Jackson Whole Grocer was putting the finishing touches on a much-expanded new store – as well as a new brand – and the opening date was closing in like Buford T. Justice.
You remember Buford T. Justice? He’s the lawman played by Jackie Gleason in that cinematic classic “Smokey and the Bandit”. In fact, I can’t get the theme song out of my head. (“We’ve got a long way to go, and a short time to get there.”) That’s what this job was like.
But more than that, Nathan, our operations director, ended up driving a truck filled with a few pallet-loads of signage from Eugene to Jackson, Wyo., with the deadline bearing down on us. As it turned out, that was the fastest, most cost-effective way to deliver them to Jackson Whole Grocer. (If you’re familiar with the plot of this movie, this should be making sense, now. If not, never mind.)
The important thing is we’ve been working with these good folks in Jackson for several months – setting a new brand, designing signage and helping with advertising and media relations.
Sasha, our production manager, and Nathan arrived in Jackson just before the opening last week to help install the signs – after a huge team effort here in Eugene that involved almost everyone at CAWOOD.
There were daily phone calls between Eugene and Jackson, hundreds of e-mails and a Dropbox that had so much traffic I thought I saw smoke coming out of it. This job had chaotic moments, for sure. But it’s always gratifying to arrive at that place where the dust clears, and you can stand back and digest everything.
It started with conceptual rebranding, and a new logo. From there we developed signage for the new store. They wanted to keep it light and lively:
And we told a “Little Stor-ee” of how the new market came to be and launched it as a slideshow on their redesigned website. (You’ll have to go there to see the happy ending!)
We’ve also been working on new advertisements, and the list goes on. The biggest bummer about being so far away is that we can’t swing by for lunch.
