New at Pentagram
Michael Bierut and Paula Scher at the Brand New Conference
Quick Link: Michael Bierut and Paula Scher at the Brand New Conference
Ennead Identity and Website on Unbeige
Quick Link: Ennead Identity and Website on Unbeige
New Work: Ennead Architects
Design firms with a namesake partner or design leader inevitably face a challenge when leadership passes to a new generation: how to establish an identity that distinguishes the firm from its former leader, maintains its legacy, and reflects the vitality of its current partnership? Today Polshek Partnership Architects announces the change of its name to Ennead Architects. The name, pronounced EN-ee-ad, is inspired by the Greek word for a group of nine, here the number of the firm’s current partnership: Joseph Fleischer, Timothy Hartung, Duncan Hazard, Kevin McClurkan, Richard Olcott, Susan Rodriguez, Tomas Rossant, Todd Schliemann and Don Weinreich.
Michael Bierut and Lisa Strausfeld have designed a new identity and website for Ennead that reflects the firm’s shared history and thriving collaboration. The branding strategy was developed in collaboration with LaPlaca Cohen.
New Work: Saks ‘Think About…’ Campaign
For the past three years—or six seasons, in fashion time—Saks Fifth Avenue has used the theme “Want It!” in the promotional campaigns for its stores. However, in today’s fragile economic climate, this declaration seemed perhaps a bit “too aggressive,” according to Terron Schaefer, Saks’ group senior vice president for marketing and creative. Something more suggestive seemed in order.
So for this spring’s campaign, Saks introduced a new tagline, “Think about…,” a playful suggestion that shoppers consider new ways to play with their personal style via various items found at Saks. The tagline is finished with amusing statements about fashion and style: “Think about…belting a new tunic with your husband’s old tie” and “Think about…making your creative side your outside.” If the tone seems a little familiar, it should: the campaign was inspired by the maxims published by legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland in her “Why Don’t You…” column for Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
New Work: Cleveland Museum of Art
With top-notch collections in Asian art, Greek and Roman art, and European painting and sculpture, including significant works by Picasso, El Greco, Caravaggio and Pousin, among many others, the Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the world’s great art museums. It is also a vital part of its local community, a beloved institution that plays an integral role in the cultural life of Cleveland and its residents. The museum is committed to making its collections accessible to all—unlike most museums today, it has a policy of free admission to the public, a mandate established in its founding charter—and presents smart programming that consistently challenges and engages visitors.
From 2005 to 2009 the CMA undertook an extensive expansion that included a complete renovation of its 1916 Beaux Arts building and 1971 addition by Marcel Breuer, and the construction of a new East Wing designed by Rafael Vinoly, which opened last summer. The expansion has increased the size of the museum by 41 percent, allowing more of its collection to be put on view.
Now the museum has launched a new website that provides enhanced access to its collection. Designed by Lisa Strausfeld and Takaaki Okada, in collaboration with Michael Bierut (who took art classes at the museum as a child), the site is focused on serving the needs of the museum’s two primary audiences: the local member who visits regularly to view art and experience museum events, and the global art enthusiast who comes for the museum’s astounding collection. Users can create their own profiles, customize their experience of the museum, and share favorite works and museum events. The site creates an experience that is immediately engaging and, in the words of the museum, “visually addictive,” placing the museum’s objects front and center.
New Work: National Design Triennial
“Why design now?” is the title question posed by the 2010 National Design Triennial, opening Friday at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. The fourth in the popular series of triennials established by the museum in 2000, this edition focuses on design that addresses themes of environmental sustainability and social change. Curated by Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid and Cynthia Smith, the survey covers work from 2006 to 2009 and includes 134 innovations like Twitter, the iPhone, Kindle, the XOXO laptop for One Laptop Per Child, interactive visualizations for The New York Times, and Masdar, the experimental car-free community planned for the United Arab Emirates. Previous triennials have focused on projects created in the U.S. or abroad by American designers; this edition goes global, including designers and projects from 44 countries around the world.
