Describe yourself precisely in seven words, or less

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

HomeStyle spins off from OneCoast

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.

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.

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.