Having just barely survived phase 1 of our “Logo Lift” here at Beaconfire, I have only one thing to say: Ouch.

I won’t even fake naïveté here because I knew deep down it would be harder than expected. I’ve had the front row seat to many a client rebranding train wreck before, but I’ve always played the role of supportive consultant. The “expert” voice. The one saying “Good God, how hard can it be to design a great logo? Tell your agency to get on with it already!”

Yeah. Karma’s a bitch.

For those uninitiated, the process of designing a logo usually includes the creation of a unique “mark” or graphic treatment paired with an appropriate font/type. Together, these should represent, at a single glance, your company’s mission, vision, methodology and style. While settling upon a new font choice was tricky, we managed to relatively quickly agree to one we all loved. However I totally underestimated how complex, terrifying and fraught with peril the search for a revised mark would be. My blood pressure reached new highs when we spent 2 weeks without any clue how to integrate the mark. Visions of blank business cards and logo-less postcards swam in front of my eyes. My job, I was certain, hung in the balance. No doubt about it, I was in full-on panic.

In my defense, since we weren’t totally rebranding but rather hoping to “update” our existing logo (both mark and type), I thought it would somehow be easier. Don’t know what I was smoking. Lesson of the year: Creating something “new” that retains the brand equity of the “old” yet still feels like “us” is not unlike juggling. Blindfolded. On crutches. With flaming chainsaws.

All challenges aside, I can proudly report we will not be going barefoot as originally feared, and that we now have a shiny “new” logo that we are very very proud of.

But just to keep you all guessing, the actual logo is embargoed until the official reveal at our 10th anniversary celebration in March – Patience is a virtue my friends (or at least that’s what I’m told). However, I can share some of logos (out of the nearly 100 versions created) that we didn’t choose just to whet your appetite for the real thing in the spring.

After all of this, I can honestly say that I have a far greater appreciation of what our clients go through during this often painstaking & frustrating process. So next time I don’t offer you a glass of wine or a valium before addressing your branding needs, just smack me. You’re all remarkably brave souls.

If you haven’t been to the American Lung Association Web site in a while, you might want to take a look.  Beaconfire redesigned the site, which launched in December on the Convio platform.  Content is now much easier to find, in spite of how deep and rich the site is.  The design now reflects the mission and stature of the organization.  Calls to action are prominent and direct. It’s also easier to find programs and your local information.  You might say it’s actually a breath of fresh air!  Check it out at www.lungusa.org.

In January, the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, launched their new website, www.AFT.org. Its more than 1.4 million members represent teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, higher education faculty and staff, local, state and federal employees, nurses and other healthcare professionals, early childhood educators and retirees.

Among other goals, AFT engaged Beaconfire to redesign their 5-year old site to balance the needs of multiple audiences with a more modern and inviting look and feel. Our redesign process involved stakeholder interviews, a creative visioning exercise, a review of peer organizations, a card sorting exercise to gather user input and developing personas representing AFT’s target audiences, in addition to our typical discovery process of defining goals, audiences and features. All these steps resulted in a new information architecture and visual design for the site. In addition to the design, Beaconfire re-engineered the AFT Voices feature on the web site that asks their members to share their voice on important questions and issues for their professions and their constituencies. The new design was implemented by OmniUpdate, AFT’s CMS software vendor.

The new Voices tool automates what was a very manual and time consuming process for posting questions to and comments by members on the website. The new tool has an administrative console where AFT editors can create and publish questions, receive email notifications, moderate and publish responses, and view statistics on questions and comments. It allows members to post their comments and a photo real time, and to vote and rate others’ responses; Editor’s picks and highly rated comments sort to the top. Previously, AFT manually inputted questions and comments from their print publications onto the website, which only enabled them to post a fraction of the number of actual comments received.

The new look and feel, and the Voices tool in particular, have helped to achieve two other key goals for the site – to engage and interact with members online, and allow more members to see themselves on the site and to understand they are part of a larger movement. It’s been a pleasure working with the nice folks at the AFT to make their goals come true!

As the New Year begins and resolutions to quit smoking proliferate, Beaconfire is pleased to be working with the The American Legacy Foundation and their smoking cessation program – BecomeAnEX.org. The EX campaign is about re-learning your life without cigarettes and the EX site plays an important role in helping smokers learn their triggers and then maximize support from family, friends and the community of users at the EX community.

Recently, Beaconfire helped Legacy revitalize their website and migrate their users from Ning to the Elgg social networking software solution. Read more after the jump. (more…)

I’ll never get tired of saying this. The envelope please – Beaconfire just won four Web Marketing Association 2009 Web Awards including:

Free The Slaves, Outstanding Website
Share Our Strength, Non Profit Standard of Excellence
Wildlife Conservation Society, Non Profit Standard of Excellence

Huge thanks to all our project teams for the great work, and to our award-winning clients for being such Rockstars!

