Brands & content that
intrigue and resonate.
Components culled &
choreographed
to guide and compel.
Delivery imbued with
comprehension-boosting finesse.
Hello, Pixel Relish.
Content Services
Catch the eyes and ears of your audiences, only don't stop there: Guide through useful layers of information in rapport-building ways; weave a succession of complementary content across channels; stimulate interest; heighten comprehension; invite engagement. Advocate for the end-user, always, while also evolving a brand that feels dimensional, charismatic, alive.
Pixel Relish can help:
Intent Clarification (whys + why now flows of succinct foci)
Communications Design (interplay of verbal-visual-medium, my specialty)
Art Design & Direction
Content Design & Direction
Cross-Platform & Inter-Outreach Synergy
Analysis Review (of assumptions, in particular)
Brand Services
Build company and product brands that lead rather than lag, that feel dimensional, personable, sentient. Iterate on micro to macro levels in ways that build connection and trust with your audience. Stay fresh, relevant — unexpected, even. Mould “on brand” into something broadening and supportive.
Pixel Relish can help — particularly with lifestyle-centric brands:
Intent Clarification (whys + why now flows of succinct foci)
Brand Personas + How Such Translate into Specific Characteristics & an Evolution of Recurring Themes
Style Guides (visual, verbal, digital, print)
Rebrand Direction & Iteration
Hey Simplicity:
Come meet Rich.
Now there's one powerful,
user-friendly alliance.
Step Beyond Tell:
Evoke.
Call on tenets of rich simplicity®
to shape engaging,
brand-evolving content and media.
"Keep it simple."
A tried and true communications mantra. Only…
… if both you and your competitors “keep it simple,” how do you make your content stand out; much less be remembered; much less be remembered as yours rather than as a competitor's or your industry's in general, …
… and how do you invite comprehension + encourage engagement + advance your brand + further rapport with audiences without cluttering up the outreach?
Hello, rich simplicity.
Remember
- A message that doesn't connect with audiences isn't communication.
Nuance Your Way to an Illusion of Simplicity
The power of simplicity lies not in simpleness, per se, but in an impression of it — when in reality what's happening is simplicity complemented by multiple useful undertones of additional information.
For example, attempts to lighten logic-intense content by lopping off text can starve audiences of reasons to trust and engage. Instead, sure, let's pare down the verbiage; let's certainly nix phrasing that sounds just like our competitors. But let's also craft elements that convey rather than tell information. Not only will that make the content less cumbersome, it will also help brains more readily remember it.
Opportunity Knocking
Each ingredient of communication building is an opportunity to flavor and so influence perception: Play ingredients off one another. Create a whole more enticing than its parts. Use story and story elements to ping interlinking levels of cognition so people can more easily process the content. Heighten interest. Invite engagement.
Play with…
- story (throughline, arc, mood)
- point of view
- tone, mood
- color
- contrast
- motion (literal, implied)
- rhythms
…through your use of …
- word choice, and syntax
- lighting (in photos, as white space)
- layout
- delivery medium
- delivery environment
- existing relationship(s) with audience(s)
Taste of Pixel Relish
All projects, concept through implementation, by Sheila Dent, dba Pixel Relish, unless otherwise noted. Updated samples plus related software proficiencies on my Behance page.
+
Years of
Professional
Experience
Ideas
Yet to
Explore
That Pixel Relish Flavor
Pixel Relish blends a mind for separating germane detail(s) from superfluous, with an ear for developing content useful beyond merely it's top-level function, with an eye for designs that further message + brand, with a heart passionate about fruitful communication.
Think communiation arts meets tools mastery meets decades-cultivated skill at creating flows that invite comprehension and engagement.
Pixel Relish recipes are client-specific. Each includes ingredients that appeal to audience wants and needs while also furthering brand rapport. The specific flavor and personality, however, vary brand to brand, strategy to strategy, project to project.
Add a bit of Pixel Relish to your next project — as a piecemeal complement to your in-house talent pool, or as an all-encompassing go-to.
