Kingsbury Animal Hospital, known in part for their compassion and understanding of animal behavior to better treat patients, recently came to us with the task of re-defining their identity system.

The hospital architecture is semi-inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The interior is warm with wood finishes, stained glass, tall ceilings, and is inviting yet sophisticated.

With these attributes in mind, we created a new logo and identity system that combines these architectural attributes with man’s best friend – the dog, and man’s other best friend – the cat.

To learn more, visit Kingsbury Animal Hospital, located in the University City Loop in St. Louis, Missouri.

One of the new banners for the updated City Museum home page

City Museum, our local experts on imagination and creation, always have some new development brewing to provide a fresh and engaging experience for every visit. Recent additions include life-size Rock’em Sock’em robots that you can use to battle your friends for bragging rights, new secret passages, renovation in the first floor area, and more. In addition, expanded summer hours will begin soon on March 15th. With so many updates, it was only proper to also give their web site an update to reflect their inspired activities. We’ve updated their home page with some fresh colors, photos, and a scrolling-marquee-type banner to highlight the activities of St. Louis’ most imaginative group.

On January 28th at 7pm, the first ever Pecha Kucha night in St. Louis will be held in downtown St. Louis. A tradition started in Tokyo (and now spread globally), Pecha Kucha nights are an opportunity for local artists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and creators to get together and present an interesting thought of their choice and stimulate discussion. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, and 20 seconds to talk per image. This should be a great opportunity to not only be exposed to some new ideas, but also learn some new faces in the local St. Louis community. It’s like the TED conferences, but from the grassroots up. And each presentation is less than 7 minutes.

For more information and a list of the presenters, visit http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/saint-louis/1.

The Baleout is a Vintage Fashion and Accessories store located in the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. With an extremely large product inventory (acquired in 1 ton clothing bales – thus their name) they have one of the biggest collections of vintage sweaters, ties, jeans, and dresses in the midwest.

Big Wheel lent our hand to The Baleout with a new logo representing the large clothing bales their product was acquired in, a website landing page with a bit of animated eye candy, sales promotion cards, and a business card system.

To learn more about The Baleout, please visit www.thebaleout.com and be sure to stop by the 4th Floor of the City Museum to check out their store.

If you are from St. Louis, you have probably heard of the Women’s Closet Exchange.

Recognized nationally as the Best Designer Resale Shop by the National Association of Resale and Thrift Stores, it offers so many name brands and selection of merchandise that it draws intrigued customers from all over the country.

This fall, Big Wheel has worked closely with the Women’s Closet Exchange and is proud to have helped them launch their new graphic identity system and website.

The new site showcases latest product arrivals, speaks about their resale process, features a “Be the First to Know” email sign up, and delivers key information all served up in an easy to navigate website.

To learn more about the Women’s Closet Exchange and view their new site, please visit  www.womensclosetexchange.net.

November 7th, 2009, Saint Louis Science Center

The science of sustainable design and its impact on our world is the focus of the local celebration of the fifth annual World Usability Day.

Created by the Usability Professionals’ Association, World Usability Day is an initiative that was founded to ensure the services and products important to life are easy to use and result in a positive experience. Last year, 40,000 people worldwide attended 200 events in 43 countries. And this year, like twice before, the Saint Louis Science Center will be the venue for what promises to be a unique learning experience right here in St. Louis. This year’s World Usability Day event in St Louis is free to the public, and is presented by GatewayCHI, an organization of St Louis area User Experience professionals, with the generous sponsorship of the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Express Scripts, and Perficient. On Saturday, November 7, volunteers will guide Science Center guests of all ages through various hands-on activities demonstrating the issues and science of Sustainable Design.

Activities include:

• Interacting with the Metrolink Touchscreen System
• Toilet Designs – Comparison of dual flush and other, more complex functionality
• Thermostats – How easy are they to program?
• Sustainability Websites – User Testing
• Recycle Rally – How fast can a pile of recycling be sorted? What would make it easier to sort?
• Mobile Devices – How do websites look on different mobile devices?
• Animal Rescue/Recycling/Reuse – “Recycling” dogs into new homes

I’d like to give kudos to Walt for putting together a nice blog about the St. Louis ad scene. In addition to reading several posts, I took time to visit several of the blogs listed in his blogroll. Finally, the St Louis ad community is publishing some online content.

BIG WHEEL is proud to announce the launch of the new Web site and e-commerce platform for TRIM – a racing inspired line of clothing and accessories for fashion-savvy motorheads who Keep Fast Company.

This project has been a dream, as we have had a fantastic collaborative experience with the founders of the brand and a huge amount of freedom in designing a site that has real thunder. From working with Steve Smith of SMITH RACING (a veteran of the high-octane battlefield since 1964… shouts out to you, sir) to the pride of authorship we’ve shared with the TRIM team (mad props to you, TRIM brothers and sisters) this has been one hell of an experience. You hear references to “building brands” in our industry all of the time – how often to you actually get to do it; I mean really do it?

Though we are extremely fired up about the branding/marketing side of this site, the e-commerce component really has the shop abuzz. Why? Because we are breaking new ground as a company by providing a turnkey solution for TRIM – and that’s not just talk. BIG WHEEL is responsible for full-site maintenance, product inventory, consumer communication and fulfillment for this new enterprise. That’s right: If you order a product from TRIM online, we provide the horsepower behind the scenes that ensures this gear arrives at your doorstep.

Bottom Line: If you are a lover of life in the fast lane, you need TRIM.

Check it at: http://www.trimindustries.com

I was recently introduced to the charitable organization, “Pathways to Independence,” a few months ago by the Executive Director, Craig Strohbeck. After a few casual conversations with him, I was quickly reminded that there truly are a few good eggs out there that really feel passionate about helping our community. Pathways to Independence certainly falls into this category and their work with adults with learning disabilities has been helping those that need it since 1987.

After a quick review of their previous site, it was easy to get the Big Wheel team on board with lending our hand to Pathways to Independence to freshen up their web presence. The newly launched site is simple to navigate, features a WordPress content management system allowing Pathways to manage content easily, a prominent Donate / Support Us section, and an Upcoming Events section to keep the public up to speed on new activities.

Check out the new site at www.pathways2independence.com to learn more.

For the past couple of years, the team at Big Wheel has donated time to create and maintain a small micro-site for a charity Golf Outing for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

So if you are interested in supporting our troops and love golf, it’s a great opportunity to show your support. The event takes place Sunday, August 30, 2009. Visit www.semperfigolf.com to learn more.