New Work: Botsford EcoTech Brand/Website

Recently, 5-Trees LLC, a long-time client of the zen kitchen, decided to rebrand as Botsford EcoTech Partners, a move precipitated by founder Krista Botsford's decision to move her practice to Nashua, NH from its Burlington, MA location.

Botsford EcoTech Partners provides private consulting services, educational seminars, and an innovative web-based software solution to help technology companies navigate the ever-changing landscape of global environmental compliance. The brand needed to communicate not only the professionalism and considerable expertise that Botsford brought to the table, but also the approachability and down-to-earth attitude that Krista is known for.

Working with Krista, the zen kitchen created a logo, website and marketing materials (still in development) that focused on a clean, professional, but approachable look. The brand and accompanying website focuses on clean lines, white space, and easy access to key information - a must when communicating with an audience of engineers and top executives.

To visit the new Botsford EcoTech website and see the brand in action, visit BotsfordEcoTech.com.

tzk news: Marketing on a Shoestring class

Just a quick note to mention that, on January 25th, 2008, I'm going to be teaching a class in Marketing on a Shoestring for the Center for Women and Enterprise in Providence. As it's a subject close to my heart, the class will likely turn into a series of blog posts and/or an e-book somewhere down the line. For now, though, I'll let you know how things go. Ta!

tzk news: new article by Dani on Creative Latitude

I just heard from Derald Schultz over at Creative Latitude that one of my recent articles has just gone up for publication on the site. In the article, called "the seven deadly sins of e-mail marketing," I go over some fairly basic, but still noteworthy blunders that I see folks making when it comes to their e-mail newsletters.

Creative Latitude is a worldwide community that unites various creative disciplines for collective promotion, education and ethical business practice. Dani Nordin of the zen kitchen has been an active member since 2006.

New Work: Peg O'Connell logos

Peg O'Connell, an independent bookkeeper based in Brookline, MA, started her own business after years of working in a large firm. She needed an identity that would hint at her naturally friendly and cheerful personality while still projecting the professionalism required by her - well - profession.



The bold, yet simple and elegant treatment of the final logo created by the zen kitchen speaks well to Peg's intended market - creatives and other independent professionals. It's sophisticated without being stuffy, casual without being unprofessional.

Included in the system are a notecard/business card combo that Peg can use to followup with folks she networks with as well as thank her clients for working with her. A website is soon to follow.

New Work: Kitchen on Common Website

It's been crazy with the work-finishing lately; just crazy, I tell you! The most recent addition to this flood of productivity is also one of the most exciting for me: the unleashing of the Kitchen on Common website (click the link to view in all its glory). Kitchen on Common is a new restaurant located in Cushing Square, just a stone's throw away from my office in Watertown MA (literally, I can walk there - and do. Quite often. It's just that tasty.)

Chef Joh Kokubo, a Lexington MA resident and owner of Kitchen on Common, is committed to using fresh, local ingredients whenever possible - no small feat in New England! But he does an amazing job, providing a terrific meal at reasonable prices, and creating food that's worth going back for as long as it's available (since much of his cuisine is dependent on local growing seasons, items don't stay on the menu for too long).



This design came together with fresh, simple imagery (much like the food at Kitchen on Common itself), and elegant typography. In order to make it easy for Joh to update the frequently-changing menu, a simple template was created for both the lunch and dinner menus that Joh can simply export to PDF and replace in the site files, saving both time and money on frequent updates.

In addition to the recently completed website, the zen kitchen designed the identity, business card, signage and menus for the restaurant, and will be helping with ongoing marketing in the near future.

New Work: Christine Tetreault Website

Christine Tetreault, a freelance journalist and copywriter based outside Boston MA, needed a new web presence to help her focus her work away from the technical copywriting and editing she had been doing and lean towards more travel, outdoors and wellness/spirituality writing, her current passion. Working with Dani Nordin of the zen kitchen, a comprehensive identity package and website was created to help her showcase her work.



Feedback has already been positive for the new site. Says Christine, “From my first meeting with Dani, I found it impossible not to be energized and inspired by her positive energy and willingness to share her learning and experience as a creative artist and successful small business owner. Dani's business and design guidance have been invaluable in helping me to craft my writing goals and web site style, format, and content. Dani is a breeze to work with as a business partner, be it in person, by phone, or via email -- comfortable, open creative exchange, diplomatic artistic discussion, and above and beyond results! I highly recommend Dani and The Zen Kitchen for any creative graphic design, marketing, web project. Her green commitment is an added bonus to her exceptional talents.”