Michael Bierut’s Green Patriot Poster campaign is one of the graphic design projects selected for the triennial, and he and Yve Ludwig have designed the catalogue accompanying the exhibition. Bierut was the 2008 Design Mind honoree in Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Awards. Bierut and Ludwig will discuss the design of the catalogue in a special presentation with Bill Moggridge, director of the Cooper-Hewitt, on Thursday, May 27. Registration information here.
A look inside the catalogue after the jump.
The L!brary Initiative Gets Its Own Book
Since it launched a decade ago, the L!brary Initiative, the program to build or refurbish libraries in New York City public schools, has made books accessible to thousands of kids. Now the initiative has a book of its own. The L!brary Book: Design Collaborations in the Public Schools (Princeton Architectural Press) documents the unique partnership between the New York City Department of Education, the Robin Hood Foundation, and architects, designers, artists and illustrators that has produced 56 libraries (to date) in schools across the five boroughs. Written by Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, a former director of the initiative, and designed by Pentagram, who created the graphics for the program, the book features case studies on the design of a dozen of the libraries, a look at the art created for the library walls—murals compared by The New York Times to those of the Works Progress Administration—and a highly readable account of the remarkable process that made it all happen, with interviews with architects, designers, librarians and students.
Tonight the Architectural League of New York hosts a special presentation about the L!brary Initiative featuring several of the project’s participants discussing its origins and incredible response. Details and registration information here.
A look inside The L!brary Book after the jump.
New Work: Scripps College
For a small liberal arts school, Scripps, the elite women’s college in Claremont, California, has a remarkably strong commitment to typography and the book arts. This includes its own typeface, Scripps College Old Style, designed by the master type designer Frederic Goudy in 1941, after he gave several lectures at the school. (See his amazing drawings for the font here.) Perhaps Goudy was inspired by the picturesque environs; according to a recent poll by Forbes, Scripps has one of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
This spring Scripps inaugurated its eighth president, Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, and asked Pentagram to create an insignia to commemorate the occasion. The emblem is the centerpiece of a school campaign called “The Genius of Women.” Timed to the inauguration, the campaign draws attention to the achievements of Scripps alumnae and other women who have made an impact on the world. The theme also served as the focus of Dr. Bettison-Varga’s inaugural address, “Cultivating the Genius of Women.” The designers drew on the school’s graphic traditions to create an iconic emblem for the event.
Felt & Wire Launches New Design
Short of the paper cuts, the blog Felt & Wire captures the experience of all things paper: its endless varieties, uses and innovations, and the close personal associations we have with a material that is often right at our fingertips. The site was launched a year ago by our longtime client Mohawk Fine Papers to help foster a community of designers, artists, printers, papermakers, bookbinders and other craftspeople who are, as the site’s tagline puts it, “paper-obsessed.” The blog initially focused on paper-related topics like letterpress and written correspondence, but is now widening its focus to cover paper, print and design. To curate this expanded scope is newly appointed editor Tom Biederbeck, former editor in chief of STEP Inside Design and Dynamic Graphics magazines.
This week Felt & Wire launched an updated site design created by Michael Bierut and Katie Barcelona, who designed the original site last year. New features include a monthly Q&A column with Sean Adams, a forum for sustainability in design, and a monthly column called Studio Insider presenting the working spaces of leading artists and designers. The homepage now highlights reader comments and the site’s Twitter feed. One of the site’s most popular features is the Felt & Wire Shop, a curated marketplace introduced last fall that offers paper goods produced by designers and artists, including greeting cards, wrapping paper, books, posters and calendars. (Think Etsy for paper.) In addition to designing the site, Barcelona will be periodically contributing to the blog; her first column appears today.
And the name? Felt and wire are two materials used in the final stage of the papermaking process. Felt helps to absorb excess water and wire helps to structure the sheet as it forms. Representing the tactile and the technical, they’re also metaphors for the subjects that the site’s creators will continue to explore.
Michael Bierut and Harry Pearce at Design Indaba
Quick Link: Michael Bierut and Harry Pearce at Design Indaba
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