Sometimes it’s all about timing. About a year ago, Frankfort headquartered Northwest Haiti Christian Mission contracted with us to build a new website, focusing on donors, online giving and child sponsorship. They had no idea what  a vital role their site would play a year later in the face of one of the largest national disasters in history.

The Mission, whose objectives are serving the impoverish, sick and orphaned in Haiti, has been inundated with calls and emails from people across the world asking how they can help.

We wanted to help. Getting in touch with the Mission, we used their site to provide status updates, a list of needs, and multiple ways for donors to give toward helping in the midst of this tragedy.

The website now includes everything from where to donate food, medical supplies and clothing, and live updates about what is being done in the area.

The Mission has been so thankful for the overwhelming generosity it has been experiencing.

To help an organization, based here in Kentucky, visit http://www.nwhcm.org/.

It’s been live for a few months now, but we’re so excited to announce the launch of the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission site!

This site has been very exciting, and filled with lots of research, planning and development to better meet donor needs. Featuring child sponsorship, enhanced giving opportunities and extremely involved blog and news feeds, this site is one to check out.

And, if you’re looking for a child to sponsor, this is a great place to visit. Congrats, NW Haiti, and we’re so glad to be partnering with you!

Merry Christmas from Apparel Studios!

As the year draws to a close, many of us have end-of-the-year giving on our minds. Because we work with so many great charities and non-profits, we thought we’d take a minute to post a few of our clients and friends that would make an excellent choice for your gifts.

Thank you for remembering the true reason for this holiday!

Northwest Haiti Christian Mission

Homes of the Indian Nations

Word Made Flesh

Asbury College Building Windows Campaign

Amachi

CCCU

Go International

We love our clients. We’d like to announce a couple new partnerships.

BLUEgrass Runners Club: THE resource for all things running in the Bluegrass area! Members can join their forum to share information, tips and tricks, and well as keep track of their times and view upcoming races.

Mary Lashbrook Photography: A great friend becomes a great client. This photographer shoots amazing weddings, but that’s not all. Look for her new graphic identity in the beginning of 2010.

Creekside Technologies: We’re excited for Chip and his team to unveil their new graphic identity as well. Creekside is the premiere source for custom, elegant home, office and church AV installs. (aka, they build the kinds of media rooms featured on “Cribs.”)

Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects: Simply put: they are Kentucky’s finest educational architecture firm. They’ve designed most of the schools in the region, as well as Rupp Arena, the new Asbury Communications building, and so much more.

Asbury College: Achieve: Our commercial spots are about to go live in Kentucky and Florida for Asbury’s degree completion program. When we asked what made this program unique, we focused on those details to set them apart from the sea of others. We love these commercials, and the good folks at Asbury.

We’re extremely excited to be working with Kentucky’s premiere handbag designer, Henry Brown Bags. Look for their new materials, their new line of bags as well as a brand new website in 2010. Move over, Coach!

We’re pleased to report that building has begun on Asbury College’s state-of-the-art Communications center!

We were fortunate to partner with Asbury to produce an HD video campaign for the College featuring noteworthy alums as well as Dean Jones. This new building is expected to be completed in 2010.

To view the campaign materials, please visit asbury.edu/bwo.

We had a blast. That’s all there is to it.

Enjoy our film, created in 48 hours. With very little sleep. Oh, and those horrible graphics are required of the festival.

Fast cars, racing, working with a legend.

Ok, you got us.

We just completed a video series working with racecar legend Al Unser, Jr. promoting a new line of fuel additives, “Force.” We learned a lot about the process, and most of all, thoroughly enjoyed working with Al Jr. and his team.

Aside from being some of the friendlist folks out there, it was basically a laugh a minute on set. And, we got to play with some racecars! Currently Force is only for sale to licensed reps, but look for it on the market soon! If Al’s supporting it, it’s has to be good!

In marketing, return on investment (ROI) is king. Your advertising pieces should pay for themselves, and provide a return otherwise not possible.

We were very excited to learn that our recently-completed site for HOINA (Homes of the Indian Nations), a non-profit based in Lancaster, PA, saw their return very quickly.

HOINA is in the business of sponsoring children, and improving conditions for children and families among India’s poorest. And just two months after completing their website, complete with online donation functionality, their web donations alone more than paid for the cost of the entire site.

Thank you to HOINA for all the work they’re doing in the world. Please remember them as you plan your charitable giving.

We were very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Wilmore’s Cre8tive Group to aid in completing their “Lexmark at Work” series. This project, emphasizing Lexmark’s commitment to its customers and the earth, recently received the Ad Club’s top honor–the Gold ADDY.

We were very honored to be a part of Cre8tive Group’s outstanding project, and congratulations to all involved!