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SEED Corp. is a Bloomington-based non-profit that helps small businesses
in a 10-county area. They provide business planning courses, microloans,
and counseling to entrepreneurs.
SEED Corp. was born in 1996 as the Bloomington Area Microenterprise
Initiative (BAMI), a low-profile non-profit providing business classes
and loans. In 2003, they grew into SEED Corp. and began serving
a much larger, 10-county area.
With the vast increase in service area, SEED Corp. needed a much
higher profile. They also needed to reach very different audiences:
bankers and attorneys who might refer clients to them, and entrepreneurs,
some of whom may not have finished high school. Over the years,
SEED Corp. had developed a patchwork of informational materials
that were inconsistent and had no marketing content. They were ready
for a complete makeover.
Brand: The SEED Corp. brand creates a supportive
environment for entrepreneurs and is more emotionally oriented than
a strictly financial service would be. We carried that emotion through
to the logo to combine professionalism, stability, warmth, and approachability.
To target each market in depth, we created three distinct but interrelated
brochures. The Corporate brochure outlines SEED Corp.’s history
and sums up their offerings. The Business Planning Course brochure
and the Commercial Loan brochure cover each topic in more depth.
Design: The icon in the logo is both structured
and organic, balancing trustworthiness with openness. The type rests
on a graphic “base,” reflecting the support that SEED
Corp. gives to small businesses. The warm green communicates financial
growth. The logo’s combination of grace, stability, and growth
capture the essence of SEED Corp.
For the brochures, we extended the tone-on-tone color theme into
other earth tones. Typography is open and approachable, and dotted-line
arrows add a whimsical touch. The brochures were printed on a smooth,
high quality uncoated paper stock to communicate both stability
and approachability.
Content: Our copy emphasizes the benefits SEED
Corp. offers and positions SEED Corp. as “the” place
to go for small business needs. The Corporate brochure is the main
marketing vehicle. The words plant, water, grow, and reap
run along the bottom of each interior panel to relate SEED Corp.’s
offerings to the process of developing a business. The Commercial
Loan and Business Planning Course brochures were written at a 10th-grade
level to be accessible to candidates from all walks of life. We
used testimonials and branding focus groups to create memorable
quotes and taglines for each brochure.
View
brochure interior
Our design was rooted in clear marketing objectives and resulted
in a more professional presence for SEED Corp. They are now using
these materials to position themselves in south-central Indiana.
This trio of brochures received a 2005 American Graphic Design Award
for excellence in communication and design.
Cairril quickly grasped our goals and
helped us create a professional presence. Her idea to make three
separate brochures gave us a lot of flexiblity in how we market
ourselves. Her understanding of our goals meant we had very few
changes to design or copy. We are now much better positioned to
reach out to our new constituencies.
Brian Kleber, President, SEED Corp.
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