“We feel that this new partnership deserves more than a press release. It’s a huge move. A massive combination of creative super power. If awesome were a size XL, it would be Humongo. So as of today, that’s the name of the greatest agency in all of the land,” said founder Darryl Ohrt on his Brand Flakes for Breakfast blog.

“We’ll now have the resources to grow like never before. We’ll have access to affiliate agencies that provide our clients what we can’t. Imagine a small digital creative agency with the keys to the big guys. That’s Humongo.”

The acquisition was an opportunity to create a new identity, according to Ohrt. The seven-person shop sorted through 2,000 possibilities during brainstorms. They settled on Humongo because it’s “fun to say and rolls off the tongue.” There were practical considerations to the oddball name: It avoided trademark problems and was available as an Internet domain and presence on Facebook and Twitter.

And according to Ohrt, “there’s plenty more on deck to be announced in the coming months.”

helloelements.com is the three-year-old blog of Elements, a graphic design and marketing communications firm in New Haven. The blog bills itself as “a daily dose of inspiration from the staff of Elements.”

The mission is a simple one, according to founder Amy Graver: “Increase exposure. Be a creative outlet for our staff. Show our ‘personality.’ Drive traffic to our site.”

What appears to be a casual list of friends and links can actually be a powerful positioning tool, particularly for a “boutique” agency, showing potential clients a strong brand personality that positions and differentiates.

“No one has directly come to us and said they hired us based on our blog, but almost everyone who has hired us has commented on our blog,” says Graver. “It’s clear that when prospects are checking ‘under the hood,’ the fact that we have a daily updated blog showing what inspires us and what’s current and interesting to us helps to demonstrate our devotion to design, social media and marketing communications.”

The casual and “insider” feel of the website also makes the occasional self-promotion feel much more organic and friendly and much less like your typical press release fare.

surfthedeepend.net is the blog of Fathom, a Hartford-based brand and creative firm. Playing off their agency name, the blog invites readers to dig deeper, to “find something to provoke, entertain, instigate, nudge and yes, possibly tweak you.”

“There are two reasons we started the blog,” says Suzi Craig, Fathom’s Director of Marketing and Engagement. “To bring our thinking to the outside world beyond client and prospect meetings, and to bring some thinking back in.”

True to their name, Fathom dove into their blog head first. “Honestly, when we started, we didn’t really have that much of a plan. We knew that we wanted to focus on specific topics that made sense for us so we weren’t talking out of our ass, but how it was going to evolve was a bit of a mystery.There are a few of us at Fathom who were more active on the blog than others; we each have carved out our own slice, our own voice, yet they all collectively harmonize as part of the larger Fathom voice.”

Positioning yourself as a thought leader is another common goal of the agency blog, one that certainly seems to suit Fathom’s brand. “We are very careful about what we write about — we don’t want to just add to the noise. When we write something, we want to have time to research and edit and produce it like it is an article for a publication. While you are not publishing The New York Times, you should act like you are: develop an editorial calendar, identify roles and assign articles to the editorial team — HAVE an editorial team — and operate like you have an audience waiting for your next issue.”

And blogging also forces you to focus on what is important to your prospective clients. It forces you to talk to THEIR benefit instead of talking about YOUR agency. “Next up for us is implementing a much more targeted approach — writing articles that would attract marketers in higher education, non-profits, Architecture, Engineering and Construction, etc.”

brandflakesforbreakfast.com is the brainchild of Darryl Ohrt, founder of The Agency Formerly Known As Plaid in Danbury. (The agency is currently in the process of rebranding.) The blog feels much like a hybrid of the Elements and Fathom models: it’s an amalgam of everything new and cool in social media and marketing, but also clues us in on the latest in hip design, interesting ads and viral video. It somehow balances a vibe of being super smart while still being entertaining and sometimes downright silly.

