Creating a Brand: Peter Nappi Boots & Shoes

Over a year ago, a stylish entrepreneur named Phillip Nappi contacted us to share his vision for a new artisan boot and shoe company that would honor his Italian grandfather’s legacy through hand-crafted boots, bags and other dry goods. Inspired by patterns of 100-year old boots, Phillip worked with a team of artisans in Italy to produce prototypes for a full line of boots and bags.

When we first saw the boots, we were convinced that this line of leather goods would be a smashing success if the branding & marketing materials could tell the story. Creative director Joel Anderson loved the boots so much that he insisted on being the first customer in the world to own a pair of Peter Nappi boots. As soon his boots were delivered, he knew this branding project was going to be a labor of love. (Joel likes to be a consumer of the products and services he and his team promotes—this ensures an immediate connection and a real-life experience as a member of the target audience.)

We joined forces with John Moessner, a great young film maker and photographer. We also partnered with Cabedge, an amazing web site development firm based in Nashville, TN. With our logo & brand development, John’s film and photography, and Cabedge’s web site building capabilities, we created all of the essential components needed to define the brand and launch this new company in style.

We started with research and sketching. Our logos needed to feel like they were created 100 years ago. So we poured over old tobacco tins, catalogs, antiques, ads and poster art from the early 1900’s. We kept in mind that our logo and branding art had to tell the story of an Italian shoe maker who immigrated to the USA and passed down a legacy of art and craftsmanship to his grandson. We sought to represent the quality, beauty, comfort and style that makes these beautiful $700+ boots and bags worth every penny. After several rounds of rough logo concepts, we arrived at a clean, simple logo based on the signature of Phillip’s Italian grandfather (taken from copies of his Ellis Island immigration papers.) The resulting logo seemed to fit the vision and the brand perfectly.

Once a logo was finalized, ADG designers Ligia Teodosiu and Edward Patton started creating a comprehensive style guide that dictated colors, fonts, backgrounds, patterns, etc. necessary for creating the packaging, hang tags, press releases, and a comprehensive book that would tell the Peter Nappi story and showcase the products. Joel and Ligia consulted with Cabedge to help make the web site look like a natural extension of the printed materials. Phillip and Dana Nappi already had a very keen vision of how to create the perfect showroom via colors, textures, materials, props and furniture they collected from Italy and other places. As the creators of this line, they brought their own sense of color, mood, style and story to every aspect of the project, making the whole campaign a true team effort.

The Peter Nappi web site (built by Cabedge) conveys the essence of the Nappi brand via a film created by John Moessner. The site showcases all of the products, makes ordering possible, and offers a virtual tour of the Peter Nappi showroom via John’s awesome photography.

Overall, this branding project is a great example of what happens when experts collaborate, guided by a branding strategy that ties everything together and keeps everyone “reading off of the same page.” The Nappis couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. And neither could we!

When Shoes Become Art

CNN recently ran a story about artist Kobi Levi who makes amazing art that you can wear on your feet. There is a great interview with him, too... check it out!

Shirt Designs for Farm Boy Brand

Farm Boy Brand has created wonderful collections of stylish casual apparel aimed at folks who feel more at home on a horse than at a desk. The Farm Boy catalog is full of amazingly-designed products—so we were flattered when they called us and asked if we’d like to create 5 more shirt designs to add to their Blue Ribbon Collection. We rolled up our sleeves and dug deep into the fertile soil of our imaginations to come up with fresh, colorful, fun designs to fit their cheeky farm girl themes.

After some good old fashioned hard work, Ligia (a city girl) got in touch with her inner farm girl and came up with 5 sketches. The concepts translated beautifully into full color screen printed designs on some very fashionable t-shirts.

Now we are working on some new Farm Boy / Farm Girl designs due to come out next season. See more of their awesome products at: www.farmboybrand.com

Limited Edition Great Southern Brood Prints

The Great Southern Brood poster series, part of the Cicada Invasion! product line, was silk screened as a limited edition 18" x 24" collection and was created by staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg. The three poster series receives its title from the nickname for Brood 19, the specific group of cicadas that emerge every thirteen years in the Mid South by the millions. Each poster design is limited to 30 numbered and signed prints printed by Kangaroo Press.

We got to stop by Kangaroo Press's workshop as Ryan Nole, founder and owner of Kangaroo Press, was finishing up our posters. He was kind enough to give us a little tour.

An old Heidelburg Press.

The super cool T-shirt printer.

Letterpress letters. 

This automatic screen printer machine silk screened our posters, one color at a time. Brady, Ryan's assistant, was working so hard he was a blur.

Brady (left) and Ryan posing with the (near) finished product. All three are very handsome.

We also recently had the opportunity to work with Snowcat Press on a printing of 90 special neon colored prints. They are even cooler under black light.

NEW 1-Year Anniversary Flood Relief Print

This is our latest Spirit of Nashville print. Created to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the Music City Flood, 500 limited edition prints will raise money for on-going flood relief work. They are for sale now on at SpiritOfNashville.com.

Within a week of the devastating Nashville floods on May 1-2, 2010, we began illustrating 2 new prints to raise money for flood relief efforts. We joined forces with McQuiddy Classic Printing and Athens Paper who donated printing and paper to produce 1,000 limited edition prints which were sold at our Spirit of Nashville Studio Store and on our web site. The initial run of prints sold out in a few weeks, generating over $30,000 that was donated directly to several flood relief agencies including the Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, and the Community Foundation.

These two Flood Relief poster designs recently won Gold ADDY Awards, Best of Category, Regional ADDYs, and have gone on to represent Nashville in the National ADDY Awards—a competition that recognizes outstanding commercial art, design and advertising.