If you’re not busy on Saturday, why don’t you join one of the waterway clean up projects being organized by Ocean Conservancy?  On Saturday, Sept 19th people around the world will be pitching in, diving in, and helping clean up any body of water we can get our hands on (or near).  Last year teams around the world picked up 6.8 million pounds of trash which means that’s 6.8 million pounds less that’ll end up in our oceans.  Over 400,000 volunteers, 100 countries, and 42 states participated in last year’s worthwhile effort.

A Beaconfire crew will be joining the Ocean Conservancy team to work on the banks of the Anacostia River.  You can learn more about this international event (and sign up!) at www.oceanconservancy.org/icc

And so is the NY Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, Central Park Zoo and the Queens Zoo.  Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, saves wildlife and wild lands. They do so through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks.  Beaconfire was pleased to work with WCS to develop their redesigned website (www.wcs.org) on the same instance of Sitecore CMS we used for their 5 park websites.  This allows the organization to share content across their entire family of sites, lessening the administrative upkeep of content for their busy staff.   

 The redesigned WCS site highlights and showcases the fine conservation work they do and addresses their goal of focusing the site on fundraising and relationship-building with users. Browse their (XML driven) interactive Flash map to learn more about ongoing projects throughout the world.  Check it often because the map is growing!  Due to the geocoding in place behind the map, WCS simply needs to add a new map item and it is displayed within the map dynamically.  Learn about how they evaluate the needs of wildlife populations, the ecological integrity of habitats, and the impacts of human activities.  Browse their growing library of multimedia to hear about their efforts straight from their experts – and don’t miss the section focused on the conservations challenges we face.  To meet their relationship building goals the site highlights hero flash promotions and features contextual placement of donation opportunities and signup prompts.   Because of how the information is categorized on the back end, they are able to relate projects and programs with ease, allowing the end user to see the full picture of how impactful the work of WCS really is. 

 One warning, it’s very easy to lose track of time as you browse the WCS site – you may want to set it as a bookmark and come back often.

Check out our latest project launch at www.infocomm.org.  InfoComm is the leading international association of audiovisual professionals. Their new Web site (built on the RedDot CMS) gives them a spiffy new design, a well organized info architecture, and all sorts of new features designed especially for members.  Our favorite parts of the project:  working with the great team at InfoComm, spending a week at their trade show doing usability testing with their members, and figuring out how the heck to fit all the important stuff on the home page without it looking like a jumble sale.  Check it out!

Part of my role of late has been working with clients on Software Evaluations for CMS software. Sometimes we are hired as a stand alone project to make a CMS recommendation. Sometimes we evaluate and recommend CMSs as part of redesign of the client’s Website. Sometimes we use a formal process where  we gather and prioritize key client needs, identify key decision criteria,  then match requirements to product offerings narrowing the list from 8 to 4 to a final 2 vendors to demo to the client. Or alternatively, we use a more informal/faster/less costly approach, that leverages the  knowledge we’ve accumulated on past projects and simply matches the tools we know with their requirements and circumstances.

While many things vary from project to project — the client’s needs, budgets, technology preferences, interest in Open Source, the decision making team — our role is to lead clients to the point where they can make a decisions (yes this is the leading the horse to water part of the metaphor). However, there are some things happen on each project that amaze me including that sometimes you just can’t get the horse to drink from the right pond (have I extended the metaphor too far?). Read about the things that amaze me again and again, after the jump. (more…)

On a recent vacation to New York, I was able to really take the time to visit the Bronx Zoo and see all the new baby animals in their glory. Normally when I visit the zoo it is for client meetings with the good folks at the Wildlife Conservation Society and I don’t get to see much besides the seals and a few deer on the way to their offices. (Yes there are deer at the zoo.)

Well, visiting the Zoo for real was quite impressive! I’m still wowed by how great it was and I had pretty good expectations having learned about the great work they do. Have you been? If not, the next time you find yourself in New York make it a priority (and be sure to plan your trip on the Web site, which we implemented last year).

If you can’t make it to New York, consider telling your friends and family who do live in New York to make sure they support efforts to keep funds from being cut for the Zoo as New York state deals with its budget shortfalls.

It’s nice to be able to see all the great work our clients do close. This client’s work is just a bit more cuddly than others. Keep up the good work.

Recently, we relaunched an environmentally focused service learning program for the Wildlife Conservation Society on the Ning community platform. Teens for Planet Earth launched at the beginning of April (ok, I guess that isn’t so recent!) on Ning after beginning its life as a typical minisite some years ago. This project entailed migrating the existing site, enhancing the design and setting up the new community features.

For this client and project, Ning was a perfect choice, offering both the out of the box community features that a teen audience would expect with enough customization to satisfy the needs of the organization. Oh, and the price was right… just a few dollars to remove some ads and customize the domain name.

