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It’s that time of year again when we need to do some maintenance on our own creative batteries. Every year, we shut down our office during the holidays and for some time after to truly take time away, recharge, and renew. It is a time when we allow ourselves some freedom of thought and exploration. We read books, we walk dogs, we see movies. It is also a time of reflection to think about how the year went and what we could do better in the next one. So thanks for your patience as we shut down and power up. We will see y’all again on January 9th.
Missoula Aging Services had another stellar year of serving older members of our community and we’re proud to have helped them tell their stories in this year’s annual report. Hot off the presses, you’ll find the stories of Evelyn, Bud, and super volunteers Emily and John. You’ll also hear about all the heroic and crucial work done by this amazing agency. We are so proud to count them as a client and look forward to another year of help, hope, and opportunity!
On my last trip to Portland, I found myself having lots of conversations about color. Not just random “do you like it?” kind of conversations but intense discussions and random musings on color.
We are always inspired by color at 6PH. Alisa is the queen of color. She can pick up a swatch book and have your room color perfectly picked out in under 30 seconds. It is really amazing. And she’s not so bad at finding the perfect colors for logos and package designs either.
We are, of course, excited about all of the work that we do. But, every once in awhile, we hit the trifecta. Great work – design, coding, and strategy that we are really proud of. Great client – smart, strategic-thinking, visionary and truly wonderful, nice people. Great mission – a chance to make the world a better place.
Today we are proud to announce the launch of the new Homeword brand. Homeword provides sustainable affordable housing and housing counseling and education for those most in need. From a modest change in the name to a new tagline, logo, look, and website, we’ve spent the better part of this year working with them to update the brand so that it is as innovative and unique as the housing that they build. Homeword has done so much to make our community (and communities throughout Montana) strong and we’re excited to help spread the word about all the wonderful work that they do. So please visit them at http://www.homeword.org and leave a donation if you’re so inclined.
Now here’s a big shout-out to Andrea and Liz at Homeword for making this happen. And a big public thank you to our two ponies Mike and Alisa. They really worked hard on this one and it shows.
“Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” —Benjamin Franklin
I am freshly back from Oregon with a big box of the most fabulous wine ever and some super cool special Pinot Noir glasses. It’s all from my visit with Alisa to the Bethel Heights Vineyard in the Willamette Valley. Six Pony Hitch has been working closely with Dana and the other good folks at Bethel Heights to create a website that showcases this established, family-owned and operated winery while also giving them a robust ecommerce solution so they can sell directly to their fans. We love Bethel Heights because they make great wine and because they take great care of the earth while they are doing it. Pioneers in the world of sustainable wine growing, the Casteel families have been leading the charge in the Valley since the early 1970s. It was a real treat to spend a day learning about the process from such knowledgeable and kind guides.
There are few things in this world that can make me instantly start crying in the middle of an IKEA in Portland, Oregon. But this Tuesday, while standing on an escalator with Suzie Estep, I got an email from Tom France, lead attorney in the lawsuit against Montana Department of Transportation and ExxonMobil brought forth by the Missoula County Commissioners along with National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Montana Environmental Information Center. This is what it said: “We won! Two months after the hearing on our motion to preliminarily enjoin Imperial Oil from moving massive components across Montana highways to the Alberta tar sands, the Montana District Court just issued an order granting our motion and halting the project. The court held that the Montana Department Transportation violated the Montana Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider alternative routes, failing to consider decommissioning the highway modifications needed for the project and failing to conduct an independent evaluation of the proposal. In so doing, the Court also excused us from any need to post a bond for potential damages to Imperial.” This is when I started to cry.
It’s been a busy summer for Six Pony Hitch. We’re about to launch some really exciting websites for Homeword in Missoula and Bethel Heights Vineyard in Oregon. We’ve also got a few super interesting Brand Diagnostics in the works and we’ve been doing a lot of marketing audits and brand consulting all around Montana. Hooray for small businesses making a go of it in this big ol’ state. It’s been really fun to meet all the great business owners out there.
“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.” – John Keats
As the harbingers of doom continue to shout double dip recession, the ponies are opening up a yummy bottle of wine from Bethel Heights Vineyard to celebrate our one-year anniversary. Here’s a big thanks and shout out to the clients who have seen us through this exciting year.