Check out the site here.

Dani Nordin in the Huffington Post

As part of the Ladies Who Launch series on the Huffington Post, I shared the REAL reason I started the zen kitchen, and my thoughts on entrepreneurship and sustainability.

An excerpt:

For me, "freedom, control and flexibility" means a number of things. Of course, it's important for me to wear what I want to work -- but it's also important for me to take on projects that truly appeal to me, and to work with people that I genuinely like. Not only does this result in better work for my clients, it just makes life a lot nicer. It's also important to me that my business fits around my life -- not the other way around.

The full text is here.

Dani Nordin featured in The Savvy Girl's Guide to Online Networking

Just got word from Diane Danielson that her new book, The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (Or What Would Jane Austen Do?) is now available on Amazon - and I'm quoted in Chapter 8. I haven't read it yet (my copy is on the way to me), but I'll share a link to what fellow blogger Wendy Darcy had to say, along with a quote (note: NOT MINE) from the book:

"In some ways, modern networking is no different than what took place in Jane Austen’s novels: it’s important to know many different people, attend a myriad of social events, and, above all else, have proper manners at all times."

The rest of her entry is located here.

It's nice being almost sorta famous!

It's my birthday!

Okay, so - between the fact that I'm moving and other *ahem* stuff going on in the universe of me, I haven't had a chance to post much of late. But I did want to pop in and announce that it is my birthday, and as such, I am taking a short amount of much-needed time off, most of which will be spent reading a certain work of fiction that should reach my doorstep - well - sometime tomorrow.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dani sightings: I'm in HOW!

Okay, so it's not a HUGE mention, but I'm there: on page 80, in the article called In the Greener Good,, I'm one of the various experts (I guess I'm an expert, anyway) that author Roberta Cruger quotes on the topics of green design and building a greener studio. Not too shabby!

The only quick correction I should note is that I'm not in Northampton, I'm in Somerville, and soon to be in Watertown (August 1st, baby!). But that's okay - Northampton rocks.

the zen kitchen featured in Branded by Debut Publications

Well, thanks to my fellow HOWie Cal over at Mayhem Studios, I just found out that the zen kitchen's work has been shortlisted to appear in the publication Branded, to be released by Début Publications in the summer. The book, which discusses the power of creating strong brands, will feature work from the zen kitchen as well as 130+ other designers from around the world.

For more info on the book and the artists selected, visit debutpublications.co.uk.

Back from Green Marketing Seminar with Precision Web Marketing

Well, after a long and particularly insane ride home (I swear that I93 exists to make drivers REALLY HATE their cars) I have returned from co-presenting a seminar on Green Marketing with Michelle Girasole of Precision Web Marketing in Providence. The group was intimate, but attentive, and I had a great time chatting with them about more eco-friendly ways to promote their businesses, including green printing, blogging, and e-mail newsletters. I look forward to having the chance to do that again—public speaking is one of those things I truly love to do, and it gives me a chance to use that theatre training I never thought I'd use again!

After the seminar, I stopped by to visit a good friend and took a trip to Pawtuxet Village in Cranston—my old hangout, before I moved up to Somerville a year ago. It's a beautiful, quaint little village right by the Pawtuxet River, just up the street from where I grew up. While I was there, I stopped by Little Falls Bakery and Café (please don't pay too much attention to the aesthetics of their site—ack!) to pick up a couple of their Multigrain scones, which are one of my absolute favorite breakfast items ever, and one of the things I miss most about living in Cranston. Little Falls does it right—they're an institution in Pawtuxet Village, and I think that's mainly because they don't need to market themselves all that heavily to people—they're in a very convenient location just at the beginning of the main part of the Village, they provide great food (all their scones are amazing, and their low-carb bagels are good enough to convince even someone who loves carbs to give them a try. The coffee rocks too) and great, friendly service, and they try to give back to their community. Little by little, word of mouth leads to more customers, and those customers tell other people, and so on and so forth.

The fact is that, while all the other things that business owners do to market themselves is good and valuable, there is so much to be said about just being good at what you do, and about being good to other people. When you do something nice for someone, whether it's helping them with an issue they've been having, sending them a helpful article about something they'd be interested in, or even just smiling and saying hello—they remember that, and they remember you. And getting people to remember you is half of successful marketing. So, as you go along in your workday, take some time to be good to people—it'll always pay you back.