Seriously, the idea here was to create a brand personality that added so much value to the floral and accessory gifts that only the target audience could afford it. It worked. And we can't.

Design Birth Place: The idea for the this brand design was found on at the original OFB Hickory Street Annex Building C studio, still our favorite office, wearing the old black Johnny Cash boots (year and maker unknown.)

Project Type { Brand Design / Web Site Design & Development 
Our brand sages found that the energy drink category had become saturated with adrenaline junkie hype and copy cat brands.  Our strategists suggested that we look to stylish trends in the beer industry and take a similar approach. The result was the complete reinvention of the Red Jak brand image and a unique personality in the category. The design created a new feel of sophistication and style geared toward a more discerning energy drink consumer who has an appreciation for style. 

Another goal was to attach this new invention to it's parent company Big Red, Ltd. We designed a vintage label that is placed on the front of the can to let people know this drink comes from people who have been making their favorite red soda treat for over a 70 years. We also changed the color of the drink dye to give the name more meaning.
 
Design Birth Place: The design for Red Jak was initially conceived at OFB Design studio, west corner lounge chair, around 12:30am, drinking Red Bull??? In a pair of 1978 Tony Lama black boots with white stitching.

Project Type { Brand Design / Web Site Design & Development 
 
Texadelphia is a restaurant franchise founded in 1981 by the Quintessence Corporation in Austin, Texas. The chain of restaurants, boasting “The Original Texas Cheesesteak”  has spread to as many as 25 stores located in the Southwest US.

The Texadelphia group sought to enhance their brand on a massive scale. Sales were down, and driving this was the fact that the franchisees had began to experiment with sub-brands on their own.  There was no longer a “model” for who or what Texadelphia was.

Our Brand Strategy team took the Texadelphia through an intensive brand discovery camp allowing the team to realize the current needs of Texadelphia customers. OFB visited locations, audited marketing and advertising practices, interviewed customers, and ate lots of cheesesteak. Armed with this information,  and a few extra pounds around the middle, we began to concept a strategic plan of attack that called for new brand identity, interior and brand atmosphere overhaul, new music paradigm, improved ordering procedures,  customer greeting practices, an advertising campaign that focused on catering, and finally a new web presence that served not only as an online PR tool but an internal business system to manage franchise marketing efforts and in store merch.

Our design team first forged a new identity that included logos, business collateral, uniforms, menus, napkins, cups, new bags and boxes. The team created a timeless vintage look for the brand while drastically improving readability and punch. We then created a full campaign of posters, print ads, promo vehicles, bus ads, and spots for the Texadelphia catering campaign entitled “Phill’Em Up.
  
Design Birth Place: The design for the Texadelphia branding was initially conceived in a diner near Canton, Texas (Home of First Monday Trade Days). We had been doing research on vintage tins at the antique shops and flea market there. It was cooooold, So the TEXAS brand, suede two tone boots were in order. Steak and eggs breakfast for dinner.

Project Type { Brand Design & Web Systems

The Quickway Group is a family owned and operated purveyor of fine wine and beer with its roots firmly planted in Dallas, Texas. The Quickway Group has been serving Dallas and now all of Texas and Louisiana since 1950.

The Quickway Group sought to create a high-end retail wine store with an upscale/hip edge.  Quickway's desire was to create a branded environment with in-store sampling and education as a platform, and make educated decisions when purchasing wine. Cork's unique selling position is its state-of-the-art Italian wine storage and tasting system.

Our Brand Sage took the Quickway Group through an intensive, one-month Brand discovery camp where they forced us to visit wineries and wine tasting venues. Hard work.  Based on the discovery we were make recommendations on the name, tagline and messaging systems, set the stage for the brand design and interior efforts, audio branding, sensory branding, branded customer interaction rituals, staff appearance and standards, interactive educational systems and touch screens, and greatly improve our tolerance for consuming alcoholic beverages made from grapes.

Our Design Warriors focused on identity, packaging and environmental graphics that fit the strategy.  The team also developed and designed gift cards, signage, receipt holders and custom packaging for wine and other accessories.
 
OFB Interactive also established Cork’s presence online and in-store with the creation of a custom website, online business system, and touch screen computers for customers. With education a principle concern, the website serves as a virtual encyclopedia of wine knowledge that is accessible using a customer card number. This encyclopedia features information about vineyards and varietals while also offering pairings for food and tracking purchase habits in order to make suggestions based on taste. The customer card, also designed by OFB, allows the business to track purchases and trends directly.

