issue-oriented design
And that is that. We are taking a long awaited year-end break, and will be heading out the door in a few minutes to spend the holidays with family and friends in an undisclosed location. We wish you and yours a most happy season season. See you in 2013
We received this lovely note of thanks after we spoke to the Design Professional Practices class at Cornish College of the Arts. It was our pleasure! A hearty thank you right back to Wendy Quesinberry and the students for having us!
We were reminded yesterday that our work with the City of Bellevue Utility Department on their campaign to reduce carbon emissions won an Education and Outreach award from the Environmental Protection Agency. We forgot to post about this a while back, but better late than never we always say.
It’s not often we get to use ornate typefaces. Face it, there just aren’t that many opportunities where the use is appropriate. But when commissioned to design collateral for the Volunteer Park Conservatory Centennial this year, we knew a Victorian-style crest would add to their messaging. And type that was favored by sign painters in the early 1900s would be perfect for this mark.
The Conservatory, located in Olmstead designed Volunteer Park, was actually constructed from a kit by Hitchings Company of New York. (An ad for a residential greenhouse by Hitchings can be seen here.) The Conservatory was completed in 1912 and consists of 5 houses: The Cactus House, The Bromeliad House, The Palm House, The Fern House and The Seasonal House which changes, of course, seasonally.
What’s that you say? You haven’t been there recently? Here’s your opportunity to see the Haunted Conservatory lit up for a Halloween evening event, October 31, 5-8 pm. Winners of a pumpkin carving contest will be on display along with a fortune teller, cider and treats for all. It’s one of Ciscoe’s picks. While you’re there, support the Conservatory. Purchase a Centennial logo sticker in the gift shop!
The Seattle Times has launched a controversial independent expenditure campaign promoting political causes drawing criticism from journalists and political scientists because it damages the credibility of the newspaper’s reporting and objectivity. Vivitiv saw this issue coming as far back as 2003 in our work with the Committee for a Two Newspaper Town, which at the time was working to keep The Seattle Post-Intelligencer alive. It worked for a while until the P-I ceased print publication and went to an all digital format in 2009. Here are a few of the ads we wrote and designed for the committee which spoke to the need for at least two newspapers in a community to keep each other honest and uphold their sacred trust to inform the public in an objective manner. Opinion and advocacy is fine…on the editorial page where it belongs.
As in all identity projects we do hundreds if not thousands of sketches, make an equal amount of notes, discuss, refine and do it again. Here is an example of a new logo for the Innovation Showcase and one of those pages of loose sketch scribbles which gets you from a small germ of an idea down the path to something tangible, something bigger, something real. Just like what the Innovation showcase does, which is to nurture promising discoveries from startup phase to innovations that shape our world.
Update 10/26/2012
Just got this mention in an email blast from the Technology Alliance.
Innovation Showcase: new look, same great program
Over the summer we worked with our friends at Vivitiv to create a logo for our Innovation Showcase program. It has been a while since we considered it a pilot and thought the Showcase deserved its own brand – just in time for the new season!
Our next Showcase is Tuesday, October 30th, featuring Corengi, developer of a matching engine for patients and clinical trials; Precision Image Analysis, which assists physicians in interpreting diagnostic images; Relaborate, a new content creation platform for marketing; and SuperCritical Technologies, designer of compact, modular power plants (check out this recent GeekWire post). We will also get an update from past presenter Seattle Sensor Systems and enjoy a brief presentation from Patrick Shelby of UW C4C.”
We are delighted to announce a new book cover design for Fairweather Publishing. Century 21 City, by  Michael Luis is a unique take on the fifty year journey of Seattle from rain-soaked backwater to economic, technological and cultural powerhouse. We have been fortunate enough to collaborate with Mr. Luis on a variety of projects that span a small part of Puget Sound history, including his work with the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, The Housing Partnership, The Economic Development Council and a history of Hunt’s Point, WA, so a hearty congratulations to him on the new book. Oh, is the book available on Amazon (just one of the economic game-changers outlined in the book) and Barnes & Noble you ask? Hell yes.
Today is the last day to pre-register to get a $5 discount for Vivitiv partner Jacqueline McCarthy’s Graphic Artists Guild talk on self promotion #winning and #fails. All attendees get one of these sweet Vivitiv branded knives. Our Own Worst Enemies? Yes. We practice what we preach.
Over the years we’ve worked with some amazing WA based arts organizations. Here are a few logos we’ve done for the likes of the Seattle Symphony, Auburn Arts Commission, Seattle International Film Festival, the Seattle Opera, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Puget Soundscape, Seattle International Music Fest, Gorge Amphitheatre, Seattle radio stations, Washington Commission for the Humanities…Think Global, Design Local.