GARDNER LANDRY
Branding & Strategic Communication
PORTFOLIO
In the early days of the western range, a great brand spoke volumes
We create brands that do the same for organizations today
THE BRAND

Who we are

Since the earliest days of ranching, the brand of a successful cattle operation was a mark of distinction that got people’s attention and commanded their respect; additionally, it was often a significant source of pride for its owners.

We build corporate and organizational brands that evoke the same inspiring qualities that the great brands of the old west did so long ago. And the purpose remains the same – to create and communicate a distinct, recognizable identity that is both appealing to others and a source of pride for its owners. Hire us and prepare to stand out from the herd

CONTACT US

About the brands

The livestock brands that you see on this site are all from my maternal grandmother's family. My great-grandfather Carl Giles was a rancher in Oklahoma, and the G-shaped brands that you see on this site are his. I managed the Giles ranch for several years and am very proud of my great-grandfather's legacy as a rancher and a gentleman.

The other two brands are from my great-grandmother's family – the Johnson family from Central Oklahoma that, later, also ranched in the Texas Panhandle. The oldest of these brands is known as the "hat brand" and you can see its simple form that is reminiscent of the basic outline of a wide-brimmed hat. The Johnsons began ranching in what later became known as Indian Territory in the middle of the 19th Century. My early ranching forbear in this family was the son of a British agent and a Chickasaw Indian girl. The Johnson ranching legacy is one of the unique stories of the American West and is recounted in The Chickasaw Rancher, written by my relative Neil Johnson in the 1940s and recently updated by my cousin Neil Kingsley. I hope that the work I do and the way I conduct my affairs is worthy of the legacy and patrimony of this great Western family and my great-grandfather Carl Giles

PORTFOLIO
The expertise

My outfit and I excel at the basic building blocks of branding. Whether your organization, company or product needs a new name, logo, tagline, color scheme or positioning statement, we can deliver award-winning quality work.

We can seamlessly flow your brand identity through electronic, print and broadcast media to effectively communicate your value proposition.

Specifically, we create websites, e-marketing campaigns, brochures and other related materials; direct mail and print ad campaigns; and radio commercials that are as original and attention-getting as they are professional and sophisticated to effectively communicate your message to the audiences you need to reach.

our work

Portfolio

Gardner Landry Shirts
Crestview Farm
King Land & Water
King Land & Water is a cutting-edge, environmentally progressive conservation real estate firm based in the beautiful mountainous terrain of far West Texas. The organization needed brand positioning and a web presence that would reflect its status as the premier conservation real estate brokerage in the Southwest. My team and I went to work and delivered a logo, tagline, color palette and sophisticated, informative website to convey the client's identity and core business competencies. Since completion of the projects, King Land and Water has seen its business grow considerably. We at the Branding Corral were glad we could lend a hand.
Stratos Legal
Stratos Legal needed to update its image to project the message that it was a highly professional litigation support firm with a nationwide presence. Our team developed a tagline, logo, color scheme and strategic messaging including a positioning statement, website and brochure that reflected Stratos Legal's new, nationwide reach and comprehensive litigation support capabilities. We crafted a website and brochure that took a novel yet targeted and highly sophisticated approach to speak to the litigators who are the decision makers in this field. Stratos Legal was thrilled with the result, which has helped them to court the attention of a number of new clients.
Houston Title
If you're flipping through a residential real estate publication and see ads for title companies, you'll find that they're pretty much the same - the staff around a conference table, the staff posing for a photo outside its offices, et cetera.

Houston Title was looking for a different, attention-getting approach, so we suggested that they make the ad about the customer. They liked the idea, so we created a new tagline and a new look and feel for their print ads. The new campaign featured an image of a woman relaxing - either in a pool/spa environment or at the beach, and the complementary tagline "Relax…we've got you covered." Customer-centric copy completed the message. This series of ads tells Houston Title's residential real estate agent target audience that, when they choose Houston Title, they don't have to worry about their deal because Houston Title's professionals are handling it. This shift in focus to the customer coupled with sophisticated graphic design and targeted copy constituted a real change in the way Houston Title communicated with its customer base, and, as it is an unorthodox approach, it has proven to be a conversation starter time and again.
Cooper Home & Stable
Swift Aviana
2727 Kirby
2727 Kirby needed a website and a series of print ads that would distinguish this new structure as the most luxurious, upscale high-rise residence in Houston. Our team created a site and a series of print ads that conveyed a sense of urban sophistication and cool, contemporary ease. This demographically targeted campaign established the building's place as the new leader in Houston high-rise living and raised public awareness of the project among the groups mot likely to consider purchasing a residence at 2727 Kirby.
Canyon Palms
The developers of a condominium project near the cliffs overlooking Lake Travis in the Austin, Texas area needed a logo and graphical look and feel for their architecturally progressive project that is entirely surrounded by an officially sanctioned wildlife preserve. Besides featuring innovative design, the project will boast a palette of natural materials like native stone and woods. Designer and illustrator Kayla Mitchell worked with our design team to create a logo for the project, called Canyon Palms, that reflects the naturalistic, yet contemporary and sophisticated nature of the endeavor. The look and feel of the Canyon Palms logo sets the appropriate tone for the graphical communications that convey the aesthetic sense of this unique, favorably situated residential development.
Blue Portico
Entrepreneur George Wozencraft started a company to provide affordable high-speed internet access to resort condominium communities and he and his team needed a new brand that would capture his target market's attention. George was particularly drawn to the word "portico" which I had had put on a list of potential names. (It so happened that he had just completed a sailing trip along the Turkish coast and had explored many ancient Greek temples - including their porticos.) I knew that "portico" by itself would not be an adequate identifier for this new company, so I decided to add a color. George and I agreed on the strategy and Blue Portico was born.

