Marketing Consultations• Logos & Branding • Business Cards • Business Stationary • Rack Cards, Brochures • Flyers, Posters • Advertising Layout • Retail Product Packaging • Illustration • Photoshop Manipulation • Web Sites • HTML Email Design • Web Banner Ads • Blog Branding • Twitter Backgrounds • Image Edits for Facebook, etc • Social Media Help & Training........what do you need?

Check out examples of our design work on our Facebook page!

Logos & Branding

Can your customers spot and identify your company's logo? Do your colors set you apart like "Home Depot Orange" or Staples Red"? Do people recognize your font at first glance like the "Disney D" or the Budweiser B"? How about your logo? Do rank up there with The Nike Swoosh, McDonald's Golden Arches or the Aflek Duck? Are you ready to work on that?

Business Cards / Business Stationary

Business cards are everywhere, but how necessary are they? If you can't justify yet another piece of paper in your world, think about some alternatives- Maybe one side is your card, but the flip side is an appointment reminder, a coupon, a frequent visitor stamp card? Double sided full color business cards are not as expensive as you think, and making them pull double-duty is not only a cost savings, but additional marketing and much less waste!

Flyers

Double duty is also true with flyers- Sure you want a big splashy 8 1/2" x 11" ad for your upcoming sale, but consider making the flip side a mailer or even going in with another company to split the printing/design costs and double your target your audience. Sharing is fun and easy! Lets find you a power partner and market you both. For example- think of the savings and client list for both a DJ advertised on one side and a caterer advertised on the other... get creative! Or better yet, hire us to do it for you!

Facebook is Free! Are you on it?

We've heard the excuses- no time, no computer aptitude, no real interest in taking your marketing online.... How much time do you spend worrying about how to find customers? How many people from 13 to 113 are actively on Facebook right now? No interest in 200 million Facebook users, at least half of which are on every day? Come up with another excuse- we dare you!

Hand Holding Heroes

Being in business means you are all too familiar with the feeling of being overwhelmed. If you don't have a clone, the feeling is even worse. We want you to succeed, we want you to be happy, and we want you to tell everyone you know.

? ? T W I T T E R ? ?

You have heard about it and you want to know if you should get involved. Peer pressure is awful, huh? Come in for counseling.

Can you................?

Yup, we can. Just ask! From logos to zen haiku to computer animation. What are you waiting for?

Why We Do It

Because we love it!

Creativity and inspiration are considered food groups in our office. The excitement felt getting back beautiful printing, watching people line up at a promotional event or get hooked on local networking is such a powerful experience.

Design is a very personal business. Establishing respect, communication and long-term relationships are key. Using third party hosting and printing allows us to keep an open relationship with clients and keeps them in control of their own accounts and files. Holding files hostage doesn't make for good working relationships. We will never own your domain, have access to passwords that you need, or refuse to release purchased native files.

Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

Taking time to work with local businesses creates a happy community. Connecting them together makes a strong community. But showing them the greatness they don't always see in themselves and helping them promote that greatness creates a prideful community.

How We Work

Caffeine and sushi, please.

We hold regular business hours. Yes, we mean it; so, no, you won't be waking us up at 10:30 a.m. like your last designer.

We love to help. Doing research and getting creative on ways to save you money and get the most out of your design projects is just good karma. You being happy makes us happy, and you screaming your happiness from the rooftops makes us even happier.

We will not include our "by line" on your designs or web site without your permission. Sometimes plastering "Designed by BlackFire Studios" across your materials isn't what you had in mind. We don't ASSUME you want to spend your tight marketing budget advertising for us. But we do offer discounts to clients who will let us drop a moderate sized byline in a completely tasteful corner. We will also help you find other businesses to share printing costs with you if you are open to working double-sided and cross-promoting.

How to get started with BlackFire Studios

Ready, Set, Go!

Just contact us! We would love to connect you with other businesses that might be a good "power partner" for you, meet for coffee and discuss what floats your boat in the ocean of promotion, or stop by your office and see what you have going on so far. Let's get connected- it doesn't matter where you are in the process between dreaming and quotes!

Get the most out of your first meeting

Ready for your homework?

Bring examples- stuff you like, stuff you hate, even color swatches are a great tool to get on the same "visual" page.

Compose a strengths and weakness list about your business in comparison to your competitors. This will give us a clear idea of what to promote and how.

Come up with a short term and long term marketing plan, and talk in specifics when it comes to dollar amounts- you want to be able to get how many brochures for under $400? Do you want to spend $200 a month on advertising or $2000 a month? Examples of your budget will help craft printing and media expenses and allow us to design a plan for you that you won't be surprised at.

Request a copy of our contract prior to our first meeting. This will give you a chance to review and sign so work can begin immediately following our meeting while ideas are still fresh!

Contracts

BlackFire Studios will be happy to email, fax or mail you our contract for your review. Contracts must be signed before work begins and spell out all the responsibilities of both parties including turnaround times, payment schedules and deliverables. No surprises here!

Quotes

Quotes can certainly be given ahead of the project, just ask! That includes printing and hosting prices as well!.

Hourly Rates

BlackFire Studios charges $65 an hour for all graphic services. This includes print design, web design, content development, site maintenance, requested changes, etc. There is a 1 hour minimum per project request, please call or email to find out the best way to make that hour work for you (in other words, what else can we throw in for that hour)!

Printers, Hostings & Advertising- Oh My!

We do not host our designed sites, and we do not up-charge printing. This means that we keep a watch on sales and promotions for our customers and run quotes for media from places we know and trust. If you find a cheaper rate for advertising, hosting or printing, we'll look into it for you and make sure it will work. We offer our customers the choice of having the finished files delivered to them, or placing their orders for them.

Partners?

Always on the lookout to supply our clients with additional resources and services, we welcome the opportunity to cross-promote and develop b2b / b2c relationships! Shoot us an email with your ideas or just to introduce yourself!

Want to know more about what we have to offer?

Please call or email. For real! We don't bite, we don't pester and we don't spam.

Non-Profit Projects

You may have seen our designs in many local and national publications, some examples are:

Ventura Chamber of Commerce

Ventura Music Festival

Freddie B Salon- Pink Hair For Hope

The Women's Legacy Fund

Rotary Club of Ventura-East

NorthEast Youth Ballet

Ventura County Marathon Training

From Great Minds....

Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive it isn't. Richard Bach

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
Henry Ford

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
Andrew Carnegie

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
Lord Acton

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
Tom Brokaw

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. Henry Ford