There have been discussions and comments about Ning’s value, ethics, and change in business model (this is just one of many posts out there). We’ve been monitoring this debate for a while, as we have a few clients on Ning. Ultimately the choice for this client was that Ning’s offering was more consistent with their needs, goals and situational realities. For another of our clients, the risks and impacts of working with Ning during their transition from social network platform provider to social network is more troubling.

Thankfully there are growing numbers of social networking tools sets – many free/open source, some commercial and costly, some good, and some bad. Seems like lately we’ve been asked to highlight the pros/cons of the various options, as more of our clients than ever consider whether to roll out their own social network. Products we’ve already reviewed include (in no particular order): Telligent Community Server, The Port, Higher Logic, Elgg, Grou.ps, KickApps, Collective X, and Pluck. Looks like the number of tools continues to grow and until a leader emerges, I have a feeling we’ll be asked to help clients make smart choices as part of our Software Evaluation service offering.

Beaconfire is proud to be selected as a 2009 Webby Honoree in the Activism category for Free The Slaves.

From the Webby’s Site:
“With nearly 70 categories, Website entries make up the majority of Webby Awards Winners, Nominees and Honorees. Some are beautiful to look at and interact with. Others are a testament to usability and functionality. And a handful excel across the board. To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise — and perhaps a little bragging.

Of the nearly 10,000 entries submitted to the 13th Annual Webby Awards, fewer than 15% were distinguished as an Official Honoree. This honor signifies an outstanding caliber of work. Congratulations to all of our Official Honoree selections!”

Wow. Just Wow. And yay! We’re very excited to be included with the other 11 fabulous projects in this category, and must thank Gravitate Design Studios for their partnership in creating this amazing site.

Just last month the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) launched another Web site with Beaconfire’s help on Ektron – this one for their London Conference http://iahsa.net/LONDON/index.aspx. Last September, AAHSA launched its handsome new website, aahsa.org, powered by the Ektron content management system (CMS). The main site was designed by Portent Interactive which Beaconfire then implemented in Ektron.

AAHSA invested in replacing their static website with a CMS system to get the IT department out of the content creation process, reduce turn-around time in publishing content to the Web, and help enforce page layout and style. In addition to implementing the design templates, we migrated a number of custom .NET applications into the system, on time for AAHSA’s annual meeting held last year in Philadelphia, PA. So far, AAHSA has successfully migrated two affiliate sites into Ektron, thereby taking advantage of the same template structure and workflows and helping them to enforce organization-wide business processes for content management.

(more…)

Heifer International, Beaconfire, and Forge FX have teamed up to launch Heifer Village: Nepal – an online game that takes players deep into the lives of Nepalese villagers who are striving to overcome poverty and hunger.

Heifer is a non-profit organization that uses an innovative and proven method to reduce poverty and hunger around the world: they give families living in poverty the gift of a goat, chicken, or other farm animal, along with training in sustainable farming practices. Heifer’s gift recipients use their animal’s milk, eggs, and other products to feed and clothe their families, and can sell the extra to support themselves financially. Our goal with this game is to educate players about Heifer’s unique approach to ending hunger and poverty.

But your goal is to stay alive! You’ll put yourself in the shoes of a 12 year old Nepalese girl whose village is struggling with poverty. You’ll go on a series of missions to seek out life’s necessities — starting with firewood in an area that has seen extensive deforestation. The challenges you’ll face mirror those that Heifer’s real-life partners in Nepal deal with every day.

The game is in beta – which means it’s fully playable but we’re still tweaking it and working out rough spots. We’d love your help in making this game the best it can be. We hope you’ll visit www.heifervillage.org/nepal and try it out. After you’ve played it, we’d love to know what you think. Please leave a comment on this blog post to let us know:

• Did you have any problems getting started?
• Did you know what to do?
• Did the controls make sense?
• Could you find your way around?
• Were you able to complete the missions you received? How difficult was it?
• Was it fun?

We’ll use your feedback to help us as we plan the final version of the game.

Thank you, and enjoy!

There’s a line from the animated Comedy Central show Dr. Katz that used to run in the 90s … a patient wonders aloud to the psychiatrist (the aforementioned Dr. Katz) why he’s paying exorbitant hourly fees for weekly sessions when he feels like he’s doing pretty good on his own. The doctor explains there are times when he’s overqualified and suggests all the patient really needs is just a “smart aunt”. It’s always reminded me of technical consulting – some clients need ongoing sessions with trained experts, and some just need the equivalent of smart aunt to dispense advice and nudge them along (and some need pretty intense psychotherapy, but that’s neither here nor there…)

Psychiatrist, non-profit consultant. We have similar goals – help the client to help themselves, to the point where they don’t need us anymore. Sounds like planned obsolescence… but don’t worry about us, “plenty more patients where those came from” and all that, ha-ha. The more we get to play the smart aunt role, the more clients we help. Personally, I love the smart aunt role. Don’t get me wrong, if a client needs to lay on the couch while we guide them to a successful project, then that’s what they need. But they’re paying for the privilege. And I’d really rather they spent their money on saving the world. To that end, here is some advice on making consultants work for you.

