NEWS
DIECKS REINVIGORATES DISCOVERY KIDS GLOBE LOGO
New York NY: Brian Diecks and his Diecks Group team has redesigned the three-hour weekend block of programming for children on the Discovery Channel, including a staggering 122 on-air elements such as block opens, next-ons, bumpers, interstitials and promotional pieces. The tasks included finding the largest greenscreen site in the New York area, organizing an exceptionally large crew, and transporting numerous Media 100 and After Effects systems on set to test compositing effects during the shoot. The new look debuted in April in the U.S. and is being rolled out in Asia, Australia, Latin America, India and the U.K. Aside from the size of the project, a central challenge was what to do with the Discovery Kids logo. Considered static and underused, Diecks reinvigorated the tilting blue and green globe orbited by a smaller red planet. This he accomplished by having the logo traverse the screen while interacting with 10 to 14-year-old actors, various wild animals and onscreen graphics. Some pieces even feature the animals with globe imagery composited directly onto their skin.
MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING ANNUAL REFLECTS IMPORTANCE OF ALLIANCES;
CARLA HALL USES IDEA-ON-A-NAPKIN ICONS
New York NY: The year 2000 was a remarkable one for medical research and particularly fruitful at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). The excitement is well-reflected in their annual report entitled "New Alliances Powering Discovery." The 88-page publication, designed by Carla Hall Design Group, focuses on the importance of the alliances that the Center creates and how they contribute to developing more effective strategies for preventing and treating cancer. The annual report also marks the beginning of Dr. Harold Varmus' presidency. Principal and creative director Carla Hall, art director Michael Wiemeyer and designer John Stislow developed concepts that underscore the Center's scientific research and patient care. Hall comments: "To visually support MSKCC's message, we created 'idea-on-a-napkin' style icons and juxtaposed them against powerful color imagery photographed by Robert Lisak. We worked closely throughout the project with MSKCC's director of public affairs Avice Meehan... The piece was truly the result of a team effort." The design firm has also been retained to conduct an institution-wide audit of communication materials for the Center and to design a system of integrated communications.
TIMES MIRROR UNVEILS BRAND MAKEOVER
New York: After their recent acquisition by Time Inc., Times Mirror Magazines was in need of a branding makeover, including a name and graphic identity. Once the name Time 4 Media was chosen, SJI Associates was asked to create a single icon that could appear on all 23 titles, which share the common theme of being leisure-time titles in specific areas such as golf or skiing. The completed mark, says art director Matt Birdoff of SJI, reflects the focus on the "targeted interests" of the audience and the "targeted demographics" that media buyers seek. The new identity is debuting this month to an estimated 50 million readers.
BLIND FOCUSES ON REACTIONS IN LA FILM FESTIVAL TRAILER
Santa Monica CA: Graphic design and production studio Blind Visual Propaganda was responsible for the promotional trailer for the just-concluded Los Angeles Film Festival. Approached by Festival director Richard Raddon, Blind's lead designer on the project, Thomas Koh, worked closely with editor Erik Buth and composer Adam Sanborne to create a unified vision of the event. Establishing the mood and identity with an emotive color palette ranging from cool greens to fiery orange-reds, Blind focused on the moment, the reaction, that film provokes. Raddon says that the Blind designers managed to "convey a moving image of what cinema means as an art and cultural experience."
VANDENBERG HEADS FITCH'S NORTH AMERICAN BRAND AREA
Columbus OH/San Francisco CA: Fitch, one of the largest multinational design firms, has appointed a four-person team to pursue North American branding initiatives and compete for West Coast business. Leading the team as creative partner and practice head of the firm's North American Brand Identity & Communications area is Ron Vandenberg. Formerly of Addis, he has also been a creative director at both Siegelgale and FutureBrand. In his eighteen-year career, his blue-chip roster of clients has included Nestle, Charles Schwab, Sony, Gap and Ameritech. Joining Vandenberg are three partners: Tom Holownia, former vice president of operations for Addis with 14 years of experience in the business; Eric Ashworth, former chief marketing officer and president of Addis' interactive division who has held brand management posts at Levi's, Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive; and Kathy Tierney, a strategic retail consultant who was a former president of Addis, and president and ceo of Smith & Hawken. Vandenberg says that the group originally resigned from Addis to start their own business, but the opportunity offered by Fitch was compelling.
