Anabliss Creative Sketchbook

The Anabliss open house/Brie going away party was a great success! We wanted to thank everyone who stopped by and a special thanks to Matt’s parents for all their help. We had a great time and for me (Andrea) it was nice to put faces with all the names that I work with but had yet to meet in person. We were sad to see Brie go, but we know Jami is going to do an awesome job and if anyone needs Brie updates I’ll be harassing her every time I go back to Dallas (which is usually at least a few times a year).

Here are a few moments we captured from the party including an amazingly cheesy family portrait of the Anabliss team AND the awesome Dex One gift basket Brie got. With all those goodies she will definitely be representing down in the southern D-town.

To view more pictures from the party, check out the Anabliss Flickr page.

The Emerge Conference combined a lot of education and inspiration with FUN! So this blog is dedicated to the fun stuff. (If you haven’t read my first Emerge Conference blog yet, look below to read about the awesome “business” side of the conference.)

After two full days of keynote speakers and break out sessions, it was time to get out of the hotel and enjoy a bit of San Antonio! The Emerge Conference ended Thursday night with three hours of Texas-themed fun. We put on our boots and cowboy hats and walked over the the historic Sunset Station where we were greeted by some old west characters who gave us a hard time.

Pictured Left to Right: South of the Border Cowboy, Jenn, Doran, Jami (me), Badass Cowboy

We enjoyed some delicious cocktails served by western wenches and ate from the most amazing BBQ buffet. The steak was so tender and juicy! We watched a lasso performer and then tried our own hand at roping a calf. Seriously.

Okay…it was a metal horse with a metal calf on a rail below that shot out, but I tried to rope it just the same! After 3 tries, I was unsuccessful, but the experience was great!

After gaining some confidence on the metal horse, I decided to step it up and mount the real life longhorn bull. When am I going to have that chance again?! I’m not sure how many tranquilizers they gave the poor thing to handle all of these people sitting on him, but I now proudly display the photo on my desk.

After that, we hit up the dance floor. If you don’t know me yet, I do LOVE to dance! Michael Politano, the President of Tewell Warren and my sales rep, didn’t exactly jump at the chance to boogie with me, but he did agree to a photo.

By the time the evening was winding down and the music had stopped, we decided we couldn’t leave San Antonio without first seeing the Alamo!

Here is a photo of the Tewell Warren + Guests crew in front of the Alamo. Pictured left to right: David, Michael, me, Jenn, Doran, Linda and David.

I’ve taken my picture on a longhorn bull and in front of the Alamo…I feel like I’ve experienced Texas…okay, really it was just a tiny taste, but I’ll take that over another regular week in the office any day!

A special thanks goes out to Michael Politano and the rest of the Tewell Warren and Consolidated Graphics team for inviting me to such an amazing conference!

Every once in a while, there are perks to working in this business, and last week, I was fortunate enough to experience one of them. I was invited to attend the second annual Emerge Conference put on by Consolidated Graphics. Yes, you heard me correctly, attending a conference was definitely a perk!

I was invited as a guest of Tewell Warren Printing, here in Denver, who is one of the 70 printers in the Consolidated Graphics (CGX) network. I was just one of the 750+ attendees that pretty much took over the Marriott Rivercenter hotel in San Antonio, Texas on April 21st and 22nd. The guest list was a combination of CGX staff, sales reps from the printers within the CGX network of printers and their clients (for example, me).

This was the most impressive conference that I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending…the speakers, the graphics, the food…were all amazing. Throughout the two day conference, I listened to some inspirational keynote speakers and attended 10 different break out sessions that covered topics from printing and unique coatings to marketing and social media.

Yes, we discussed social media at a printer conference. Consolidated Graphics realizes that times are changing and that printers need to evolve in order to keep up. We discussed that the future of printing (and yes, there is a future) lies in highly personalized campaigns that integrate on demand printing into cross media campaigns.

Actually, all of the conference attendees got a chance to experience a cross media campaign at work through the campaign for the emerge conference. It was an awesome experience. Leading up to the event, I received several personalized mailings that had my name, specific flight information and other details on them with a link to my own personal URL (or PURL) that was customized just for me! Upon landing in San Antonio, I turned my phone back on and found a text message from the emerge staff letting me know that greeters would be waiting for me at baggage claim to direct me to the transportation to the hotel. Once at the hotel, I was presented with a bound booklet that included my specific itinerary of the breakout sessions that I signed up for. It was so great to be the audience for a cross media campaign and has my mind spinning with ideas for how we can recommend something like this for our clients.

