NEWS
LIPSON ALPORT GLASS WAKES SLEEPING (GREEN) GIANT
Chicago IL: Eager to help leverage the brand equity of the Jolly Green Giant and reintroduce the venerable icon to a new generation of consumers, Lipson Alport Glass & Associates has developed a redesigned package depicting a full-sized giant standing in a lush valley. "For several years now, the Green Giant on the packaging had gotten smaller and most recently it was truncated from the chest up," says Jack Heffern, a vice president at the design firm. "Recognizing the important equities of the 75-year-old brand, Pillsbury decided now was the time to reacquaint the consumer with the Giant as a way to reinforce the brand . . . "
As a result, LAGA redesigned the entire line portraying a larger-than-life Green Giant as a protector and nurturer of the valley. On cartons, the figure is shown standing from top to bottom in the valley, while the big valley spreads across the front from one side to the other on bags. Product photography adds appetite-appealing cues to the package.
Heffern argues that, like many mature brands, this product line was an excellent candidate for revitalization because it has such a strong brand character. "Having a highly recognizable and proprietary icon gave us a wonderful opportunity to visually boost the emotional connection between the product and the consumer. The Jolly Green Giant icon brings back memories of childhood and wholesome family meals..." He adds that "given the variety of products under the brand umbrella, we created a design and package architecture that was flexible enough to adapt to both vertical and horizontal forms and structures. This enabled us to maintain a consistent brand identity in all forms."
RICHARD WILDE IS ELECTED ART DIRECTORS CLUB PRESIDENT
New York NY: The Art Directors Club of New York has named Richard Wilde, an oft-honored art director and graphic designer, and chairman of the Graphic Design and Advertising Department at the School of Visual Arts, as its president. Wilde had been the organization's treasurer.
"The presidency," he says, "is a great honor in itself with a history of dedicated and visionary individuals and for me presents a variety of challenges that I am prepared to embrace. I have the good fortune to be working with Myrna Davis, the executive director, and a wonderful board of directors." That board includes Parry Merkley, Peter Cohen, Alexander Gelman, Leslie Singer, Jackie Merri Meyer, Bill Oberlander, Jarad Hendler, Robert Greenberg, Roy Grace, Jon Kamen and Dean Stefanides.
In addition to his duties at the School of Visual Arts, Wilde has co-founded a new branding design firm called Magical Monkey. He is a prolific author, including 101 Ways to Stay Young, Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem Solving, and others.
YOSEMITE BEARS TURN TO MICHAEL OSBORNE FOR IDENTITY
Yosemite National Park CA: An illustration of a black bear by Michael Osborne Design, with the tagline, Keep Bears Wild, is the centerpiece of a new effort to educate Yosemite National Park visitors about the dangers of the native bear population. The program focuses on encouraging tourists and travellers to store food in bear-proof lockers and containers. The identity program includes an informational brochure, posters, t-shirts and caps, pins and even trading cards. The identity is intended to be "friendly and wearable, yet serious enough to communicate this very important message."
ESTÉE LAUDER MARKETING EXEC HEADS STERLING GROUP
New York: The reputed guiding force behind the creation of the very successful Jane cosmetics line and a former Estée Lauder and Procter & Gamble marketer, Donald S. Pettit, has been named president and CEO of Sterling Group. The international brand consultancy has offices in New York, San Francisco, London and Singapore with clients such as Burger King, Salomon Smith Barney, Viacom, Kraft, PepsiCo, Sony, Volvo and others. Explaining his approach to branding in 2001, Pettit says: "Brand connections in today's marketplace have exploded in terms of their complexity in the face of new media and other influences. One of the most fascinating areas of marketing is identifying and creating new connections between brands and their users. It is no longer enough to have a simplistic, advertising-only focus. It's imperative to broaden to a holistic, professional focus on a total brand. I see this as a new role for consultancies to take with companies, reviewing and recommending a full range of strategic and creative principles to form connections for individual brands." A Princeton graduate, Pettit developed the successful first fragrance from Procter & Gamble, Navy, in the 1980s, created the jane cosmetics line for Sassaby Cosmetics and then engineered the sale of jane to Estée Lauder in late 1997 where he has been since. Simon Williams remains chairman of Sterling Group.
