Spitfire Blog

We’ve had a very busy and productive summer at The Hangar, so Tammy decided to give everyone a chance to relax this weekend by playing host to the Spitfire Crew with a summer barbeque at her beautiful home.

The expansive back yard at ‘Casa De Tammy’ allowed for many activities, including a playground, one of them bouncy things for kids, cornhole, a huge porch for relaxing, and more.

The kids even had their own convertible mustang to tool around in, although it did require a few checks under the hood to keep it running smoothly.

There was something for everyone, including a never-ending supply of chopped wood in case of Nuclear Winter, as seen in the top left of the photo below.  I promise you, that pile of wood was almost as big as the house.  Seriously, Noah used less wood on his ark.

The Sherwoods enjoyed each other’s company in the back yard.

“Uncle” Ben gave Tammy’s son Eli a few lessons in baseball, although the lesson about giving the ball back to the coach didn’t really seem to land.

We had a huge spread of tasty food served pot-luck style in Tammy’s amazing kitchen, including burgers, hot dogs, mac n’ cheese, corn souffle, asian cole slaw, pasta salad, deviled eggs, chips of every variety, fresh fruit, and much more.

Bev’s daughter made a phenomenal banana pudding, while a tasty dessert bread and cupcakes also joined the sweet courses.

Jonathan and his friend Mary got the clean plate awards!

Kevin and Robert weighed the pro’s and con’s of the charcoal vs. gas grill debate while admiring the Big Green Egg grill at Tammy’s house.  That thing churned out some really good burgers and dogs.

My daughter, Lyla,  didn’t partake in any of the juicy burgers, but she did enjoy some of her plastic teethers!

Tammy, thanks for your hospitality and for sharing your home with us!  We look forward to coming back to your home, year…after year…after year…

We treasure The Hangar’s location on Main Street in the heart of Historic Downtown Buford.  From the charming boutiques and gourmet restaurants to photography studios and a rock cafe, there’s always something happening here.

This year we decided to start taking better advantage of the constant foot traffic by placing a custom sandwich board on our doorstep.  It’s made of a dry erase material which allows us to switch out the messaging whenever we like.

We include famous marketing quotes, humorous quips, illustrations and more.  We’ve had many folks stop in to inquire about our services or chat about a question we’ve posed on the board.

How about you?  Are you taking advantage of the marketing opportunities around you?  We can help you maximize your branding opportunities, and give you a personal tour of Main Street and our office in Buford!

Few things excite the graphic artists here at the Hangar more than the prospect of broadening their color palette.

Pantone, the New Jersey based color giant, has released “The Plus Series”, the newest version of their color matching system. The 224 new solid colors, 300 metallic colors, 46 new neon colors, Pantone Color Manager software for digital design applications, and a reordered book for intuitive family color selection will open up a whole new world of design possibilities!

Pantone has also included a great video detailing the new system on their website. It really provides some fantastic insight into the creation, and vision of the color process, what’s involved and how it effects the design process. It’s really amazing to see all the different steps required to produce the different color values that make up this new Pantone series.

As much as we as we look forward using the new Pantone system, we’re even more excited about weaving these new hues into our client’s projects! After all, life is about using the whole box of crayons.

For more information, check out Pantone’s website.

Yesterday was Matthew Holtkamp’s birthday, so we decided to surprise him with our Birthday Chicken. With a little planning (a.k.a. scheming) with his wife Suzanne, we were able to surprise Matthew when he least expected it, in the comfort of his own home. The Holtkamp’s actually have chickens living outside their house, so it made it plausible that a large chicken could potentially walk into their home and tell Matthew happy birthday.

Jonathan was a trooper, donning the “Chicken suit of sweaty-sweatiness” with ease during a hot July afternoon. He even laid a birthday egg shaped card!

As a parting gift, the Holtkamps gave us a carton of eggs laid from their own chickens. It went well with the theme! Thanks guys!

Just as Holtkamp delivers the gift of Lifetime Comfort, the birthday chicken delivers surprise birthday ambushes! So let this be a lesson that on your birthday–you are never safe from the Birthday Chicken, even in the comfort of your own home.

We’ve recently had the pleasure of working on the website for Talastar Exteriors, a home remodeling company founded by master craftsman and designer Sean Tarala. He had kept all branding and marketing in-house (pun intended), and was in need of a fresh set of eyes to gain a new perspective. We set out to give his branding and website an updated look that better showcased his extreme talent and custom services.

The original Talastar Exteriors site was a simple design, but lacked the intricate details in the design to reflect the ornate nature of his work.

BEFORE:

His new site is full of design details that compliment his work and accent the quality of his services.

AFTER:

By adding a tabbed photo gallery, users are able to better see completed projects for each service category. Additionally, the text was refined to read easier, clearly define services offered, boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and best of all, drive sales!

We are proud of the finished product, and have a client that thinks it’s great too. That always makes for a great project, but especially when it comes from a talented designer himself. To celebrate the launch, we ordered up a batch of custom cookies featuring the Talastar Exteriors brand.

Thanks for the opportunity to help with your marketing, Sean!