I overheard a conversation the other day where someone was saying they didn’t need “functionality” on their website because they were only concerned with “how it looks.” I was stunned. Those of us who build good sites know that functionality is everything.
At Six Pony Hitch we have a comprehensive web process that spends lots of up front time thinking about “functionality” before we even begin to think about design. Why? People have short attention spans. They don’t come to your site and read every word. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they don’t keep looking. They leave. They don’t watch long videos. They don’t politely follow along in the order that you want them to. They all have different browsers. They don’t all have up-to-date Quicktime or Flash or JavaScript. They get lost. They get irritated. They don’t care.
Okay so it’s a week old but I was in New York when it hit the newstands. More on that later. Very nice article by Keila Szpaller and great photos by Kurt Wilson. Langston proved to be quite the model. And how about that lovely office? Thanks all for the kind comments we’ve been getting all week. View the Article
It’s official. We’re in our new office and we couldn’t be more excited. It was a brutal move in below zero weather but we pulled it off despite having to take a hammer to the ice on the back of the UHaul to get the door open. Brrrr. But Alisa and Mike showed off their superior moving skills and impressive muscles and we were out with the old and in with the new in no time.
This great company has a ton of cool tech services and products and we spent a lot of quality time organizing and planning. This site is a shining example of the importance of sitemaps, wireframes, and content strategy. The result is a user-friendly, accessible, and clean design. Oh, and did we mention that it is smokin’ fast? Mike pulled out all the stops on this one.
I have been working on my next planned blog post for weeks. The key word there is planned. The simplest way to stay on top of your blog posts is to sit down, plan out some topics in advance, put them on your calendar and write to them when it is time. Of course, life doesn’t always accommodate. So, my blog post on our web process sits half finished on my desktop. And, up until this moment, I have been super stressed about how long it has been since our last post. Seriously, I wake up every day thinking “I’ve got to write that post” as I can hear time mocking me…tick tick tick.
The Conoco Phillips trucks started rolling this week. It’s not the end of the world. There are only four. It’s the hundreds that ExxonMobil plan on sending through that must be stopped. Still, it feels like the end of the world. For a much more eloquent and moving account of this travesty, please read The Heart of the Monster: Why the Pacific Northwest & Northern Rockies Must Not Become an ExxonMobil Conduit to the Alberta Tar Sands by David James Duncan and Rick Bass. They wrote it and produced it in less than three months. It’s a true inspiration. Great men. Great writers. Great friends. Bless them. You can buy the book at allagainstthehaul.org.
Reely Law is a local law firm that specializes in estate planning, taxation law, probate law, business law, and liquor and gaming license transactions. They were in need of a website to reflect their firm – sophisticated but inviting, professional, modern, and illustrative of the firm’s local roots and commitment to the community. We created this informative site to let people learn about all Reely has to offer. Take a look.
We’re looking for someone with skills in client services/project management. Remember, we’re a small, new company so we’re looking for someone brave, cheerful, energetic, self-motivated, and detail-oriented who is full of ideas and can roll with whatever comes our way. If you know about brands, web stuff and/or design, that’s great. If not, we like fast learners. Some more adjectives: Loyal, dedicated, smart, flexible, interesting. and, oh yes, badass preferred.
For more information contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m still suffering from a joy hangover. Ever since the clock struck midnight and 2010 was behind us, I’ve been positively skipping with glee. It’s scary to be so optimistic but I think 2011 is going to be a great year - especially if we define great as not being as hard as 2010.
Not that hard is not good. It’s just hard. 2010 will turn out to be a great year – in hindsight. It’s the whole “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” bit. It was also, as it turns out, the year for happy accidents.
When I was younger, I believed that a few committed people could change the world. Then I got older and learned a lot of life lessons and, unfortunately, started to let doubt sneak into my heroic visions of lone activists bearing mighty (figurative) swords. It happens to the best of us. Anyone who watches the nightly news or reads a paper or follows enough blogs is bound to sink into overwhelming despair. But sometimes, if we are lucky and keep a little glimmer of hope alive, heroes appear.