PROVOCATIVE CAPABILITIES BROCHURE ASKS 'ARE YOU SAFE?'
New York NY: For almost 25 years, Victim Services has been a leading advocate for victims' rights. Last year, the organization changed its name to Safe Horizon. This capabilities brochure, designed by Odgis + Company, is intended to expose and reposition the organization to a wider audience, while engaging the reader intellectually and emotionally. Odgis uses the cover to engage readers with the simple question: "Are you safe?" thereby expressing with simplicity what lies at the heart of the organization's work. The word "safe" is partially hidden behind an orange horizon, increasing the impact of the unsettling question. Inside, this theme is expanded upon with the use of drawings by children. Janet Odgis notes that all of the illustrations were created by victims of child abuse and domestic violence, and they contrast "the innocence of a child's drawing with the devastating reality of its content." The piece also uses photography in two ways to impart specific meaning. Stock photographs, always in color, provide a metaphoric reference and define a sense of place, the urban environment of New York City. Countering this are black and white documentary-like photos depicting actual scenes of Safe Horizon's involvement in the community. Running inside the book is a horizontal zone which, says Odgis, "works like a filmstrip... The strip projects a realistic documentary feel that delivers a sense of urgency."
SUPERSIZED PRINT 01 EVENT APPROACHES RECORD SIZE
Chicago IL: Creative, prepress, publishing and converting professionals can view the latest technology and equipment advances at Print 01, a once-every-four-years event that is traditionally the Western Hemisphere's largest graphic arts industry trade show. (In the other three years, the event called Graph Expo occupies the spot.) Being held September 6-13, 2001 at McCormick Place in Chicago, the Print 01 numbers are almost staggering: 1,000 exhibitors occupying 1 million net square feet of floor space hosting 100,000 attendees. Among the featured technologies: prepress workflow, digital production, printing and prepresses, and cost-effective management systems. An extensive educational program is also available, with sessions divided into five tracks: business, production, prepublishing, tools, and packaging/converting. Early registration — defined as on or before August 1 — for the show, the educational program and a pre-show look at major trends can be achieved by visiting the web site at www.print01.com. The site also includes information about exhibitors and products, exhibit floor planning diagrams, answers to specific questions, and travel and hotel help.
STREET SIGNS INSPIRE MARKETING OF 'TENDERLOIN' HOTEL
San Francisco CA: Second Floor, a multidisciplinary design firm in the heart of San Francisco, used concepts from "life in the big city" to market the Hotel Metropolis which opened in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood. The target audience: young business travelers who cannot or will not stay in an expensive hotel in upscale Union Square. The Second Floor designers noted that direction street signs, in particular, appeared so numerous as to be part of "the collective metropolitan unconscious." Explains design director Andrea Griffin: "By basing a giant wall graphic on the stop sign, a strong central message is conveyed which is grounded in the familiar, while the play on words and extreme scale give reason for humorous pause. The client, Personality Hotels, was particularly happy with the appropriateness between 'stay' and the Hotel Metropolis on one level and 'stay' and the neighborhood (which is being revitalized by such efforts) on another level." Print collateral and signage continue the street sign theme, pointing guests in the direction of the city's attractions, most of which are just east of the hotel.
LYLE LOVETT IN PRINT ADS THAT SHOW PASSION FOR SPEED
Stamford CT: A new print advertising campaign for the Speedvision cable network features country music star Lyle Lovett. The New York-based advertising team of Guarino Woodman is responsible for the creative which showcases vehicle enthusiasts from all walks of life, and seeks to convey a sense of "authenticity and passion" for fast cars and motorcycles. Lovett, who owns a motorsports dealership in his hometown of Houston, is quoted as saying: "My customers can't always agree on what machine they like, but there is no argument about what their favorite channel is."
