Propeller is a multidisciplinary design firm that empowers brands through strategic innovation. Our core competencies include industrial design and product development, mechanical engineering, package design, graphic design and design research.
Good design is not mere decoration, but rather a holistic embodiment of your message. At its heart, effective design is about communication; much of which happens at a non-verbal level.
Your marketing communications must pull together diverse elements that resonate together to create an experience which expresses your message and connects with your audience.
From Identity to Usability, Hexatrope Studios creates simplicity from complexity and crafts articulate communication design.
COMMUNICATION DESIGN, NEW MEDIA, USABILITY & BRANDING THAT TAKES A PERSONALIZED CREATIVE APPROACH.
LEARN ABOUT NEW MEDIA DONE THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY. EXPERIENCE HAND-CRAFTED DIGITAL CREATIVITY.
INTERFACE/USABILITY PROJECT STREAMLINES NEW ONLINE APP. SUCCESSFUL PARTNERING SCORES WITH CLIENT.
FLASH DEMO SHOWS OFF CME’S NEW STREAMING QUOTES PRODUCT. FACTS & FLAVOR AT MARKET SPEED.
WEB BASED MULTIMEDIA GETS YOUNG PEOPLE LOST IN THE WOODS. IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE INSPIRES WITH RICH CONTENT.
NEW IDENTITY DESIGN HELPS CONTEMPORARY CHURCH GET HIP. AN OLD MESSAGE GETS A BRAND NEW LOOK.
Communication Design, New Media, Usability & Branding That Takes a Personalized Creative Approach
Hexatrope is intent on creating powerful, fresh, and focused communication design that sharpens Image and Message in both digital and traditional media. Flash multimedia experiences, Usability, and Identity/Branding integration across multiple mediums (Intramedia™) have become areas of specialty.
The approach requires being simultaneously innovative and methodical. It necessitates a robust process that is logically segmented and punctuated with checkpoints that keep clients involved in the process.
Hexatrope Studios founder Jay McDonald got started a decade ago in the design and new media world. (Roughly equivalent to the dawn of time in Internet Years) After starting Plexus Digital, Jay joined forces to become a partner at Chicago based Ergo Creative. Eventually relocating back on the East coast, he formed Hexatrope Studios.
The Power of Using a Holistic Approach that Combines Your Communication Pieces to Work Effectively Together
When prospecting, your marketing communication should do the work for you. You need to leverage your investment by choosing the most creative and efficient marketing spread— one that expertly integrates the digital with the traditional: Hexatrope IntraMedia™.
IntraMedia makes use of coordinated visual branding throughout an interleaved network of print, direct-mail, and multimedia sales presentations, creating an interconnected multipart sales/communication funnel.
Instead of your communication pieces flying randomly, they move in tight formation.
Typical services include:
Successful creative requires a Marketing Communication (MarCom) foundation. Each project starts with setting (or clarifying) an empirical strategy by defining clear objectives from a focused positioning statement. These objectives in turn guide all design decisions.
No "Ready. Fire. Aim" here.
The business landscape changes faster than people can map it. In the middle of all that change, clear communication is critical to secure business. Off-the-rack communication solutions only add to the noise level. It takes expertise and a custom approach to cut through the chatter.
Working Together Can Create a Total Effect That is More Powerful Than Just Going It Alone
Partnering is an excellent way to round out skill sets on a per-project basis. While able to offer a complete package, Hexatrope is also experienced in being a team player.
Whether partnering with IT firms, internal client teams, or other design groups, flexibility, tight process, and solid team communication are key. Hexatrope brings a great wealth of experience in this area, drawn from years of creative collaboration.
A common scenario involves providing the Usability and Design components for a partnership with an IT firm. Other times, a specialty competency like Flash authoring is provided as a component of an existing creative project.
Any way you slice it, collaboration with a team of expert players can provide substantial benefit for all parties when everyone knows how to work together.
To discuss current or upcoming projects where you could use a collaborative partner, please get in touch.
As You Look Through the Portfolio, Note the Strategy That Shaped Each Project From Concept to Completion
Hexatrope Studios produces a variety of integrated (or standalone) types of communication design work. Please take a moment to browse through the sections of the portfolio to gain some insight into the work.
From comprehensive sites to single components. Flash to HTML. Informational & transactional.
Internet, Intranet, Email & CD. HTML & Flash. With the advent of New Media, the number of options that are now open for new initiatives has grown exponentially. But let us not forget: the old rules still apply.
Strategy comes before tactics. Each new project, whether a single specific component, or a fully integrated deployment, must be born out of objectives. After these foundations are laid, then the myriad of possibilities can be brought onto the table in order to best express what needs to be communicated.
In this world of information overload, clarity and focus are absolutely essential. That's why each project starts with first things first.
Corporate Identity, Product and service Branding, Print communications.
Identity & Branding are the cornerstone of all corporate communication. Questions like “Who is your organization?” , “Who are you trying to communicate with?”, and “What do you need to say?”, lay the groundwork for connecting with your audience.
Even the simplest brochure needs to work within the parameters of established Identity & Branding standards in order to increase the value of your marketing investment by working in tandem with everything else that is already in place.
Well stewarded, consistently applied Identity & Branding generates equity with your audience.
Site Streamlining™, User Interface Design, & Usability Consulting.
Whether a site or application is informational or transactional, usability problems are one of the leading causes of user dissatisfaction.
Usability and User Interface design streamline experiences so that communication happens more efficiently, and users can accomplish tasks more easily.
For IT developers, improvements in usability can greatly improve perceived application performance, and client satisfaction. Good usability unleashes your creations to be the best they can be.
Take a Moment to Dip Into the Thinking that Makes for Good Communication, and Come Out With a Fresh Perspective
The best communication design has good thinking and well defined principles driving it. This is where some of that gets a chance to come out and play. The how & why that makes things go around here.
Each article is provided in PDF format for convenient download.
Strengthen corporate identity by losing the old ways and enjoying web-based brand stewardship.
Who's directing the corporate website? Make sure everyone is playing to their strengths for strategic results.
Web usability issues can go from being your invisible enemy to your ace in the hole.
Could smarter web ads that actually show you respect be the new thing?
How to keep your Web content fresh without stressing out IT or living with less-than-desirable results.
Take a moment to peer into the future of technology and how it affects each of us
The Online Graphic Standards Guide
BrandAccess™ 4.0 is a simple, web-based repository for your organization's core marketing communication assets. It fortifies the integrity of any corporate identity system by centralizing the resources. The visually-organized downloadable elements and guidelines make it easy for your marketing collaborators to quickly access and deploy your identity properly.