Insights

A DC Marketing Company’s Year in Review : Graphic Design, Video Production, and More!

It was a transformational year for TriVision. After 22 years of being in the business, we finally set our footmark outside of Northern Virginia, and opened new locations in downtown Washington, DC and Baltimore.  It was also a year full of fun, exciting projects: from producing Georgetown University’s online business courses, to filming a TV commercial for Jerry’s Subs and Pizza, to taking on the entire branding campaign for the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Let’s start with the trends first. Were there any new things we did in 2014? Of course there were, and we’re just as at the mercy of the zeitgeist as our friends in the industry.

These included design trends and techniques, such as image sliders, full screen photography, word stacks, and geometric logo design. Many of these design systems were used for our clients like Symantec CorporationDatapath and ITC Global.

Outside of graphic design, we embraced trends in video production. Often we used 2D and 3D animation to bring corporate videos to life. The influence of this trend can be seen in work done for clients like eInternMSRB and Oqaab, Afghanistan’s first digital television.

Let’s take a last look at 2014 starting with…

January

Georgetown University. We kicked off our year with a major selection by Deltak to provide the production and post-production of Georgetown’s online, higher education programs for theMcDonough School of Business.  The online courses were filmed onsite at the university, or occasionally at our studio in Chantilly, Virginia. Way to start off the year!

Additionally, we had the honor to stream and broadcast live an “Evening with Esperanza Spalding” at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, DC, hosted by Human Rights First. The Grammy winner performed a variety of songs before returning to the stage for a panel discussion on the prisoners currently held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

February
…speaking of other countries, in February, we took on the production of a series of marketing videos for Dennemeyer Group where we translated English videos to Mandarin and Japanese languages. It was a challenging yet great learning experience. Let’s just say in our line of work, we don’t have a habit of saying no…

March
…and how can we say no to TATA Group, one of the largest international brands in the world with operations in over 80 countries.  For one of our projects with TATA, we got to travel to multiple cities to see their many companies, including New York where we visited Eight O’Clock, a coffee making factory as well as the luxurious Pierre Hotel, the iconic U.S. flagship of Taj Hotels. Later we also got to film at the Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing plant. This was undeniably one of our favorite and most memorable projects to film.

April

…who can resist Thai food? Known for its appearance on the Food Network’s ‘Throwdown with Bobby Flay‘ and the Travel ChannelThai Basil, a local Zagat-Rated Thai cuisine restaurant underwent a renovation with the help of TriVision and our sister company, Elegance Décor. The restaurant’s entire interior space was revamped to reflect the signature of Thai hospitality while maintaining the initial charm of the property. Thai Basil’s brand identity also got a facelift with a newly designed logo, menus, marketing collateral and revamped website.

Speaking of designs that are both aesthetically appealing and consistent…

May

…don’t look to Olive Garden for inspiration. Their new logo, unveiled to choruses of “boos”, taught us that misconstrued logo designs can potentially ruin a business’ reputation.

In other potentially reputation-ruining moves, Time magazine began placing ads on the covers of magazines, and in doing so, broke a long-standing tradition in place to protect and preserve editorial independence from advertisers and marketers.

Speaking of independence, the heroism of women in the U.S. military was brought to life by Academy Award winnerRon Howard in a film called “Unsung Heroes: The Story of America’s Female Patriots.”  The film, which had a world premiere at the Arlington National Cemetery, is based on a marketing campaign to celebrate and acknowledge the sacrifices and achievements of women in the U.S. military. TriVision was honored to be a guest because of its role behind the branding and website of this worthy cause.

And speaking of entertainment shown on national television…

June

…in this month’s biggest surprise, the Fifa World Cup started off with the shocking loss of defending World champions Spain in the first round of the televised match.

We didn’t let soccer distract us though. We produced over 100 Innovator videos for a project for USAID.  These videos were used for innovators on stage for quick presentations. Sounds like a rigorous task? Not really, it helped us pass the long summer days…

July

…there’s no time like the morning, especially during the summer. We attended our first ever Creative Mornings DC talk at the National Portrait Gallery for Gregg Deal’s inspiring and crucial talk about his indigenous heritage. This talk would be the one of many Creative Mornings DC talks we plan to attend during the year.