ARBOR MIST AND COORS AMONG GLASS PACKAGING WINNERS
Washington DC: To recognize the creativity expressed through glass packaging, the Clear Choice Awards have named the winners of their annual design program. Winner of the most competitive category, Package Design, went to The Republic of Tea for its line of Bottled Green Iced Teas. The Success Story category winner, judged on sales success over the past year, was Canandaigua Wine's Arbor Mist, which has been called the most successful wine product launched in nearly 20 years. Other notable winners were: the Original Coors Authentic Bar Bottle in the Beer Category, Frutta Inc.'s Frezza Italian Sodas for their sculpted bottle in the Carbonated Beverage arena; Dean Pickle and Specialty Products' Peter Piper's Pickle Vator for Packaged Foods; Corbett Canyon Vineyards' Sauvignon Blanc Square Decanter in the Wine category; and, in the Distilled Spirits category, Sazerac Company for its Rain Vodka. Judges represented trade media, academia and the industry, including: Jane Ottenberg, president of The Magazine Group; James Peters of BrandPackaging Magazine; Dr. Peter Vergano of Clemson University; and Joe Violante, associate creative director of The Coleman Group. The competition is sponsored by the Glass Packaging Institute. Contact: 202.887.4850 or www.gpi.org.
NAME AND IDENTITY CHANGES RISE, DOTCOM NAMES FALL
New York NY: Nearly 4,000 corporations around the world changed names — and thus identities — during the millennium year, with American corporations reaching a new total of 2,976, up 9% from 1999. This according to an Enterprise IG survey of name changes which, for the first time, covered company names on a worldwide basis as well as within the United States. Releasing his firm's totals, CEO Jim Johnson stated: "The lure of the dotcom designator has peaked. The trend is now toward more traditional names that are able to be used globally."
Clearly Americans led the name changes with corporations on the New York Stock Exchange, American Exchange, NASDAQ, major privately held companies and U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms taken into account. Beyond this country, the United Kingdom was second followed by Canada, then Germany, then France and Japan. The reported name changes stretched from the Baltic States to South Africa and across Europe and the Middle East to Nepal, Malaysia, China and Japan.
Within the U.S., New York State led the list with California, Massachusetts, Texas and Pennsylvania rounding out the top five. Overall, financial institutions — including commercial banks, thrifts, investment banks, brokerages and mutual funds — accounted for the highest percentage (40%) of identity changes. Communications firms were second and manufacturers, third. The most active agent of change: mergers and acquisitions accounted for more than half (53%) of all identity changes.
Comments Johnson: "The continued globalization of corporations and their markets is driving an accelerating need for name changes, despite the difficulties posed by cultural, linguistic and trademark challenges. Part of the impetus for a new company name comes from the many corporate mergers and consolidations taking place today, transAtlantic, panEuropean and transPacific." Enterprise IG, with 18 offices internationally, has been conducting such surveys for 31 years.
IT'S MARDI GRAS THEME IN SAN DIEGO
FOR LAURA COE WRIGHT
San Diego CA: A colorful Mardi Gras theme for Print Week 2001 was executed by Laura Coe Wright of Laura Coe Design Associates for the late February event. Sponsored by the Printing Industries Association of San Diego, the "week" — which celebrates the graphic arts industry and informs and educates the graphic design/print buying community — draws more than 2000 attendees to the San Diego Convention Center.
PRIMO ANGELI FRESHENS CHURCH'S CHICKEN PERSONALITY
San Francisco CA: The Church's Chicken national restaurant chain has an identity makeover by Primo Angeli Inc. The project, covering corporate identity, store environments and instore packaging, is intended, says project director Richard Scheve, to "contemporize the chain's identity while reinforcing the traditional image of Church's as a convenient place for family-style, sit-down meals." The 30-year-old branding and design consultancy is no stranger to food, having handled programs for Del Monte, Coca-Cola, Sara Lee, Ben & Jerry's and Chupa Chups.
