You’ll be seeing more as our client expands to multiple locations and plans to franchise. For the moment, a few sneak-peek images of their retail space will have to suffice:

Barn pulleys become lighting fixtures.


Junior high gym lockers become merchandising displays.

Forgotten light fixtures become a hovering chandelier.

On the air, or on the can?

Sammy the Bighorn Sheep.

That’s it for now. Can’t wait to share all the details soon!

Studiofluid recently launched the website for Black Ribbon—the first and only printer to specialize in exceptional short-run music printing. With hard work and a quality product, they’re achieving success in an ultra-specific niche. (No… they won’t print your cousin’s wedding invitations).

Black Ribbon’s new site highlights their unique printing capabilities, making marketing to new clients more efficient and cost effective. They now attract clients in Los Angeles and New York and everywhere in between.

Over the years we’ve handled all aspects of their branding; from naming and logo design to copywriting photography, print design and now website design & development. We’ve helped craft their story so their target audience quickly understands the value and quality they can expect. Black Ribbon now prints for clients such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Dancing with the Stars and numerous other A-list composers and musicians.

Congratulations, Black Ribbon! We’re wishing you continued success.

How much could a website redesign could help your brand? Increase conversions? Improve customer loyalty?

Well, here’s a chance to go behind the scenes and see how other companies have improved their websites through design. Photos.com is presenting a showcase of “Before and After” design solutions for websites as a resource for small businesses to learn from. Studiofluid was selected as one of a handful of design firms included in the gallery, representing Los Angeles and Southern California with the branding and eCommerce project we completed for AutoAnything. (link to our project).

You can get a sense of the strategy involved and see some of the impressive results from design around the crountry. They’re also offering a contest with the prize being a FREE makeover of your own site, so be sure to check it out. Good luck!

If you haven’t noticed, gourmet food tucks are somewhat of a craze here in Los Angeles. And the Tango Mango Italian Ice Truck that we designed rolled out this weekend, so we got to go sample flavors and check out the action on Hillhurst Ave in Los Feliz.

The Tango Mango Truck is taking old-school Italian Ice to the Streets of L.A. Our client, Art, is a happy man these days, telling us how customers immediately respond to the branding we’ve developed and are excited to try his product. You can see more of the work we did for him in the project area, including the logo, vehicle wrap and more photos of the truck.

So the truck looks good, but how is the Italian Ice? Insanely good, of course! We only work with clients that we believe in, and these guys have earned our stamp of approval. Creamy, refreshing with chunks of real fruit, give Tango Mango a try when they’re in your corner of Los Angeles—you won’t be disappointed! You can follow every move of TangoMango on twitter.

Today we threw all client work to the side, in favor of sitting in front of a lens and staring at bright flashes of light.

Stu and I needed some new portrait photos for bios and in the about section. We called on Josh Ross to get the job done right. He didn’t disappoint—he made the process easy and we’re thrilled with the results. Thanks, Josh!

Here’s an outtake from the shoot. You know, something to have on file for when FastCompany gives us a call.

This weekend we took a Studiofluid outing to hear the Pasadena POPS at their new venue at the lawn at the Rose Bowl. Stuart and I brought our families—we enjoyed the pleasant summer evening of conversation, wine and “All That Jazz” as performed by the POPS.

We get an incredible sense of satisfaction seeing our clients thrive, knowing that we’ve in-part contributed to their success. It was fun to see the logo we designed projected onto the vibrantly lit performance stage, and to see all of the printed materials we designed serving their function.

Thanks to our friends at the Pasadena Symphony for the tickets and memorable performance.

We’d like to welcome Clara and Katarina, the Design in Transit duo, to Los Angeles, California and the US of A.

These two adventurous ladies are here from Germany, taking a tour of the west coast and hoping to gain graphic design experience in the process. About a month ago, they emailed from Germany to set up a time to come by and get a tour of Studiofluid on their arrival in L.A.

As short-term interns, they’ve contributed to an advertising campaign and website design. But it hasn’t been all work. We’ve shared a few meals together, have taken a few sightseeing tours of some highlights to check out in Los Angeles. Next week I think we’re going together to check out the Echo Park Time Travel Mart for some packaging and general design awesomeness inspiration.

I’ve also introduced the DIT ladies to a few other design firms in the area that might be interesting for them to visit. If you’re in Los Angeles, San Francisco or maybe even Portland and you want to collaborate with Design in Transit, they’d love to hear from you. To invite them out for some good American beer or just say hello, you can get in touch at: designintransit @ hotmail dot de — and tell them Studiofluid sent ya.

Two Free Weekend Passes!

Good for Saturday and/or Sunday October 3 & 4, 2009 at the Pasadena Wine Festival. The event will be at the beautiful L.A. County Arboretum, from 4:30-10p both days. These passes are going for $170, so here’s your chance for the hookup!

How to Enter:

Post to twitter starting with “I want #pasadenawinefest tix”… followed with your best reason. The winner will be selected (based on creativity) and announced on the morning of Monday 9/28. We’ll be in touch to for mailing address, comp passes will go out via priority mail the same day.

Good luck!

When it came time to speak about the brand strategy and our results, I had the floor for a few minutes to articulate our process and share about our new branding results. I’d like to think that I shared a few insightful words, but what made it into the final piece?

I’m credited with saying “really cool.”

Probably did, too.

Today our DDC poster arrived, packed in a handsome, sturdy tube complete with a shipping label crafted with care.

The 24×39″ poster is crammed with over 1000 logos / experiments / and inside jokes created by master craftsman Aaron Draplin. The extra effort oozes from this one, complete with two additional pages for navigation and explanation, and some other goodies thrown in to boot.

Don’t go buying one of these unless you’re prepared for the inexplicable pull that will have you cross-referencing the location key and liner notes, hovering over this poster for the better part of your day.