Spirited Posters St. Joseph Christian Life Center in Cleveland is "an oasis in an urban setting," says Alan Dahart, assistant director of the center. As the retreat facility for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, St. Joseph is tucked away on 12 acres on the edge of Lake Erie. The center offers a variety of spiritual programs, from silent retreats to dinners for couples. So Dahart wondered why more people from the diocese's 250 parishes weren't signing up for great programs in an idyllic setting. Frank O'Connell provided the answer—poor marketing materials. The center mailed press releases and program information printed in black and white on rag paper to churches and schools. "The center felt things were just getting pitched out at the parishes," says O'Connell, owner of OC Productions, an advertising firm. So St. Joseph Christian Life Center hired O'Connell as communication director to add spark to its marketing pieces. The first project O'Connell tackled was revamping promotions for the center's top six programs. He created 8 1/2 x 14-inch, 2-color posters for churches to hang to advertise the programs. The posters use similar graphic elements for consistency: Each features the name of the center and the program title at the top, simple hand-drawn artwork in the center and details about the program at the bottom. O'Connell selected coated stock in bright colors for each of the program posters. For instance, the poster advertising a marriage preparation program is purple, and the one on Eucharistic ministries is red. Others are teal, pink, aqua and yellow. "The whole idea was to be visual in a different way, to bring people over to read the posters," Dahart says. Because O'Connell was hired by St. Joseph Christian Life Center shortly before its summer programs began, he worked under tight deadlines. "I designed those six posters within 15 hours, got the files together and sent them to the printer," he says. O'Connell turned to Great Lakes Integrated Inc., a commercial printer in Cleveland, for production. To meet the center's need for fast turnaround and good quality, Great Lakes ran the job on its Kodak NexPress digital color press. Great Lakes printed approximately 800 of each of the six posters on C2S stock. O'Connell also created 4 x 7-inch cards, using the same text, artwork and paper as the posters, for churches to hand out to parishioners or place in racks. The center was thrilled with the pieces: O'Connell says sign-ups for most of the programs doubled and tripled. He's now working on other marketing pieces, including an 8 1/2 x 11-inch program guide with inserted posters promoting all of the center's programs. "The posters are just one part of a mass communication effort," Dahart says. The center also is redesigning its web site and starting an electronic newsletter. "It's introducing a new image to people," says O'Connell. And color commercial printing will play a big role in the center's new look. "They are going to raise the image of the center by utilizing technology," says Jim Schultz, president, CEO and chairman of Great Lakes Integrated. "Where they previously used black and white, now they can output color to get the attention of their market." Have a solution? Click here to be featured as an E-Weekly Solution of the Week