The Blue Ocean - web design, print design, communications and photography from SouthCoast Massachusetts.
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About The Blue Ocean
We’re The Blue Ocean, a creative design and communications agency. You can find us in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts—a quiet place nestled between New Bedford and Cape Cod.
Our company began as a creative business “marriage” between a communications professional and a designer. Now an actual husband and wife team, Gina Rullo and Ed Hebert initiated the design and communications company in 2003. The goal was simple - offer small and medium-sized businesses a refined product and quality services one might expect from a large agency. Control costs and limit overhead to keep things affordable to businesses with real-world budgets. Impress our clients with elegant work done at a fair price.
The choice for our company name fit perfectly from the moment we tossed it out. “The Blue Ocean” alludes not only to our location and love for the ocean and the people who connect with it, but also represents our open minded approach to exploring new possibilities to solve communications challenges for our clients. The Blue Ocean can take you just about anywhere.
Years later, The Blue Ocean’s business model is still working well. We’ve purposely kept ourselves small, but we maintain a powerful network of partnerships and resources to scale up as needed. The beauty of this working model is that by maintaining flexibility, projects are kept as cost-effective as possible. A smaller project might need only one designer and/or client representative, and if so we’ll handle it accordingly. Larger projects might require an enlistment of additional design, technical, or communications folks to assist. If so, no problem - a tight network of proven freelance partners is just a phone call or email away.
Another trait that’s somewhat unique to The Blue Ocean—in an Internet world filled with faceless online design shops, we’re not faceless - we’re real people. If possible we want to meet you in person, sit down, and begin solving problems together. The people you’ll meet at The Blue Ocean are the very same that will work on your project.
So that’s who we are. While our work product might be modern, our business approach is timeless - maybe even a bit old fashioned. No worries - we like it that way.
Meet The Blue Ocean Team
Ed’s the founder of The Blue Ocean, and still guides most of the artistic and technical decisions related to our work. A design and management professional with proven experience, Ed brings significant creative influence and leadership to the team.
A graduate of Boston University, Ed’s spent over 20 years working in creative management at the Acushnet Company - the parent company of Titleist Golf. At Titleist, he’s led teams dedicated to both interactive and product design.
In Titleist’s Communications group, Ed’s served as the company’s Interactive Marketing Manager, overseeing the design and business direction of the titleist.com, pinnaclegolf.com, and cobragolf.com websites.
As the Sr. Manager of Product Development in R&D, Ed’s led a team of engineers and chemists dedicated to exploring advanced product concepts. As part of this research, Ed co-invented, patented and pioneered the development of the Titleist Pro V1 golf ball. This ball is the most financially successful golf product in the game’s history.
A generally curious guy, Ed loves to learn, create, build, tinker or design in any medium. He holds over 40 US patents spanning a range of disciplines including design, materials research, optics, chemistry, electronics, and computer science. He’s continued to evolve his creative skill set through art and design workshops at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. A lifelong photographer, he’s taught fine art photography, design, and Photoshop at both colleges and continuing education centers.
Above all, Ed is a proud husband and father to a beautiful baby girl named Grace. A dog lover, he’s almost always found in the company of his yellow lab, Abby. He’s also a sucker for a coffee frappe, an antique camera, a Greek Revival home, a classic sailboat, a vintage guitar, or a piece of handcrafted furniture.
Gina is The Blue Ocean’s main client relations contact. From the initial phone call to the final handshake, Gina works tirelessly to keep both our clients and The Blue Ocean’s designers pulling in the same direction. Throughout any project, she remains the client’s strongest advocate, guiding our design and technical teams to insure that the client’s business goals remain at the forefront of every design or communications decision we make.
Gina also spearheads all of The Blue Ocean’s communications work. She coordinates all the press and media relations, copy writing, and deployment of press releases or news bulletins for our clients.
Another seasoned professional, Gina brings 15 years of communications experience to the table. A 1994 graduate of Allegheny College, Gina has since worked in media and communications roles for organizations such as the National Sea Grant Program Media Relations Office in Washington, DC, the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, and The Coalition for Buzzards Bay.
Gina has over eight years experience directing media relations for the The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. In that role, she’s developed and pitched press releases and stories to local, national and international media, wrote and produced publications for internal and external audiences, and provided communications guidance to senior leadership.
As a veteran events planner, Gina’s coordinated everything from a Nobel Prize winner’s international press conference to gala fundraisers.
Another veteran with over 20 years of graphic design experience, Andrea coordinates much of the print design work for The Blue Ocean.
Andrea integrates her love of design into every facet of her life. Deciding on her career choice at the age of nine, she quickly got to work creating material for every garage sale sign, babysitter ad, newspaper and yearbook in her radius. She began working at a design studio even before graduating from high school. Making it official, Andrea earned her BFA in Graphic Design from SUNY New Paltz in 1993. Years later, the client names may have grown, but the dedication remains the same. Her resume now includes clients such as Disney, Hershey’s, and Coca-Cola.
Another product of the Acushnet Company / Titleist Golf creative group, Andrea has 14 years of visual design experience at Titleist. As a Sr. Graphic Designer for Acushnet’s 2080 Creative team, Andrea has become an expert in identity, merchandising, and packaging solutions. Her portfolio includes promotional and packaging design for a wide range of Titleist and Pinnacle golf ball products.
Like everyone at The Blue Ocean, Andrea’s family is her foremost priority. A wife and proud mom to three very active children, Andrea is often found cheering her kids to victory on many local sports fields. She donates much of her time and creative expertise to local youth organizations by designing logos, brochures, or promotional materials for these groups. Just as when she was young, Andrea knows she can help make the world a better place through good design.
Andrea’s interests and creative skills extend well beyond conventional graphic design. In her spare time, Andrea loves to draw, paint murals, or bake eccentric and unconventional cakes for the kids.