In these times of economic want and woe, it’s more important than ever to stick together. Chances are pretty good you’re feeling the economic pinch — especially if you are a small business owner — making the 2009 Small Business Summit here in Effingham County all the more important. Finding out what some of our area’s most successful business owners and entrepreneurs are doing to find new clients and customers, lower their operating costs, adapt to changing markets and succeed in today’s economic climate seems like a no-brainer. We’ll be there.

When Ken Stoner of  Effingham County Chamber of Commerce, contacted us about developing a logo for this chamber-sponsored event, we were honored.  We worked out several idea sketches and ended up going with a light bulb illustration, with a red-and-white on black color scheme. The DIN 1451 font family was applied. It is a realist sans-serif typeface that is used as a standard typeface for traffic, administration and business applications making it a perfect fit for the summit logo. On the vertical version, Futura was also used. The logo will be used on print products and advertising for the event.

The Summit is April 4, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Savannah Tech Effingham Campus. Reservations are limited. Reservations are free for Effingham Chamber members. (Non-members $49). Includes admission to keynote address, class sessions, course materials, trade show and business roundtable discussion groups. Call 912-754-3301. See you there!

Glaze Beauty Boutique and Day Spa — Rincon’s newest beauty salon and day spa  — came to Bighouse looking for a website. We love new businesses as they offer a blank canvas for us to flex our creative muscles. Glaze is Rincon’s premier Day Spa, also housing both a hair salon and clothing boutique.  Featuring the newest salon products from Redken and Pureology, spa treatments and the latest trends on the rack, their site incorporates a content management system (CMS) to allow the staff to easily update the web site to showcase specials, new products and the stylists’ work.

The approach to Glaze was to have a contemporary, edge using bold colors and images to contrast with a dark background and at the same time clean and approachable. We used organic design elements and soft edges on shapes and navigation to help in that effect. The site design presents a simple, intuitive navigation that breaks the site into the three main parts of Glaze;  the Day Spa, The Salon, and The Closet.

We have already noticed a steady bit of traffic in and out of Glaze — who coincidentally happens to be Bighouse’s next-door neighbor. Welcome to the neighborhood!

www.glazebeauty.com