PUBLISHERS NOTE: SOUNDS PROMISING
 Design
is too important for designers to keep it to themselves. Industry
associations and clubs that permit and encourage graphic designers
to talk — incessantly and incestuously — only to and
about themselves are failing their community. It happens with
surprising frequency, and it is boring, diminishing, and a painfully
lost opportunity for fun, profit and recognition in the wider world.
Accordingly, it is heartening to hear the words of Doug Jaeger, 33,
the youngest-ever president of the venerable Art Directors Club in
New York. Jaeger says that his goal is to use the ADC as a hub to
connect members to each other and to the world at large. “This
isn’t a creative organization that is interested in being a
closed environment where creatives and designers simply talk to one
another,” says the founder and CEO of thehappycorp global.
“Design influences culture, and we want to be connected to
the outside world in a relevant, and at times provocative, way.”
Sounds promising.
— Gordon Kaye
BREAKING NEWS!
Sex Scandal Rocks Picture Library!
Graphic Design
USA has just obtained what appears to be the official invitation to
the Bridgeman Art Library web launch party on Tuesday, October 28th.
Click here
to view invitation.
The party will take place at 7-10pm on Tuesday October 28 at the
Museum of Sex in Manhattan.
Confirm your attendance now by emailing
rsvp@bridgemanart.com!
GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWS
Palladino Preserved
The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives has acquired more than
400 works by the New York artist and designer Tony Palladino, whose long
career spans work on high profile ad campaigns and authoring
children’s books, to designing New York City subway posters and
teaching at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). Through a gift of the
artist, the Tony Palladino Collection will be held at SVA for preservation
and research alongside previously acquired collections by legendary
designers including Milton Glaser, Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. The
collection contains 180 sketches and pieces of original art, 30 posters
and more than 200 examples of his designer and illustration work.
Logo On The Menu
A
new brand identity was called for with the recent union of fast-food
giants Arby’s Restaurant Group and Wendy’s International,
to create the nation’s third largest quick-service restaurant
company. The logo, formed to reflect the W and the A in the respective
red and yellow brand colors, was produced by New York’s KCSA
Strategic Communications and unveiled to shareholders earlier this month.
The logo is not only an acronym but also “a spiral continuum,
maintaining the idea of continuous, flexible movement forward,” said
Margaret Wiatrowski, Creative Director at KCSA. Triarc Companies, the
parent company of the Arby’s sandwich chain, acquired Wendy’s
last month.
Giving Back
Courtney & Co, a communications and branding firm in New York, has
launched “&initiative,” a charitable fund focused on giving
back. The first initiative is to partner Building with Books, a nonprofit
organization on building schools in undeveloped communities in places
such as Africa, Nepal and Nicaragua. The first goal of is to raise enough
money to build the first Courtney & Co school in Mali, Africa, next
year. As part of its fundraising drive, the firm says it will set aside a
percentage of every dollar it earns from its clients; holding a fundraising
event to introduce people to the work of Building with Books; and a direct
link from the homepage of the Courtney & Co website.
http://www.courtneyco.com.
Phelps Flies, Too
Hornall Anderson opted for viral advertising and lured Olympic
man-of-the-moment Michael Phelps to appear in a string of videos aimed at
an internet-savvy audience to promote CitationShares, a premium fractional
jet ownership service. The Seattle WA branding company said it wanted to
take promotion beyond the traditional 30-second spot, instead using the
world champion swimmer in funny and factual 15-20-second film clips, with
themes such as Michael Phelps Sings, Michael Phelps Flies and Michael Phelps
Pranks. In the first week alone, the videos had almost 250,000 hits from
their original postings on You Tube, as well as other media sites and blogs
that picked up the clips.
Gift Of Necessities
Cash-strapped consumers will spend less on gift cards for the holidays this
year and shift their spending to gift cards for necessities like gas, groceries
or small indulgences such as a restaurant meal. This according to Archstone
Consulting’s 2008 Holiday Gift Card survey. Gift card sales are predicted
to drop about 5% to $25 billion, and only 24% of consumers plan to increase
their spending on gift cards in 2008, says Dave Sievers, consumer products
and retail lead at Archstone. Among other key findings by the consulting firm,
sales of gift cards through outside locations such as grocery, drug stores,
banks and kiosks are expected to grow 20% versus 2007, and the restaurant/fast
food category will sell more gift cards this year than any other category.