PRESSTEK LAUNCHES ONLINE RESOURCE FOR DESIGN COMMUNITY
Hudson NH: With the balance of power in the graphic arts workflow continuously shifting toward the content creator, new technologies and solutions such as digital printing and direct-to-press have evolved to the point where designers are taking increased control of the entire job. An important example, Direct Imaging — the process of printing without film by sending a digital file to a DI® enabled offset press — is giving designers the option to deliver accurate reproduction of four-color short-run jobs while saving both time and money.
Presstek, a leader in DI technology, has long been an advocate for and supporter of the designer's vital role. According to Presstek's marketing communications manager Brian Wolfenden, it was feedback and requests from the design community itself that led the company to start focusing on a program to educate content creators about the ability of DI to provide high quality, accurate reproduction, fast turnarounds, targeted quantities and, in the end, happy clients.
The result is the launch of www.didirectory.com, an online resource whose ultimate mission is to give designers more control in the printing process. To accomplish this, the site provides a one-stop resource for technology information, how-to's, and a voice through which creators can showcase and communicate their ideas and suggestions with peers. The site offers information on the latest DI technologies, a DI printer directory organized by region, a DI library, and first-hand "how-they-did-it" stories.
In addition, profiles of the industry's best and brightest can be found in the "Featured Designers" section. Visitors to the site are also invited to post their DI projects, while contests and other opportunities are planned to provide a place for people to display their work.
Says Wolfenden: "We hope the site will become a central resource for designers to find info and ideas quickly and easily. We're working hard to provide content that delivers real value. We hope to fill a gap by providing educational info, resource links, as well as offering a voice to, and for, graphic designers to learn how others are utilizing DI successfully." He notes that the site "will continually evolve to best meet the interests of the graphic arts community."
ART DIRECTORS CLUB HONORS WILD, ROLLING STONE, ADOBE
New York NY: For the first time in its 80-year history, the Art Directors Club of New York released the top graphic design winners before the gala event, thus enabling us to note these winners even though the Club's gala event and official presentations did not take place until after Graphic Design:usa went to press. All Gold, Silver and Distinctive Merit work for all categories — advertising, graphic design, interactive media, broadcast design, typography, packaging, illustration, photography, and related disciplines — are now showcased at the ADC Gallery through July 29.
The top graphic design winners include: Lorraine Wild Graphic Design, which won a Gold for the book "Edward Fella - Letters on America" featuring the type designer's obsessive hand; Digital Kitchen with a Gold for typography used in the tv ad campaign for "ArtistsAgainstPiracy.com"; JIC Corporation of Tokyo, a Gold for a series of black-and-white posters promoting Michinoku Pro Wrestling (top left); UNA Designers of Amsterdam for a desk diary (below left) which is a five-color, 122-page cloth book Japanese folded; Fumio Tachibana whose single print "body" for Idea Magazine won a Gold; and Rolling Stone Magazine and Fred Woodward whose Silver was for an editorial portrait of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
In addition, the Art Directors Club presented its Vision Award to Adobe. The award honors companies that are firmly established and devoted to a vision that "consistently recognizes the relationship of design to performance, thereby contributing extraordinary creative excellence in communication, education and social awareness." Adobe was selected for its development and implementation of high-quality graphic design, imaging, dynamic media and authoring tools that enable creative professionals of all levels to create, publish and deliver visually rich media for the web, the printed page and video.
The 80th Annual Awards is sponsored by the gettyone.com portal for stock visuals and content across multiple brands. Contact: adcny.org.
