Overview

Bob Fehrenbacher was successful in his first campaign bid in November 2022 to represent Wood County in the WV House of Delegates, 11th District. His career deep in the manufacturing industry, including years in manufacturing leadership, prompted Bob’s desire to improve people’s lives. He decided to run for public office with the intention to communicate his campaign platform in a straightforward manner through a well-designed website.

Exceptional simplicity might be one way to describe Bob’s campaign website and printed materials, designed by Jamie Summers-Brown. The finished website was a key element in Bob’s winning campaign; it covered all the basics and provided important information to prospective voters without overwhelming them with details or fluff.

Experience Calls Upon Experience

Though he has vast experience in leadership, Bob candidly admits his knowledge of developing compelling website content for a campaign was lacking. “As a first-time candidate, a lot of this was new to me. I knew that creating a website would require the skills, talents, and experience that Jamie had.” While he was board chairman of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, Bob had seen Jamie’s web design expertise on display through the many projects he had done for the organization.

Bob had some general ideas and Jamie implemented them. “It was an organic process that started with themes, then Jamie had a key role in how it would appear and did all the necessary stuff behind the scenes,” he says. “Jamie played a profound role in giving suggestions based on his experience concerning what things would be most impactful.”

The Creative Process

Fundamental to the website design was the branding, which are evident in the consistent color choices, fonts, and logo design. Jamie came up with the imagery and I used it throughout the campaign on my literature and social media posts, signage, and t-shirts,” says Bob with a tone of deep gratitude. 

Regarding the website content, Bob notes that “we looked at it from an aesthetic view, decided on the specific topics and what we thought would be useful.” The news feed and links to social media, as well as the ability for visitors to make campaign contributions through PayPal, were all key components that enabled visitors to remain engaged on the website and to share the latest posts with a click.

Another website feature was a short, embedded video that impressed Bob as being very effective in presenting a visual bio and overview of his platform while also directing viewers to more information. 

Offline, Jamie oversaw the printing of all Bob’s campaign materials, including business cards, and he took the initiative to tailor the design of printed materials to meet specific campaign needs. “He provided me with printed handouts that included bullet-point summaries of the website content, or sometimes the handouts were more succinct, depending on whether I was leaving information at someone’s door or out meeting folks face-to-face.”

What Wins 

Bob is certain that his campaign website was an important element in his winning campaign. “It had good content without being boring and provided an easy way to contribute. It was readily accessible if people didn’t want to talk to me on their doorstep.”

Bob also believes that asking Jamie to create his website and associated materials was a winning decision. He describes Jamie’s overall work style as “very talented, accessible, and he provided a near instant turnaround. He would build upon suggestions and pull things together and he never came across as an omnipotent know-it-all. Jamie really turned things around with a high-quality website that never crashed or had any problems or glitches.”

Are there things that Bob would do differently? “With respect to the service and materials that Jamie provided, I’m 100% satisfied.”

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.