Pentagram’s DJ Stout and his team at the Austin office rebranded Maudie’s Tex-Mex three years ago and have continued working with the iconic local restaurant chain ever since. Maudie’s, which began as a tiny Mexican food cafe in a strip-mall shopping center not far from the Austin office, has now expanded to six locations. Tex-Mex is an original Texas invention, a close cousin to the traditional cuisine of the Lone Star State’s neighbor to the south, but a truly unique culinary art all its own. Maudie’s has continued the Tex-Mex tradition but with a very “Austin” twist: It is the only all-natural Tex-Mex restaurant in the region. Unlike its Mexican brethren, Maudie’s uses all-natural beef and chicken and organic eggs. Maudie’s has mastered the art of Tex-Mex, and Pentagram has mastered the art of Maudie’s.
Continue reading “An Extra Helping of Maudie’s”
Pentagram is pleased to announce that several of our projects in higher education have been honored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in its 2013 Circle of Excellence Awards. CASE is a professional association serving educational institutions and their departments in alumni relations, communications, development and marketing.
DJ Stout and his team at Pentagram Austin collaborated on award-winning projects from several schools. Middlebury Magazine won the Grand Gold Award in the Design category for the cover of its Summer 2012 issue, the first of Stout’s redesign. The magazine also received a Bronze for Periodical Design. EXEL, the yearly research magazine published by Drexel University, received a Gold Award in the Annual Magazines category. And The USC Dornsife 100, a special publication designed for the capital campaign of The USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, was honored with the Gold Award in the Institutional Relations Publications category.
Continue reading “Awards: CASE 2013 Circle of Excellence Awards”
“The grid is an integral part of book design,” says the incomparable Massimo Vignelli. “It’s not something that you see. It’s just like underwear: you wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. The grid is the underwear of the book.”
Vignelli’s approach to book design is the subject of a new video created by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Aron Fay for “What Will You Make Today?” campaign from Mohawk. In the video, Vignelli discusses his use of the grid as the basis for the layout of a book’s pages, using one of his classic book designs for the architect Richard Meier as an example. Working with an audio interview edited by Hilary Frank, Bierut and Fay animated Vignelli’s sketches for the clip, taking them from skeletal grid to finished publication.
Bierut knew Vignelli’s painstaking step-by-step process well. “Because I worked with Massimo for ten years before joining Pentagram, I was very familiar with his unique way of designing books. He sits with all the ingredients—text and images—and draws each page with a pencil, including every photograph, using a grid as a layout guide,” he says.
The video is accompanied by a small limited edition journal that reproduces Vignelli’s grid from the film. The journal is available from Mohawk’s website, while supplies last.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Massimo Vignelli Makes Books’”
Since 2010, Pentagram partner Natasha Jen has been working with fashion designer Tess Giberson to create a seasonal thematic image that’s part of an ongoing branding program.
In Giberson’s fall/winter 2013 collection, “Evolution,” garments follow a gradual development from simple to more complex forms. At the collection’s core is a quilt handmade by Giberson’s mother in the early ‘70s. “Evolution” refers not only to form but also to Giberson’s personal evolution as a designer.
For the collection’s presentation at New York Fashion Week, Jen worked collaboratively with Giberson to create a unique invite in the form of an unfolding poster. The poster reveals pieces of the original quilt visible through cut-outs in one of Giberson’s current drawings. The letters of the collection name interact with these elements, moving forward and receding in their own evolution.
Jen’s invite has been receiving accolades in the fashion world, featured on blogs such as The Fashion Informer and Refinery 29.
The invite is the latest in the ongoing series Jen has created for Giberson. Each invite/poster features title typography interacting with an image or texture inspired by the season’s collection.
Continue reading “New Work: Tess Giberson”
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.
Continue reading “New Work: Sundance Film Festival 2013″
Put a little color in your New Year with the 2013 Pantone and The Art of Andy Warhol calendars designed by Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and Brankica Harvey. Published by Abrams, both calendars come in wall and engagement editions that will brighten your workspace or home all year long.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Pantone’ and ‘The Art of Warhol’ 2013 Calendars”
With the world economy in tailspin, splashing out on expensive gifts for your loved one might be a bad move these holidays.
But fear not, because the Pentagram annual holiday card is here to help. Darling I got you a paperclip features a set of twelve gift tags that show how with a little creative thinking, even the cheapest present can show the richness of your love.
The presents featured include dental floss, a tennis ball, some batteries, a box of matches, a pack of sweeteners, and, of course, a paperclip.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Darling, I Got You a Paperclip’”
It is tough to find a present that your loved one will adore, but a beautiful piece of jewelry is almost certain to get you in their good books. That was the idea behind the new Christmas campaign for Swarovski Crystalized by Naresh Ramchandani and Domenic Lippa.
The playful campaign helps steer hapless Christmas shoppers away from dreary present ideas like scented candles and book tokens towards better present ideas like spectacular necklaces and crystal headphone covers.
Continue reading “New Work: Swarovski Christmas Campaign”
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.
Continue reading “New Work: The Royal Academy”
Pentagram’s Natasha Jen recently collaborated with SOFTlab on the design of an environmental installation for this year’s Beaux Arts Ball, presented by The Architectural League of New York. The Ball is one of the architecture and design community’s biggest events and is hosted each year in a different historic and architecturally interesting New York interior. This year’s Ball was held in the iconic Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn and featured the theme of “Tender,” inspired by the building’s history as a center of financial exchange and the party as a place of personal interaction.
For the installation, SOFTlab suspended a net filled with pillow-like mylar balloons in the bank’s soaring central space. Adding to the glittering atmosphere, Jen and her team created hundreds of iridescent tickets that hung spinning from the netting, within the reach of partygoers. Inspired by the party theme, the tickets acted as a kind of currency that gave guests admission to a special sound installation (designed by David Rife of Arup) located in the building’s basement. The tickets featured different entry times, and partygoers could trade the tickets with each other to attend the installation at the time they wanted. The times appeared as a cutout graphic code inspired by the building’s famous clock tower.
Continue reading “New Work: The Architectural League Beaux Arts Ball 2012″