Within weeks of the flood, we began giving the prints for free to anyone who had lost their homes or businesses in the flood. Those who bought the prints did so for different reasons—some wanted something to commemorate the historic event that redefined our city’s character. Others wanted to give to the flood relief fund raising effort. Many flood victims bought the prints to give as thank-you gifts to friends and neighbors who had worked tirelessly in their time of need. Once we sold out of the prints, people started asking us if we planned to do another print to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the flood.

So the answer is YES! McQuiddy Classic Printing and Athens Paper donated printing and paper to help us produce a new 1-year anniversary flood print. (Above: David McQuiddy III and Joel Anderson posed just after the artist’s proof was pulled from the Press on April 22, 2001. This signed proof will be auctioned off at a fund raising event.)

The new 18” x 24” anniversary flood prints, illustrated by Ligia Teodosiu feature a mandolin set against the Nashville skyline sprouting flowers as the flood waters recede. The print features the words Nashville: Stronger. Better. Brighter. 500 of these limited edition prints will be available at www.SpiritOfNashville.com starting on April 28 for $35 each while supplies last. $30 of every purchase go directly to the Community Foundation’s flood relief fund. 

In addition to the new print, Spirit of Nashville has produced a CD featuring 2 new songs that commemorate the historic flood. Inspired by the 2010 Spirit of Nashville flood relief prints, local songwriter Wendy Wills wrote 2 songs to be released in conjunction with the 1-year anniversary of the flood. One song, titled Rise Again, is sung by Nashville singer Amber Turner. The other song titled, Play On was co-written and performed by local country artist and rodeo cowboy Paul Bogart, who knows about overcoming adversity after personally suffering major flood damage. The 2-song CD can be purchased for $6 separately, or bought with the new commemorative print for $40 at the Spirit Of Nashville store.

Preview the 2 songs:

  

About the Musicians:
Wendy Wills has been writing songs professionally for about 20 years. Her songs have been recorded on several Grammy and Dove Award-nominated projects. She says: “Truly amazing is how I would describe both the devastation of the flood and ethos of the city of Nashville, TN. Though people were broken and though so many dreams washed away, the indomitable spirit of this town held firm. And as the waters receded and the skies cleared, Nashville began to rise again. When I saw the Spirit of Nashville flood relief posters, I sat down at the piano and in a matter of a couple of hours had the majority of “Rise Again” finished.”

Paul Bogart is a young Oklahoma singer and champion rodeo cowboy whose life was turned upside down by the Harpeth River in May 2010. He and his wife left for church Sunday morning and could not return home for 2 days. And when they finally did, they were shocked. Yes, the damage was great. But even greater were the strong hands and willing hearts of friends, neighbors and total strangers that helped them dig out and clean up. It was not hard for Paul and Wendy to sit down and write Play On. That’s what Paul was able to do, because that’s what Nashville does—we Play On.

BBQ Fight Club is selling out at Williams-Sonoma!

We got the news a while back that Williams-Sonoma would be carrying Hog Heaven's BBQ Fight Club line of sauces, but it's another thing to see it.

Apparently they've been doing pretty well too. Congrats to our friends over at Hog Heaven on a job well done.

Crazy New Cicada Invasion Campaign

Every 13 years, Nashville is invaded by billions of noisy, flying red-eyed critters that emerge from the ground when the temperature reaches 67 degrees for a week. The cicada grubs tunnel up from the deep, climb trees, split out of their shells, sprout wings, and then make an infernal racket for about 4-6 weeks. Their sole purpose is to sing, fly, mate, lay eggs, and then die. This year, experts say it will happen around the end of April or early May.

The last time this happened was 1998—and it was truly apocalyptic. At that time, Joel Anderson (founder of Anderson Design Group and the Spirit of Nashville) wanted to do something to celebrate the historic and creepy event. But by the time he had a few t-shirt ideas hammered out, the plague was over. So he’s had 13 years to get ready for what is about to be another monumental natural phenomenon.

Joel and his team of artists at Anderson Design Group have created an entire line of Music City Cicada Invasion Survival Gear. Starting with limited edition posters and postcards, the collection has grown out of control with the creation of guitar-shaped cicada swatters, beer mugs, coffee mugs, stickers, magnets, t-shirts, even Anti-Cicada ear plugs! Andy created 3 limited edition silk screen prints—the series is called the Great Southern Brood. Liga created a stylish coffee mug and postcard design. Edward created a hip t-shirt. Dawn sourced a full range of products to adorn with our nutty designs. We even added a shirt and print design to our line up from Ryon, one of Joel’s students from Watkins College of Art & Design.

As Designers, it’s a lot of fun to tap into the psyche of popular culture and create art and products that will help everyone come together during a crisis, or laugh in unison as a community. This cicada outbreak has given our designers a chance to create funny and practical things that will serve as keepsakes—souvenirs of an amazing and bizarre natural event that will (thankfully) not happen again for 13 more years.

This campaign is also a great exercise in branding and marketing. (See other examples of our brand development work at : www.AndersonDesignGroup.com.) We do this all the time for our clients, but hardly ever do we go this far in such a short time (and with our own money!) Developing the colors, fonts, logos, illustrations and materials to create, launch and market a new brand—all in the span of 45 days—this was truly daunting challenge to undertake! The resulting web site, social media campaign, blog and product line will be a great way to inform and entertain Nashville during the cicada invasion. It will also be an effective way to showcase our design and marketing services.

Watch informative videos, get answers to frequently asked questions, and see the full line of whacky prints and gifts at: www.cicadainvasion.com.