We recently went live with phase one of our redesign of the Tipu’s Chai site, which includes a brand new e-commerce section powered by Shopify. Ever since Tipu’s came out with their yummy (and very economically shippable) instant variety, they’ve been getting rave reviews from people all over the country. Now they’ve got all their great chai for sale online plus a fabulous new mug to drink it in.
And, as if this all isn’t exciting enough, the folks at Shopify have decided to feature our work on their blog this week. So check out the work and check out the chai. We hope you’ll like them both.
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”
We were talking with our good friend, Andy Commons the other day and the subject of Twitter came up. The subject of Twitter, actually, comes up quite a bit in lots of conversations that we have with people. “Why should I tweet?” people ask. “I have no idea what to tweet about.” Here’s Andy’s take on it. He says that he thinks of Twitter as his personal news source. So, for example, if I’m totally into knitting (which I hope one day to be) but I don’t have hours to spend cruising the web for the best knitting sites, I can find the person on Twitter who does the cruising and follow him or her. Say that person is Jim the Knitting Man. Then I can just pick and choose the things that Jim the Knitting Man finds and likes and save loads of time and energy while still getting all the info that I crave.
We spent yesterday shooting photos for the Missoula Aging Services Annual Report with photographer Tom Robertson. I can’t begin to describe how overwhelmed I am by all the great work that Missoula Aging Services (MAS) does. Many of us have had to help care for elderly parents or grandparents and know what a difficult time it can prove to be – especially in terms of navigating through all the logistical difficulties like budgets and insurance, and medications.
This is the perfect example of a great client using the web to strengthen their brand identity and help expand the organization’s services and funding sources. This was a big site with lots of interesting back end challenges, which we’ll address in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, we’re excited to show off the final product. Endless: Our thanks to MCC for being so wonderful to work with on this project.
Thanks to everyone who came to the trial run of the Six Pony Hitch Happy Hour. Things we learned:
Happy Hour needs to be renamed as it was in actuality a very happy 5 hours.
Linsey Corbin runs Ironman triathalons, which consist of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon (26 miles 385 yards), raced in that order without a break. She is amazing. Mike Zens once did a triathalon with a three mile run. He is amazing too but for different reasons.
Keri McWilliams’ friend, Morgan’s sister’s co-worker’s friend in Pennsylvania is the ex-wife of Spider’s father.
Somebody we know is expecting – the old I’m not drinking wine for awhile - Congratulations Megan!
Heather McMilin, Jen Clary, and Spider McKnight, who have now all finally been in the same room and met each other, all love Battlestar Galactica.
Alex and Jennifer vote for Tuesdays.
Two of our clients own all the bus bench advertising space in town. Sweet.
Older people love the iPad because it is easier than a mouse. Keri McWilliams’ friend Morgan hates the iPad.
David Glaser is nothing if not punctual.
Happy Hours would be happier with Alisa in town.
Amy is a competitive poker player. Wait, could we not have guessed that?
Erin prefers fat tires to bent nails and macadamia nuts to chocolate chips.
Guacamole is always a good idea.
Wine is making a comeback.
Our test run was a great success and we’ll be scheduling our real 6PH Happy Hour for next month. Stay tuned.
We got a great phone call today from one of our favorite clients, Bipin Patel of Tipu’s Chai. His fabulous chai got reviewed very positively in Relish magazine (http://www.relishmag.com/article/41322.html). Here is the review in its entirety:
Linsey Corbin is an amazing athlete and person. We built a website to fit her super human abilities and her style. Check it out, become a fan, and watch as Linsey and her cowboy hat keep crossing those finish lines first.
After all the fun of shooting and editing, the spot for Community Medical Center is now on the air. We’ve also got some groovy print ads and billboards up around town. Next up? Listen for radio in September. Community is an amazing client with great ideas and vision. We love it when we get to do great work for great people. Check out the new work here:
My dog, Hector, lies on the ground with his front legs forward and his back legs back. We call him “frog dog” when he does it and I marvel at his flexibility. That word, flexibility, keeps coming up for me this week. You think things are going in one direction and then there they go, running off in another. Keep getting upset about the change and you become one big giant bundle of stress. Step back and wonder why the change and you just might see something better than your carefully thought out and scheduled plan. I think that ability to step back and say, “huh,” is the beginning of the real creative process.
