The Organization
Established in 1968, the West Virginia Municipal League (WVML) is a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan association of West Virginia’s cities, towns, and villages. The WVML membership represents all 230 municipalities in the state and advances the diverse interests of its municipalities through legislative advocacy, research, and education.
Twice a year – at its Mid-Winter Conference in January and Annual Conference in August – the League convenes its membership to provide in-person legislative updates, engage in strategy sessions, and provide specific education and training in various aspects of municipal governance. The fundamental goal of these conferences, and of the League overall, is to enhance the well-being of the people residing in each of West Virginia’s municipalities.
Design Through the Years
Jamie and his team at Bricks Without Straw have been working to promote the WVML’s conferences for over a decade. “It’s really been a long-term arrangement,” says Travis Blosser, the League’s executive director. Over the years, Jamie’s work with both conferences has become more refined and precise, with almost no time now being devoted to trial and error in the design process.
They make sure to distinguish each conference with its own branding, and through the years, this process has required far less input from League staff. “Jamie’s always been integral to our branding by working to develop several options of logos, with staff giving him feedback,” Travis adds. “But in recent years, they've become so good at knowing what we like that we rarely make any changes on their designs.” And in the same breath that Travis speaks of the design process being refined over time, he applauds how fast the process has become. “The speed at which Jamie and his team turnaround a high-quality product is very quick!”
Design Pre-Conference
Jamie takes over the Events tab of the WVML’s website, turning it into a “one-stop shop.” For members, pre-conference online access includes registration, direct payment, links to hotel room reservations, and the full conference agenda with any changes made immediately available to members.
League staff use the website to generate automated confirmation and invoice emails. Susan Economou, the League’s deputy executive director, further explains: “We can access in real time who’s registered, with the ability to pull this information into spreadsheets.” This feature makes conference planning much easier for staff.
Pre-conference design includes logos. Kristin Miller, Research Analyst at the League, notes that details are important to Jamie. “He and his team designs logos that are specific to each of our conferences. These logos have similar colors to our League logo, but they really try to incorporate something specific into each conference logo that represents the city in which that particular conference is begin held – it might be a bridge or some other icon of that city.”
Design During Conference
In short, “Jamie develops anything related to graphic design at our conferences,” says Travis. This includes the design and printing of the conference programs, all the graphics that are part of the legislative reviews, and all signage.
“Jamie designs floor signage that provides directions for our members, extra signage for various areas of the conference venue, as well as sponsor logos,” adds Kristin. Jamie also designs logos for the two associations that the WVML oversees (Municipal Judges, Clerks & Recorders) and for the WVML programs, such as their annual golf tournament.
The WVML website Events section that Jamie manages provides members with easy access to all training materials during the conference.
Design for a Virtual Conference
The WVML staff is grateful they were able to hold one virtual conference during the covid pandemic. “Jamie worked with our audio-visual folks to make this as seamless a process as possible,” notes Travis.
The WVML held its annual conference in a completely virtual format and livestreamed their annual business meeting. The conference sessions were pre-recorded, and Jamie digitally compressed and sent select portions of the conference to League members via email.
A Designer for Keeps
The previous decade working together has resulted in a very comfortable relationship between Bricks Without Straw and the WVML. “I’ve never worked with anyone who is as responsive as Jamie – he responds to our emails all hours of the day, even when he’s traveling,” offers Travis without any hesitation. “And from a cost perspective, they are very reasonable.”
“He’s direct, he thinks outside of the box and delivers his messages in a way that you can understand,” says Kristin. “Jamie makes you feel like you’re his only client and that you’re his number one priority.”
“He really knows our organization and is very collaborative,” Susan observes. “Jamie just knows what we’re looking for.” Susan sums up how the WVML feels about Jamie: “We get solicitation calls from other developes all the time; we just say no thanks.”
