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Portraits of Design(ers)
new york ny
Award-winning photographer John Madere has captured some of the best-known graphic designers in his own self-promotional book Portraits of Design. Milton Glaser graces the cover, while Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Chip Kidd, Stephen Doyle and others are photographed within. Along with the portraits, Madere shares anecdotes of each photo session such as Chip Kidd's impressive collection of Batman memorabilia. Designed by Lynda Decker of New York City's Decker Design, Portraits of Design was a two-year process. Printed on Mohawk Kromekote, the book's photographs sprung to life without the need for extra hits of touch plates. "I have to say that it's the most beautifully reproduced collection of my photography that I have seen in awhile," says Madere. As for his subjects: Michael Beirut, who is among those portrayed, jokes that Madere's photograph "makes me look unrealistically cool (and anyone who sees it before meeting me in person is in for a tremendous disappointment)." Contact: www.mohawkpaper.com, and for a copy of Portraits of Design, www.mohawkpaperstore.com

Crunch Pumps Up for 21st Birthday
LOS ANGELES CA
IdeaWork Studios has designed a new website to help Crunch Fitness celebrate its 21st birthday. A new microsite — www.crunch21.com — turns surfing the gym's site into a big party with more than $250,000 in giveaways including designer clothes, vacation packages and concert tickets, as well as a section to Tweet Your Story, where users can share tales of their own 21st birthdays. There's also a photo booth for users to upload pictures and customize their own merry photos with faces of themselves and friends (when they turn 21). Contact: www.ideawork.com

Packaging The Gulf Oil Spill
Atlanta GA
Seriously perturbed by the recent devastating BP oil spill in the gulf coast, Cardinal & Company designer James Martin set out to raise awareness of just how destructive the spill was. The idea: turn actual oil-stained sand from the gulf shores into social commentary. The execution: filling jars with the soiled sand to bring attention to the fact that each jar ruins 150,000 gallons of water. "Seeing the impact all that oil had on just one beach put into perspective how bad things really are down there," said Martin, after visiting the Alabama gulf shores in June. Cardinal & Company was started in 2010 in Atlanta, GA, with the mission to help companies launch and grow their brands. Contact: www.cardinalandco.com

Girl Scouts Get Makeover
NEW YORK NY
The iconic Girl Scouts logo has gone under the knife and scissors, getting an over-30 makeover that adds bangs and a jaunty new nose — a modern reworking of the original design from Saul Bass in 1978. New York design firm Original Champions of Design, or OCD, knew better than to mess with the original stylized trefoil, tweaking it instead by updating the hair with bangs, making the nose perkier and altering the curve of the neck and chin. The servicemark is now all lowercase in Avenir. Girl Scouts of USA — the world's biggest organization dedicated to girls — describes the graphics project as "a long-term, multichannel brand campaign to reacquaint the country with the iconic organization and communicate the power girls have to change the world through Girl Scouting."

Doyle To Receive Top Graphic Design
Honors At Cooper Hewitt Gala
New york ny
Stephen Doyle, creative director at Doyle Partners in New York, is the winner of the National Design Award for Communication for 2010. He picks up top graphic design honors in the 11th annual National Design Awards by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and will be honored along with other category winners at a gala dinner on October 14. With a career that spans M&Co., Rolling Stone and Esquire, Doyle is being recognized for his unique ability to give words a deeper meaning in graphic form, which has resulted in an intelligent, provocative body of work for clients including The New York Times, AIGA, Vanity Fair magazine, and publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Notable projects include a new identity program for Barnes & Noble and branding for Martha Stewart including packaging and instore presentations of that brand in Kmart and Macy's. Doyle lectures frequently in the U.S. and abroad. He also teaches in the graduate program at The School of Visual Arts and has taught at Yale, The Cooper Union and NYU. Finalists for the Communications Award design were brand guru John Jay and designer, author and artist Maira Kalman. Jay is Global Executive Creative Director and Partner of the influential advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. Kalman has written and illustrated a dozen children's books as well as an illustrated edition of William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White's classic book Elements of Style. First Lady Michelle Obama is honorary patron for this year's National Design Awards. The Awards were first launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millenium Council aimed at promoting excellence and innovation in design. The Awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including special events, panel discussions and workshops; the fifth annual National Design Week kicking off October 9. Contact: www.nationaldesignawards.org/2010

They Call Me Mello Yellow
NEW YORK NY
Everything old is new again: even the Mello Yello rebrand that mimics the look of the brand when it debuted in 1979. Coca-Cola has introduced new retro cans that date back to the Mello Yello introduction in spirit, with a pair of green and light red Ls strolling off the edge of the can. The company tapped New York-based design agency Stag&Hare for the new look, and Mutt Industries in Portland OR handled advertising duties. The brand's target is teens and young adults, but there's hope that older consumers will identify with the original packaging too. Coca-Cola is looking to expand Mello Yello's current regional footprint, with the new cans touted to show up in cities like Philadelphia as well as in the Northwest. Radio and digital ads were launched in late summer, with outdoor ads that nod to British musician Donovan: "They call me Mello Yello." There's also the accompanying tagline, "The original smooth," which appears on the can. Contact: www.stageandhare.com