We just finished shooting a television spot for Community Medical Center with Hamilton Studios. Here are some photos of our travels around the Missoula area. Great client. Great production company. Great fun!
The Sixth Pony - Geoff Peddicord, Manager - Marketing/Public Relations, Community Medical Center, Missoula, MT.
While at the farmers market today in Missoula I came across an interesting sight. At the end of the street where local vendors were selling colorful flowers and vegetables there sat two separate vendors selling Montana Flathead cherries. The thing that struck me instantly was that although the stands were side by side, one stand had people lined up to buy cherries while the other stand was completely empty, a ghost town complete with tumbleweeds blowing by. This was perfect, a one in a million chance to actually watch two competing businesses, going after the same “prospect” with the same product in the same location. So, I did what any responsible branding and marketing specialist would do…I sat and watched while my wife and daughter both rolled their eyes at me and kept on walking.
Some of our more astute followers have pointed out that Six Pony Hitch is owned and operated by only five ponies. So, who, they ask, is this sixth pony? The sixth pony represents the body of people that matter to our business and to us personally: our clients, our vendors, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, our contributors – anyone that we are lucky enough to share a good word, or a good job, or a good cup of Tipu’s Chai with on any given day. So in that spirit, and since we’ve been getting such great response to our blog (thank you all), we’ve decided to open things up a bit and invite some guests to the party.
I grew up in Florida and the travesty in the Gulf is hitting me particularly hard. Why does it take such a horrible tragedy for people to start making obvious connections between poor policies and utter destruction? So when the At the Table campaign contacted us about designing some materials for their work mobilizing citizens to “take their place” at the global summit in Toronto, Canada, we jumped at the chance to help.
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but after a really long and challenging day I came home to perhaps the sweetest and the most efficient dinner process I’ve ever encountered. My partner was going to be out for the evening and she knew I would be a mess when I came home. I had lots of other things on my mind. I was tired. I was stressed. Still I needed to eat. So she made it easy on me. She created a process. She decided that what I needed was a baked potato with broccoli, cheese, and some weird bean paste she had made. Here is what I found when I turned on the lights in my kitchen:
The next blog in our sequence was going to be about the creation of our logo but I had such an intense weekend that I thought I’d take this opportunity to write a little about intent. At Six Pony Hitch we decided that our goal, as corny as it may sound, is simply to make the world a more beautiful place. It’s a goal that reaches for perfection both aesthetically and morally. And it uses the word “place”, which, living in Montana, is a word we contemplate almost every day.
In fact, one of the best things about working in Missoula is this overwhelming sense of place. Ancient, giant mountains, clear, forceful rivers, endless, blue sky and the deep golden light bathing everything in knee-weakening beauty – all of it leaves one feeling completely awed and absolutely humbled by the magnitude of its perfection. Here is our inspiration to create without boundaries, to act with our hearts, and to help wherever we can. Here is the world as a more beautiful place.
Coming up with a name is never easy but it is something that we do for clients all the time. When we recently decided to rename ourselves, however, it became unnecessarily difficult. We promised to show you the good and the bad here on this blog, so here’s a bit of the underbelly: the story of a really good process completely forgotten.
When we begin work with any of our clients, we ask lots of questions. We try to get at what they do, who they are, who they are trying to reach, and what they want people to know about their business. We spend a fair amount of time on this “discovery” phase trying to get to the core of what we need to communicate. All of this work culminates in our creative brief – a document that we share with our clients for their agreement before we ever begin one lick of creative work.
Yes, we know. You’ve come to see the fantastic new site for Six Pony Hitch. Only, it’s not up yet. But don’t worry. It’s intentional. You see, we figured that the best way to show people the kind of agency that we are, is to, well, show people the kind of agency that we are: Honest, open, collaborative, hardworking and agile. And what better way to show you the truth behind these adjectives than to open up our process and invite you to take a seat in the bleachers and watch us rebrand?
Spider McKnight is the new owner and president of Six Pony Hitch Interactive and Design. Six Pony Hitch, specializes in web design and development, graphic design, identity and branding, including logos, annual reports, package design and brochures, as well as print, radio and television advertising. Joining McKnight at Six Pony Hitch are Amy Coseo, Erin Kenter, Mike Zens and Alisa Jones.
