We’re often asked why we selected the name “Forty” to represent ourselves. It’s certainly not an obvious name for a marketing agency, so it’s generated quite a bit of curiosity over the years. To help answer the question, I thought I’d take a few moments to explain the meaning behind the word.
Sliger Consulting came to us with an website lacking the spirit the owner, herself was in no shortage of. After several months of user story workshops, iterations, and other Agile methods, we launched her brand new website to better reflect the company behind it. Take a look.
It started as a friendly competition among agencies in a game of bowling. Then things turned ugly.
Thanks to much organization from the Arizona chapter of the AIGA, Forty was the subject of the latest Inside the Designer Studio. Take a peak and our presentation and a time lapse video of the event!
When I was young, I had a really pessimistic view of marketing. I thought advertising was about emotional blackmail and manipulation, branding was conceptual mumbo-jumbo, design was pointless visual fluff, and public relations was just a way to hide your faults and deceive your customers. But then I learned something else…
The valley welcomed the newest PR Store last month and Forty was there for the event! We learned about their business model, pricing structure, and so much more…
Sure you just came back from a 3-day vacation and are ready to work… but why not enjoy that awesome feeling of doing nothing for just a little while longer? Here are some choice videos of Team Forty goofing off to get you in the mood.
Instead of the usual screenshots and text, we thought it might be interesting to show some photos of design artifacts from around the office related to one of our projects.
Ford generously gave us a brand new Ford Escape hybrid to test drive for a week, in exchange for writing and talking about it (which we’re doing now) As a marketing agency, how could we pass up this opportunity to get involved in this great marketing experiment?
Ignite Phoenix is firing up the creative community. We helped them by designing a variety of cards promoting their next event. Take a peek and let us know your favorites!
KSport is a high-performance automotive parts distributor that came to us for marketing assistance. Take a peak at the logo evolution, persona development, and mood board creation as KSport gets exposed!
Whether you’re just getting started with this whole social media bandwagon, or you’ve got 20,000 Twitter followers and no idea what to do with them, there are some basic principles that you should know if you want to use social media to your advantage.
There’s a lot of overlap between the three best-known types of agencies when it comes to promoting your business. What’s the difference? What makes Forty a “marketing agency”?
You know how a new project makes you feel? Blue skies, birds singing, anything is possible. Then something happens and it’s like the skies darken and the bird poops on your head.
Creating a tag line is hard. Creating a tag line for a company you don’t work for is even harder. Follow these 12 steps to create a last identity for your clients (that won’t require 20 revisions).
Resident Web Ninja of Bookmans takes a few minutes to discuss with us the reasons behind Booksmans success, how to become a Web Ninja, and his obscure music tastes. Take a peek!
After years of soul searching, experimentation, and dipping our toes in the water, we here at Forty have finally committed to fully adopting the Agile methodology across the board. This is a pretty radical change for a marketing agency. Read on to find out what it means for us.
I was asked by my friend, and former fellow Phi Beta Lambda member, John Tyler if I would co-present at Phi Beta Lambda’s annual State Leadership Conference on the topic of social media (and how it pertains to student organizations).
Since we last spoke, a whole lot has happened with this project. Upon agreeing on a visual direction for her website, Michele requested that we tackle her redesign in chunks, starting with a section she calls “Light Bulb Moments.” This portion of her website allows individuals to submit stories about their experiences with Agile. Here [...]
Life sucks for business owners right now. You’re in a market that’s already over-saturated with promotional messages, and that danged recession has crippled your marketing budget. How in the world are you supposed to get your message out to the world!?
After several months of working with the legendary funk band Tower of Power, Forty is proud to announce that the band’s new website went live at midnight last night.
Images in your entries are meant to supplement your text, not take away from it. Use these following tips to make better use of images in your writing while also saving a dolphin, or two.
After nearly a year of highly-confidential work, we’re proud to announce that Forty has designed and developed a new visual identity for one of the most trusted institutions in American society: The Public Broadcasting Service. (EDIT: Happy April Fools day, everyone!)
