how do you design an imme­di­ately rec­og­niz­able brand iden­tity that describes you pre­cisely? how can you build a cap­ti­vat­ing and com­pelling site that tells your story? how will you deliver your spe­cific mes­sage to the exact peo­ple who are look­ing for you?

Strength in Uncertain Times 2010 Report

Cover of the 2010 YMCA Retirement Fund's Report

Merola Designs the YMCA Retire­ment Fund’s 2010 Annual Report. The theme for the report is “Strength In Uncer­tain Times.” Images of promi­nent finan­cial insti­tu­tions are used through­out the report. A dia­mond plate gra­di­ent was devel­oped and used as page breaks. Brightly col­ored graphs and charts add life to this years report and a com­bi­na­tion of duo-tone and color pho­tos add visual inter­est. Merola Has been design­ing the reports since 2006.

July 5th, 2011 | | Corporate Graphics, Corporate Identity | COMMENT »

Describe yourself precisely in seven words, or less

Charles Dickens's  Christmas Carol reveals seven unflattering adjectives to describe Scrooge, squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. The original manuscript shows Dickens considered many more.
Charles Dickens’s Christ­mas Carol reveals seven unflat­ter­ing adjec­tives describ­ing Scrooge, “squeez­ing, wrench­ing, grasp­ing, scrap­ing, clutch­ing, cov­etous old sinner.”

The orig­i­nal man­u­script rev­els that Dick­ens con­sid­ered many others.


Orig­i­nal man­u­script for Charles Dickens’s Christ­mas Carol.

Could you effec­tively describe your­self in seven words?
This chal­lenge comes up every time Merola Design works with a new client. It’s not easy, but it is an essen­tial step in build­ing a strong brand and effec­tive cor­po­rate Identity. The truth is you have more then seven words if you include your company’s name, tag-line and logo. Lever­ag­ing these ele­ments and tak­ing care to avoid redun­dancy, can help you more fully describe your com­pa­nies unique value proposition.

A Closer Look at Charles Dickens’s ‘Christ­mas Carol’ — Inter­ac­tive Graphic — NYTimes​.com

December 2nd, 2009 | | Corporate Identity, Uncategorized | Comments Off

HomeStyle spins off from OneCoast

New logo design for HomeStyle designed by Robert Merola

Robert Merola designs new logo for Home­Style.

Home­Style, will be spun off from OneCoast and merged with the regional sales agency, Ivy­s­tone Group.

The com­bined agency will oper­ate two dis­tinct brands: Home­Style will empha­size home accents and lifestyle prod­ucts, while the Ivy­s­tone Group will focus on the gift mar­ket. Together they will have more than 150 field sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives along with 20 key account rep­re­sen­ta­tives and will oper­ate show­rooms in Atlanta, Dal­las, Chicago and Las Vegas.

Robert Merola was called in to re-brand Home­Style and devel­oped its identity.

October 21st, 2009 | | Branding, Corporate Identity | COMMENT »

YMCA Retirment Fund’s 2008 Annual Report

Logo design for the 85th year of the YMCA Retirement Fund

“Secu­rity, Integrity and Endur­ing Value” is the theme for the 2008 YMCA Retire­ment Fund’s Annual Report. Charts and graphs are fea­tured demon­strat­ing the strength of the fund over the past 85 years. Vin­tage pho­tos and art from the YMCA library reen­forces the theme.
Merola also designs Mid-year reports, Guide books, Sig­nage, Mail­ers, Adver­tise­ments and online Infor­ma­tional videos.

August 15th, 2008 | | Corporate Graphics, Corporate Identity | COMMENT »

A&E and History Channel identity

A&E net­work and His­tory Chan­nel cor­po­rate stan­dards guide­lines
In 1995 while part of William Sny­der Design, our team was given the assign­ment to redesign the A&E net­work and The His­tory Channel’s cor­po­rate iden­ti­ties. Each of these iden­ti­ties were being eroded and mis­man­aged and needed guide­lines. We cre­ated a thirty-two page graphic stan­dards man­ual for each com­pany to help main­tain usage and con­sis­tency. Top­ics cov­ered include, logo vari­ants, rules for logo use, color con­trol and repro­duc­tion materials.

January 11th, 2008 | | Corporate Graphics, Corporate Identity, Logo Design, Portfolio | COMMENT »

Merola designs logo for NY ad agency

Logo design for Meier Advertising

Merola cre­ated the logo for this bou­tique ad agency after repeat­edly over­hear­ing phone con­ver­sa­tions of the company’s owner. Unini­ti­ated ven­dors and sales­peo­ple would be cor­rected as to the cor­rect spelling of her fam­ily name, m-e–eye–e-r.

December 16th, 2006 | | Corporate Identity, Logo Design | COMMENT »