LOGO BRIDGES EDUCATION AND TECH FOR FOUNDATION
Seattle WA: Walsh & Associates has designed a new logo for the Digital Blackboard Association, formerly the Washington Software Foundation. The client's mission is to support revolutionary and innovative teachers who use technology in the classroom. The Walsh firm teamed with branding company Parker LePla to develop the new branding and name. The logo, says Miriam Lisco, "reflects the brand because it bridges the gap between education and technology; it is sophisticated and smart, yet warm and personable; and it complements the organization's new name."
UCLA SUMMER PROMOTION SAYS IT NEVER RAINS IN CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles CA: A new poster for the UCLA Extension's summer session is part of an ambitious promotion campaign that includes brochures, direct mail and t-shirts, as well. InJu Sturgeon, director of marketing at Extensions, cast her net wide in selecting designers Alan Fletcher of London and Kit Hinrichs of San Francisco to participate. The summer session program is open to undergraduate students worldwide but principally targeted at students enrolled in other University of California schools around the state. The design brief, says Sturgeon, is two-fold: the academic opportunity of studying at UCLA plus the attraction of "a simpler, playful time that a summer in southern California can offer."
BAY AREA DESIGNERS MAKE PLAY FOR 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES
San Francisco: The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee has made a formal bid to the U.S. Olympic Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games. The bid included 700 pages of documentation covering all aspects of the area's venues, technology, transportation, weather, communications and housing. To pull it off, the BASOC tapped the design talents of several firms — Addison, Excite@Home, and EDAW and HOK Sport to create the casebound bid document, web site and architectural proposals.
To help hold it all together visually, local Committee director Anne Cribbs called on Rick Tharp of Tharp Did It. Comments Tharp: "My charge was to create graphic standards for the usage of the logo designed by Primo Angeli, to develop color palettes, to establish typographic and photographic guidelines, and then to convey this to each of the contributing firms. Because of budget and time constraints of three months we could not develop extensive documentation and distribute it quickly enough to get each team going on their particular assignments. Standards needed to be flexible and open-ended. I guess you could say I became a living graphic standards manual."
The Bay Area bid competes first in the domestic phase with Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Tampa and Washington/Baltimore, then goes to the International Olympic Committee with other cities around the world, a process that will take five years.
LETTER Q IS THE KEY TO FINANCIAL BOUTIQUE BRANDING
Seattle WA: Given one guideline by Quadra Capital Management — keep the existing brand value of the Q that had been used in past branding — the Belyea graphic design firm helped develop a new name and identity for the financial management boutique now known as Quellos. First, Belyea partnered with Beth Brosseau Namebranding on the new name, which means "source" or "wellspring." Then the firm developed an identity system focusing on the letter Q, as requested, and implemented it through a business suite, proposal system, capability brochure and web site.
PRINTING FORECAST MIXED, WITH ADS, DIRECT, PACKAGING UP
Reston VA: The 20th annual Print Outlook conference, presented by NPES, The Association For Suppliers Of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, brought together economists, political observers and other industry experts to explore the nation's economic state and, more generally, the challenges that the printing industry faces in the coming year. The conclusion: the industry is fundamentally sound, with sales predicted to rise as much as 6% in the coming year, but that there is very modest growth ahead in the long run. In the context of the longer term, Frank Romano, an RIT professor and respected industry seer, set the tone when he said "the printing industry is alive and well and will continue to grow at 1-2% over the next 20 years." Within the industry, however, he predicts that this slow growth rate will lead to lots of consolidations leading to fewer and larger printing establishments. He also argued that some printing categories will thrive such as advertising, direct marketing and packaging because, even with all the web communication, it is proving hard to replace packaging, advertising and direct mail messages with a good electronic alternative. Examples of printing segments where the outlook is more negative: newspapers, which are losing their reporting and classified advantages, and directories. Contact: 703.264.7200 or www.npes.org.