About Us
Integrated Brand Identity, Graphic Design, and Web Design
A brand is not just a logo. A website is more than just waving your hands in the air, saying "over here!" Graphic design for print is more than inane direct marketing pieces pushed out to hammer people over the head. All of these things are part of a larger whole. Notchcode Creative takes a holistic approach to your design, marketing, or branding problems and creates integrated solutions that strengthen your brand identity while moving people to take action. We've been giving voice to the causes, passions, and products of nonprofits, corporations, and small businesses since 1999, and we're always ready to partner with new organizations. Explore what we've done with our partner clients, and contact us to find out how we can create an effective, compelling, and creative way to give voice to your message.
Brand Identity
A brand identity is more than just a logo, or a name. It's the essence of your organization, distilled down from a myriad of perceptions, products, and personalities that make up who you are.
A brand isn't arrived at casually, or in an afternoon. There's a lot of research, analysis, creativity, and craftsmanship involved. And while a flash of inspiration can make it all come together, or allow a hidden insight to flower, it often belies the hard work behind a brand that works.
Web Site Design and Development
Web site design and development is more than just putting a pretty face on your content. It's about leveraging the advantages of interactivity to get your audience engaged in your message, and getting them to act on it.
Graphic Design for Print
Every publication is special. They are perhaps the most articulated vision of your organization's brand, identity, and purpose. Whether it's a simple direct-mail card, a brochure, or an annual report, your publication needs to be designed to reach a specific audience with specific information to achieve a specific effect. We have the experience to make your message come through, loud and clear.
Alan Bucknam
Alan Bucknam is Notchcode's principal and founder. Alan is a Colorado native who grew up just west of Denver. His parents gave him his first camera when he was seven or so, and he took his first darkroom workshop when he was 13. Alan's first graphic design assignment was as art director for the high school literary art magazine, back when zipatone, waxers, Xacto knives, and sending type to a typesetter was still the norm.
Alan founded Notchcode Creative in 1999, after rewarding and educational experiences with studios including Ellen Bruss Design and the University of Denver's Office of Communications and Marketing. He has deep experience in creating effective, realizable print campaigns, as well as website design, e-mail marketing, integrated marketing campaigns, and brand identity creation and management. Alan works well with in-house design and marketing teams, as well as agency partners and other creative providers, and C-level stakeholders.
When not at work, Alan can be found on his bike, skis, or favorite trail, with his wife Robyn and three children in tow. He lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Our Partners
Notchcode teams up with some of the best specialists around when a project needs their talents. All of them have deep experience in their field, and have successfully collaborated with Notchcode in the past. For creating content and providing marketing support, we have access to talented copywriters, photographers, programmers, and SEO professionals. We also work very well with in-house creative and marketing teams to compliment and support their efforts, as well as teaming up successfully with agencies-of-record for discrete campaigns, products, or promotions.
Our vendors in print, mailing, e-mail delivery and site hosting have been with us from the beginning. We've winnowed out the wheat from the chaff to make sure our clients' projects look great, perform successfully, and are delivered with predictable, repeatable, results. Notchcode works with a range of vendors in the Denver area as well as on both coasts to ensure the perfect fit of capabilities to any client project.