Found on millions of surfaces in homes, businesses, schools, restaurants, hotels and virtually every other kind of interior, Formica® Laminate is one of the most ubiquitous materials in the world. (Chances are you are sitting at a desk, table or counter topped with it right now.) This year Formica celebrates its 100th anniversary with a special campaign designed by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut, Abbott Miller and Daniel Weil that pays homage to the making of this remarkable brand and its century of innovation, design and cultural impact.
The campaign kicks off with the launch of the Anniversary Collection, a series of new Formica laminates designed by Abbott Miller. The collection features patterns that explore the material’s seamless quality, long history and limitless potential. The collection was introduced this week at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas. Miller has also designed Formica Forever, a commemorative book that chronicles the company’s 100 years, to be published later this year.
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Today’s data-heavy, chart-loving, list-friendly media owe a great debt to Billboard, the trade bible of the music industry that is packed with rankings for the week’s Hot 100 singles, Top 200 albums, and dozens of other categories. Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and his team have redesigned Billboard and its graphic identity, including its famous charts, with a new format that helps make the magazine and its in-depth information more accessible and engaging. The new look launches with this week’s issue, on newsstands today.
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Today filmmakers, studio executives and film fans from all over the world will converge on Park City, Utah, for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. For the second year running Pentagram’s Paula Scher has designed the identity for the Festival. This year’s graphics use bold, hand-drawn arrows to convey Sundance’s mission of taking film in a new direction and the idea that anything is possible.
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The Barnes Foundation is one of the most important collections of Post-Impressionist and early Modernist art in the world, home to masterworks by Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, and others. Established in 1922 by Dr. Albert C. Barnes, a scientist and entrepreneur who amassed paintings, decorative art, and African sculpture (before it was widely collected), the Foundation was conceived with a mission to educate the public about art and, more importantly, how artists see and interpret the world. Barnes was deeply influenced by the theories of his friend John Dewey, whose emphasis on the role of art in everyday life led Dr. Barnes to develop his collection as a resource for teaching. Barnes commissioned architect Paul Cret to design a gallery in Merion, Pennsylvania, to display his collection and hold classes in art theory.
Last year the Barnes moved to a spectacular new home designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in downtown Philadelphia. The building has just received the 2013 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture. The Foundation was conceived by Dr. Barnes as a wholly integrated environment in which the objects on display are presented in highly coordinated settings, which he called “ensembles” that create a visual dialogue among works. Pentagramʼs Abbott Miller has worked with the Foundation and the architects to capture the distinctive sensibility of the Barnes Foundation in its new identity, as well as in environmental graphics, publications and the museum’s website.
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According to the theory of plate techtonics, some 225 million years ago the continents of Earth were joined in a supercontinent that scientists have called “Pangaea,” or Greek for “all lands.” In the intervening eons, designers have evolved on their various landmasses, sometimes encountering one another at design conferences, in design annuals, and on design blogs.
It’s been said that the essence of design is the process of taking things apart and putting them together. The new permanent identity for the International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress created by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Hamish Smyth uses the visual metaphor of Pangaea to symbolize the unification of the design organizations—and designers—of the world. The system has been implemented for the identity of the 2013 IDA Congress in Istanbul, announced this week.
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Hot Bread Kitchen is an innovative social enterprise that employs and empowers immigrant and low-income women in the art of making and selling bread. Founded by Jessamyn Rodriguez, the non-profit bakery provides paid on-the-job training and produces breads inspired by its bakers and the countries they come from. The multi-faceted program creates a platform for developing regional and ethnic bread products, teaching English as a second language, and entrepreneurship.
Pentagram’s Abbott Miller has designed branding for Hot Bread Kitchen that highlights the bakery’s mission and helps raise its profile as it begins to expand from New York to other cities. The project was recently featured on Fast Company’s Co.Design blog.
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Founded in 1768, the Royal Academy of the Arts is one of Britain’s oldest institutions, with a mission to support, promote and create visual arts through exhibitions, education and discussion.
For Harry Pearce, creating a new identity for this 244-year old institution was about being sensitive to the past, bringing authority to the present and creating a foundation for a confident future. Pearce and his team worked alongside Jane Wentworth and Will Dallimore at the RA on the strategy and communication of a new identity. The challenge was to produce a set of design principles appropriated from the RA’s history but expressed in a modernist form, and to develop a visual language that would not be lost in the background but could also stand with authority in the foreground.
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Pentagram’s Paula Scher has designed a new brand identity for Weight Watchers, the world’s leading provider of weight management services. Modern, open and energetic, the identity brings to life the transformation that members experience when they adopt a new lifestyle that can lead to significant weight loss.
Weight Watchers is one of the most trusted brand names among weight-conscious consumers. Each week approximately 1.3 million members attend over 45,000 Weight Watchers meetings around the world, and last year consumers spent almost $5 billion on Weight Watchers branded products and services. The new identity captures the brand’s spirit of change with a fresh, vibrant color palette, bold typography, and graphics that use gradation to visually embody transformation.
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Quick Link: Abbott Miller’s Branding for Hot Bread Kitchen Featured in Fast Company
Shopping and gift-giving are all about choices. Should you give her shoes or earrings? Do they want something for the house or a present that’s more personal? And how about a little something for myself?
Pentagram’s new fall campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue attempts to diagram this complex decision-making process in a series of humorous flowcharts. Designed by Michael Bierut and Katie Barcelona with Sabrina Friebis Ruiz, the graphics appear on shopping bags, print promotions and advertising for the luxury retailer. In developing the campaign, Pentagram worked once again with Saks Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer Terron Schaefer and his creative team led by Christopher Wieliczko and Andrew Winton.
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