NOW ON GDUSA.COM: ANNUAL REPORTS IN A TIME OF
CHANGE
CSR. Sustainability. The internet. The Economy. All these issues and
more are addressed in a special report entitled “Annual Reports
In A Time of Change” now online at...
http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2008/09_sep/feature/index.php
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THE GDUSA STORE
GDUSA has recently been named an official reseller of Pantone®
products. Our offerings run the gamut from traditional Pantone® Solid
Colors Palette, the most widely used Pantone® palette with over 1100
unique numbered colors... to the new Pantone Goe System, a new vision
of color that provides an extended range of 2,058 chromatically-arranged
solid colors that are easy to locate and specify using guide, chip and
software formats... to the fun and versatile ColorMunki tool. See them all at...
http://www.gdusa.com/store
MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWS
Coping With Angst
Hotel Angst, a historic but rundown site on the Italian Riviera, is getting
a grand makeover complete with a new brand platform and logo/identity from
New York’s Carbone Smolan Agency. The hotel, located in Bordighera and
named for its onetime owner Adolph Angst, was built in 1887. As a premier luxury
hotel, it was once a choice vacation spot for the likes of Queen Victoria,
Andrew Carnegie and Louis Comfort Tiffany. After major renovations by
developer Bizzi & Partners in Milan, the hotel is set to reopen in 2011
as Angst Hotel and Residences, introducing modern living, design, services
and amenities within a restored 19th century building.
Kicks For Kids
Nexus Design & Marketing of Cardiff by the Sea CA recently completed a
branding and fundraising campaign for Ronald McDonald House of San Diego with
LandeInk, a North County marketing and public relations firm. The project
included designing the campaign logo, print materials, website and email
blasts and went some steps further to get San Diego Chargers’ fans
digging into their pockets to help families with seriously ill children.
Dubbed “Kicks for Kids” and starring Charger’s place kicker
Nate Kaeding, the program urges employees at local businesses to pledge a
donation for every field goal Kaeding kicks this season to help build a new
Ronald McDonald House.
http://www.sdkicksforkids.com/index.html
Dignity In Death
Service Corporation International (SCI), North America’s largest
single provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services, tapped Savage
of Houston TX to help employees better understand how they contribute to
the company’s external Dignity Memorial brand. Working with the
Corporate Communications and Human Resources departments, the design firm
created messaging, visuals and a naming system to convey the company’s
brand values to employees in a positive way. The creative strategy, which
uses the word “dignity” as a key component, is applied to all
internal communications, including the intranet, newsletter and enewsletter.
Design Thinkers
The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario presents the
ninth annual Design Thinkers, Canada’s largest graphic design event,
beginning Oct. 27 in Toronto. The theme for the four-day event, which brings
together 1000 of the industry’s best practitioners from across Canada,
the U.S. and the world, is “design thinking.” Louise Fili, Ji Lee
and Veronique Vienne, instructors at the School of Visual Arts, will speak
on subjects ranging from packaging design to sustainability. Nancy Duarte,
who designed Al Gore’s slideshow in An Inconvenient Truth, will show
how to deliver presentations, and among the other speakers are design critic
Rick Poynor, brand and corporate identity master Steff Geissbuhler, designer
Massimo Vignelli and Bob Isherwood, Worldwide Creative Director of Saatchi
& Saatchi.
http://www.designthinkers.com.
Patient Portraits
Pfizer tapped creatives at Ideas On Purpose (IOP) for a third year to
spearhead the design and development of its most recent Annual Review. New
York-based IOP created “Progress and Promise: Our Path Forward,”
teaming patient portraits and executive essays with bold graphics and
provocative copy to communicate Pfizer’s plan to realign the organization
and make progress toward its goals. The result took Gold at the International
ARC Awards, as well as other industry honors. Pfizer also retained IOP to
produce a range of corporate philanthropy materials.
PRODUCT NEWS
 Access Display Group., a leading designer and manufacturer of
changeable signage display frame solutions for visual merchandising
and display, has been granted a patent for its swing open display frames
with a gravity lock. The technology prevents the frames from opening without
first sliding up the gravity lock rod. The lock, positioned behind the
front frame with the hinges, is hidden from view, resulting in an attractive
and functional display frame that swings open, and that allows rapid change
of posters, signs and dimensional items. According to Charles Abrams,
president of Access Display Group, much of the firm’s business comes
from imaging companies and designers.
http://www.displays4sale.com/
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