String Tinkers

Brand Identity, Website Design, Advertising & Marketing

For a few years I ventured into the world of cigar box guitars and musical instruments with two close friends. Together, we established String Tinkers – a unique blend of creativity and craftsmanship. While I focused on showcasing our guitars online, my friend and co-owner, George Brin, a skilled luthier and wood worker, handcrafted the instruments in our workshop. From packing to shipping, we ensured each instrument reached its destination, whether it be within the US or overseas. Supported by our finance partner and visionary Don Spaeth, who not only financed our operations but also curated a selection of guitars, consigned instruments, and supplied musical accessories for our physical store.

Big Jon Short

Produced, Shot & Edited by Anthony Foronda with the help of George Brin

My main priority in considering our brand was to keep with the Vintage “Roots” Americana aesthetic within a Simple Modern design. I created all the graphic assets and web design as well as maintaining the website and selling guitars.

Photography: Anthony Foronda
Editing: Anthony Foronda & George Brin

Nick Brown

Goal

Our goal as a shop was to share our story with the community of musicians around the world. We began by selling our guitars on FAB.com, Vintage to Modern, NYC, Hatch.com, Reverb.com, Etsy, OpenSky, Custom Made, and our website, www.StringTinkers.com. Fiona Apple purchased one of our cigar box guitars for a friend off of a FAB.com feature event dedicated to our guitars. My partner George Brin, made a collection of guitars each season and we had a hard time keeping them on the shelf.

Approach

My main priority was marketing through organic marketing on social media and the web, we were able to gain more than 3K followers. I was also responsible for developing the brand and being consistent with our messaging through email marketing, posters, flyers and ads. I created appropriate signage, videos, and held and created events that brought customers into our brick and mortar store. Another job was to stage and photograph all the guitars to sell on our website using my Nikon D60 and editing them for color consistency. We wanted to look vintage and Americana Roots within a Modern aesthetic.

Results

Our ability to stay profitable and constantly gain notoriety throughout the years we kept our doors open allowed us to have fun, play music with many talented musicians including Ausin producer and artist, Doyle Bramhall II, and sell our guitars to celebrities like country legend Ricky Skaggs and Fiona Apple. We also solidified a music community within centering on our small town. During our time, a NYC music producer, Ted Gaskill, approached us to create 6 cigar-box guitars out of the wood from the home of famed blues musician Blind Willie Johnson. (One of his songs is on the gold record with Elvis that is on Voyager I on the other side of our galaxy.) The guitars were part of a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for an album devoted to Blind Willie Johnson with songs by celebrities like Shenade O’Connor and Tom Waites. The marketing campaign that I worked on raised $125K in a month and the album was produced and won a grammy.

R.I.P.
Don Spaeth
musician, friend, ally & partner

Nick Brown

Anthony Foronda

Thanks for looking around. I hope you find my work pleasing and thoughtful. Feel free to contact me by filling the form over there >>>