South Mountain Studio: Effective Design for Effective Businesses

Brand identity has become an integral part of any modern day business. With the advent of programs like VistaPrint and Canva, many business owners try to create their own branding and logos, which according to Nadine Schneider, owner of South Mountain Studios, ends up leading to more stress than necessary. Schneider certainly has the education to back up her statement – with a BFA in Graphic Design, an MBA in Marketing and International Business, and forty years of in-the-field design experience, Schneider is well-equipped to provide guidance to her clientele.

The first step of how Schneider identifies a brand’s goals entails sitting down and holding a “brand interview” with business owners. “What my clients say the most about me is that they can just sit down with me for five minutes and I know exactly what they want,” says Schneider. Schneider asks questions that dig to the heart of a business, allowing her to ascertain what a business owner is looking for over this short period of time.

During her interview with RCT, Schneider shared a logo she was currently working on. There were numerous variations on the logo, and even more that had been tossed to the wayside after not living up to Schneider’s high standards. When she does present her work to the client, she expects to do far more tinkering to establish the perfect design for the new business. Schneider will often create three or four fully rendered options in addition to her initial creation to ensure that her clients find the perfect encapsulation of their brand. When the client does decide on a design, their logo will become their trademarked intellectual property synonymous with only their business, a guarantee that open access programs cannot provide. 

The issue that crops up with grabbing a design from Canva or VistaPrint is that a business owner does not legally own or have rights to the logo or design. A hair salon could open across the street from another salon and use the exact same logo without any backing for legal repercussions, as the sites are free to use and open access. 

Another concern with choosing not to utilize a graphic designer is the lack of access to the files needed to ensure the quality of a logo. For example, Schneider states that a frequent snag business owners will run into is not having access to a vector file. A vector file is what allows businesses to adjust the size of an image without compromising its quality and clarity.  With Schneider, businesses receive access to vector files, JPEGs, PNGs, PDFs, and any other three letter abbreviations owners may need. 

Schneider states that one of the biggest misconceptions around marketing and using a service such as her own is that the cost is inaccessible or “not worth it”. Schneider says this is not true, and that she works “…by project, so they know up front what it’s going to cost. And we start slow. If they only have $500, that’s what we work with”. This works against a typical “one size fits all” type of package, and allows her to work with her clients to identify what they need to best advertise their business. She also encourages people to view their logos and marketing as an investment into the public’s first and most lasting interaction with a brand. Schneider recalls a local deli that called her after implementing a direct mail piece, stating “He called me up and he said ‘I guess my direct mail piece hit’. I said, ‘How do you know?’, [and] he goes ‘The line is out the door!’”. This bump in business is what eventually allowed the deli to expand their marketing to the next level. 

Those interested in learning more or working with Schneider can contact her at 845-548-0133 or email her at nadine@southmountainstudio.com