When religious identity meets teen identity

Recently, we tapped into some unexpected teen traditionalism. While rebranding BBYO, the world’s largest Jewish youth organization, we extensively observed and interviewed young members. We found that most of them strongly favored retaining the menorah symbol to emphasize the organization’s Jewish identity and heritage.

But BBYO is as much about Jewish pluralism and having a great time being Jewish, as it is about heritage and traditions. And the members’ personal tastes are as youthful and current as any high school students. Sometimes their events feel more like social activities than religious gatherings.

This set up a very interesting challenge for our rebranding work: Combine the image of a vibrant youth movement with a sacred symbol of religion and heritage.

Our solution interpreted and extended the menorah to add qualities of dynamic movement. The branches of the menorah are rendered to reflect the individual journeys of young BBYO members, emanating from a central core and moving in one direction. The symbolic flame elements extend the movement as they depart, still continuing in the same direction.

Color, directional angle, and graphic shapes infuses all BBYO communications with movement and energy. Instead of handing out strict templates and restrictive guidelines, we provided a range of examples to show how the visual elements can be customized by members. The young members are excited about using the elements to create their own expressions of the brand. This emphasizes one of the most distinctive aspects of the organization — the teens’ ownership of a true youth movement.

The new brand image has been very well received, even picked up by a couple of high-profile design blogs. And, BBYO members love the design — not surprising since their input had a big influence. These kids really impressed us with awareness, vision, commitment, and wisdom beyond their years.

How much do you love your job? The Children’s National Medical Center Employee Giving Campaign

It’s a tough ask—trying to convince employees to contribute part of their salaries back to their employer. Given the difficult economic times, and a new CEO at the hospital, Children’s National Medical Center decided that it would be the perfect time to breathe new life into their annual employee giving campaign.
 
When you interact with the direct beneficiaries of your donations every day, “giving” doesn’t seem like such an abstract idea. Working with Children’s National, we decided the most compelling plea for donations would come from the staff members themselves. So, we found six hospital employees—from doctors and nurses to the CEO himself—who give to the campaign, and we asked them to share their thoughts. We interviewed each person and shot their portraits, whittled their stories down into a short, powerful statement, and hand wrote their words to emphasize the personal nature of the message.

Employee response to the series of posters was overwhelmingly positive. Within a week, the hospital had run out of its campaign-branded merchandise. By the end of the campaign, the grand total came to one million dollars, dwarfing last year’s tally of approximately $300,000—a truly impressive amount that attests to the dedication of the hospital’s employees and the power of engaging and authentic storytelling.

Cheers! L&A’s wine label design experiment

Most of us at L&A enjoy drinking wine. As designers, we admit to frequently choosing our wines the superficial way—based on looks. Some gorgeous packaging can go a long way in convincing us to pick a bottle off the shelf. Designing a wine label is every designer’s dream assignment—so we thought, why not design our own? The idea: six spectacularly wacky creative briefs for six fictional wines… six designers… and one very celebratory party to reveal (and sample) the finished products. We even sent the designs to a real wine merchant to see which wines he would actually purchase.
 
Seems like there couldn’t be a better time for this fun exercise, given the wine-related events going on in DC, and Valentine’s Day right around the corner. Read the briefs and take a look at our foray into the world of wine label design below. 

OX (Zinfandel)
Small scale logging business and vineyard owner, Woody Defendor, pursues his childhood dream of creating a wine for the hard working logger. This is the burly lumberjack’s wine, crafted for cigar smoking, barrel-chested, tough men with alcohol tolerances. The dark red OX Zinfandel has a musky aroma, superior jammy undertones, and a profoundly robust taste. The winery is located in the heart of the Appalachian mountains, in Finecastle, Virginia.

Dacca (Chardonnay)
Dacca is a chardonnay from Bangladesh, inspired by the bright colors, local festivals, and bustling activity in the capital city of Dhaka. With assistance from Australian winemakers, a few local Hindu entrepreneurs from Dhaka have successfully produced the country’s first ever wine, primarily for export to neighboring countries India and China. The owners believe that their upstart wine can be successful in the world market, especially with its unbeatable affordability and unique, light taste.