GARFIELD CREATOR DRAWS CREATIVE CROWD FOR SONY EVENTS
New York NY/San Francisco CA: Before enthusiastic crowds of creative professionals and design students at the Sony Style store in Manhattan and at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco, Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, demonstrated the benefits of free-hand drawing with the graphics and digital editing capabilities of VAIO PC products. Davis drew his comic strip — for the first time live on a PC — on Sony's new VAIO Slimtop Pen Tablet PC. The pen-based desktop system features the functionality of a high performance PC and affords artists the ability to write, draw, erase, and navigate Windows-based applications directly on the bundled liquid crystal display (LCD) using a pressure-sensitive pen.
Davis, whose Garfield strip is read by 263 million readers in 2,600 newspapers, appeared to enjoy the proceedings immensely. He described the Sony product as "a computer that feels and performs like a sketch pad. Not only can I draw right on the screen, but the stylus has the same feel as a pencil on coated stock. The VAIO has the horsepower to allow me to draw as freely as I want without the lag in the image that I've always experienced with slower machines... Having drawn my strip with a pencil for the last 20 years, I was surprised to find how quickly I adapted to working with the Pen Tablet and how accurately the stylus renders each stroke. The Pen Tablet is revolutionary for graphic artists wanting to draw, edit, save and e-mail their creations quickly and easily."
Rich Black, marketing director for VAIO Desktop PC Products, said that "in designing and developing all VAIO PCs, Sony provides a completely integrated solution — that means hardware, software and user working in harmony with one another. It's the very foundation of what VAIO represents: Video, Audio, Integrated Operation." He pointed out that, for graphic designers and other advanced users, the system comes pre-loaded with several Adobe software applications including Photoshop LE for image editing, Premier LE for advanced digital video editing and GoLive for web design and production.
YEE PUTS FINGERPRINT ON CLAIROL SPOTS
New York NY: A :03 end mnemonic will tag all Clairol hair color product commercials for the foreseeable future. Dana Yee of Spontaneous Combustion designed and directed the end tag to contemporize the Clairol name. Set against a gently moving creamy white background with the company name in light blue, the mnemonic features an elegant shot of a hand gliding over and touching the copy, leaving a fingerprint behind. Spontaneous utilized Photoshop, Illustrator and inferno for the project. The advertising agency is FCB Worldwide with David Curtis as the creative director and Troy Scarlott the art director.
AMERICAN AIRLINES CHECK-IN CONCEPT LANDS AT HEATHROW
London UK/South Norwalk CT: Silvester Tafuro Design, a Connecticut firm with a specialty in airport and retail design, has helped American Airlines launch a new customer check-in initiative for premium passengers travelling from London Heathrow. Called Park Avenue, the concept enables passengers to completely bypass the terminal check-in area. Instead, departing passengers drive directly to a canopied entrance, check in, and proceed via a newly installed lift to the entrance of the departure lounge. The area is described as having an open-plan design that breaks down traditional barriers between passengers and check-in staff, and a calming ambience. The Park Avenue program was managed by the design firm's London-based partner Silvester Tafuro Bishop.
MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN SALE OF DONSIDE MILL
Newark DE: Donside Incorporated, the North American sales and distribution division of the venerable Donside Paper Company, has released the following statement from the Donside Mill in Scotland:
"Joint receivers of the Aberdeen-based Donside Paper Company Ltd. are pleased to announce that, following extensive negotiations, an agreement has been signed with a management buy out team led by Managing Director Mike Duckett. Completion of the sale of the entire business and assets of Donside remain subject to satisfactory due diligence by the funders supporting the management buy out offer... Iain Bennet, joint receiver, comments: "Our aim from the outset has been to sell the Donside Mill as a going concern and I am pleased we have reached this significant point. A great deal of credit must go to the employees and to the firm's customer base, all of whom have been very positive since we took over running the business. With this continued support I believe Donside's future will be secured... Mike Duckett comments: "It has been an uncertain time for everyone involved but we can now look forward to a positive future for the company. I would like to thank our customers and employees for their unfailing support."
For North American readers, say mill officials, the significance of the management buy out is that the company can continue its focus on expanding its products and services in the U.S. and Canada.