Does your corporate logo dance?

March 02, 2006

Darien Chamber of Commerce

Does your corporate logo dance?

Does your Web site sing?

These are serious questions to the people at 341 Studios LLC, which specializes in corporate design and marketing consulting. Hence the Darien company’s new tagline, “Performing Visual Arts and Marketing Magic,” and a recent Web site redesign that underscores this “performance” positioning (www.341studios.com).

Founded in 1999 by Felicia Rubinstein and Gretchen Bruno, 341 Studios specializes in working with small businesses, many of them retailers and service companies in and around Fairfield County, along with a host of non-profit entities—from the Darien Library to United Way of Darien. The firm also has done projects for such national marketers as ING Clarion Realty and McGraw Hill.

As with many local companies, word of mouth generates a lot of business. Rubinstein, Bruno and their associates supplement such referrals with periodic mailings to a list of several hundred prospects. Recent mailings have included glosssy six-by-six-inch cards bearing teaser lines like “Does Your Logo Dance?” and “Does Your Direct Mail Act?”

“Many clients start out wanting to get a logo, but when you sit down with them and review their marketing materials, you realize they could use help with their overall image, Web site, direct mail pieces and other elements,” said Rubinstein.

Creating a logo is not as easy as it might seem. 341 Studios has copyrighted the term Logo LogicÓ to describe its proprietary multi-step process, which includes three presentations to the client and at least two logo revisions along the way. To make the whole thing easy to understand, if not actually fun, the company produced a brochure titled LogoLand: “The game where you learn the best way to get a distinctive, indentifying symbol for your business.” While the engaging three-part foldout resembles a child’s board game, it’s steeped in the art of determining how to achieve the precise image a company should present to the world.

Business is brisk, partly a function of a strong economy, and because “We are now able to offer a full spectrum of services that people need. We really partner with our clients to deliver materials with their unique style in a timely fashion,” said Bruno. The founders of 341 Studios rely on a growing network of professionals, some of whom juggle the demands of homemaking and brand/design projects. Interns from Norwalk Community College help to round out the firm’s labor force.

Because Web sites are such an important marketing tool for any company—a company’s Internet presence is increasingly its image in today’s world—341 Studios recently signed on Mary Callahan as “Web Specialist.” This gives the firm advanced Web site design capabilities like FLASH animation “and an enhanced ability to create higher-end, better-designed sites that are easy to read and have a clean, simple look,” said Rubinstein.

Non-profit groups are very important to the 341 Studios, which has  many such clients and understands the challenges of fund-raising and the importance of branding a campaign. Every year, the firm sets aside resources for a pro bono project for a non-profit organization and works closely with an intern from Norwalk Community College to develop the appropriate materials. This year, 341 Studios has chosen the George Washington Carver Center in South Norwalk and will design and produce the program materials for the Center’s spring fund-raising campaign.