One of our newest clients, Michele Sliger of Sliger Consulting has a huge project in store for us that involves overhauling her existing tables-based website with a “…sleek, hip” look. Today, you get to go behind the scenes on her project.
The basic notion behind brand archetypes is that brands are a basic human social concept, and that the same patterns and ideas tend to repeat themselves over time, such that what we now consider “brands” are roughly equivalent to archetypal characters in literature, religion, folklore, mythology, etc. They’re a way for us to understand ourselves and affiliate with others, and by associating them with those common themes and characters, we can better understand how consumers connect with brands.
Graphic designers have them, web developers have them, even hack game designers have them - no, I don’t mean severe social ineptitude. They have lists of things that pertain only to them! It’s our turn copywriters! Revel in the glory and add your own, gosh darnit!
So there you are, site has been completely built and in your opinion it couldn’t be better. Then it happens…. BAM… someone complains that they can’t find something on the site. Then another complaint…. BLAMMO… they can’t see the site at all in their IE6 browser. Suddenly you realize that though your site looks beautiful in Firefox, and to you it makes total sense navigating your way around, your users aren’t having the same experience as you are.
Forty’s every-other-weekly podcast is back! In this episode, Kim Stearns and Amy Lamp discuss their experiences at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas; and answer fan questions about our name, Sunny’s beard, hiring, contracting, and much more.
Last month, we began working with an wonderful new client who runs several business, one of which is an outfitting company operating out of Colorado that provides horseback tours and camping trips. Today, you get to go behind the scenes on their project.
For the past couple of years, we’ve had internal discussions at Forty about the concept of giving you a peek of the secret guts of our projects as they move forward, rather than the keeping everything secret until some launch date in the future. As with some other initiatives lately, we’re finally getting off our collective butts and doing something about it.
Once upon a time, Forty was totally into fixed-fee billing. Several months ago, though, we repented of our evil ways—we now bill 100% hourly—and life’s been awesome every since. How did we come to this sudden change of heart, and what does it mean for our clients? Read on to find out.
If you’ve attended any sort of business workshops, read any business blogs, or asked the advice of anyone who knows what they’re talking about, you’ve probably heard the phrase “hire slow, fire fast” before. For less-experienced business owners, however, it can be difficult to visualize what that actually means. I know it was for me when Forty first started staffing up…
Web designers as writers?! Writers as web designers?! What is this world coming to?! A short little post on why writers should continue writing, and designers should continue designing.
Warning: The following post includes technical jargon. If you are averse to learning something new or revisiting concepts learned in grade school, hit the “x” at the top left of your screen immediately (or top right if you’re on a PC).
At our last Friday staff meeting, we decided that we should finally get around to launching that podcast we’ve been talking about for years. This time, however, we did more than talk. We actually assigned responsibilities, scheduled recording times, planned things out, etc. And yesterday, Kim and Sunny went into the studio and busted out an actual, honest-to-goodness podcast episode!
Logo redesigns can be a simple way to refresh a company’s image; if done correctly. When done without much discussion, thought, or overall direction, we get to mock it incessantly. That’s the rule.
We recently launched the Phoenix Marketers monthly meetup as an event for local marketing professionals to gather in a laid-back environment to chat about the things we love about our industry.
We’ve been involved with a variety of similar events over the years, and thought it might be worth sharing some tips we’ve learned that may [...]
One thing I’ve wanted forever is some kind of marketing/sales sheet that I could send out to potential clients during e-mail discussions that gives some additional background on the company, explains our pricing, gives some examples of our work and approach, etc.
Inspired by a presentation on creative agency business development by the amazing Daniel Schutzsmith [...]
You love him, you laugh at him, you now know what’s under the beanie, you envy his beard; now you get to name him!
Forty will be closed for business between March 12 and March 17 as we attend SXSW Interactive 2009 in Austin, TX. This is a juggernaut industry conference that we attend every year, and it’s a great opportunity for the team to get up-to-speed on new trends, connect with other creative and talented individuals, and [...]
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