For your…
big picture to nuts-and-bolts digital projects,
large to small format print projects,
e-commerce everything,
cross-channel synergy
… think Pixel Relish.
Inquire
Today
Let's Get to Work
Tell me about that upcoming project that could use a dash (or two!) of Pixel Relish.
Shoot me an email noting your communication hurdles (in detail, if you like!) to get started.
I'll typically respond with you within one business day.
Know that I keep any information you submit private: I never sell contact info (any info!) nor share it beyond my Pixel Relish team.
11x6 Direct Mail Postcards
- The Project
- Allen Weiner School Board Re-election Campaign materials
- The Audience
- Voters residing in Redwood City, Menlo Park, San Carlos, Belmont, Atherton, East Palo Alto, and Emerald Hills, California cities California's famed Bay Area, hub of technological innovation and creativity, audience, including people from nearly the entire spectrum of economic classes: Accustomed to decent levels of design and execution yet also sensitive to costs involved, meaning had to look professional yet not money-wastingly slick while, of course, remaining attractive enough to get people's attention, then letting the content — the candidate's impressive qualifications and endorsements — do the rest.
I created these direct mail postcards for the Allen Weiner School Board Re-election campaign, continuing with themes I'd established in the website and related print materials created in the previous weeks.
The Bay Area (California) audience, residing in a hub of innovation and creativity, expects solid execution without too-professional (reads as wasteful)
On the left is one sample of three parallel versions, each with content for the specific demographic audience. On the right is the follow-up design.
Blog Preview
Hey Rich Simplicity:
Come meet the world.
It's full of amazing, innovative people.
Bring them tips, useful feedback, and free downloads that help them create clearer, more compelling brands and communications. Teach them about rich simplicty.
Subscribe
Upcoming Topics Include…
Fundamentals
Intro to Rich Simplicity
An introduction to the tenets of rich simplicity — of employing hierarchy and nuance (plus your originality) to create more effective strategies and communications, ones that ping both subconscious and conscious areas of comprehension to improve cognition and engagement
Analysis Free Download
Building Information Hierarchies
By focusing on intent more than details themselves, we can separate information into core and supporting themes and their relevancies to audience wants and needs; we're then well on our way to rich simplicity.
Tools Free Download
Intro to Tools of Nuance
An ongoing series focusing on each in a vast variety of nuance tools (story, color, tone, syntax, etc.) and ideas to help you make each your own as you employ it to infuse your communications with richness that heightens comprehension and engagement
Tools
Using Nuance to Improve Brand & Campaign Stories
Rich simplicity works because our minds make sense of inputs by constructing stories. Use that to your advantage: Hint at themes, useful tension and conflict (hello, interest spike), trust-building character personas, and more to improve comprehension and engagement.
Strategy
Rich Simplicity for Strategizing
Understanding the influence of nuance helps understand how to weave it into your brand and content strategies, both in understanding your audience and how to interact with them. Guest blogger Peter Byrne, a decades-proven strategist, and I delve into shaping strategies with rich simplicity in mind.
Fundamentals
Conveying Core Competencies
Call it core competency or area of authority; either way, rich simplicity can help you better convey your product's or service's "best aspect" through rich, multidimensional terms (versus generic approaches likely to fall flat and not be remembered)
Fundamentals
Better Understand Your Audience
Understand your target audience(s) needs and wants — including any disconnect between perceived and actual needs as well as nuances behind those needs; occasional guest post, tip sheet, and more by Cognise Consulting's strategy guru, Peter Byrne
Intro
Understanding Your Core Compentency
Whether you call it core competency or area of authority, tips for defining your product or service's "best aspect" — in specific, rich terms (versus generic "we sell good widgets")
Intro
Show, Don't Tell: Using Nuance to Build Rapport
Nuance allows your audience to sense (literally) rather than merely be told information. That more subtle delivery allows them to have the impression that they're arriving at conclusions of their own volition (which, in many ways, they are), which allows them to more readily trust those conclusions you guided them toward without forcing upon them.