Pillan (Carménère)
A group of Woodstock-era American expats invest in a financially-unstable, old world winery in the Colchagua Valley of Chile. They are in search of a peaceful, communal life, and want to live out their golden years feeling connected to the earth. Pillan, named after an ominous guiding spirit of the local Mapuche people who make up the winery’s work force, has a deep red color and the aroma of spices and berries. The expats consider Pillan to be “nature’s wine,” and are proud that it is handcrafted and completely natural.

Tekno (Riesling)
Two wealthy brothers from Rhine, Germany, with a passion for late night clubbing and bone-rattling techno music, decide to purchase a winery and develop a Riesling. Every step of the production process is performed by stainless steel machinery that exemplifies the perfection and efficiency of German engineering. The winery’s futuristic, Braun-like facility plays techno music thru $2 million Transmission Audio speakers during the wine making process—a unique aural process that the brothers believe is key to creating Tekno’s out-of-this world character.

The Rhinora (Sauvignon Blanc)
Old world, fifth-generation winemaker, Cape Augusta, from the Constantia region of South Africa, discovers that rhino manure has some unique properties that lend a rich and distinctive character to the wine’s undertones. The Rhinora has a crisp, rustic flavor, yet an elegant smoothness. Some say new wine drinkers may not like the poignant aroma and recommend those drinkers to decant the wine first to allow it to breathe.

Liquid Diamond (Champagne)
Brofessional, one of the United States’ most promising and up-and-coming hip-hop artists, has invested millions into the wine-making business. Soon, he will be launching his Prestige Cuvée champagne “Liquid Diamond.” This pricey champagne will be the drink of choice when out partying in the clubs. Liquid Diamond is powerfully sparkling, smooth and bitter-sweet, and effervesces a scent reminiscent of Clive Christian perfume.

The Armenian script: 500 years in the making

The Library of Congress has invited us to design a companion book to an upcoming exhibition chronicling the history of Armenian book arts. As our first order of business, Dan and I visited the African & Middle Eastern Division of the Library to meet Dr. Levon Avdoyan (author), Lee Ewing (photographer), and Claire Dekle (conservator) to discuss and direct our vision for the book.

Looking through ancient manuscripts and medieval scrolls while Dr. Avdoyan explained the importance of each example, was a fascinating history lesson. We were immediately struck by the smell of ancient paper and leather, and instinctively held our hands behind our backs when an object like the Hymalit—too fragile and important for any layperson to handle—was brought out. We huddled over Claire as she slowly unrolled yards upon yards of magical wood block prints depicting biblical scenes. Dan broke the silence with a "Holy— did you retouch those colors recently!?" They had not. The colors had retained their startling brilliance, despite the passing of many centuries.

What is even more incredible about the Armenian written language is that it may be one of the only alphabets developed by one man—Mesrop Mashtots—a Christian monk looking to simplify the translation of the Gospel for Armenians, who were using an ineffective combination of Greek, Persian, and Syriac scripts. This new alphabet strengthened the national identity of the Armenian people, preserving their culture and preventing them from being absorbed by neighboring nations. As Dr. Avdoyan, curator of the accompanying exhibition, writes: "the Armenian Church and the Armenian language have been crucial for the retention of a separate Armenian identity up to the present day."

The book and exhibit are part of a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the advent of the Armenian book, which will take place in April 2012.

New Year’s resolution: Check out “What’s on Your Plate?”

Did you know that if you want to snack on some nuts, the recommended serving size is probably a lot smaller than you think—about 12 almonds, or 7 walnut halves? Or that a healthy portion size for a serving of meat or poultry is 3 ounces, roughly the size of a deck of cards? We didn’t know either, and after designing What’s on Your Plate? Smart Food Choices for Healthy Aging, all of us at L&A feel enlightened regarding the nutritional decisions we make on a daily basis. The 80-page book, written by the National Institute on Aging (in conjunction with NIH and DHHS), provides helpful tips for the 50+ crowd—serving sizes, food groups, nutrients, shopping information, sample menus, and many other tips, all specifically addressing the needs of an aging audience. It’ll come in especially handy during this post-holiday season, when we’re all regretting a month of bad food choices and growing waistlines. 

