Our New Marketing Strategy

We've updated our web page and have been looking for other ways to expand our marketing when we had a client ask us, "Why haven't you put a sign on our construction site? Everyone else has."  So we got to work, put together simple sign and stuck it in the ground last week.  Here's a picture and for those of you that are local, this sign is out on Aloma in Oviedo.  Look for others coming soon on south Orange Avenue and other sites around Central Florida!

ELEVEN18 Live and In Person!

Last month we made our tradeshow debut at the International Conference of Shopping Centers show in Kissimmee, FL. We scraped and saved and Neke’s mother burnt the midnight oil sewing for us to help produce our first booth. Yes, the booth does look fantastic, thank you. It’s simple, but we had a great location and met a lot of new people. And even if none of those new connections develop into projects, at least people know that we exist! Although we don’t plan to buy another booth soon, we do plan to also visit the NAIOP show in Orlando next month and attend the IAAPA show in Orlando in November. Hopefully we’ll see you there!

All the News that's Fit For Print

Do they say good things happen in threes? Or is that just celebrity deaths?

It could be both, but the former might explain why ELEVEN18 Architecture has appeared in the news three times in the last month. Frankly, it’s been a little hard to keep up with the reports and that’s why they’re all being posted at once!

The first report is an article from the Orlando Business Journal announcing a major project in town and it points out that ELEVEN18 Architecture has been selected as the project architect. We’re very excited about this job and are looking forward to having it published again in the future!

About the same week, we appeared in the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Florida Business insert. This article – not sure it’s even an article – is much shorter and it didn’t get the name of our company exactly right, but it still generated some congratulatory emails and phone calls. So it would seem people are getting to know us by name!

The most recent mention of ELEVEN18 Architecture in the press appeared last week in the Orlando Business Journal’s “Green” insert for 2010. A special report on business’s going green in Orlando, our own Kim Day was interviewed and photographed for the article!

As exciting as it all is, we three know it’s our hard work that has made it possible and so we will be keeping our noses close to the grind-stone and keeping our thoughts of celebrity in check.

News is Neat

Just when you think you’re not marketing, someone will remind you that you are always marketing. They might do it by asking you casually what type of work your company does or you might surprise yourself to find that the fellow across the table from you at some luncheon is looking precisely for the services your company provides. And then, there’s that rare moment for which some people long and others fear with all their heart, the moment when a television reporter with camera in tow unexpectedly shoves a microphone into your face and says, “We’re live in 30. Ready?”

Well, it wasn’t quite like that, but there was a microphone, a camera and a reporter. About a month ago (yes, I’m behind in getting this story posted) Kim and I went to a meeting at the Orlando City Hall for a new project being promoted in town called the Creative Village. It is an effort by the powers that be to redevelop the property which will be abandoned by the Orlando Magic when their new arena opens next year. The new arena, by the way, is about ½ a mile south.

At any rate there are grand plans to redevelop this area into Orlando’s Soho or Venice Beach and the city wanted to tell people about it and answer their questions. The room was packed with architects, engineers, reporters and every other type of person that you might think interested in something like this and as you might imagine, many of us knew each other. When the event was over, we poured into the rotunda for an impromptu mixer sans alcohol and it was during this social event that I found myself staring into the lens of a television camera.

Sadly, we’ve not been able to locate the video on line. Actually, allow me to re-phrase;

We’ve have been gleefully unable to locate the video on line, but did find a written synopsis at the link below. We’re sure you will agree that it is really, really neat.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/23028091/detail.html

Good Fortunes Don't Just Come In Cookies

Today we enjoyed a meeting with a man who we hope will one day allow us to provide him with architectural services. Of Asian descent, he explained to us that he speaks Cantonese and was very pleased with our logo and the name of our company.

He went on to explain that in Chinese many words are very similar phonetically and so sometimes numbers carry a cultural meaning based on another word they sound like. These are called homophones.

As it happens, in Cantonese the number 1 sounds like the Cantonese word for “Easy” or “Certain” and the number 8 sounds like the Cantonese word for “Prosperity” or “Wealth.”

We were pleased to learn that the big 18 in our logo suggests Certain Prosperity and this gentleman felt we’d probably do well in China! For starters, we’re just hoping to do well here in Orlando.

The Power of Publicity

Wow! Publicity works! Just when you think you’ve sent out all the e-mails and called all the friends you can, you get just a little glimpse of the fruits of your labors. We’ve been published! Well, we haven’t had a project published, but we’re in the news…

http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/10/05/daily11.html

…and it’s in a good way!

The Journey Begins...

It’s official! Kim Day, Neke White and Mark Adams are no longer working for someone, we’ve struck out on our own with the creation of ELEVEN18 ARCHITECTURE!

Our days are filled with mostly with great excitement and a sense of vitality that can only be born of being entirely in control of our own destiny. And then there’s the occasional moment when you realize that you may not have all the control – Hey! That kind of thinking won’t get you anywhere. Good thing it only lasts a second when it comes!

As one of our hopeful future clients said recently, “What the heck. I’ll jump off the cliff with you.” And that’s what it’s like. Right now, we’re pretty confident that there’s water at the bottom of the cliff. Or a big pile of pillows. Jello will work too.

We invite you to join our journey and follow our trials and tribulations here on our blog. We’ll post our victories and because there won’t be any failures, you’ll all have something positive to look forward to with each post!

And lastly, we’re sure you’re all wondering where our name came from. Well, you can imagine the trials of three talented and creative architects trying to come up with a name. Some of the names we considered were…

Adams White Day, White Day Adams, Day Adams White, Adams White and Day, Day Day Day, White Adams Day (WAD), Native Arch, Pure Architecture, Pure Night of Eve, Eve’s Pure Day, White Square Architects, Clear Form, Fromaught Architects, Indigenous Aught, Indig-Aught, Root Form – Architecture Interiors Graphics Planning, Foundation Architecture, Fair Zenith and Line : Architecture and Interiors, Invention Architecture and Interiors, Two Ladies and a Fat Man, 1111800, Adams, White and Day : Architecture and Interiors, Zenith Architecture and Interiors, Clear Zenith and Line : Architecture and Interiors, Light Dot Studio, Bright Zenith, Light Zenith, Clear Zenith, Line Fair Zenith, Fair Zenith and Impression, Progeniture : Architecture, Chip Off the Ol’ Block Architects, Provenance Architects and Interiors

But in the end, a simple entry of our last names on Google yielded the following…

November 1, 1800: On this day in 1800, President John Adams, in the last year of his only term as president, moved into the newly constructed President’s House, the original name for what is known today as the White House.

And so November 1, 1800 was shortened to Eleven18 and thus the name of our company was born.

Personally, I was pulling for Two Ladies and a Fat Man the whole time.