For me, "Blue Portico" evoked images of a vantage point from a Greek temple on a high promontory looking out to the deep blue Mediterranean Sea below and toward the distant horizon. With its stylized blue logo that can be interpreted as a portal or a computer screen, Blue Portico came to signify a clear portal from a traveler's vacation home to the wide world beyond - via the internet.
Weathermaster
Conglomerate Acquisitions
Logos
Our award-winning team creates logos for organizations involved in a wide range of pursuits. Our focus is always on the client's core business proposition; we stay vigilant to assure that, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, our designs always favorably and accurately reflect the key components of the client's core value proposition. Pretty drawings are nice, but a sophisticated, targeted logo that helps take an organization's image to the next level is one of our specialties and represents a quantum leap from which many of our clients have greatly benefited.
Trees for Houston
We love radio here at the Branding Corral. Coming up with novel ways to get your organization noticed amid the white noise of the airwaves is a challenge we welcome, and a great way to reinforce your brand through a powerful, non-visual medium. Click on the file below to listen to a public service announcement that we created for an environmentally conscious Texas charity - Trees for Houston.
Naming & Taglines
Creating a name that ideally suits a company, product or charitable organization involves a host of skills and considerations; at the Branding Corral we are proud of the many good names we have created for a wide range of clients. Composer Aaron Copeland is said to have discerned that a musical composition was finished when it conveyed a sense of inevitability - as if it were always meant to be. We strive for the same result in the naming and branding process, and are ready to go to work for you
  • Vidimedix Corporation
  • The Truffle Pig
  • SLAM!
  • Blue Portico
  • Maison Rouge Partners
  • MaxOut Savings Advisors
  • Cross Continent Energy
how we work

Case Studies

Enron Pipeco to Cross Country Energy

In the wake of the Enron meltdown, the surviving corporate entity actually had two divisions that remained viable, ongoing businesses. They were Enron's international division, which was re-branded as Prisma Energy and Enron Pipeco, which was Enron's national pipeline holding company. Enron chose Easterly & Company to help them re-brand these divisions and Gary Easterly called me to be part of the effort.

Enron chose the name Cross Country Energy for its national pipeline holding company, and, one day during the tagline selection process, I got a call from Gary. He told me that the chairman of Cross Country Energy had personally chosen my tagline "Going the Distance" to complete the Cross Country Energy brand. With 3.5 billion dollars in annual revenues, Cross Country Energy was the largest corporate entity on which I have had a direct impact in the re-branding process, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to work on such a significant project.

King Ranch Website

The great, venerable Texas institution that is King Ranch needed a revised website and they chose Easterly & Company and me to make a site worthy of the King Ranch brand a reality. This was a big project, entailing trips to the ranch and several interviews. Additionally, I read books about King Ranch and conducted other research. I believe the end product reflects the significant time and effort it took to create. Within six month of the go-live date for the new King Ranch website, hits to the site more than doubled. The site now receives several million hits per month and has become a valuable resource for educators. The website won the silver medal at the 2007 Houston Addy Awards. Since completion of the site, I have done editing work for King Ranch and I look forward to the opportunity to work on more projects for this storied enterprise.

G&A Partners

Creates memorable identity for its proprietary industry software.
I've been fortunate enough, through my association with Easterly & Company, to work on several projects for G&A Partners, a significant human resources consulting and outsourcing company with offices throughout Texas. G&A Partners also happens to be the largest minority-owned business in the greater Houston area. In addition to working on the re-branding of G&A, I wrote and edited the content for their website. I've also conceptualized and written several promotional pieces, brochures and print ads for this firm.

