Categories
Business Digital Marketing Marketing

Why Spectruss is Chattanooga’s Choice Agency 

Why Spectruss is Chattanooga’s Choice Agency 

 

There are a few things that make Chattanooga the city that it is. Some say it’s the walkability, others say the booming restaurant and bar scene, and many say it’s the amazing natural scenery that’s in literally every direction you turn. 

 

You’ve got iconic brands like Chattanooga Whiskey, Hutton & Smith Brewing Co., and Lookout Wild Film Festival. Want to know what all of these brands have in common aside from being a local Chattanooga company? Each of these brands have used Spectruss for marketing or advertising needs to take their company to the next level. 

 

The thing that makes Chattanooga, Chattanooga is that everyone who enters leaves feeling like a local. They feel like they take a little piece of them when they leave. Chattanooga is a city that thrives on locality. From the restaurants, to the attractions, to the parks and the people – it’s home. 

 

Nobody understands that better than Spectruss. Spectruss has been Chattanooga’s Marketing and Advertising Agency for over 11 years. You might be wondering why knowing what it means to be a Chattanoogan is so important as a marketing and advertising agency and the answer is pretty simple…we understand who you are first. 

 

If we understand who you are as a company, creating a brand like Hutton & Smith Brewing Co., for example, becomes second nature to us. Working as geologists from Las Vegas, the owners moved to Chattanooga, TN, and fell in love with the city’s accessibility to rock climbing and various outdoor activities. They came to us at the beginning of the craft beer revolution with a new recipe and a dream to start a brewery. 

 

We were challenged with the concept of creating a brand that could be national, but would remain close to home for the owners. Hutton & Smith was named after the “Father of Modern Geology,” James Hutton and “Father of English Geology,” William Strata Smith. The brand started in Chattanooga with a connection to the rock climbing scene. It started with an understanding of exactly who Hutton & Smith Brewing Co. were and who they ultimately wanted to be. Both the brand and the beer were quickly embraced by Chattanooga’s rock-loving enthusiasts since it’s release in 2014 and you can now find the brand all over the US. 

 

The reality is, one of the things that draws people to our city is the connection to the outdoors. Whether that’s felt through beer, rock climbing, or even films – it’s there. 

 

Since its inception in 2012, Lookout Wild Film Festival has partnered with Spectruss to increase its brand awareness and audience attendance. Our digital marketing strategies and creative branding led to exponential growth for the Lookout Wild Film Festival. Year after year, we strategize on how to meet the high expectations of annual crowd goers. 

 

Each year, we gave the festival a fresh new look to set a new theme from previous years. In 2019, our team redesigned the entire identity of the Lookout Wild Film Festival, including a highly dynamic, attention-grabbing logo and a website redesign.

 

With increased brand recognition, Lookout Wild has attracted major film productions with big brand sponsors such as Redbull, Audi, North Face, and Patagonia. Even though the brand is rapidly growing, it started with Chattanooga. It started with having an understanding of the local audience and the local love for all things outdoors and through that mutual understanding, we took Lookout Wild to new heights. 

 

While knowing Chattanooga sets us apart as a Marketing and Advertising Agency, we’re also experts in the realm of ecommerce sites and website redesigns that are geared to touch other parts of the world. We want your business to grow and expand! 

 

Your website is a crucial part of your business and growth. Chattanooga Whiskey approached us in 2019 when their online presence was failing and in a digital world, you know that can’t be good. Our team worked in overdrive to create a new website for them that was user-friendly and fully responsive. We created their new website with the goal of seamless navigation at the front of our minds. Their online presence has done nothing but soar the last few years. 

 

After building a new ecommerce site for Royal Highnies, their online sales grew 25% and 10% for wholesale orders. While developing the brand new e-commerce site, our team simultaneously built monthly campaigns powered by multiple digital marketing strategies that all funneled to an online pop-up store for consumers to shop. 

 

At Spectruss we aren’t just local experts, we’re industry experts. To check out all the services we offer, visit our website. You can also read more case studies on local brands that we’ve partnered with.

 

Categories
Events

Spectruss Hosts Holiday Party!

During this holiday season, Spectruss hosted its holiday party at the local Chattanooga brewery, Hutton and Smith.Clients, friends, and fellow Spectruss co-workers gathered inside the brewery for various beers, snacks, and conversation.

If you haven’t already, check out Hutton and Smith Brewery at 431 East Martin Luther King Blvd in downtown Chattanooga, or online at huttonandsmithbrewing.com.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic 2016.

