@visuallure.com.

Package Design for Supplement Freeze Pops

Posted on October 14, 2016 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure recently completed new packaging design for Amino Freeze Pops. Amino Freeze Pops are frozen treats for adult athletes and body builder that are packed with Electrolytes and BCAAs. Essentially, it is a frozen post-workout recovery drink. They provide a boost of energy, help with hydration, can increase stamina and aid in building muscle.

The old design featured icicle shapes that didn’t quite complement the logo/brand, and their attempt to visually highlight the Electrolytes and BCAAs fell short. The new design is much more cohesive and polished. Learn more about Amino at www.aminofreezepops.com.

The Power of a Hashtag

Are you using #hashtags in your social media strategy? If not, you should be, because you never know who will find you when you do. Landing this project is a great example of the power of a hashtag. Here’s the story: We recently completed new packaging design for 2nd Impact, a new supplement company based out of St. Louis, MO. We had just finished some of their designs and we posted them on our Visual Lure Instagram account. When we posted the images, we used the following hashtags: #PackagingDesign, #PackageDesign, #SupplementLabelDesign and #SupplementBrand. Within 30 minutes Amino Freeze Pops had followed us on Instagram, and we were having a conversation over the phone. We think that’s both crazy and amazing! A company based out of Boynton Beach, Florida, a company we would never have run into, is now a client all due to a hashtag.

Amino Freeze Pops Packaging

Our Packaging Design Services

Learn more about our package design services, or click here to view our packaging design portfolio »

 

Visual Lure Named as a Top St. Louis Web Design Agency by UpCity

Posted on October 3, 2016 by JUSTEN HONG

Top St. Louis web design agency

Earlier this year Visual Lure was named as one of The Best Web Designers in St. Louis by Expertise.com. Today we are proud to announce that another organization has honored Visual Lure. UpCity has named Visual Lure a Top Local St. Louis Web Design Agency for 2016. The criteria was based on how well the company represents itself online; from the user experience of the company’s website, to their social media presence and prominence in organic search results.

What Does This Mean?

UpCity’s Top Local Agency marketplace is a resource designed to connect small and medium sized local businesses with high-quality digital marketing service providers in their local area, allowing business owners to get the services they need quickly, from a service provider they can trust. The UpCity team independently reviews agencies across North America to determine the best service providers in each local market, ensuring that no matter where you are, great digital marketing services are never more than a click away.

About UpCity

UpCity provides a comprehensive local inbound marketing platform to help digital marketing agencies scale SEO, local and social marketing services. The UpCity platform serves as a single operating system that includes robust project management, sales tools, reporting, and can be fully white labeled to streamline client engagements from onboarding to ongoing engagement. UpCity, a venture capital-backed business based in Chicago, was founded in 2009. Learn more at www.upcity.com.

Visual Lure’s Web Design Services

Call us at 618.407.9231, email us at info@visuallure.com or click here to learn more about our web design services »

 

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