The sign in the lobby of our Portland office speaks to you. Or tries. For those who stop and listen to the whispering background type, it’s a big sloppy, passionate, run-on sentence that goes a little something like you see above… or read on for the text version…

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Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology businesses. Their passion for technology starts with the companies they invest in and now extends to the website that bears their name.

To thrive within the tech community and show “domain expertise”, it’s important to reflect a sensitivity to technology within your own company’s digital ecosystem. The new Francisco Partners website has the feel of a tech publication, from the signature photography created in a dedicated photo shoot, to the ownable infographics and article-like headline text. Behind the site, a custom content management system helps them manage news and information to remain constantly relevant, evolving, and current.

Above all, the site’s responsive construction allows it to move fluidly between desktop and mobile viewing. All the details of site imagery, nav, and coding were carefully orchestrated to enable the site’s feel and function to be a demonstration of technology in action. In the end, it’s as though the flexible, transformational approach of the company were applied to the way their website was built.

Emergency Consultants, Inc. is a national leader in the healthcare staffing and management industry, focusing on the critical needs around emergency services in hospitals and urgent care facilities, hospitalists, and coding and billing services.

The company’s success and rapid growth necessitated a holistic look at their brand and digital presence to better position them for the future. The engagement began at the core brand level – ECI previously had three identities and websites dedicated to each of its sub-brands (Emergency Consultants, Hospitalist Consultants, Apollo Coding & Billing). The new approach crafts a complementary suite of brands that connects the services under one brand umbrella, and a look and feel that reflects the company’s innovative promise.

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America’s original craft beer brand continues the growth of its digital ecosystem with the launch of the new Anchor Brewing mobile website. With the goal to retain the rich feel of the desktop site and expand with content suitable for mobile (including tablet) viewership, it’s another strong touchpoint in the online reinvention of the pioneering Anchor brand.

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The Anchor name may be more associated with brewing, but San Francisco’s Anchor Distilling Co. is making a strong brand for itself. It boasts an artisanal portfolio with over 300 specialty products from nearly 20 countries. All are from multigenerational family-owned companies, sought by connoisseurs for their superior handcrafted artisanal qualities.

Their new comprehensive, educational, and user-friendly website aggregates the multitude of Anchor Distilling brands with a spare and clean ease that’s equal parts gallery and encyclopedia. It allows for easy navigation through Anchor’s robust portfolio, brand overviews, product details, tasting notes, fact sheets, information on Anchor Distilling Company, and the history of America’s first craft distillery, the Anchor Distillery.
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Often overlooked in the mix of media that create marketing touchpoints, customized, printed tents for events and location-based outreach are a significant branding opportunity. TentCraft is America’s leader in this niche, and an exclusive provider of MasterTent, the world’s premium tent provider.

Based in Traverse City, Michigan, TentCraft’s high-quality product and excellent customer service have led them to work with marketing agencies and marketing departments for some of the biggest brands in the country.

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Accel Partners is, by many accounts, the largest global venture capital partnership in the world. Their 30-year history is marked by collaboration with big names in technology, like Spotify, Cloudera, ComScore, Etsy, GroupOn, metroPCS, Rovio/Angry Birds, and Walmart.com, among many others. Most notably, they were among the first investors in Facebook.

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What role does digital branding play in wine marketing? There are many ways to answer that. But here’s 20 slides with one important perspective: digital done right is always as much product development as it is traditional marketing. And the experience of wine is very much driven by expectations. So if what you’re doing online doesn’t actually make your wine taste better, then it’s probably falling short.

With both Anchor Brewing Company and Paul Hobbs Winery featured as webpicks on Communication Arts simultaneously, it’s the coveted CommArts roadblock.

Anchor Brewing’s new site is this week’s webpick of the week, and the Paul Hobbs website was featured as the webpick of the day for February 22.

Congrats to Anchor and Hobbs for this brand recognition…

Anchor Brewing Company is one of America’s oldest breweries. The San Francisco icon is credited by many for launching the movement toward locally-brewed, hand-crafted beers that have surged in popularity in recent years.

In the spring of 2011, Anchor contacted FINE Design Group about developing a new website for their beer brands and distilled spirits. As discussions continued and evolved, social media became a key component to the digital strategy, leveraging FINE’s Big Daylight division, and part of creating a complete digital ecosystem for a legendary brand. Here’s a glimpse into the process and results.

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