Intro
Ah, the Human Brain
An ongoing series touching upon preferences and limitations the human brain has for processing information (wherein lies much of the basis for rich simplicity — for instance, that people often more deeply trust a conclusion they feel they arrived at on their own); guests posts by a few colleagues specializing in brain psychology and related fields.
Ideas
Building a Brand Personality
Let your brand have some character. For one, a multidimensional, seemingly living and breathing brand holds far more appeal and interest than a cookie-cutter one. Embrace, even celebrate, your company's idiosyncrasies; find ways they serve audience needs; then use the tenets of rich simplicity to build rapport between that living brand and your audiences.
An Expanded Team, at Your Service
As of Spring 2016, when appropriate to project scope, budget, time frame, and/or ROI targets, I (Sheila Dent, dba Pixel Relish) team with complementary experts, most frequently with Peter Byrne and/or Terri Rylander.
Join the Team
I occassionally need the following and welcome submissions from experienced professionals:
- story-centric illustrators
- story-centric UI designers
- custom Javascript, jQuery, and similar developers
English-speaking (or reasonably fluent), please. UI pros, you must demonstrate that you can incorporate — boldly as well as more subtly— brand and/or story themes into interface elements. Techies, you must understand and be able to present and discuss pros and cons of possible approaches.
To apply, submit your portfolio link, fee schedule, and cover letter to hello@pixel-relish.com with a subject line of "I'd Like to Join the Pixel Relish Team."
No spam nor template-based, one-size-fits-all budget services, please: Pixel Relish creates purpose/audience/brand-specific solutions.
Peter Byrne
specializing in growth strategy development
Feels like Christmas morning each time I open a file from Peter Byrne: His audience analyses and skills at strategy-building with an eye on market positioning and audience needs fuel my creative mind, helping us to together develop keen strategies and then the authentic, client-specific, audience-specific verbal and visual components that bring it to life. Peter has an extensive background in both B2B and B2C. Read more about Peter at his company website, Cognise Consulting.
Terri Rylander
specializing in business intelligence & high-tech B2B content
Apex award winner Terri Rylander writes consumer-comprehendable tech articles, white papers, and case studies. She additionally consults on management and strategy, both planning and, if needed, implementation, including CMS website development.
Terri and I share loves for running and being outdoors (she leans toward ultra marathons, whereas I'm more of a sprinter and jumper). Read more about Terri's work at her company website, Advanced Marketing Collateral.
and me, Sheila Dent
Specializing in story-centric content strategy + development
I'm a content strategist who is also a communications designer. Some people use “communications designer” interchangeably with communications director; sometimes creative director; often dual UX, UI designer. I've fulfilled each of these roles, often concurrently, while working on various projects throughout the years.
None of those job titles, though, encapsulates the gist of communications design, which is about thinking about content and its presentation as single, albeit multi-tiered, whole. Meaning, rather than as “content and its presentation,” as simply as content: all of it content — the words, the visuals, the layout, the medium — conceptualized then developed into the final message.
I combine such tenets of communications design with those of storytelling to fashion interdependent characters — again, words, visuals, layout, medium — that collectively invite comprehension and engagement.
That’s my forte and overarching interest. But I've worked with traditional, departmentalized production workflows, too — where one person or team decides strategy, another message, another then writes the words, another creates the visuals, and another lays it all out within the chosen medium. As a seasoned writer, editor, graphic designer, web and email HTML author, and desktop publisher, I can step in wherever needed along a departmentalized ideation-to-production continuum.
I have the experience to supervise teams. But I most enjoy getting my hands dirty with details of helping create campaigns that work.
My goal, whether working alone, with my Pixel Relish colleagues, or as part of a client's team, is to create (help the team create) verbal-visual fabrics that audiences not only enjoy wearing but also find useful. I love helping audiences (and so clients) solve problems.
Submit a Question or Topic Suggestion for the Rich Simplicity Blog
Name and email address optional, however I recommended including in case your submission needs clarification.