See that guy up there, his name is Casey. He’s been our lead programmer at work for over two years now. He started a month or so before I did at here and no one had any idea how awesome he’d be, and how much he’d revolutionize what we do with our websites and business. (more…)

As promised, here are my top 10 product recommendations from Garden Gate Delivery in Ithaca, NY (in no particular order). For you meat-eaters, you’ll have to forgive my vegetarian bias. I hear the meats are amazing, too.

1. Milk from Evans’: this stuff is unreal. Especially the non-homogenized stuff.
2. Pika’s Quiche is excellent- buttery crust and lots of nice flavor in the egg-part. The goat cheese spinach is my fave. Great for a quick, no-fuss meal. One is enough for 2 servings.
3. Butter from Evans’: this stuff is so good that it just got some attention from the New York Times. I tried it in some cookies I made. Those cookies never tasted better!
4. Chocolate chip cookies from Blue Wave Pastry rock my world. Is it bad if I eat 5 cookies in one day? Probably. These are a staple of my weekly orders.
5. Yogurt from Evans’ is amazing. If you’ve never had cream-on-top yogurt before, now’s the time to try it. It’s the real deal.
6. Chèvre from Lively Run is spectacular. It’s great on pasta or pizza.
7. Raviolis from Raffetto’s in NYC are delicious. Quick, easy meal of homemade pasta. Gorgonzola walnut are great but very rich. Cheese are excellent.
8. Ice cream from Cayuga Lake Creamery is super creamy and homemade tasting. We loved it.
9. Fresh pastas from Little Ithaca are a little pricey but delicious. Cheaper than eating out and more authentic than any other pasta in town.
10. Tofu and tofu kan: can’t go wrong with these and they’re on sale!

As designers, there’s nothing more rewarding than working with a fledgling business, designing their brand and marketing materials from the ground up. When a business is this young, we notice, there’s often little distinction between the business and the business owner: their hopes and dreams are intertwined, and as we work to understand who the business is in order to define it visually, we ultimately end up learning a great deal about the client. As you can imagine, we get invested in their success on a personal level because, after all, we’re a small shop and we know what it’s like to be starting out.

Which brings me to Garden Gate Delivery, a new sustainable grocery delivery business in Ithaca that we recently had the great pleasure of working with here at Ancient Wisdom. Marlo Capoccia, owner of Garden Gate, came to us needing the works: a logo, an e-commerce website, business cards, postcards, letterhead, a truck decal, posters and a template design for her e-newsletter. As Garden Gate’s project lead, you can imagine I spent quite a bit of time getting to know Marlo and her new business; throughout this process, in fact, we became very close friends. As excited as I was to launch Garden Gate’s new website back in February and see this new business take off for the first time, this was one project that I had a hard time parting with. After all, it’s client relationships like these that keep us motivated, creative, and keep us loving what we do. Luckily, though, it wasn’t like I’d never see Marlo again. On the contrary, I’d be seeing her once a week from then on. Because I was about to become of Marlo’s first and most loyal customers.

Even more satisfying than working closely with a new business on a project is being able to experience the success of that business first-hand once they leave our shop. As a customer of Garden Gate, the food that Marlo has been delivering to my door week after week has been incredibly fresh and delicious, brought to me with a higher level of customer service than I had imagined possible. She is doing an amazing job. Of course, Marlo came to us with a really solid business plan and a kindheartedness all her own, so I couldn’t possibly take credit for the success of her business. But just knowing that I had something to do with getting it off the ground is incredibly fulfilling. It’s always funny the way things come around full-circle in a small town like Ithaca. In this case, I am just reminded of why it is I do what I do every day.

Please look for my next post, in which I will be sharing a list of my Top 10 recommended products from www.gardengatedelivery.com.

Yea, we like beer. We like local. Local design? That’s us! We have been known to consume a growler or two, mostly thanks to our friends at the Ithaca Coffee Company. Oh, and you don’t want to know how many Growler Cards we have already filled up as part of the new Growler Club. Don’t forget to check out what is on tap.

So keeping in mind all of these things that we like, I was happy to read from our friends over at the Ithaca Beer Company on their Beer Blog about their success, so far, in the Great Lakes Brewing News National IPA Competition. It’s like March Madness, but with a different type of madness…

Anyway Ithaca Beer’s own Flower Power has made it into the Final Four! They go up tomorrow (March 8 ) against Bell’s Brewing Company Two Hearted Ale. Flowers vs. hearts? We better win!

(more…)

We’ve all been enjoying the stories that our friend’s over at Tough Pups have been cranking out in their brand new blog: The Tough Pups Gazette. This is version 2.0 of the Gazette and it has already been nominated for some blog awards, go vote!

While the site uses the same technology as our very own Red Frog Blog (WordPress) it has been customized to fit their visual/functionality needs.

So go on over and check out what’s new in the Tough Pups Gazette. The latest story looks very promising.

Thanks pups.