Dan Antonelli

Dan Antonelli owns KickCharge Creative (formerly Graphic D-Signs, Inc.) in Washington, New Jersey. His latest book, Building a Big Small Business Brand, joins his Logo Design for Small Business I and II. He can be reached at dan@kickcharge. com. Dan also offers consulting and business coaching services to sign companies. For more information, visit danantonelli.com. On Instagram: @danantonelli_kickcharge.

The power of before-and-after

As designers and artistic people, I think it comes naturally for most of us to view the existing logos, signs and truck wraps… Read More

From Blanded to Branded: Don’t blend in. Stand out.

About nine months ago, an HVAC contractor in Jacksonville, Florida, reached out to us to discuss the idea of renaming and rebranding his… Read More

Effective design creates a powerful first impression

Recently, a new restaurant opened up near my office. It had been vacant for almost ten years, and people were very excited for… Read More

Adapting logos to vehicles

When you think about designing wraps for vehicles, it’s akin to putting a puzzle together—making sure all the elements fit together, and making… Read More

Logo design for truck wraps

Nearly all of our truck wrap designs first involve a brand redesign or building one from scratch. The nice thing about that is… Read More

Signs deliver powerful first impressions

When it comes to making a good first impression, nothing compares to the impact a great sign or truck wrap can make. It… Read More

Before and after: Three redesigned truck wraps

While it’s always fun to work with new businesses to engineer a new brand and truck wrap for their fledgling business, more often… Read More

The responsibility of designers

I was speaking to clients—a husband and wife team—the other day about a new brand and truck wrap we were designing for them…. Read More

Trademark basics: What you need to know

As designers, we share a responsibility in making sure we have a basic understanding of the laws surrounding the creation of artwork and… Read More

Creative briefs speed the design process

As designers, we’re often tasked with trying to create an image and brand for businesses. It’s a balance of trying to figure out… Read More

A sign maker’s dream

Imagine a project where the first thing on the agenda are the signs. This is before the business is named, before the buildings… Read More

Finding work beyond your neighborhood

The biggest challenge most sign companies have today is trying to be competitive in a tough competitive landscape, which is enabling more and… Read More

Rebranding my own small business

In the 22 years since I founded Graphic D-Signs, I’ve helped rebrand more than 1,000 small businesses around the globe. I’ve always understood… Read More

7 steps to using mascots to build brands successfully

As designers, we’re tasked with creating images that become “sticky” in people’s minds. We’re building images that we hope will not only be… Read More

Color splits make your vehicle wraps more disruptive

When designing for truck wraps, we’re always looking for ways for our designs to be more disruptive in the landscape they live in…. Read More

Case studies and testimonials speed the sales process

I learned very early on that marketing my agency was more about telling the story of what I could do for a client,… Read More

Simple wraps succeed, clutter fails

I remember studying articles from the early editions of SignCraft that showcased amazing design work from some great lettering artists. The work was… Read More

How to capitalize on bad wraps

I continually hear sign people lamenting about how bad the wrap market is in terms of the work being put out on the… Read More

What’s old is new again

Building brands is always a fun, but very challenging exercise. We are blessed with clients who often give us a lot of creative… Read More