Another thing I was extremely impressed with was the overall branding of the emerge conference. As a brand strategy company, this is something that I always pay attention to and boy, did emerge grab my attention! In addition to the 5 or so branded mailings and my branded PURL, the branding at the hotel took my breath away. Check out some of my photos.

Entrance to the hotel

Lobby at the hotel…there were banners EVERYWHERE!

Whether you took the escalator…

or the elevator, you couldn’t help but know what conference was in town!

Even the hotel key cards and sleeves were branded with the emerge conference look and feel!

Stay tuned for another fun blog post about the Texas-themed fun we had after the learning was over. (HINT: I tried my hand at roping a calf. Seriously.)

Giving back to our community has always been an important part of what defines Anabliss as a company, and one of the major reasons I love working here. This morning, we got to celebrate one of the ways we do that over some delicious cheesy eggs and bacon. We attended a breakfast to celebrate the release of the 2009–2010 Denver Business Journal Giving Guide, which will officially release next week. Nancy Stewart, VP of Community Relations at AMC Cancer Fund, invited us to be her guests at the event, and we gladly accepted.

This year, we helped AMC Cancer Fund start a rebranding process, and we donated our services for the design of their ad in this year’s Giving Guide.

Imagine a world without cancer.

Help us turn the dream into a reality.

At AMC Cancer Fund, we celebrate survival while working toward a world without cancer. As a partner of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, we have already witnessed the great strides being made — in collaboration with peers across the state, the country and the world — to achieve significant breakthroughs in research and patient care.

12 million cancer survivors in the U.S. Donate now and add more to the ranks.

AMC Cancer Fund is dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the University of Colorado Cancer Center to support its outstanding programs in cancer prevention, care, education, research and service to the nation.

It has been a pleasure to work with Nancy and her colleagues, and we wish them success throughout the following years. To learn more about AMC Cancer Fund, visit www.amc.org (the new website is coming soon!).

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For the past seven years, Anabliss has worked with Girls Inc., a national youth organization that provides vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, underserved areas.

This Friday, all the girls of the office are hittin’ up the Girls Inc. of Metro Denver’s signature fundraiser, Girls Night Out. It’s an awesome event that celebrates the thousands of girls’ lives that have been changed as a result of the Girls Inc. program. This year Craig Ferguson from The Late Late Show is the headliner. Girls Night Out makes it really easy to support such a great cause, with an awesome show and a tasty dinner…I’m really looking forward to the pink and white frosted cupcakes!

Last year, with the help of many volunteers and companies like us supporting Girls Inc., they were able to raise $267,425. We are hoping this year will be even more successful! Anabliss is always excited to donate our talents to great local organizations and we’re happy to be a part of the success of this event. This year’s event has sold out already, but you should keep an eye out for Girls Night Out 2010. Learn more about Girls Inc. Denver.

We’ll be sure to say hi to Craig for ya.

That’s right…Anabliss is movin’ up the social ladder. We wanted a way to keep in touch with all of our clients, friends and lovers (of design). Our page will give everyone a little more insight into the company and the great people that work here. So keep an eye out for some sweet new pics, maybe a contest or two and more fun stuff about Anabliss! Here’s a little taste.

Click here to become a fan!

Well…he doesn’t do much guarding, more like sleeping and resting and napping. Every once in awhile he’ll bark in his sleep. That’s pretty tough right? Radar puts in some long hours at the office. He is dedicated to really doing his part in giving everyone that extra fuzzy exterior. It’s also part of his daily routine to boost team morale by taking everyone on a group walk. Radar is a real professional…dedicated to his career. When you come in, you can usually find him working hard on his little patch of office “grass”.

For the past four years the Champions for Children Cycling team, which raises money for the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center, has participated in the Triple Bypass, a 120 mile bike ride from Evergreen to Avon. And because we believe so strongly in the work that the Law Center does, we’ve been a proud sponsor of the team for the last three years. We want to do what we can to bring recognition to the team and their great cause, so we’ve designed their jerseys, website and a car wrap to give them a brand that is now recognized across the state.

This year they had 49 cyclists and Governor Ritter was a part of the team. It was really exciting to see the governor sport our sweet jersey! We also designed a wrap for one of the team member’s cars so that she could represent the team on the road.

“Anabliss’ design and creativity enables us to take a charitable activity to a professional level. By creating the design for our jersey, vehicle wraps, and website, we can give our sponsors visibility and recognition in return for their support. This consistency has helped the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center build a brand for the Champions for Children’s for Children Cycling Team that is recognized by cyclists all over Colorado.” — Champions for Children team

We are really excited to help the team gain recognition and continue to work toward their goal of raising $100,000 for the abused children served by the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center. If you’re interested in helping out their cause, check out www.rockymountainchildrenslawcenter.org or www.cfccycling.com.