Design Birth Place: The design for the Cork Wine Market branding was initially forged during a heated internal design war at the old OFB Meletio Electric Building Studio, 2nd floor. Not sure what time because the designer was unconscious when we found him. Three people lost fingers. It was quite a bloodbath but the free wine helped with the pain.

T-Moble challenged OFB to invent a a stronger identity campaign for their new Xpressmusic phones. During our research we found that the sound quality of these phones was far superior to the competition. The unique selling position should be that these phones are really very high quality music players with a phone.  

We invented a character we internally call the Little Tsunami. Actually inspired by an OFB'er who fits the target audience perfectly. Hand illustrated, the Xpressmusic girl is independent, youthful, fierce, and not afraid. Her presence is felt wherever she goes. "Unleash the Colossal Sound" she exclaims. Her giant headphones emphasize he sound experience.

We also made suggestions for  in-store displays that allow customers to try these phones with large headphone much like old Tower Records displays.

This was the concept we forged when T-Mobie asked us to give the SideKick a new identity. The sidekick is an innovative and highly functional phone with a conservative face. We felt it was best to target young hipsters just entering the business world who still want to maintain the fun social life they have but need to step it up on the professional appearance side.

Most of the design was hand-illustrated by our design team and represents the lifestyle of our target audience.

We simply wanted to make sure that people saw it.

Design Birth Place: The design for the T-Mobile Fly Free campaign surfaced driving to the airport in fact, laptop in tow, vintage black and tan Laredo boots, BBQ sunflower seeds, custom OFB Timbuk2 messenger bag, 30 minutes of traffic, and a bottle of water.

The sovereign Nation of Osage indians is located in north-central Oklahoma. The Osage Nation, or Wazhazhe, consists of approximately 18,000 citizens with an estimated 4,000 residing on the reservation, the focus of the present-day Osage government is to move toward the establishment of a tribal economy capable of supporting the growing Osage population.

We were blessed with the tasks of creating a online community that presented the tribe as contemporary people living, working and thriving in today’s modern business world. Second, this site was to serve as the central communication tool between the tribal government and it's people. Third, the site was to assist with the continuing struggle to keep indigenous languages from dying.

Our strategists, web planners, technical directors and design team made five trips to the reservation working with tribal leaders to not only learn the unique aspects of Osage culture but the inner departmental processes we were to improve. We also conducted a three-day on-site photoshoot to capture a large cross section of Osage people. Our designers worked with Osage designers to discover and incorporate authentic tribal colors and patterns into the site design.

The resulting site is the largest we have ever built housing over 50 administration content systems (custom built version of OFB's SITESHEPHERD) for every department of the Osage government. The site serves as a virtual community gathering spot, communication center, educational tool, online market center, and powerful political voice for the Osage Nation. Osage people can now listen in to live audio broadcasts of council meetings, retrieve important public documents, register for social, medical, and legal services, retrieve information on the Osage language, shop the Osage tribal store, search for jobs, chat with other tribal members, and express their views in over 100 online tribal forums.

We are most proud of the fact that the we helped the Osage nation broadcast it's first online streaming event, the 2007 Osage State of the Nation by Chief Jim Gray. This event was noted in the Osage historical timeline.

We truly enjoyed this experience and continue to enjoy our relationship with our Osage friends. By the way, try Bad Brad's BBQ in Pawhuska! We may see you there.

Design Birth Place: The design for the Osage Nation Website was initially conceived in collaboration with our Osage friend and designer Thomas Ryan Red Corn.  The initial concept was forged over a 3 day coffee and bison jerky binge at the Hickory Street Annex in Dallas.

 
Peterbilt has reigned as America's premium quality heavy-duty truck manufacturer since the company's founding in 1939. Peterbilt has maintained its enviable position as the Class of the Industry by concentrating on delivering high-performance, low-maintenance and extremely durable vehicles that pay off in low operating costs, driver productivity and high resale value. It is the dream of every trucker to own a Peterbilt.


The most unique concept is the creation of what we call Peterbilt Life. Peterbilt Life is a social networking / online magazine for truck owners. Owners can create profile pages where they show of their custom Peterbilt.  The Road Stories section features stories and videos about trucker life. P-ilife also serves as an online resource for truckers to use as their daily online home base. Via the Peterbilt Life Dashboard, they can find the closest truck stops, current gas prices, favorite eating establishments, weather information, mile calculators, safety tips, trucking green practices, and traffic/road conditions.
Design Birth Place: The design for the Peterbilt website was initially found and forged in the OFB Commerce Street studio, floating office, drinking Illy Coffee, and wearing Texas Brand 2 tone boots.

