Spencerville Adventist Academy (SAA) is a college preparatory school serving grades Pre-K through 12 in the greater Baltimore-Washington area. We created a new identity for them a couple years ago including a logo, a detailed brand style guide, signage, banners, e-newsletters, and photo display areas. Since then, we have partnered with SAA on various projects.
Recently, SAA asked us to create large banners for display in their gym celebrating their sports’ team championships. They want the banners to add school spirit and show students and visiting teams their legacy of success.
At Dever Designs, we always keep the clients’ needs in mind. We know that educational organizations have limited budgets, so we suggested a few options to help keep SAA’s costs down.
Always anticipate. We prompted the client to think ahead and carefully consider how these banners will be used in future years. The process began with a start-up meeting that included all the decision-makers to ensure that we understood the parameters of the project. We asked SAA many detailed questions, such as how these banners would integrate with existing banners in the school, what sports they would commemorate, where they would be placed, and how they would be hung to accommodate future championship victories. Taking time to think ahead ultimately saves time and money.
Set up a template. We created a template that SAA can use to build additional banners in-house. We suggested they utilize the resources available to them and enlist their student body and/or parents familiar with the software to volunteer their time to set up any future banners. To ensure consistent application, we developed a detailed set of guidelines and instructions on how to use the template to prepare the files for output. The banner template was designed to adjust easily depending on the amount of information on the banner. SAA has several athletic teams, so we designated a different color to each sports category. For example, all banners for the soccer tournament championships will be green, while those for the gymnastic championships will be purple. Over time, this will allow the client to minimize expenditures because they can layout subsequent pieces on their own.
Direct them to a vendor. To produce the banners, we introduced SAA to one of our trusted long-term vendors. This allows SAA to deal directly with the manufacturer on all future banners without having to go through us.
At Dever Designs, we work with our clients as a collaborative partner. If you have a project you need help with, please give us a call at 301-776-2812 to start the conversation.