Here’s a testimonial I produced for Red Cap Communications*, on the work they did for EMF Film. I asked Red Cap’s CEO, Clare Dagin, “what’s the most important thing we need your client to say about you?”
“Systematic thinking my big differentiator,” said Dagin. “Too many designers create one-offs without thinking of how they’ll work with other existing or future collateral, or with the text. ” So we asked for — and received — comments on this topic from Jayne Winch, EMF Film’s COO. We also nailed down one more big differentiator: responsiveness.
EMF Film for Red Cap
“Wow — this works.” That’s what I said when I saw our new brochure…
EMF Film, Inc. is in the wireless camera business. We’re pioneers at what we do, and we’ve got credits in dozens of award-winning movies like Memoirs of a Geisha, The Bourne Ultimatum, I Am Legend, and Spider-Man 3. We’re serious about our business, but we’re far from uptight. So when we went looking for some marketing communications help, we were psyched to meet Clare at Red Cap.
Clare is fun to work with, creative, and professional. For years we had plain business cards and a brochure that I always hated. Everything was piecemeal. Now we’ve got a system.
We’re growing steadily but we want to grow exponentially. In the entertainment business, our reputation grows one person at a time. On every project, we meet and work with new people: a photographer, a director, a producer, or a crew member… We want to make it easy for them to notice us and remember us, and that’s where the marketing collateral comes in.
In the movie business, people are moving around constantly and it’s hard for producers and creative artists to keep track of what they did just one or two projects ago. “Who were the folks that did that great camera work on that movie with so-and-so?” It’s easy to forget the details. So that’s why we have a distinctive look. We had our skull and cross-bones logo before we worked with Clare, but she helped us see the need for including our name with the logo, and she gave us a single look that now covers our business cards, our stationery, our website, our t-shirts and now a great brochure… It’s a thread that gives continuity to what we present, whether we’re in LA or New York.
I’ve worked with some big design firms before, and they’re awfully formal and uptight. They don’t get it. We don’t work in a formal industry, so the uptight approach doesn’t work. Other designers wanted to make us look all buttoned-down, but that’s not us. (And they call themselves “creative.” Ha.) They didn’t like it when we suggested different ideas. They didn’t like it when we didn’t go along with their plans. Well, we didn’t like it when they didn’t listen to us. Clare is great at listening. She’s great at creative communications that help us sell. We’re psyched that we have her.
Jayne Winch, COO, EMF Film.
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Note: stay tuned for a part II on Jayne’s testimonial — Take All the Words You Can.
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*names changed to make sure that web searchers don’t come to this site when they should be going to my clients’! Ping me for the real name of Red Cap and Clare. I’ll be glad to let you know.
