The Jacksonville Jazz Fest is one of our community’s most anticipated cultural events – and we can’t think of a better artist to illustrate it than the talented Mike Barnhart. Congrats, Mike, and we’ll see you at the festival!

The festival is scheduled for May 23-26 in downtown Jacksonville. For more information, check out jaxjazzfestival.com

To craft the stuff, we leaned on our resident brewing experts to whip up a recipe and procure the ingredients. Then, the whole agency pitched in to help with the mixing, fermenting, bottling, and – of course – tasting process.

At the same time, the creative crew was busy designing an identity that would reflect the style of the beer and the spirit of the Shepherd agency.

The Snowboard Archive at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum in Vail is the most comprehensive collection of snowboard artifacts and history in the world. It chronicles the story of snowboarding from its humble beginnings in the 1930s to its rebellious emergence onto the 1980s scene, and walks visitors through its early years before becoming an Olympic sport in 1998.

Now, Archive founders Trent Bush, David Alden and Kurt Olesek are working with Shepherd, to raise the profile of the exhibit by creating an online interactive version of the Archive. The team hopes to provide accessibility for snowboard fans who crave the authentic Snowboard Archive experience, but are unable to visit the museum in Vail.

“We selected Shepherd because of their strong design and digital portfolio, their passion for action sports and their desire to help expose the Snowboard Archive to a global audience – we’ve got big plans for the Archive and we’re excited to take it to the next level. ” Trent Bush, Founder and Curator, The Snowboard Archive.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of the project and to help tell the story of Snowboarding’s history. I think it’s one that people want to hear, and we’re excited to be involved with a community that’s truly passionate about its sport.”
Paul Calderbank, Shepherd.

The Snowboard Archive is a permanent exhibit at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum, Vail Colorado.

For any photo shoot, there always seems to be a single most difficult hurdle to get over. For this shoot, it was that no one wanted to volunteer their personal smart phone to be used as the “prop”. – Can’t really blame them, since the device would be useless after we were done with it. Thanks to Craigslist we were able to get a few used devices that were looking for a new home.

Even then, free of emotional connection to the device, some of the pre-production crew were hesitant to begin “styling the prop”, or in reality, smashing the device to bits. After removing the battery, Shepherd Agency Creative Director, Clif Watson rolled up his sleeves, took a hammer and got to work. The phone was driven over several times by an SUV, smashed with a hammer and pieces torn apart by hand to get the right balance between complete destruction and still recognizable.

With all the fragments collected, each piece was placed stylistically while attempting to avoid looking placed to give the appearance that the damage had occurred instantaneously in a Life Shattering moment.

While we have come to love our personal tech devices, and have a hard time picturing our life without them, the intention of this image is to grab people and convey that the device damage is insignificant to the damage caused to a family when a family member has been lost.

In today’s information-rich, meta-connected world, a company’s bottom line isn’t necessarily the bottom line anymore. While financial performance is still a primary measurement of a company’s success, more and more company stakeholders – i.e., the company’s investors, employees, customers and communities they call home – want to know more about what’s going on behind the curtain.

Rather than resist the growing interest these groups have in a company’s commitment to areas like sustainability, safety, customer and employee development and community outreach, an increasing number of companies are recognizing the benefits that operating with transparency can have.

CSX Transportation, North America’s largest railroad east of the Mississippi, is one such company committed to the ideals of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which they document through an annual CSR Report.

As CSX Chairman, President and CEO Michael J. Ward states, “Our CSR Report reflects a holistic view of who we are as a company. CSX is achieving milestones in environmental stewardship and community and employee engagement, while at the same time driving commercial, financial and operational success.

“Measurement of these efforts and transparent reporting benefits shareholders, customers, employees and communities alike.”

This year, Shepherd had the pleasure of working with CSX to develop their 2011 report, which was created in accordance with the Global Reporting Index’s graded guidelines.

In past years, CSX produced a printed report that was then converted to a PDF hosted on CSX.com. This year, we encouraged the company to flip that idea and to lead with a web-based report that would provide readers with a better on-screen product, greater flexibility and a more customizable experience. The site is programmed to give visitors the ability to identify and compile reports that feature just the specific sections they’re interested in. These customized reports can then be downloaded as a PDF, or emailed to a colleague directly from the site.

The site also houses a series of infographics designed to highlight key information, which we programmed to be easily downloaded for use in presentations and reports.

See how CSX is helping to make the world a better place – and how we helped bring their CSR efforts to life – by visiting www.csxcsr.com.

Low prices on glasses – plus a huge selection and brand-name frames – make Eyeglass World an easy choice for people who want plenty of options when they’re shopping for specs.

In our latest spots for the optical chain, we set out to highlight Eyeglass World’s low prices, and the positive influence that those prices can have on a person’s eyewear wardrobe.

The work of Shepherd’s own Kendrick Kidd and Damon Williams has been recognized once again. Poster designs for Bold City Brewery, a Jacksonville based brewery, were featured on the Communication Arts Website. Congratulations gents!

Click here to view the article.

“The campaign features bold visuals and copy, fitting for a company with the conviction to include the word “bold” in its name.” – Communication Arts

Style..Price…Convenience? What are shoppers’ primary motivators in today’s (still) muddled economy? We went out to find out – and are ready to share some fresh insights with you in our latest report. We can tell you, and it’s probably no surprise, that style is still a major factor among shoppers. But, did you know that only 3-in-10 report being an impulse buyer? Or that 75% now participate in loyalty programs? To hear more, please contact David Quigley.

HEARTGARD Plus is the #1 preventive of its kind in animal health. The only catch? The pet owner has to remember to give it to their dog every 30 days. After issuing simple heart stickers to put on pet owner calendars and supplying reminder emails for years, we helped bring the brand – and owner compliance – into the digital age with a new HEARTGARD Reminder App.

It’s available now as a free download in the App Store.

Don’t have an iPhone? The HEARTGARD Reminder App is now available for Android. Visit the Android Market.

Check out screen captures of the app below.

Shepherd helped kick off the 2011-2012 ABET season with a poster for Little Shop of Horrors. One of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows of all time, this affectionate musical spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies has become a household name.

Visit www.abettheatre.com for more on ABET and this year’s season.