Is This a Website or a Data Integration Project?

You want a new website and a checklist of features. Forums? Check. Events calendar? Check. RSS? Check. Single sign-on with your AMS and Active Directory? Che… Wait a second, see what you did there? You just started a new project, whether you knew it or not, and whether the PM calls it one or not, and it isn’t part of your website. No, your website is part of it – a data integration project that extends to several of your systems of which the website is one. It might be a mini project or a major project, but it and your website are separate initiatives, initiatives that require their own planning, own meetings and own set of core team members that may or may not overlap. Get that new project started right or kick it out to another phase, or you’ll be spinning your wheels and burning hours.

More after the jump…

(more…)

Beaconfire has been honored to work with Special Olympics on their online holiday fundraising campaign this fall.

Basing our message on their new Be a Fan campaign and our design on elements of their soon-to-launch new Web site, our online campaigns and marketing team, led by executive sponsor Ali Cherry, worked to craft a compelling message supported by arresting visuals to encourage people to support the Special Olympics this holiday season.

Most BFWire readers are probably familiar with Special Olympics, whose mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition to more than 2.5 million people with intellectual disabilities in over 180 countries worldwide.

Working with Special Olympics on their holiday campaign has given us the opportunity to profile some of the remarkable athletes, coaches, and volunteers who benefit from and work with Special Olympics in the accompanying email appeals, which promote being a fan of unity, joy, spirit, and giving, and contributing to creating a world of acceptance, inclusion, and dignity for all people.

This election cycle has proven, in many ways, the power of web organizing. From plugged-in (or battery powered) voters donating their Facebook statuses in honor of their favorite candidate to the Obama campaign’s success with micro donations, politicians and non-profits found new and effective ways to get out the vote and personalize web experiences for millions of Americans.

So now, a week after the election, with all the organizing, campaigning, advertising and funny/scary/illuminating viral video-sharing behind us, we can step back and ask – what’s next? How can non-profits harness the energy generated throughout the campaign and continue to engage supporters without the glitz and glamour of an impending presidential election? Has the online advocacy landscape changed as a result of the election?

A glimpse at a handful of post-election blogs provides some answers.

(more…)

… the International Academy of Visual Arts, that is. Beaconfire has been honored with four Silver 2008 W3 Awards for Outstanding Website Design in the following categories:

Activism: Free the Slaves
Best Visual Appeal: Free the Slaves
Charitable Organizations/Non profit: Share Our Strength
Best Home Page: Share Our Strength

Big thanks to our tireless project & design teams and hearty congratulations to our award-winning clients!

A couple of Saturday’s ago, a team of Beaconfire staffers and families joined Ocean Conservancy for their annual International Coastal Cleanup.  Every year, teams around the world give up their Saturday to clean up all the crap that’s been dumped along our local shore lines.  There were teams working along rivers, lakes, oceans, and streams doing what we can to prevent our local crap from floating out to sea and becoming international crap and doing more damage to marine wildlife.  Our team worked along the Anacostia River in Washington, DC.  Last year, this event cleaned up 6 million pounds of debris off of 33,000 miles of shoreline in 76 countries by 378,000 participants.  Once the event coordinators of this year’s event finish tallying the results, we’re hoping to have made an even bigger impact.  (On a side note, Beaconfire is also proud to have built the online tool the event coordinators are using to report the results from thousands of events around the world.)  In photo from left to right: Elizabeth Engel, Lynn Labieniec, Mickie Cervino, Eric Eckl, Jennifer Bagnall-Stuart, Killian Cervino, Kindra Tully, Kristin Niemi-Gillig, Jeff Herron, Michael Cervino, Taylor Snook.

Did you know September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month? In light of the occasion, the Prevent Cancer Foundation tapped Beaconfire to assist them in developing an online marketing campaign for the month. Soon after, Prostate Pete was born.

Pete is a friendly, helpful organ who leverages the power of internet marketing to provide education, help broach difficult conversations about health, and encourage regular exams. His ads – running across several blogs, news sites and health networks – lead users to a lighthearted quiz on prostate health and an e-card where they can forward Pete to friends and loved ones.

We’re excited to be working with the Prevent Cancer Foundation, an organization that has been working to fund cancer research and educate the public about ways to reduce cancer risk for over 20 years.

So, if you’re a little intrigued, go ahead and take the quiz. I promise it won’t hurt a bit!