Case Study: Absolute Pressure Washers

Since 1989, Absolute Pressure Cleaning Equipment has provided a variety of high pressure cleaning equipment, accessories, cleaning detergents and supplies for professional industrial and commercial cleaning companies.

The BEFORE Website

The Problem

Absolute spent several years working with ineffective and unprofessional web design companies. The company's most recent website:

• Offered incredibly ineffective branding that made the company look like a provider of pressure washing services rather than a distributor of professional cleaning equipment
• Made the company indistinguishable from its competitors
• Relied on the look and feel of John Deere, the farm equipment company, further confusing potential customers

The AFTER Website

The Solution, by Julie & Company

After losing both time and money, Absolute hired Julie & Company to to build a compelling branding and web presence. Julie & Company:

• Created a new logo that rebranded Absolute and set it apart from its competition
• Focused on the company’s commitment to selling US-manufactured  products 
• Provided detailed pages that feature the company’s equipment, accessories, and detergents
• Added a branded shopping cart
• Delivered visually interesting experience for potential customers

The Client Says

Over the past four years, Absolute has worked with a number of web companies who just could not get the job done. Our owner is hard to please, but these companies did a terrible job, too.  Julie & Company, as per usual, did a spectacular job with the branding and website – our owner is 100 percent happy, which I hope you take as a HUGE compliment because it is.

- Shawn Mahaney

Contact Julie & Company to learn more about what we can do for your company. Call 301-330-9353 or info@julieandcompany.com.

Super Bowl 50 logo goes for the W, not the L

Every sport strives to avoid the loser's L. Super Bowl 50 is no exception. To avoid connotations of defeat, the NFL has drop-kicked L, the Roman numeral for 50, in favor of the numeric 50.

Photo credit: NFL/ABC News

Since Super Bowl V in 1971, the NFL has used only Roman numerals to indicate the number of the Super Bowl being played. This system remained unchanged, even for potentially controversial numbers like XXX, which is 30 in Roman numerals but is also a generally accepted symbol of erotic content.

In 2016, however, the NFL will instead use Arabic numbering for the Super Bowl. The San Francisco host committee lobbied the NFL to use Arabic numbers instead of the L, a well-recognized symbol of losers and losing. The NFL has indicated that, after 50, it will return to Roman numerals, starting with Super Bowl LI in 2017.

Most official materials for the Super Bowl will now use the Super Bowl logo with 50 in the background, rather than the L. Some variations of the 50 logo designs will include icons from the San Francisco skyline around the Lombardi Trophy, which has itself only been a part of the logo since 2010.

Brad Matthews is a content writer for Julie & Company. He can be reached at brad@julieandcompany.com.

New websites! Susan Coll and Opulent Beverages

I launched two new websites this week!

Susan Coll, the best-selling author of books like Beach Week, Acceptance, and Rockville Pike, is publishing her latest book, The Stager, this spring. It's a comedy of rabbits and real estate in the D.C. suburbs. As the book description on Amazon states, "Questions of friendship, loyalty, fidelity, sobriety, and sanity are raised to hilarious effect in this dark comedy of how we live now in the age of planned communities, cookie-cutter mansions, and cutthroat careerism." Sounds like the burbs to me.

I've worked with Susan for years. I met her during a book club discussion of Rockville Pike and built her first website soon after. With the release of each of her new books, I update the site. This time, I moved her website to the WordPress content management system and freshened up the look and feel. "This is a fabulous web site. Truly, you did a fantastic job! Thank you so much," she wrote this morning.

Also new this week is new branding and website for Opulent Beverages, a relatively new drink distributor based in the MidAtlantic. Opulent's product lines include several high-end waters, fruit juices, and health drinks. I had a ball developing the brand with the president, Tonya Davis. I wanted to give her a fresh, retro, and classic look that would set her apart from her competition.

Tonya is happy, as evidenced by her most recent message: "The website looks great!  Color, contrast, font sizes and space all work together, creating a polished look." In the near future, I hope to add e-commerce to the site as well as a separate login area for her wholesale customers.