The OFB strategic team conducted a detailed study of legal industry marketing practices, competitor research and interviewed alumni, potential hires, current staff, and leadership. And then our interactive planning and design team went to work to design the best site in the industry.

Featuring an iPhone-like feel with regard to navigation and search tools, the site is not only a gigantic repository of professional bios and information about the firm, but an ever-growing archive of case studies, publications, webinars, and blog content. We also designed a unique social networking alumni and career section where users can watch video interviews from current employees. Each of HB's practice groups (over 25) has their own "subsite" so that they can tweak messaging and marketing efforts within their particular industry.


Design Birth Place: The design for the HB site was found in the old Meletio Electric Building studio, 2nd floor, drinking coffee, wearing vintage Tony Lama boots,  and watching Perry Mason.

 
American Way Magazine, available to every passenger on every American Airlines flight, consistently delivers award-winning content and design that covers the latest trends in travel, lifestyle, and business. And to earn the attention of frequent fliers, it does it twice each month, on the 1st and again on the 15th.

AW approached OFB interactive with the challenge of reinventing the online magazine experience.

Our approach was based on a simple concept. Magazine lovers tend to collect their favorite magazines, eventually creating a showcased stack of every issue. The site we designed is organized by the issue allowing users to search the content from each issue by simply clicking on the flash module selection tool at the top of the site. From there, It's really just like reading a magazine. However, at anytime the user can can search all published archived content. The site also houses an elaborate ad placement system and online games such as crossword puzzles and sudoku.

In collaboration with AW technical team, editorial department, and creative department we were able to concept a backend system that enables AW to create and populate a new version of the site every two weeks to coincide with the release of the print magazine.

We enjoy checking in often to see who the new cover model is and what colors schemes are being created. This site is nearly 3 years old now, and we are working now to re-skin and add new web 2.0 tools to the site.

Design Birth Place: The design for the AW site was discovered in the old Meletio Electric Building studio, 2nd floor, wearing Dan Post vintage boots (one heal taller than the other, ouch),  drinking chicken soup, and wearing Ray ban sunglasses.

Dean Fearing has never been known for traditional cooking. What other chef sports an all custom made cowboy boot collection and stars in his own country music band? This is why nothing less than a one-of-a-kind website would do for our favorite chef/boot collector/guitar enthusiast.  This guy is incredible and he is a natural brand strategists. He does not miss any of the details that ensure his customers return over and over.

This site takes restaurant web sites to a new level and we enjoyed every bite. Online virtual guided tours, virtual cooking classes, recipes, online store, and event blogging. For the initial phase of the website we created a full video tour with Dean (hard hat and all) to start walking people through the restaurant as it was being constructed.

Design Birth Place: The Design for the Fearing's site was forged at the OFB Commerce Street studio, after plate of his top-secret Southwest Lobster nachos, wearing Deans favorite Lucchese boots, drinking  Fearing's coffee, and just in time for dinner.

You don't have to work with the team at TRC too long to feel the intense energy and passion they have and their immense knowledge within their field. One big problem: their website only allowed them to post static content and did not utilize any current web technology. Our primary goal with the was to produce online business tools that gave the team at TRC a new outlet to connect with their clients/potential clients. This transformed page after page of text into a website of dynamic video integration and user smart content.

The videos you will see throughout the site show an authentic communication of all the most important areas of their business. This extends an online user's experience and connection with a website. Don't just read about the company, have the CEO tell you about it face to face. Don't just read through the job postings, listen to employees tell you their job with TRC. We really tried to incorporate these various forms of media (audio integration, video integration, pictures and downloadable documents) to enhance the overall experience for the user and increase the amount of information TRC could publish on their site.

Another aspect we focused on was the user smart content. This essentially means that as you navigate through the website, you are being presented with more and more relevant content. TRC has an immense amount of content and a lot of media, but we didn't want users to get bogged down in endless press releases. Therefore, the website presents each user with relevant results to the content they are viewing (ie if you are reading Leisa Barger's bio, it shows you the articles she is related to). This has increased the amount of time users are spending on the site but decreases the amount of frustration searching.