Cheers!

spectruss-launch-party

Categories
Projects

Website Launched – CityScope Food and Drink

This week here at Spectruss, the popular local magazine CityScope gets an online face-lift for their “Food and Drink” magazine. CityScope is a Chattanooga-based magazine with many annual and seasonal magazine releases to multiple scenes around the local area, including:  Football, Business, Home & Design, Health, to name a few.

With the launch of the new website through Spectruss, the team at CityScope now has easy control of their front-end website appearance through a personalized WordPress back-end. This is the first website rollout for what will be several websites to embody their brand. The new website features a content management system that will allow CityScope to plug in their own content and take control of what appears on the website.

Spectruss is now beginning development on the “Moth Ball by CityScope” website, which is a great benefit event put on by CityScope and the women of Chattanooga. With that underway, Spectruss is excited to add another great website to the Chattanooga website design community.

For a firsthand look at the new site, head over to: cityscopefoodanddrink.com.

Categories
Design

Spectruss Lead Designer Justin Aragon Interview

This week we highlight lead designer of Spectruss, Justin Aragon. In this interview, we learn about his design aesthetic to his personal web design treasures!

 

What is your greatest strength when it comes to designing website layouts?

When it comes to designing website layouts, you have to think of who you’re designing it for first. Listening to the client’s vision is a major strength to have and being able to translate an abstract idea to visual communication. Every web design project we work on is custom designed for each client. From the navigation, sizing, text placement, typography, photography, video, film, graphic elements, animations… etc., everything is designed accordingly to best represent who the client is. It is also important for me as a designer to produce unique designs every time. It keeps me creative, playful, push envelopes and maybe raise some eyebrows too!

 

Do you create all the components to the website? (icons, imagery, art)

Yes! I’m very observant… which every designer should be. I look at websites every day. My eyes recognize when certain graphic elements or iconography have been used before in multiple projects by different agencies. Even when I’m driving around the city, it frustrates me when I see the same topography and icons on billboards and posters here in Chattanooga. I like to give our clients designs that they can only call their own. I have Illustrator files that scroll forever full of custom-designed graphics that I consider one of my prized possessions.

 

When working on a project, what is your average turnaround for completion?

Every project has a different timeline, so it’s difficult to give a specific number. It also varies on what kind of project it is. We’ve worked long term with clients on fully functioning custom-designed websites, to as short as two weeks, to twenty-four hours! The average would probably be around three to four weeks. Ideally, we like to have a week for the design phase, another week for edits, and go to the programming phase on the final week.

 

What part does branding and brand identity play in your creative process?

Branding is everything! Branding dictates the overall direction of how to represent your clients. Branding a new company is probably the most creative part of being in this business. We’ve worked with several local clients here in Chattanooga, and it feels really great when people recognize your work just by looking at a signage, logo, and visiting a website. When I moved back to Chattanooga from Architecture School in 2011, there was a growing population in the creative community… which was awesome! But I also noticed that everyone was producing very similar trendy designs. Trends can only last until there is a new one. I’m a huge fan of timeless design that remain significant over years and years. I always keep in mind when designing a logo or any kind of branding that the overall visual appeal would become an instant classic and does not come with an expiration date.

 

Do you favor the idea of working with a company to focus their branding and improve upon it before beginning the website process?

When clients come to us, they are either looking to start from the beginning or unhappy with their current appeal. It is always good to suggest improving certain elements of their brand before further producing major work. When we work with a company that already has their branding established, it is our job to use what they currently have and build the rest of their Identity effectively. Limits can be great. It can be your friend sometimes. When I was studying architecture, I hated working around building codes, but you’ll realize how efficient your designs become. It’s the same with any type of design. You have to be able to work within certain parameters.

 

How would you best describe your design style? (modern, vintage, etc.)

Like I hate labeling my relationships, I don’t necessarily put a stamp on my forehead and say I only have one specific style. I guess I can answer the question in two parts:

Being in the creative industry, you have to be able to tackle different styles. For web design, it is always important to be cutting edge. Since websites are now the new storefronts, you always want your appeal to be fresh and interesting regardless of style, because you are one click away from the x button. If “Advanced” is a style, I would say as a company that we integrate design with the most current technology in our work.

In my personal time, I still do a lot of designing. I’ve been working on conceptual furniture, playing around with new silhouettes for men’s fashion, and currently building ideas for the Millennial House. I could describe my personal aesthetic as modern minimal. I like simple bold statements, solid contrasting gray tones, and honesty of materiality. When you’ve been working all day with information overload on client projects, it’s nice to come home to clean lines, smooth surfaces and pure simplicity because it will always be beautiful. A very small hint of my personal style can be seen in my professional work, but I always make sure that the work remains egoless and not about me.