November 2011 Member News
(11.21.2011) ALEXANDER ISLEY INC. (Redding, Conn.) collaborated with Girl Scouts of America to design a new kit that organizes all of its programs into one accessible format. "The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting" is a set of six binder kits, one for each level of Girl Scouts. The Alexander Isley team developed the overall look and formats, art-directed the sections, and worked with the Girl Scouts team to develop and execute all of the contents.
The Alexander Isley team was also part of the creative team tasked with producing the communication materials and environmental design for the 2011 TEDMED conference.
Using supplied photos, videography, and collage, the team created 54 unique speaker portraits that were used throughout the venue, on the main stage set, and in printed materials. They also designed brochures, attendee badges, and maps and directional signage for the venue.
ARCHETYPE (St. Paul, Minn.) launched its new website at www.archetypesign.com. The new site showcases the firm’s custom sign fabrication work in healthcare, institutional, corporate, and retail environments.
CANNON DESIGN (Buffalo) launched @cannondesign, a new social video effort focused on capturing the people, projects, and passions that make the firm a special place to work.
The project originated from a group of Cannon employees based in its Buffalo, N.Y., offices. The group recruited volunteers from the firm’s network of 16 offices to capture 30-60 second clips of people talking about topics most important to their work at Cannon Design. Topics range from specific project work to mentoring experiences and even how the firm encourages its employees to have fun. The series now includes 75 videos and the firm launched 20 videos on its “@cannondesign” Vimeo channel in early November.
CHRISTIE DIGITAL SYSTEMS USA (Cypress, Calif.) has won eight awards in 2011 for its Christie MicroTiles “digital canvas” product, among 18 total awards since its introduction in 2009. The modular digital display tiles can be stacked and clustered like building blocks to create custom display walls in various shapes and scales.
Four projects utilizing Christie MicroTiles won awards at InfoComm 2011 in Orlando. Sharing top spot in the Best Education AV Project were the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery by AVI Systems and the University of Pennsylvania Translation Research (Penn) installation, a collaborative effort of Cerami & Associates, Advanced Audio Video, and Christie. Versace Fifth Avenue, by McCann Systems, won the Best Retail AV award.
Also at InfoComm, Nautilus Entertainment Design, using Christie MicroTiles, earned the Best Corporate AV Project award for Qualcomm’s 25th Anniversary Museum.
In April at Palme, Dubai, Christie MicroTiles earned the PALME Middle East Award for Most Innovative New AV Product of the Year. Also in April, at the Janus de l’Industrie Awards, Christie MicroTiles earned the 2011 Eco-Design honor from the French Institute of Design (IFD). The IFD designation promotes products and services with reduced environmental impact.
In February, at ISE Amsterdam, Christie MicroTiles earned the Most InAVative Digital Signage Product title and, a month later, MicroTiles collected the 2011 Visual Innovation Award from Poland’s Vision Communication magazine.
CRĒO INDUSTRIAL ARTS (Everett, Wash.) has launched a new website at www.creoindustrialarts.com. The new site features sections on specialty fabrication and custom lighting in addition to traditional signage and graphics work. The portfolio section includes more and larger images and recent projects, including Santa Monica Place, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards Memorial, and Amgen Corporation.
DISEÑO SHAKESPEAR (Buenos Aires) has redesigned its website at www.shakespearweb.com and can now be followed on Facebook (
www.facebook.com/ShakespearDesign) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/dShakespear ).
In other studio news, Ronald Shakespear was selected as a juror for the 2011 Hiiibrand Awards honoring logo, brand, and packaging design.
FIBEROPTIC LIGHTING INC. (Grants Pass, Ore.) created an interactive volcano display and other fiber optics for the Medford, Ore., home of the McPhail family, recently featured on Extreme Makeovers Home Edition.
The volcano display, featured in a boy’s bedroom, features a tropical setting with a palm tree, the beach with slow moving water, mountains in the background, and a moon and stars in the sky. Pushing a large red button on the display transforms one of the mountains into a volcano that erupts for 30 seconds, subsiding to flickers in flowing lava. In a camp-inspired bathroom, Fiber Optic Lighting created the look of fireflies captured inside mason jars. The episode can be seen at http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition.
FMG (Houston) was commissioned by Valley Health to provide comprehensive environmental graphic design services for Page Memorial Hospital, a new replacement hospital and medical office building in Luray, Va.
The firm was also commissioned to develop comprehensive environmental graphics programs for three Virginia healthcare facilities: Riverside Surgical Expansion at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, Va., Riverside Doctor's Hospital in Williamsburg, and Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital in Nassawadox.
Another new commission is Wellness Plaza at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel in Tampa.
FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE (Denver) worked with Marriott International to install its new GoBoard 4.0 virtual concierge in 390 Courtyard Marriott lobbies.
Launched in 2008, the award-winning GoBoard has evolved to serve the needs of guests and the constantly changing technological requirements of business and personal travelers worldwide. The new 4.0 version highlights mobile integration, enhancing the user experience with features such as Microsoft Tags, which allows guests to send directions from the GoBoard directly to their smartphones.
Other new features include an ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) button on the screen that enables access to information and features on the GoBoard for those with disabilities. The new version also immediate access to flight information, full-screen access to popular content offerings including entertainment and local events, and walking directions.
Together with Four Winds Interactive, Courtyard created the GoBoard to serve as a key component of its redesigned lobby environment that offers guests an open and flexible space to “eat, drink and connect.”
