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Historic Sites Get New Looks

FAIRFIELD CT

Greg Chinn, Creative Director at Jargon Boy Design Studio has given a vintage-modern makeover to some of the oldest and best-known landmarks in Fairfield County with a series of posters for The Fairfield Museum and History Center. Chinn designed a poster series of six historic landmarks — including a windmill, a lighthouse and a famous airport — using updated colors and simple graphic shapes with a mid-century sensibility to create a funkier look and hopefully draw a fresh audience to the 103 year-old museum’s work. Chinn, who moved from Los Angeles to Fairfield in historic Connecticut just over two years ago, is known for giving a similar modern twist to branding for the Birdcraft Museum, also in CT. Working with Curator Frank Mitchell, he blended historic drawings, wallpaper and type with modern elements and colors to update the museum’s image and give it “a renewed purpose,” he said. Bringing modernist design ideas to history-rich Connecticut “has an air of revolution,” said Chinn. His message to local clients: “toss out any preconceived ideas of what design is and be ready for something fresh and new.” Contact: www.jargonboy.com

Shopping Happy is a Sticky Business

CHARLOTTE NC

Ad agency BooneOakley has come up with a nifty promotional tool to encourage happy shopping for its client Bloom, tagged “a different kind of grocery store” with locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and DC. Store employees are being asked to place optimistic “Bloomism” stickers on packaged goods, produce and even shoppers, if deemed appropriate. Some six million of the multicolored, round stickers were printed with upbeat messages including ”When things go your way, share the road” and “Your heart’s got GPS, follow it.” They come with a whimsical, 12-page, accordian fold brochure guiding employees on how to use the stickers and their upbeat “Bloomism” messages to help people “shop happy” in the store. A TV campaign is also underway depicting gloomy shoppers being cheered by features at the grocery store, a division of Food Lion Inc. BooneOakley’s Creative Directors David Oakley and John Boone led the campaign, with AD Matt King and CW Keith Greenstein. Contact: www.booneoakley.com

Bierut Is Cooper-Hewitt Design Mind

NEW YORK NY

Michael Bierut, Scott Stowell and Google are among the big winners of the 2008 National Design Awards, a nine year-old program by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. Corporate Achievement Winner, Google, is being recognized for the way it uses pared down, simple design to help millions of Internet users get information. Michael Bierut, partner in Pentagram, takes the Design Mind Award for his critical writing and graphic design work; the Communications Design Award, which honors work in graphic or multimedia design, goes to Scott Stowell who since 1998, has been the owner of Open, an independent NY design studio with Bravo, the New York Times and Jazz at Lincoln Center among its clients. Charles Harrison, one of the first African-Americans to enter the design field, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Harrison, an industrial designer at Sears, Roebuck & Company for more than 30 years, created more than 750 products including a redesign of the now classic View-Master. The design innovations of visionaries like Harrison and Google “are a testament to design’s ability to connect with a wide audience and affect all areas of daily life,’’ said Cooper-Hewitt Director Paul Warwick Thompson. Award winners will be honored at a dinner at the Cooper-Hewitt Oct. 23, during the museum’s third annual National Design Week which along with the awards is sponsored by Target. Contact: www.cooperhewitt.org

New Island Brand for Eco-lectuals

NEW YORK NY

Design firm Courtney & Company has launched the Mayaguana island brand for an undeveloped island at the southern end of the Bahamas islands. The brand colors are built around a rich yellow to reflect the sun and black, evoking the island’s sophistication and its people, as well as blues and greens for the water. Primary colors form a stripe motif that will be used as an accent for the new brand across all media, including websites, sales kits and advertising. The planning and development of Mayaguana is a joint venture between a Boston developer and the Bahamian government with several developments in the works, including 10 large resorts, five smaller boutique hotels and nature preserves. It’s positioned as an island destination for so-called “eco-lectuals” — a label coined to describe affluent travelers or home buyers who need and want to be actively involved with the island. Contact www.courtneyco.com

Walker Builds Around Brand

TAMPA FL

Walker Brands looked to its own image and design style when creating a new, 8,400-square-foot corporate headquarters near downtown Tampa. Each activity and space in the new building is designed to exude Walker’s own brand, including an orange wall, the firm’s signature brand color, and a mobile designed by Mel Ristau that hangs 20 feet into the atrium and adds an element of public art. The bathrooms, too, are designed using environmental graphics to transport visitors to other places from Italy’s Trevi Fountain to NY’s Times Square. The landmark building, built by The Beck Group, demonstrates Walker’s understanding of how a place can create a custom stage for employees, customers and visitors to have on-brand experiences, thereby increasing a company’s value. “We wanted to show our clients that we understand a company’s brand is its most powerful business asset,” said Nancy Walker, President of Walker Brands. In addition, the headquarters is the first Tampa-area building being considered for LEED environmental-friendly certification. Contact: www.walkerbrands.com

Real People Conserve

WALL NJ

Decker Design looked to real people when charged with producing the New Jersey Resources 2007 Annual Report, to stress sustainability and motivate customers to do right by the environment. “Our primary creative objective was to showcase the company’s environmental commitment’’ under the umbrella Conserve to Preserve, said Decker Design President Lynn Decker. The annual report, the fourth produced by the New York design firm, was printed on Mohawk Options, a paper containing 30% post-consumer waste and manufactured with wind generated energy. It was lithographed Digital Color Concepts, a Forest Stewardship Council certified printer. New Jersey Resources provides energy to customers in New Jersey and in states from the Gulf Coast to New England, and Canada. Contact: www.njliving.com

What Color Is Your Money?

SAN FRANCISCO CA

Pig tusks, gold teeth and paper bills impregnated with cocaine, blood, you name it — they’re all currency to someone and the subjects of Color 73 - Money. The magazine, published by Fabrica, Benetton Group’s communication research center based in Treviso, Italy, recently debuted its Money issue in a traveling US exhibit at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. The opening exhibit in the Academy’s 79 Gallery centered around giant blowups of the issue’s photographs and a podium made from stacks of the magazine. “Colors is about making people reflect on the ‘idea’,” said Creative Director Erik Ravelo, adding that money is an idea. “It is an institution that we give value to, and have a strong relationship with. This issue takes an ironic view of that situation and our perception of value,” Ravelo said. The theme of the issue all started with banknotes and the substances found on them — including cocaine, oil, blood, soil, metal, cellulose, feces, ink and sweat, with each story corresponding to and representing Colors’ interpretation of the found substances. The theme also spans the globe to show that in some cultures gold teeth are viewed as a sign of wealth and a good way to store savings in case traditional currency loses value: similarly, pig tusks are accepted as deposits at banks on a remote Vanuatu island of Pentecost. CD Ravelo worked with Editorial Director Enrico Bossan and Babak Payami, Director of Film and Video at Fabrica, on the project. Contact: www.colorsmagazine.com