Pearl Bridge is a coffee house that is all about community conversation where free-trade coffees and teas are served from around the globe. The intention is to provide a meeting place to experience different cultures, different music, and different spiritual experiences. Pearl Bridge represents the middle ground. Poetry jams, art shows, live music, sermons, book lectures, local political talks, community rally's, you name it. If you have ideas or art to share this is the place.

 
When restaurantuer Jason Boso (of Twisted Root Burger Co.) approached us about branding his latest concept, Cowboy Chow, we immediately asked the question...Can we get in on that? On rare occasions it makes sense for us to partner up with a client and create an equity deal. Jason is one of the most talented, and honestly modest, restauranteurs we have met.  Twisted Root is a favorite OFB lunchtime spot and this was our chance to help create a new restaurant that combined Jason's unique food talent with our culture creation and design.

Cowboy Chow "open range dining" is a concept inspired by chuck wagon cooking, which was started by a Texas rancher in 1866, Charles Goodnight. A chuck wagon was originally a mobile kitchen that carried cooking equipment, and food, also known as “chuck”, for the nomadic workers like cowboys and loggers. Often the cowboys were given the tougher cuts of meats which needed long hours of cooking in order to break down the tissue.

The brand design mixes vintage tex-mex restaurant with modern chic. Vintage wallpapers, hand painted murals and wooden signs, modern lighting, and orange benches compliment Jason's open range cooking served in cast iron skillets.

This partnership makes OFB a partial owner in Jason's restaurant group (Twisted Root, Cowboy Chow, and future concepts). We are focused now on opening additional locations, refreshing the Twisted Root brand for expansion, and developing a third concept, and eating as much hot cowboy chocolate chip cookies with homemade open range vaniller ice cream. See pic.

Design Birth Place: The design for the Cowboy Chow branding was initially conceived in the village of Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, at the kitchen table of an adobe rental house, about 4pm, drinking a mexicana mocha from THE BEAN, no shoes, in a wooden chair, Windows open.

OFB worked with their team to graphically break up the information throughout their site and truly focus on horizontal movement throughout the site. To accomplish this, we tried to organize all information to be accessible within 2-3 clicks from the user and implementing search tools for all content entered into the system. We also integrated their site with third party resources to dynamically update stock information, webcasts and news easily and instantly without any additional effort from the Penson team.


With the new site we also tried to properly represent the direction of Penson Worldwide and the connection is has with its subsidiary companies across the globe. The site quickly represents the geographic reach of the organization and balances the local services and specialties of each organization with the overall Penson brand.


Overall, we hope that this site will allow individuals to see not only the global expansion of the parent company but also that they have maintained the personal service and approach that has made them so successful.

Brinker International, Inc.  is one of the world’s leading casual dining restaurant companies with more than 1,800 restaurants and over 120,000 team members in 24 countries.

The international marketing team for Chilis challenged us to remake the "Create your Own Fajita" promotion. This promotion had to be visually enticing, strongly branded, yet simply so that it could be translated into 5 languages. Our concept, turned the classic Chilis Fajita skillet into a work of art with a hand illustrated logo. We also invented a unique server ritual for presenting the promotion at the table along with a fajita creation wheel menu and ordering tabs.

Design Birth Place: The idea for the this packing was initially found during a fajita binge at a local Chilis, 12:45 pm, wearing snake skin Tony Lama vintage boots,  booth # 12 (seats 6), Molten chocolate cake made an appearance.

Soudal is a major manufacturer of sealants, adhesives, foams and many other chemicals for the construction and manufacturing industry as well as DIY. Soudal is headquarters in Turnhout, Belgium with 26 daughter companies worldwide

These guys actually told us they wanted real western cowboys to brand their new product. Well, that works for us. The strategy was to create big branding that appealed to the professional handyman. Sealant packing is typically very sterile and we were to "dominate the shelves with a fierce creature." If the consumer doesn't choose T-Rex it actually attacks them.

Billy Jealosy challenged our designers to create unique packaging for their new men's fragrance named Pychedelia. Yes, there is real lava in there. Well, fake real lava.

Design Birth Place: The design for the this packing was initially created during an episode of Land of the Lost. No, not really. But that would have been cool. It was designed in old OFB Meletio Electric building studio, 2nd floor, 3pm, wearing vintage black Converse basketball shoes, and drinking Monster Energy Drink.

Billy Jealousy challenged our designers to create unique packaging for their new men's fragrance named Pychedelia. Yes, there is real lava in there. Well, fake real lava.

Design Birth Place: The design for the this packing was initially created while...well, we can't tell this story.