 
In designing the publication, we decided that a lot of the information was much more powerful if readers could actually see what’s mentioned in the text. What does a serving of mayonnaise look like? What about a half ounce of pumpkin seeds?  Because we knew that stock photography would not give us the necessary variety, specificity, and consistency, we took all of the images in-house. That involved making multiple trips to Whole Foods, turning the studio kitchen into a food styling and preparation lab, and shooting the nearly 80 unique images that make the book a useful, informational, and appealing guide to healthy eating for the senior set. 

Aspen Institute announces five Community Colleges of Distinction

Community college students make up a whopping 44 percent of the entire undergraduate student population in the U.S. This astonishing (and little known) fact underscores the tremendous importance of community colleges in our country. They provide millions of Americans—many of them minorities from low-income backgrounds—with the chance to earn degrees, pursue viable careers, and achieve their own versions of the American Dream.
 
The Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program is shedding light on the often-overlooked role of community colleges, by splitting a $1 million dollar prize between one winner and 4 “finalists with distinction” in this inaugural year of the prestigious award. Funders include the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

The Aspen Institute spent an entire year gathering an unprecedented amount of data on more than 1,000 community colleges across the nation, looking at results in the areas of student learning, degree completion and transfer, equity, and employment/earnings after college. The culmination of this process came on Monday, December 12th, at a dinner at the National Press Club, at which the winner, Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, was announced. The event was attended by many prominent figures, including Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
 
L&A developed and designed a commemorative publication that was distributed at the event. In developing the piece for the dinner event, we envisioned a larger use by the Institute—as an informational brochure about the Prize and as a case for support in attracting other potential funders. We helped to craft the introductory copy with those parameters in mind and created a design that conveys the prestige and authority of the award. With big facts and statements, and the profiles of the schools themselves, the publication has a compelling narrative flow, and a sophisticated, but immediate feel. According to the Aspen Institute, this prize marks the beginning of a process of gathering and sharing information broadly to replicate excellent practice in the community college arena.

What we’re reading

Philosophical manifestos to teen lit, and everything in between. Books, magazines, journals, and newspapers. We’re a bunch of avid, indiscriminate readers here at L&A.  Here’s a snapshot of what’s currently sitting on our bedside tables.

Now we’re the design client

L&A is moving. Not to worry, we’re not leaving town—just switching neighborhoods. Next summer, we’ll be settling into our new space in a fully renovated Dupont Circle brownstone. The following is the first in a multi-part series from John sharing his thoughts on the entire process, from design, to demolition, to move-in day.

We hire plenty of creative specialists for our design work, but nothing has ever put us fully in our client’s shoes like working with an architect and interior designer on our new office space. The new environment is obviously very important to our future, and the opportunities carry with them our hopes, our values, and our culture. The expectations are high, the budget is fixed, and the need for true expertise and exceptional talent is very deeply felt.

So how did I go about finding the designer for this very important project? I started with a lot of office architecture publications and portfolios. Most of the distinctive work was very sleek and modern. It seemed mostly to be about impressing people with stark elegance and an atmosphere of serious work. But this wasn’t my goal at all. Instead. I want a space that inspires through comfort, personality, and effortless collaboration.

Despite the traditional exterior, I knew that I didn’t want anything too conventional on the inside. In my mind, this meant searching beyond architects and interior designers that specialize in offices. But then where to look? I’ve always liked the way that certain bars and restaurants feel both exciting and comfortable, intimate yet social. For me, the best are those that have authentic character, and don’t try too hard to be perfect or trendy. At the same time, those spaces do have to incorporate vital activities and flows. The atmospheric and functional design of these environments determines their success as businesses.