GENSLER was the executive architect for the Japanese clothing retailer UNIQLO’S new 89,000-sq.-ft. global flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York and a second 64,000-sq.-ft. location in the city’s 34th Street retail hub.
The Gensler team played an important role in translating the futuristic, experience-focused store design developed by Japanese designers Wonderwall for the U.S. market. The design features 60-ft. escalators that soar from the first to third floors and are flanked by grand stairs lit with neon LED risers and spinning mannequins. It includes more than 300 LCD screens for digital signage. Gensler was also instrumental in ensuring the stores were designed to the most recent city-enforced code regulations related to energy consumption.
HUNT DESIGN (Pasadena, Calif.) planned and designed all-new wayfinding signage and thematic entrance graphics for the recently renamed and rebranded San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The graphics greet more than 1 million annual visitors to the 1,800-acre park.
The firm was recently awarded a project to develop site-wide wayfinding for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, one of the largest zoos in the Midwest U.S.
ID SIGNSYSTEMS (Rochester, N.Y.) released its new catalog of European-style custom and modular architectural signage. For more information, visit the company website at http://www.idsignsystems.com/.
LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES (Toronto) is sharing the firm’s expertise in creating cultural capital at several international conferences this fall.
Gail Dexter Lord, co-president, presented a keynote on "Effective City-Branding Strategies: How to Design and Position Premium Cities in a Time of Cultural Change" and Laure Confavreux Colliex, executive vice president, was a panelist for "Identity, Culture, and Premium Branding" at PremiumFest Forum, the inaugural international festival on premium products and services in Madrid, Nov. 3-4.
Barry Lord, co-president, led a seminar on "Collection Analysis and Development Strategy" at the University of Balamand, Lebanon Nov. 5-6. Laure Confavreux Colliex will moderate a session on "New Generation of Shopping Malls" at the International Market for Retail Real Estate Conference in Cannes, France, Nov. 16-18.
Maria Piacente, vice president, exhibitions, will present her keynote "International Perspectives on Trends and Challenges for Exhibitions" at the Annual Conference of the Riksutställningar Swedish Travelling Exhibitions in Visby, Sweden, Dec. 5-7.
NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS LTD. (Tokyo) provided digital signage for UNIQLO’s recently opened global flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York and its 34th Avenue location in New York.
NEC provided the stores with approximately 430 displays, including the large quad multi-display consisting of 46-in., ultra-narrow displays that deliver UNIQLO advertising content.
This digital signage and content are remotely controlled at UNIQLO’s data center in Japan, while NEC’s content distribution system enables flexible content distribution to each store throughout the world. NEC takes a role in the operation of the digital signage systems as well through a private cloud-computing environment.
NEIMAN & COMPANY (Van Nuys, Calif.) teamed up with Blue Point Architecture and Tangram Interiors to fabricate a 12-ft.-diameter lamp for the Tangram showroom. The LED-illuminated "lampshade" is made of aluminum and acrylic, suspended from an office ceiling. The lamp was equipped with a dimmer and painted with a high gloss finish.
POULIN + MORRIS (New York) designed the exhibition for AIGA’s annual 365 design competition. 365 Design Effectiveness 2011 showcases the 135 winning projects for 2010 that encompass print, digital, environments, and cross-media work.
Poulin + Morris created a series of large-scale, freestanding, lightweight, bio-board letterforms spelling out “AIGA” and functioning as table displays.
Each letterform structure features an iPad serving as an information database, providing caption information, project narratives, and jurors’ comments for each project. Visitors can sit on low-profile, lightweight stools made of the same recyclable material and access a series of laptops that display the winning websites, apps, and environment projects. Poulin + Morris also designed a logotype, wall graphics, a poster, an e-vite, website banners, and an exhibition guide.
SIGNS OF SUCCESS (Lynbrook, N.Y.) worked with Kolano Design (Pittsburgh) on installation of an iconic new sign for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette at The Point in downtown Pittsburgh.
The 6-ft.-high, retainer-faced channel letters were pre-assembled to backer panels prior to lifting in place atop the Pittsburgh Post Gazette building.
The sign includes LED illumination with remote rooftop transformers and high-impact acrylic faces. It is the first of the skyline signs seen during the dramatic exit from the Fort Pitt tunnel onto the Fort Pitt Bridge in downtown Pittsburgh.
STAR SIGNS (Lawrence, Kan.) launched a new website at www.starsignsllc.com. The new site features updated information on the firm as well as photos and video of recent projects.
STUDIO SC (Seattle) is designing an environmental graphics program for the University of Washington’s new Husky Ballpark Team Building, the off-field home for the school’s baseball program. A design/build project with SRG Partnership and Bayley Construction, the building will feature simple, impactful graphics that focus on the fundamentals of baseball.
Studio SC is also working with AHBL (Tacoma, Wash.) to create an environmental graphics and wayfinding signage and place-making kiosk program for the city of Tacoma’s Pacific Avenue Streetscape.
THINKING CAPS DESIGN (Phoenix) designed the environmental graphics, theming elements, and wayfinding for AIGA’s 2011 PIVOT conference Oct. 13-16 at the Phoenix Convention Center. The program included a bold color scheme, interactive themed elements, and unique directionals. Thinking Caps worked with AIGA staff, Sierra Signs, and Uprising Photography on the project.