BY BILL FREEHLING

A Ronald Reagan commemorative coin that will be flipped before football games across the nation this weekend has Fredericksburg ties.

Washington-based Beveridge Seay Inc., whose president is Fredericksburg resident Nick Seay, designed and produced the Reagan coin to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 40th U.S. president’s birth on Feb. 6, 1911.

Seay co-founded Beveridge Seay, which helps clients with branding and visual design, in 1987. Before that he ran the visual communications firm Seay Design Office. He did work for the Reagan administration in the 1980s including designing Christmas cards, announcements, invitations and decorations.

Based on that relationship, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation asked Seay to design and produce the commemorative nickel coin. The firm produced 14,000 of the coins, which feature Reagan’s face on one side and the logo of his library and foundation on the other.

High school, college and professional football teams across the country have been invited to use the coins this weekend for the pre-game toss, and thousands have accepted. Football legends Lou Holtz, Doug Flutie and Lynn Swann are all actively involved in the effort, whose intent is to raise awareness about Reagan.

The coins will be used at home games this weekend in Fredericksburg and Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, those school systems confirmed. James Monroe High School football coach Rich Serbay said the public address announcer will read the details of the Reagan tribute before tomorrow night’s home game against Eastern View High School.

Seay — who serves on the boards of the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center and the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region — graduated from James Monroe and was happy to learn the coin would be used tomorrow night.

The site has now been optimized for speed using technologies like the Amazon S3 Content Distribution Network (CDN) and minification. We’re also now taking advantage of web font technology from Fonts.com to display text on the site in Helvetica rather than the poor Microsoft knockoff Arial. Finally, we’ve added social media links in the right sidebar, allowing users to easily share any page on the site with their friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google.

To learn more about these advancements and the opportunities they present for your own website, feel free to contact anyone on the Beveridge Seay staff.

“There’s been some great work over the past months, and it wasn’t an easy task to shortlist the showcase projects,” said Sajag Patel, a 2011 juror. To select winners, a new, international panel of multidisciplinary experts convenes yearly to review the best of the submissions. They consider “before” and “after” representations of brand transformations with written summaries.

Emphasis was on executed strategy that made an emotional connection, and met the stated objectives and needs of the identified customers and prospects. Jurors were unaware of the brand strategists’ name and size when reviewing the projects. Consequently, a small consulting firm like ours had as much opportunity to be selected as did global organizations with exponentially greater budgets.

Over 32 industries and 34 countries are represented among the 2011 winners. They ranged from Australian Diabetes Council to luxury car brand, Audi, United States Mint, Brazil’s Grupo Boticario, and Amrop, a Belgium-based global search firm. Some of the competing branding consultants included FutureBrand, Interbrand, MetaDesign, Siegel+Gale, in addition to in-house teams, small agencies, and representatives of multinational corporations and non-profits.

A few exchanges around our office revealed that Dave Feinstein would be a park ranger, Meghan Still would be a toll booth collector, Nick Seay would be the greenskeeper at St. Andrews Old Course, and Hubie Le would be a veterinarian or a sports team mascot – both animal-related, we suppose.

Check the February issue of GD USA to see 20 other surprising answers.

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For more information on Christ Church and where to buy a CD, visit here.

For the designer, these answers are clear but often expressing them in a manner that is concise and digestible is a task they find overwhelmingly difficult. Take the four logos at left, for example. While we all know and typically respect the design integrity of these brands, it’s quite challenging to articulate why. After all, Apple’s logo is not a computer, FedEx’s logo is not a delivery truck, Starbucks’ logo is not a cup of coffee, and Nike’s logo is not athletic equipment. So, why are these working?

To put an end to this seemingly elusive question, we at Beveridge Seay have decided to share our own points of evaluation. These measures are based on historical evidence of successful logos in the market, a whole lot of reading and research on the subject of identity, and our near 25 years in the business of designing these things. In other words: trust us.

In evaluating the merits of a logo, there are four critical questions to ask:

1. Does the logo express a specific feeling or personality that is important to convey to our audience?

Rather than defining what an organization does, a strong logo will often help define what an organization is about. Clients sometimes believe the role of the designer is to convert a mission statement into a pictogram, but the smart designer recognizes a logo is an opportunity to convey something potentially more powerful. In our examples at left, Apple speaks to simplicity with a nod to Newton and clearly communicates that it’s not your typical computer company. FedEx inspires confidence and reliability through bold letterforms with a hint of an arrow between the ‘e’ and ‘x’. Starbucks captures an earthy and warm “feel-good” feeling. Nike embodies speed, precision, and understated power.

To be fair, making an inspiring statement through a logo is not always realistic, and often intrinsic meaning will not be realized until much later in its life. What you can do from the outset, however, is complete this sentence: It’s important for our organization to appear [insert adjective]. If your potential logo does not reflect any similarities to the adjective you chose, you are likely on 
the wrong track.

2. Is the logo distinctive?

We’ll admit that this is a fairly abstract concept but — before you wince at the word abstract — determining whether or not a logo is distinctive may be an easier exercise than you might expect. All that it requires is a review of your proposed logo in comparison to your competitors and other organizations in your industry. Does your candidate get lost in a sea of similar shapes, colors, or visual treatments? Or does it stand apart in a positive way?

Another key attribute is whether or not a logo is memorable. After leaving the logo presentation, for example, can you clearly visualize the shapes and forms that you reviewed several hours later? If a number of options were presented, which come to mind first? If you are able to remember a logo, it’s a strong indication that your audience will too.

3. Is the logo going to be functional?

While there is a growing trend for visually complex and excessively detailed logo design running recklessly throughout the design community, be mindful that –- unless your organization’s presence is strictly web-based –- you may regret not asking some basic questions on functionality. These include: Will the logo embroider well? Will it be legible at a very small size? What happens if it’s printed in the newspaper in black and white? And how does it look on a dark background? Don’t let your designer shrug these questions off — they should be proven through examples and testing.

4. Is the logo well crafted?

This question may be particularly difficult for the non-designer but competent execution is a big indication of whether or not you are getting your money’s worth. Do curves appear smooth and uninterrupted? Are straight edges straight? Does the spacing between letters appear visually balanced?

While quality assurance is the responsibility of your designer, unfortunately there are many who regularly overlook fine details. A word of caution: Your designer will hate you if you identify a flaw that they didn’t see… Do it anyway.

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Beveridge Seay developed the identity for the Tri-State Animal Emergency Center, as well as for its sister daytime practice, Swedesboro Animal Hospital. Implementation for both included signage and wayfinding, facility interior design, website design, literature and marketing collateral design, as well as a system of fun items ranging from collar tags to branded apparel.

No animals were harmed in the making of this brand though certain members of the creative staff were forced to wear the Cone of Shame.

View the work.