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c'mon people now

Grand Rapids, MI

Introducing People Design. BBK Studio, the award-winning Grand Rapids MI design firm and a perennial GDUSA favorite, launched 10 years ago. To celebrate the completion of their first decade of business, the folks at BBK changed the firm's name to People Design. Says Yang Kim, People's VP and creative director, the choice of name reflects the firm's people-centered design methodology: "Change is constant. We have to stay on top of it. But good designers will always see their work as solving problems for people. Making better things and making things better." The People Design team's expertise includes identity design, experience design and communications design, including print, environmental and web design. Highlights from their star-studded client list include Herman Miller, Whirlpool Corporation and Jaguar. Kim and President Kevin Budelmann co-own the shop.

out of the cupboard

New York NY

New Year's Eve saw the kickoff of "Open for Fun," Euro RSCG New York's wild new marketing effort for the cracker brand Ritz. Said ECD Michael Lee of the campaign's message, "We needed to move the brand out of the cupboard and establish the brand as the champion of fun." Design elements use the distinct shape and features of the Ritz cracker as a symbol of the brand and its new purpose. Included are TV spots, print ads, outdoor light projections, instore activities, redesigned packaging, a website and even wildpostings.

everything sagmeister ever needed to know

New York NY

Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far, Stefan Sagmeister's soon-to-be-released book, began life as an introspective diary entry. Items on the list — such as "Worrying solves nothing," "Money does not make me happy" and "Trying to look good limits my life" — were eventually transformed into public art such as billboards in France and sign-toting inflatable monkeys on the streets of Scotland. According to Sagmeister, every piece in the book was carefully crafted to take into account the location and materials used — all in order to ensure a full and powerful impact on viewers. That even goes for the book itself; with 15 unbound signatures in a die-cut slipcase, the 248 pages of the book can be read in whatever order the reader desires. The pictures of the pieces are accompanied by essays by design historian Steven Heller, curator Nancy Spector, psychologist Daniel Nettle and the design legend himself. Stefan Sagmeister is the founder of New York City's Sagmeister, Inc.

new kidd experiment

New York NY

"The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation." So wrote Stanley Milgram, the Yale psychologist who, inspired by the trial of Adolph Eichmann, set out in the 1960s to determine "how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist." Chip Kidd, not only a legendary book designer but also a novelist, sets out to tell the story of the so-called Milgram experiment in his latest venture, The Learners (Scribner). The Learners concerns an adman, Happy, assigned the task of creating a recruitment piece for Milgram and company. Happy responds to the ad himself, with devastating results. This is Kidd's second novel; the first, 2002's The Cheese Monkeys, was a national bestseller. He is currently an associate art director at Knopf.

knockout album

New York NY

Jeff Gilligan, an art director at Sony BMG Music Entertainment, recently art directed and designed the album art for Kirk Franklin's latest release, The Fight of My Life. Franklin is one of the top-selling Christian and gospel singers in the nation and has made considerable inroads on the R&B market, as well. His 1997 single "Stomp," which featured Salt-NPepa's Cheryl "Salt" James, was a Top 40 hit. The artwork for The Fight of My Life employs dramatic boxing imagery, with Franklin squaring off against himself, as a metaphor for Franklin's struggle against sin and for his Christian faith. This is Franklin's tenth album. Creative credits got to Gilligan, photographer Sarah A. Friedman, stylist Pamela Watson and producer Miyazu Sato of Urban NYC.

o, t-square!

Milford CT

When the Connecticut Art Directors Club put out the call for last year's onebyoneshow, a contest for original artworks that fit into a 12-inch square, the designer Kevin Hall answered with an homage to the T-square. Comments Hall, the proprietor of Kevin Hall Design: "As art students from another time would remember, the T-square was one of the largest of all the art supplies and the clumsiest to carry to and from class, but it was a necessity. With a T-square in hand, we felt armed and ready to take on the world — well, the art and design world, that is. Although you are still around today, we perhaps are not as close to you as we used to be. Oh, the mighty, sturdy and majestic T-square, we pay homage to you." All entries to the onebyoneshow were put up for auction, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

clean + green

Burbank CA

By the time that Petrotech, a manufacturer of eco-friendly pet odor eliminators, approached Brand Texture and The Kitchen Collaborative, execs at the young company were riding high on an initial wave of success but were worried about sustaining the success for lack of a solid brand strategy. The results, recently unveiled at the 2007 Global Pet Expo, have made quite a splash, contributing to increased sales and opening up new markets. Kitchen's design solution — which was based on Brand Texture's positioning concepts and applied to a wide range of materials, from Petrotech's identity to its catalogs and tradeshow booths — was to communicate the message "clean + green" through the strategic use of color, animal photography, botanic graphics and scientific icons. Consumers, especially women, come away knowing that Petrotech products are eco-fiendly and, at the same time, actually work. Creative credits go to AD Aniko Hill, designers Hill, Marta Kaltreider and Keri Daniel, and copywriters Brand Texture and Lauri Maerov.

for the love of pets

New York NY

Fundraisers at Bideawee, the venerable American animal welfare agency, have always been hampered by the organization's name — an Scottish expression for "stay awhile." What does it have to do with animals? The obscurity places tremendous importance on Bideawee's visual branding, which is why Jane S. Englebardt, the organization's president and CEO, decided to revamp the organization's look and feel. She tapped top firm Carbone Smolan Agency for the job. The result? A logo that is warmer, friendlier and clearer. Gone are the capitals and hyphens of "Bide- A-Wee," the group's previous moniker; instead, they are replaced by the face of a dog or a cat in the letter "w." CSA also rewrote Bideawee's tagline, changing "bring love into your home" into "for the love of pets" — a move that reflects the full range of Bideawee's humane services, not just its pet adoption program. Englebardt asserts that "the feedback from our constituents has been extremely positive — people really like our new look." Both Bideawee and the Carbone Smolan Agency are based in New York City.