“When we started Brand Flakes,” says Ohrt, “we created the blog for an audience of about 12 people. Our clients at the time. We figured that if we could share a little bit of our world with them, they’d be smarter clients, be inspired as marketers, and perhaps be entertained. We write with the same person in mind today, although it’s a much larger audience (approx 4,000 visitors daily). The purpose of the blog is to give our readers content that inspires, educates or entertains.”

Ohrt champions blogging as a powerful business development tool, but stresses the importance of content.

“A lot of agencies jumped on the blogging bandwagon and created blogs about themselves — but in reality, most marketers aren’t interested in reading about you. That just feels like marketing. We’ve created content that isn’t about us, yet is a valuable tool for marketers. So it becomes a part of their regular reading routine — and then when they DO need an agency, we’re top of mind.”

It’s no coincidence that all three of these blogs are done by agencies who stress their expertise in social media. Learning is doing, and you must experience blogging firsthand to discover the benefits it has for your agency and your clients. Practice what you preach; it makes for a powerful case study when you’ve actually used the tools you recommend to your clients.

“Dance-A-Lot Robot” is a series of animated shorts for Playhouse Disney — familiar territory for Carter, who also created “Happy Monster Band,” which premiered in 2007 and is still being played on the channel.

A combination of animation and live-action, “Dance-A-Lot-Robot” stars Dance-A-Lot, a robot with rhythm who teaches preschoolers simple original dance steps including the robot, the blue jay, the dinosaur stomp and the clock, all set to the music of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh.

A sneak preview of some of Carter’s character designs for the series can be seen on his Flickr stream as well as the official Playhouse Disney microsite.

Connecticut is represented this year by Brian Miller of Brian Miller Design Group. The article features a portrait of Miller by Tracey Kroll; the two previously collaborated on a profile of Miller for Connfluence, the print companion to this very site.

Brian Miller is the design director at the Brian Miller Design Group — a small firm that specializes in branding for the web and print communications. The firm has created dozens of successful projects for clients like NBC Universal, Rockstar Games, SportsMD Media, GigMasters, TrackMan Baseball and Nat Nast, but Miller says he always believes the next project will be the most successful. He says the success of his company is built squarely on the successes (and failures) of his experiences at places like Gartner Inc. the global technology consulting firm where he was the inhouse creative director, and as an art director at Wunderman Interactive and Publicis Modem, working on clients such as GE, Delta Airlines, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, BMW, A&E Television, and Unilever.

Although he takes some satisfaction fromhis work being featured in leading industry publications and winning many top awards, “I wouldn’t say that I’m satisfied,” says Miller. Miller, who has degrees from the Hartford Art School (BFA) and Pratt Institute (MPS), serves on the board of directors and as web committee chair for the Type Directors Club and is an adjunct professor of design at the University of Bridgeport. He lives in Norwalk CT with his wife Bridgette, daughter Sarah, and dog Shick.

Where were you born, where do you live, did this effect your design style or sensibilities? I was born in Danbury CT and I now live in South Norwalk CT — 45 miles from New York City. Both Connecticut and NYC have thriving creative communities that I’ve made a point to get involved in. Being part of the Type Directors Club, for example, has had a profoundly positive effect on my work.

If you were not a designer, what would you be? A teacher. It touches the same part of my soul that designing and creativity does.

What is your design process, do you sketch first, go to the computer, take days off to get inspired? I daydream. Then I work on the computer. I find that I get the best results when I’m under pressure. Without a measure of stress I can fiddle around for days and get nothing of value.

What is one thing you have done to help weather the economic downturn? I keep myself busy, even if I have to make up a personal project to do so. This keeps my momentum going and keeps me focused for when client work comes around.

What is your greatest strength and weakness as a designer? I’m never afraid to come out and ask for something that I want. That can be both a strength and a weakness. Some clients perceive it as eagerness, while others (fewer, luckily) mistake it for impatience.

Past year’s People To Watch have included such Connecticut creatives as Rich Hollant, Grant Copeland, Peter Good, Amy Graver, Tom Fowler, Alexander Isley, William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, Mike Scricco, Karl Smizer and Amy Perry, Richard Shear, and Pam Williams.