Photo credit: Zagat Buzz

With this in mind, I began looking into who was designing my favorite restaurant and bar spaces, and one particular architect/designer was behind more than a few. Peter Hapstak was a founding partner of CORE, a prominent DC architecture firm. He is the creative force behind Brassarie Beck, Cava, Mie-N-Yu and Pearl Dive. It turned out that Peter had left CORE to find fresh creative focus with a new partner, Olvia Demetriou. She has created office space for other design firms, along with such notable restaurants as Zaytinya, Poste, and Lost Society. With this particular combined talent and expertise, I knew that I had to find a way to be able to work with Hapstak Demetriou.

Photo credit: Daniel Lobo

At this point, we’re diving into the design development of the space, and we’ll post updates on what is proving to be a very enlightening process. For now, I’ll say our search emphasized to me that there are two ways to hire designers:

(1) Hire for the task ("designing a fundraising brochure" or "designing an office"), or

(2) Hire for a goal ("create something that will motivate people to give to this cause" or "create an inspiring environment that promotes comfort and collaboration").

We have always worked toward the latter with our clients, and the need to do that is tremendously reinforced by what we’re now experiencing as a design client ourselves.

When client and designer remove the limits of preconception, the true potential of a project can come to life.

- John

Go4Life national launch

Jennie and I were thrilled to attend a Senate briefing that addressed exercise for an aging population, and to witness the official launch of the Go4Life campaign. We have been working for over a year with the National Institute on Aging (NIA) designing, developing and testing the campaign, which is a new model for active aging supported by evidence-based research. Working on Go4Life has been very gratifying, because it is such a great opportunity to actually influence and positively affect people’s lives. The briefing, which was held in the Hart Senate building, was hosted by Senator Herb Kohl, D-WI, Chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and Senator Mark Udall, D-CO, Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Richard, J. Hodes, M.D., director of NIA summed it up. "Go4Life is based on studies demonstrating the benefits of exercise and physical activity for older people, including those with chronic health conditions. You are never too old to increase your level of physical activity and exercise.” Public-private partnerships are central to the campaign. At launch time over 50 organizations have agreed to work with the Go4Life team to bring the campaign into communities across the U.S. The American Medical Association, Easter Seals, YMCA, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the International Council on Active Aging are just a few of the many partners.

In her remarks, U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A. said, "If we want to become a healthy and fit nation, we need to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life. Go4Life provides older adults with the tools and resources to get moving and keep moving."

This launch marked the culmination of our work on everything related to the campaign—the name and trademark, a comprehensive interactive and motivational website, tip sheets, posters, exercise booklets and other promotional materials. It was exciting to see it all come together. And, in this very serious setting, it was hilarious to see the entire audience doing leg lifts, chair squats and overhead arm presses! 

—Monica

Yes, the medium is the message

Recently, Levine worked with the Koshland Science Museum in creating an advertising campaign that raises awareness of their new, highly-interactive exhibits. In keeping with the technologically advanced vision of the museum’s exhibits, we found an especially fitting medium for the ads. In some of DC’s busiest areas, 30 newly installed electronic bus shelter screens rotate through our ad series. The timing was perfect, as the Koshland Science Museum was one of the first organizations to take advantage of these brand new half-million dollar digital screens. 

I decided to take a quick drive around town to see and photograph the digital ads "in the wild." We had already monitored our campaign roll out in newspapers and in the museum’s long spans of window graphics. But experiencing it in the luminous and changing digital displays was (pardon the pun) electrifying. You can find out more about this campaign in our portfolio. To read more about the Koshland Science Museum, please visit their website.

—Monica 

Daniel Berbubé-Arbello: Designer

The gang at Levine has requested I introduce myself…I’ve ventured into self-referential territory many times, writing short fiction in between the waves of book binding, stuffed monster making, drawing, and installation art. So, sitting at my computer at Levine, with a group of people more apt to be referred to as a family-away-from-family, I’m finding it hard to keep the metaphors buttoned-up and tucked-in. I’ll do my best, because, as with any new introductions into an orphanage, a newby-orphan must put his best foot forward.

I was born beside the Great Pit of Carkoon, where Star Wars was filmed. Lucas Arts set up shop several meters from my parents’ mobile home in Yuma, AZ in 1982, a year before I was born. It was just the beginning of this long, strange trip. As a toddler, my parents tell me I liked avant-garde-dancing to Paula Abdul music videos and making weird installations in my bedroom using sheets and Lincoln logs. I spent the majority of my primary school years selling drawings of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and made-up Mortal Kombat characters for 25¢ each.

