Lead Illustrator Dave Hile has completed the cover of Mystery of the Temple Court, a new book from Christian publishing company Kregel. The book is the fourth in a series of family-oriented fictional adventure stories that feature interrelated characters and correspond to sections of the Gospel account of Christ’s life. The books include Jotham’s Journey (1997), Bartholomew’s Passage (2002) and Tabitha’s Travels (2003) and are authored by Arnold Ytreeide, but the three previous books had gone out of print and the original publisher had gone out of business. However, Ytreeide’s stories remained sought after on ebay and other used book sources and grew such a dedicated following that Kregel took notice and bought the rights in 2008 to begin reissuing the series.

Kregel, based in Grand Rapids, plans to release the new Mystery of the Temple Court in the Fall of this year.

To see the other books in the series and for more information, go to http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2100.

Putting the customer’s needs first. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it—even trite? But I was recently reminded of how important the concept is when I heard it directly from our customer. It happened when we were pitching a major rebranding campaign. We were delighted to win the account, but as an added benefit our new client asked if we’d be interested in hearing why our firm was selected. This information is like gold to us, and it is rare that we are privy to the decisions behind the client review process. Here are the main points they mentioned:

• They liked that we listened before we spoke. By doing so before presenting our capabilities via PowerPoint, we learned that one of their top criteria was finding an agency with people they liked and felt they could work with, since they had never hired an outside agency before. Good to know! Later, after receiving their RFP (Request for Proposal) we put a lot of emphasis on our personalized service and long-term client relationships.
• They liked our team approach. We presented our company as a team. We allowed each of the four staffers present to discuss their areas of expertise and what they would bring to address the client’s needs. It was clear after reading the client’s website that they placed a great deal of emphasis on humility among their leadership as well as an open, participatory corporate culture.
• They liked that our design portfolio showed a broad range of styles, tailored to different industries. Having an agency look and feel is neither right nor wrong. There are many extremely talented creative firms who have honed their design approach to perfection. (Check out Charles S. Anderson Design at http://www.csadesign.com. Personally, I’m a HUGE fan of their retro-inspired design work!) But that approach requires customers to conform to the agency’s aesthetic. We intentionally highlighted divergent styles across several different industries to demonstrate that we target each brand to the appropriate industry and end user.

So, hearing from our new client was a reminder that our pitches shouldn’t be solely about our company capabilities, but also about serving our customer. And the payoff for such basic customer-centric etiquette? By focusing on our customer, we took care of our own business (in this case in a big way, as our new client is a national leader in their field).

Most of the emails I get offer webinars, white papers and services promising to help me create better email campaigns, develop more effective social media and search engine strategies and offer superior online tracking methods. Recently there has been an emphasis on the rapidly growing necessity for developing phone apps. All of these urgent offers promise to help me realize greater marketing ROI (gosh, am I sick of that term). Read the rest of this entry »

In this tough economy, many companies who have managed their own advertising in-house or relied on word of mouth are now fighting for survival. They have discovered that what has worked in the past is not going to sustain them now. They have to compete for every customer like never before, and that often means turning to an advertising agency for the first time. Here are some suggestions of what you should look for when choosing an agency to represent you. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the goals of our blog “HileItes” is to give people a way to get to know Hile Design staffers in a different way—less business, more personal. So how better to gain insight into each of us than to understand our musical tastes:

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Many retail companies envy the almost cult-like passion that Ikea’s customers direct toward the Swedish manufacturer of designer home goods. But the company wasn’t prepared for the worldwide backlash it experienced recently when it switched typefaces in its venerated catalog for the first time in 50 years, from Futura to Verdana.

For those type neophytes who don’t know their Helvetica from their Times Roman, Futura has been one of the grand masters of sans serif typefaces since it was first released in the 1920s. It’s prized for its clean geometry and simple elegance. Plus, it boasts an extensive family of associated fonts: Futura Light, Book, Medium, Heavy, Bold, Extra Bold, Condensed, Oblique, Light Oblique—and on and on. Read the rest of this entry »

I know it’s not a good idea to check my company’s Google Analytics web stats every day, but I can’t help myself. I’m forever curious about who’s coming to the site, from where, and what they are looking at. When we generate a new company promotion I like to see the corresponding spikes in site traffic.

For us, the good news is that our traffic has doubled since we launched our updated site last January. Visitors are staying longer and viewing more of our work. Statistics show they are most interested in who we are, whom we work for and what services we provide, pretty much in that order. All in all, we’re happy with the site. And yet… Read the rest of this entry »

Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image. Production notes can be found at the bottom of the page.

In the field of advertising, when you find a means of connecting with people, you take advantage of it. So considering that my previous blog posting, “Thirty Years of Illustration,” got triple the readership of any of my former posts, I decided to write another article along the same lines—that is, looking back over my career as an illustrator. I promise not to repeat myself (the film Rocky was good and Rocky II was palatable, but then Sly made the disasters Rocky III, IV and V). Read the rest of this entry »