Add John Hopkins Carey Business School to our client list. It seems like studio building has become our forte! We were chosen to convert their multipurpose room into a full range production studio.  Not too shabby.

And speaking of new experiences…

August

…we learned that millions of people are willing to dump buckets of ice water on their heads. The ALS Challenge (aka the Ice Bucket Challenge) took the world by storm – everyone from your baby brother to Bill Gates poured a bucket of ice water over their heads and posted it on social media to show their support of Lou Gehrig’s disease research.

This was also the month TriVision was selected to run the entire branding and marketing campaign for Oqaab, Afghanistan’s first digital television. The change from analog to digital TV broadcasting marks a milestone in the country’s media history and we are all too excited to play an integral role in this journey!

Speaking of national television…

September

…we began our collaboration with Jerry’s Subs & Pizza. In our first TV commercial for the popular restaurant chain, we cruised to the shoot with a full production team, ranging from the standard director of photography to the not-so-typical addition of a “cheese steak stylist”. From creating the storyboard to casting models and to final production, it was worth it and a pretty cool moment to watch our own TV commercial on Monday Night Football. Stay tuned for more commercials this spring!

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…and as we support creative development on the local level, we also spread out and touch larger creative hubs like New York City. We attended The One Club’s annual event,Here are All the Black People. The event was started as a way to celebrate and promote diversity in the advertising industry.

And speaking of advertising…

October

…we were among the sponsors for the Washington Business Journal’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Washington D.C Metro Area. The WBJ hosts this event every year as a way to recognize businesses in the region that are on the rise.  This year we were just a sponsor, hopefully next year we will be on that list too!

With all that talk about Ebola, it was interesting timing to start work with Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  We were selected to film and produce an Ambulance DVD for the center to bring awareness and educate EMTs and paramedics on standard guidelines to follow in emergency medical settings. Our crew has already traveled to Nashville for the first part of the shoot, and more shoots are to come.

But speaking of traveling…

November

… our longtime friend and client, Dr. Louise Pascale, was this year’s 2014 TEDxAM speaker at Southern New Hampshire University. TEDxAmoskeagMillyard is a catalyst for citizen creatives, students, entrepreneurs, artists, change agents and innovators to share ideas, connect, collaborate and create positive impact.

When it comes to impact, our creative director knows how to make one. Nearly 17 years ago, Arsalan Lutfi designed DC Central Kitchen’s corporate logo as part of a contest he won while attending George Mason University.

So you can imagine what he must have felt like when he saw his own logo at the forefront of Capital Food Fight, a benefit event hosted by DC Central Kitchen and renowned chef José Andrés, in an effort to combat food, hunger and to create opportunity in Washington DC.

Anthony Bourdain from CNN’s “Parts Unknown” plus a stream of other celebrity judges and chefs were also part of the event which drew in about 1,000 guests as they tasted fares from 75 of DC’s best restaurants while watching four local top chefs compete live onstage.

When it comes to food…

December

…we like to have our cake and eat it too. TriVisioneers swarmed the Atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center to celebrate the grand opening of TriVision’s first downtown DC location, complete with a company-themed logo cake made by none other than one of our favorite clients Cakes by Happy Eatery.

What’s cutting a cake without cutting a ribbon too? Our entire team at TriVision along with the founders stood together for photos and cut the pink ribbon to celebrate the expansion of our business in the heart of the capital city of the world.

In attendance were our friends, family and media, as well as many of TriVision’s clientele, including members of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, USAID, the National Gallery of Art, the president of Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce, and former Congressman Don Ritter.

The new location finally put the city’s second best address on our business cards, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave, after the White House of course (Hey, Barack!).

TriVision's holiday card. The card reads : Season's Greetings, The world is much brighter because of amazing people like you. Happy holidays!

Stick with us for exciting news around every corner of the year, and as this year draws to a close, hope with us for bigger and better things to come in 2015. Happy New Year!

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