Vortex Communications Celebrates 20th Anniversary
July 2007
As Vortex celebrates its 20th anniversary, Principals Thomas Weinkle and Michaala (Miki) Speijers reflect on the past and look ahead to the future. Miki attributes the company’s success to what she calls, “The Five C’s: Cooperation, Collaboration, Creativity, Communication and Commitment. Our philosophy includes listening to our clients and giving them valuable perspective on the goals they want to achieve.” Tom adds, “We have always prided ourselves on becoming an integral part of the client’s team, helping them to reach the market segments best suited to their products or services. For our design work to be of value to our clients, we challenge assumptions and really engage in learning about their business and how to best address their needs.”
Vortex has also successfully navigated the changing needs of the marketplace. Tom notes, “Back when we started the business no one had any idea about the Internet. Now it’s a major resource for business people and consumers, and therefore a big part of our services. You can only survive and grow in our field by constantly adapting.
Vortex Provides Interactive Consulting to Quantum Dental Implants
March 2007
Too often, brilliant ideas fizzle out for lack of engaging the right target audience. The oral surgeon who invented Quantum Dental Implants recognized this problem and teamed with Vortex Communications to learn how to best reach dental implantologists. Vortex took the time to learn about the implants and then strategized with the Quantum team to correctly position, communicate and brand the client’s revolutionary, patented products. That overall strategy included Vortex’s recent launch of Quantum’s comprehensive first generation web site (http://www.quantumimplants.com). “Quantum is very happy with the site because this is the first time they’ve been able to really show the product and its advantages in full detail,” says Tom Weinkle.
Pro-Bono Work A Key Component of the Vortex Mission
March 2007
Every year since its inception, Vortex has made a point of giving back to the community. For many years, Vortex has designed all of the promotional materials for the Rotary Club of Coral Gables’ annual Promenade. This year was the event’s most successful ever, with all proceeds benefiting Miami Children’s Hospital. For the second year, Vortex has worked with the Greater Miami Tennis & Education Foundation, a renowned development program for at-risk youth that has served the community since 1974.
Johnson & Johnson Calls on Vortex
to Reposition
Ethicon Endo-Surgery Products
October 2006
Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Endo-Surgery of Cincinnati, Ohio—world leaders in laproscopic and open surgery devices—tasked Vortex with rebranding its popular FlexTray packaging of products. The on-demand surgical instrument packages proved to be so popular with doctors that the sheer number of skus grew to be too large for the company to manage effectively.
By analyzing the instruments included in the FlexTrays doctors requested, Ethicon recognized considerable overlap in their make-up. After reducing the number of sku offerings from over 1000 to approximately 150, Ethicon teamed with Vortex to develop a strategic marketing plan to effectively reach doctors and hospital materials managers regarding the advantages of the updated product offering. Along with communications for primary targets, Vortex helped the client develop powerful messaging for the product sales force. As EES Product Manager David Walters put it, “Vortex made it easy for our sales staff to convey how our products benefit our customers. They definitely go beyond what most design firms deliver.”
Vortex Celebrates 10 Years with Miami Art Museum
September 2006
Along with celebrating its 20th anniversary in business, Vortex is also celebrating its ten year relationship with the Miami Art Museum (MAM). According to Tom Weinkle, “The long design relationship we have enjoyed with the Museum is due to our mutual commitment to effective solutions. The museum is a wonderful client, and we’ve had the opportunity to develop their logo and apply it to virtually every visual piece of information the public sees.” He adds, “When the Internet emerged as a marketing tool, everyone predicted the demise of printed materials, but we’ve found that people are doing more than ever.” Recent MAM print projects have included a redesigned newsletter format and a 10th anniversary identity for anniversary-related projects. According to MAM Communications Coordinator, Mitchell Snow, “As a contemporary art museum, it’s important that we project a contemporary image and Vortex really keeps us ahead of the curve. They truly understand our needs and consistently produce quality design and analysis.”
Boca Developers Calls on Vortex for New Corporate Look
March 2005
One of South Florida's fastest growing developers barely had time to look at their own brand image. With several projects going up along Florida's Atlantic coastline, taking care of their own clients was the first order of business.
A graphic guidelines document was created to help the staff understand how to use the new design system. Vortex worked closely with Boca Developer's IT department to integrate digital template versions of the materials, so rollout would be simplified. Start to finish the whole process took 3 weeks, and saved Boca Developers from embarking on a more costly and time-consuming process.
Iowa Museum Reaches Across Country for Book Design
February 2005
The Figge Museum in Davenport, Iowa recruited Vortex for the design of a 120-page case bound book entitled Edouard Duval-Carrié, Migration of the Spirit. Among the many reasons Figge Museum called on Vortex was their broad experience in book design and production, the ability to work closely with Vortex on the design and editorial goals, even from Florida. “With the use of email and pdf technologies, and our understanding of the client's needs, we are able to close the geographic gap,” said Frank Begrowicz, lead Vortex designer on the project.
