I’ve made a pledge to myself that Blackcoffee will not be typical. So when I sat down with life’s most difficult customer (the husband) to develop a new brand and website for his company, I faced an interesting challenge. How to be remarkable when selling an engineery business guy into corporate Calgary?

It would have been easy to hit the default button and throw up a wordpress site with some stock photos of corporate guys doing their corporate thing. How about a logo with a globe? Let’s be real, he’s a non-paying, pain in the neck client that has more work than he can handle. What more did he need?

Well he needed me to tell his rather remarkable story in a remarkable way. Besides the world doesn’t need another website full of middle-aged guys in loose ties and crisp white shirts gathered around a boardroom table. (Check WIRED “Only You Can Overthrow the Tyranny of Awful Stock Photos“.)

So I set out to tell the story of the corporate cowboy – passionate, determined, and willing to work tirelessly to tackle the big messy files. With help from Blackcoffee’s talented design team, a brand came to life.

And when it came to the website, we wove the cowboy theme through with brilliant images from the stupendously talented Julien McRoberts. And yes, I snuck in a couple of stock photos, and no I didn’t stretch the point too far by putting the husband in a cowboy hat.

The end result is a website that spoke to who Murray is and the value proposition he brings to his clients. And the feedback he’s received from those clients is testament that telling your story in an engaging manner resonates deeply. It engages your audience emotionally and leaves a lasting impression. And isn’t that the goal, to be remembered for who you are and the hard work you do?

The final product: blackcoffeegroup.com

With gratitude,