Blog
Archive for March, 2013
Rayola launches new site
Rayola Creative has launched its new Web site. The last time we updated our site was somewhere around 2001. The first iPod was about a year in the future, Wikipedia had just launched, and Russian space station Mir fell into the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, that does seem like a long, long time to go without updating our site. All we can say is, we’ve done a heck of a lot of work in the last 12 years, and we’re pretty excited to have the new Rayola portfolio online so we can show you what we’ve been up to.
Over the next while we’ll be adding lots more work, particularly examples of environmental pieces (i.e. tradeshow booths and displays, banners, signage) which have been harder to create nice web images for. In the meantime, there are loads of magazines, books and Web sites to browse. Many of the books and magazines link straight to their publisher’s site where you can buy a copy or read an issue; the Web sites we’ve made are for folks we really admire so please click through and view their sites.
In 2011, after 22 years in business, we changed our name from Rayola Graphic Design to Rayola Creative. We started as print designers in the 1980s (we’re talking the pre-Internet, pre-computer era — seriously old skool) and have since grown into a full-service agency which handles design, communication and strategy for print, web and digital, including media buys and ad sales. We also created a division a few years ago, Mutasis Media, for our client-focussed web hosting services, a micro-press book imprint, and a small record label.
No promises about frequent postings here: we don’t have much to say about design — the work we do for our clients speaks for itself.
And in case you’re ever nostalgic for the old Rayola Flash site, we’ve archived it for here your viewing pleasure.
Best,
Clint Hutzulak
Cook Street Liquor logo refresh
We just completed a refresh of Cook Street Liquor’s logo. Earlier this year our favourite shop for beer and whiskey dropped ‘Village’ from its name so it was time for an update, but the owner also wanted to find a way to personalize the logo for different markets — branding that emphasized their great craft beer selection for music audiences at the Rifflandia festival, for instance, and something that trumpeted their specialty wines in glossy magazines.
One of the challenges was working with the existing wordmark — the client wanted to keep the same typeface and basic layout so that retail signage could be retained — but at the same time modernize a bit and make the logo stronger. We suggested creating a logo family with a strong central element that remains unchanged, set into two different badges like this: the client can pick the logo depending on their target audience.