WheelHouse Summer of Happenings

By Amanda Guy -- Our Designer

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my "Friday" Blog post. Yes, I'm aware it's Thursday, but as it is summertime and we do the majority of our work Monday through Thursday, we have decided to work 4-10's for the rest of the Summer.

With Wheelie closed on Fridays for a few weeks we will be participating in even more adventures, and hopefully adding to our portfolio at the same time! But that's not what I wanted to write about this week. Instead, I would like to update you on the happenings and goings-ons around here the last few weeks.

Lisa is currently rocking it at OR

Our fearless leader, Lisa Slagle, has been out of the office for almost the entire month of July, with the exception of coming home for a day to pack for her next adventure on the road for work.

The woman works non-stop and she finally got to take a vacation after something like six years without one, and as soon as she came back home she had to turn around and book it to Colorado for meetings, her brother's wedding, and more meetings. This would be followed up by heading to Salt Lake City for the 2016 OR Conference where she currently is kicking ass and taking names. (I have this visual of her high fiving everyone in site and asking who has Strava and what their best times are!)

If you are at OR, and you see a woman, having a ridiculously good hair day, in a black Patagonia dress, chances are that is Lisa, so go give her a high five and ask her about her best Strava times! She'll probably challenge you to a race!

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At the WheelHouse

With Lisa out of town, Courtney, Dan and myself have been holding down the fort. We've had meetings a plenty and have been listening to the banging of hammers, breaking of glass, and the loud hums of a sander on the outside of the building for the last two weeks. I'll be honest, it's really hard to focus on a phone call or in a meeting with all this noise happening, but hopefully it'll be wrapped up soon, and our building will be more beautiful than ever.

Our roof is getting re-shingled, the broken window upstairs in our studio is being replaced, and the WheelHouse is getting a new coat of paint! We are actually pretty pumped for these repairs and updates, but that noise! We've also had to pile everything from the studio into Lisa's office while she is away since we also got new insulation in the upstairs ceiling.

What we've been working on

There are numerous irons on the fire here at Wheelie. We've had a lot of projects going in full swing around here lately that have been keeping us busy and happy.

Glacier National Park Conservancy released their 2017 Field Guide to Projects in the park, which we designed! This was one of the most elaborate layouts I've ever done and it was nothing but fun to create. The folks over at the Conservancy are awesome and always have us making something unique and interesting for the park. For those of you that don't know about them, the Conservancy is a huge reason why projects get funded in the park. If you have some time, I highly recommend checking out the Field Guide. And even better is that with the Conservancy's brand new website -- by ZaneRay -- they are able to display a digital copy of their Field Guide for everyone to peruse.

GNPC - 2017 Field Guide

We've also been doing quite a bit of work for our friends over at The Montana Scene. We've been working on a series of short social media videos presenting their latest series, "Life is Better."

Melissa and Sean had Lisa and I come out to Bigfork to shoot the initial video and we've been adding on to the series ever since. We've also been discussing some new, and fun ideas with them on future projects and are looking forward to the months ahead with these folks.

Spotted Bear Spirits recently released their Limoncello in bottles, which gave us more label designs to work with. We also finished their website last month and are happy to report that everyone has been thrilled with the web presence. If you'd like to see more of our work on this, I highly recommend visiting their website and checking out the lookbook we've developed.

Spotted Bear spirits lookbook

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More website launches

In the last couple of weeks websites have been shooting out the door like crazy!

Not only did we finalize the Spotted Bear Spirits site, but we finished a PT site for Rocklin Physical Therapy in Rocklin, CA. This is one of the largest sites we've ever built as far as content goes. We were able to work directly with the owner and his office manager and are super stoked about the finished site.

Dan built a new online store for Pesca Offshore recently while I photographed the products on our new mannequin, Manny. (Although sometimes I still make Lisa and Dan model the products upstairs against the white infinity wall...sometimes they make faces and I don't really see it until I go into the editing process! Always good for a laugh.)

For your viewing pleasure I have included an example of Dan's extreme modeling skills. They may even contact him for the next Zoolander Movie.

Bridgewater LLC. out of Kalispell also had us build a brand new site that officially launched last Thursday. This company does some amazing things with virtual reality, drone flight, and construction development. It was really fun to develop a site for them that helps them display exactly what they do for their clients. We not only worked on their website, but we also were able to create a brand video for them as well. 

Bridgewater LLC.

Rocklin PT

pesca offshore

And finally, we finished and launched the brand new Whitefish Bike Retreat website! 

This was a really fun project for us to work on, as the bike retreat is near and dear to our hearts. Cricket was so fun to work with and the bike retreat officially has a facelift. A new logo and brand new website to give the retreat the attention it really deserves! You're the best Cricket!

The Whitefish Bike Retreat

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How is it already August?!

I hate to say it folks, but we are entering the last few weeks of Summer! Before you know it Thanksgiving will be here and then Christmas!

While we're on the subject of how insane fall can be, I want to make a suggestion to some of you business owners and soon-to-be business owners. We do a lot here at Wheelie Creative.  We specialize in creating amazing content for the outdoor industry, but we thrive on helping all businesses be successful. As the Summer pushes on it's important to think about your business needs and to rev up for Fall. What kinds of unique things have you been brainstorming, but don't know how to put into action? Have you always wanted to update your website, post a brand video on Instagram, work on your SEO, or have your products professionally photographed? What about your business idea and the logo you've envisioned but don't know how to create?

We can help you with all of these goals. We love working with local and out of state businesses. If you have something in mind you'd like to begin a design process on, give us a shout! Our process is fun, helpful, and very detailed. We create estimates for projects, work with clients we've had on retainer, and are here for any questions you may have.

highfive@wheeliecreative.com

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Thanks for stopping by the blog today, we can't wait for another week of designs and creative processes next week, and we certainly can't wait for Lisa to get back to Montana. We've missed you Slagle! Continue to have a great Summer, and don't forget to get out there to explore.

Until next time!