GDUSA NewsletterFEBRUARY 2011

NO VACUUM

Graphic designers do not create in a vacuum, as many non-designers assume. Geography and culture shape sensibilities and solutions, according to the 20 Designers-To-Watch featured in the current magazine. For example Sarah Williams, raised in Saranac MI, notes, “small-town roots ground my work, and I often relate to it when thinking about how to reach an audience through design.” David Gauger of the Bay Area, says “The West Coast effect has been to continuously question authority and to experiment stylistically. Ideas always trump style.” Robin Tooms observes, “I am a native Houstonian, which means southern kindness lives side-by-side with a western sense of wonder and entrepreneurship.” And Wendy Pressley-Jacobs says “living in the Midwest creates a psyche where I value things that are ‘true’ and ‘honest.’” – Gordon Kaye

Graphic Design News

TIFFANY CROWNED
The coveted AIGA Corporate Leadership Awards go to renowned jeweler Tiffany & Co. and home-care innovators Method for their contributions to design and the profession. “A commitment to design excellence, deep in the DNA of an organization, is not limited to any legacy or market segment. It is built through enlightened corporate management and respect for those customers you choose to serve,” says AIGA executive director. Ric Grefé.

ROUND TABLES SET
InSource’s annual round table event is scheduled for Thursday, March 3. The main mission of InSource is “to empower all inhouse creative leaders to run their business most effectively.” The upcoming roundtable focuses on how get your internal clients and senior management to recognize the real value in your creative team. Regional roundtables are planned for Boston, Chicago, Raleigh, San Francisco.
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PRIVATE LABEL CHALLENGE
Directions of Neenah WI designed a digital pressure-sensitive label to help establish Carmella’s Italian Bistro as a private label brand. The design is clean and visually uncluttered, uses a facestock typically used for wine labels, and generally chal- lenges the accepted product category usage of color, clutter, type, structure and glued-on labeling. WS Packaging Group was the converter.

CONDOMS AND COSTS
A wry outdoor and point-of-sale campaign launches Sir Richard’s Condom Co. via reminders of the high cost of child raising: from diapers to college, from stroller to minivan. The campaign is by advertising agency TDA Advertising & Design in Boulder CO. “Tuitions” wild postings in New York, for example, show the per-year costs of the area’s private high schools. TDA creative directors Thomas Dooley and Jonathan Schoenberg; designer is Austin O’Connor. LEARN MORE >

PLUCKING THE PEACOCK
Speaking of NBC, new owner Comcast has downgraded the peacock in the NBC Universal corporate logo. For the moment, at least, the birdless version will be used on corporate and internal documents only, while the peacock will be used on air for the NBC broadcast network and cable news channels CNBC and MSNBC. The colorful bird has been the NBC symbol since 1956.

LONDON SIGNS WITH SEGD
SEGD has named Jessica W. London its new CEO. London, the former executive director of the French Heritage Society, comes to the environmental graphics design group with a background in arts-related fundraising, communications, public relations, membership development, and management.

SAY HELLO TO HERMAN
Hello Design is responsible for high-styled Herman Miller's first direct-to-consumer ecommerce store. The Culver CA firm partnered with architectural photographer Juergen Nogai to communicate a visual language for the brand through inspiring spaces. LEARN MORE >

FITCH FOUNDER IN DUBAI
For the 4th Dubai International Advertising Festival, a new Design category has been added. It will be chaired by Rodney Fitch, founder of global design agency Fitch and Professor of Retail Design in Holland. Fitch’s career has spanned 40 years, during which he built the WPP-owned graphic and retail design giant. LEARN MORE >

YO! WHAT’S UP
Finding the current YoCrunch brand identity outdated and failing to communicate the attributes of the brand, Hughes Design repositioned it as an on-trend healthy choice for the entire family. A key to the packaging solution is a bright new brandmark that headlines the brand architecture and moves it away from the Breyer ’s overbrand.

Bridgeman Buzz

THE ART OF MASHUP: CALL FOR ENTRIES

Bridgeman Art Library is partnering with Quirk Books, publisher of the smash hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, to sponsor a graphic design competition that redefines classic art and literature. Create the most imaginative mash-up title and design the cover. Submit your entries by March 11, for a chance to win a great prize package.
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