Middletown, Connecticut-based Bertz Design Group needed to create a buzz among top-producing specialty insurance brokers with Privacy//403—a new technology security product offering by Darwin Professional Underwriters—while providing them with enough educational background to substantiate sales propositions. Seventy-five targeted brokers each received brushed aluminum attaché cases with binders wrapped with clear belly bands each silk-screened with strategically positioned slash marks that spelled out the product name when assembled. To complete the package, a product-branded mouse pad was secured on the inside back cover with an x-band.

The Estate of Lester Beall was seeking a web presence with a vintage modern approach. Jargon Boy’s Greg Chinn found a way to showcase the history of Lester Beall, emphasizing the early developmental career, pioneering work and lifestyle, while adding to the visual language of the time period.

The website was created from a very personal point of view. Greg Chinn is married to the youngest Beall grandaughter, and his great respect and affection for the work is evident.

The site was selected as a Communication Arts Webpick for February 18, 2010, has received coverage on top design blogs such as Core 77 and Design Addict, and will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Graphic Design USA.

The site is framed by the words of Lester’s wife, Dorothy Miller Beall, from the December 1969 issue of the Journal of The American Institute of Graphic Arts. Functioning as a primer to Beall’s work, the website shows salient examples from his iconic portfolio. Viewers can see Beall’s early design work, drawings/paintings from the family’s personal collection and peek inside his working Dumbarton Farm design studio in Brookfield, Connecticut.

Jargon Boy is a boutique design shop located in Fairfield that specializes in creating visual languages for corporate clients. The studio’s M is for Modern Alphabet Flash Cards have retailed in two Smithsonian Institution locations, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York/MODA Museum of Design in Atlanta and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Chinn has been published in Communication Arts Design Annual, Print Regional Design Annual, How International Design Annual, Graphic Design USA Annual, Broadcast Design Award Annual and in two Pie Design Books: New Logo and Trademark Design + Private Greeting Cards.

Buy a t-shirt and support their Design Fund, “a resource for fellow creatives to see their work produced without having to cover the costs out of pocket. You create it, we help with the rest.”

It is not up to designers to tell a client when it is time to go green or create a green product, but we are influencers and subject matter experts who can help guide them through their packaging needs.

I am fascinated by James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which says that Earth exists as a cohesive, living organism. Individual actions have a direct correlation to the whole. This idea is beginning to permeate consumer culture.

The Hartford Art School student thanks AIGA for giving him community and connecting him with other designers. The child of a graphic designer, he started his own layout work using Adobe Pagemaker and designing logos. In high school he discovered the online community of designers. He even put the word KERN on his backpack and happily explained to people what it meant. In his short career, he’s done signage for his high school, posters, an art installation, and the launch of the blog Synthesis. But it’s the personal projects that really drive him and because he loves them so much, HE HAS ALSO WRITTEN A BOOK. At 19. Repeat: He is 19 years old. It’s called Creative Grab Bag: Inspiring Challenges for Designers, Artists and Illustrators and it’s a collection of exercises that help launch those personal projects.

Each year the institute hosts an event with dozens of scholars addressing a major human rights issue. This year the conference (Oct 22-24) took “a significant departure: the focus was turned to human rights issuses in the USA.”

“The process of becoming truly empathetic, and thus impactful in the resolution of human rights issues, means getting personal with the topics,” writes Brian Grabell and Rich Hollant of CO:LAB, who have designed the current campaign. “So long as we believe these plights only occur ‘over-there,’ we desensitive ourselves.”

The campaign developed for the Human Rights Institute focuses on this: “By declaring our humanity right here + right now, we also declare that there is no distinction between ‘over-here’ and ‘over-there.’” Grabell also notes, “We asked photographers from across the Country to capture images typifying the heart of America. The aim is to continue this campaign by spreading the word about this organization and their work by having any individual who wants to get involved and contribute to do just that.”

The recently launched website can be found here.

Detail from the website.