I managed to get into a high school visual and performing arts program with my drawings of mythical beasts, steroid-pumped musclemen, and hot rods. My exploration of contemporary art created a venue for photography and installation art layered upon my otherwise campy visual vocabulary. In college, I found the perfect outlet: design (despite the aspirational dream of becoming a real-life Forsythe-Barney Frankenstein*.)

My first design job was working for Flat, a brutally-hip ad boutique on the outskirts of Chinatown in Manhattan. It was in these eclectic, trash-filled, oddity-riddled streets that l truly found my footing in design as a career, helping a small ad agency create faces for faceless products and projects. But, love was found, a child was created, and suddenly the city was too small. We moved to Pittsburgh and I set up shop. Through editorial design, branding, and consulting, I let the endless effects of typography’s subtle power ripple over the banks of every project any client would let me wade in.

—Dan

* William Forsyth (Frankfurt Ballet Creative Director) and Matthew Barney (Film, video artist, husband of Bjork)

Bill Cunningham – A man, a bicycle, and a camera

This charming documentary about long time New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham allows you to ride along—and I do mean "ride along"—as he bicycles from one end of New York City to the other, snapping pictures left and right. Capturing the high brow, low brow and everything in between, his sharp eye sees it all. At 83 years old, he is a true master of an art form he has been perfecting since 1978. Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has said, "More than anyone else in the city, he has the whole visual history of the last 40 or 50 years of New York. It’s the total scope of fashion in the life of New York." I came away impressed on so many levels. Check it out now on Netflix Instant Watch.

– Monica

Putting an emphasis on teaching excellence

The Bryn Mawr School, a prestigious college preparatory school for girls in Baltimore, asked us to redesign their annual alumnae publication, Communiqué. We illustrated this year’s theme of “good teaching” by highlighting three Bryn Mawr faculty members who exemplify teaching excellence. We interviewed the teachers and crafted profiles of them based on their individual strengths—generosity, empowerment, and passion.

The resulting publication is engaging and more streamlined than the Communiqués of the past. The 16-page booklet gives alumnae a glimpse into the classrooms and culture of their alma mater, and encourages them to go online to read a full selection of their classmates’ remembrances. The project was a success, prompting the client to return to us for a larger, more complex undertaking: redesigning the school brand.

Standing the test of time

Recently, while cleaning out an empty office space here at the studio, Marco and Joe unearthed a box of slides (remember those tiny transparent images mounted in 2×2 inch cardboard?). The slides contained Monica’s portfolio from nearly 30 years ago, before she came to work at L&A. They were impressed by the timeless quality of good design work.

Here are some samples, along with Monica’s recollections:

Monica: The first logo is for an oil pipe company. The other is for an art gallery for which I did the identity and other promotional materials. They were a really interesting family of art restorers from Italy who did amazing work for museums in Houston and other institutions around the country. The son wanted to branch out from restoration and open a gallery.

This is a book I designed that was put together under an arts and cultural humanities grant sponsored by the city of Houston. The book was commissioned and conceived as a literary portrait of the city. Among the many contributing authors were Phillip Lopate, Beverly Lowry and Ntozake Shange with photography by Paul Hester.

I designed identity packages and these portfolio books for two different architectural firms. One of them, William T. Cannady, is still in business. All of the architects I knew seemed to be all about a streamlined, simple aesthetic—that’s still the same today.

This last piece was a proposed table set up for a restaurant where I worked on everything from the name, to the identity, to the table top. The client was Methodist Hospital in the Houston Medical Center, the home of world-renowned American cardiac surgeon Michael DeBakey. The restaurant was conceived from the food to the interiors to all the graphics to demonstrate that healthy food could taste good, look good and be good for you. This thought makes me laugh now, but at the time it was almost revolutionary. Looking back it was and continues to be one of the most fun, challenging and rewarding projects I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on.

Joe: So, what did your website look like?