One of the efforts for G&A Partners of which I am most proud is the copy and concept that I created for a direct mail campaign that won Easterly & Company a gold medal for Best Direct Mail Campaign at the 2005 Addy Awards presented by the Houston Advertising Federation. The campaign was based on yoga, and its theme was "position yourself for success." I connected Easterly & Company with the yogis who were featured in the direct mail pieces and wrote copy that led off with eastern sounding themes that transitioned into compelling information about the client's products and services. If you visit G&A's headquarters in Houston, you'll see the photos from this campaign on the walls of their foyer waiting area.

Creating the yoga-based "position yourself for success" campaign positioned Easterly & Company to win a second Addy gold medal in as many years. Interestingly enough, not long after this direct mail campaign rolled out, G&A Partners' sales quadrupled. This unorthodox, yoga-oriented campaign helped put G&A in a position to grow, and was so successful that the company now employs yoga practitioners to do yoga at G&A's trade show booths – a shrewd move that has proven to be a real conversation starter.

OGM Land

Establishes a whimsical new identity to grow its customer base.
When OGM Land needed a name for their new oil and gas mineral and surface leasing technology, they called on Easterly and Company to help. Gary Easterly called me and asked me to work on the account. As fate would have it, I also happened to have a background in mineral right leasing, so I was familiar with the industry. Gary told me that OGM was interested in coming up with a cool acronym for their technology module. The acronym I created that they chose was S.L.A.M. – Strategic Lease Acquisition Manager. An added benefit of choosing this acronym was that OGM got a name and a tagline for this new technology all in one fell swoop. With this proven technology and a solid new brand worthy of it, OGM Land was primed to slam the competition.

The Truffle Pig

West Houston's Sweet Cut Ham specialized in selling honey-glazed hams and turkeys along with side dishes and sauces. The proprietors were expanding their offerings to include fully prepared meals. They were home-cooked classics, made with extra flair and special attention to top quality ingredients.

Sweet Cut Ham needed a new brand to reflect this shift in business strategy and Gary Easterly called me to help out. I came up with a concept, name and tagline that I found both inspiring and compelling for the client's target demographic, and soon, Sweet Cut Ham was transformed into The Truffle Pig – high brow, down home take out.

The client was thrilled and a Truffle Pig print ad campaign for which I created concept and copy garnered a gold medal for Easterly & Company the following year at the Houston Addy Awards. My hunch that The Truffle Pig had legs was unequivocally confirmed.

Tropical Storm Allison Report

We make it intelligible to the general reader.
In the wake of 2001's devastating Tropical Storm Allison, which created the largest rain event in Houston's history, the Harris County Flood Control District commissioned a report to be created regarding flood impact and readiness. Jim McGrath, speech writer for former President Bush, called me to assist.

My responsibility was to take the technical report compiled by engineers and scientists and transform it into a document that the average intelligent reader could understand and easily digest. It took quite a lot of time and effort, but I accomplished the goal and generated a document that met the client's requirements.

Cooper Home & Stable

He is highly accomplished at building residential and equestrian facilities for a very discriminating, high-end clientele. He needed a graphical brand and complementary ad campaign that conveyed the message that he did work of the highest caliber while understanding the desires of clients whose leisure time is focused largely on equestrian pursuits.He is highly accomplished at building residential and equestrian facilities for a very discriminating, high-end clientele. He needed a graphical brand and complementary ad campaign that conveyed the message that he did work of the highest caliber while understanding the desires of clients whose leisure time is focused largely on equestrian pursuits.

JD Cooper is a polo player and crackerjack licensed general contractor in Aiken, S.C. He is highly accomplished at building residential and equestrian facilities for a very discriminating, high-end clientele. He needed a graphical brand and complementary ad campaign that conveyed the message that he did work of the highest caliber while understanding the desires of clients whose leisure time is focused largely on equestrian pursuits.For JD, we created Cooper Home & Stable. The name is high-end, yet earthy and tells potential equestrian clients that JD shares their perspective on the good life and can create built environments, be they homes, stables, barns or paddocks, that are exemplars of that perspective.The ad campaign we crafted for Cooper Home & Stable expanded on this idea. Each ad featured depictions of the tools of JD’s vocational and avocational pursuits. One featured photos of a hard hat and a polo helmet, the next showed a hammer and a polo mallet and the third ad featured photos of work boots and polo boots. The attendant headlines and copy for the ads further reinforced that JD is as passionate about building quality homes and equestrian facilities as he is about his polo game, and the response to the campaign has been a boon to his ever burgeoning business in the beautiful South Carolina horse country he calls home.

Contact us

If you'd like to learn more about our expertise regarding your branding and marketing communications needs, please call or e-mail us here at the corral.
Email US