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?

Redefining the legal landscape

Featured in this week’s print edition of The Economist, L&A client, Clearspire, is turning the legal industry on its head with its unconventional (and cost-effective) new service model.

Levine & Associates clarified Clearspire’s revolutionary concept and developed their brand. Our creative approach emphasizes truth, transparency, and innovation in an industry that is notorious for lacking those qualities.

Can analytical reporting beat the sound bite?

In recent years, many college grads have struggled to find work, leading some to argue that the financial benefits of a post-secondary degree are actually slim to none. The media has echoed this thought, relying largely on personal stories and anecdotal evidence. But what if a deeper study of the facts leads to a completely different conclusion? Can analysis compete with easy sound bites?

Levine & Associates distilled important, but complex, research findings by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce into a visual-driven, step-by-step presentation. Our design approach spotlights their hard-hitting data in a slideshow-like introduction to the full report. Sound bites with substance.

Titled The Undereducated American, the Center’s report demonstrates how the U.S. needs more, not fewer, college graduates in order to prevent increasing wage-inequality. Our design illustrates how college graduation rates are already failing to meet industry needs and the potential crisis the U.S. will face should this trend continue. Based on the success of our approach, the Center repurposed the intro section as an executive summary piece for wider distribution.

None of us at L&A are economists by any stretch of the imagination. Working on this report required us to dig deeply into the content and channel our hazy recollections of Economics 101.

You can view the online slideshow or download the entire report here.

Interview with photographer Renée Comet and food stylist Lisa Cherkasky

This week, we worked with photographer Renée Comet and food stylist Lisa Cherkasky on a photoshoot for Meat & Livestock Australia. We’ve partnered with the talented duo many times in the past, and thought it would be interesting to interview them together. We were especially interested in learning what drives their successful partnership and how they tackle their projects.

What types of projects do you take on?

R: It’s a wide range. Advertising, packaging, editorial. We just did a really interesting project—it was foreign policy-related. It was for an article about food issues, about how there isn’t going to be enough food to feed the world.

L: It wasn’t any type of food that you would buy or prepare. It was food illustrating the point of the story… So it’s not just plated food. We do a lot of conceptual stuff.

What do you like about working together?

R: We’ve been working together for over 25 years. And so we really work as a team.

L: I can tell right away if she likes something, she can tell right away if I like something. So you don’t have to say much a lot of the time, which is really useful. Our instincts are really similar. Our work ethic is very similar too. We’re both about the same amount of controlling. We’re both very clean and neat and detail-oriented.

R: We’re used to working as a team. The main goal when working with a food shot, unless it’s really conceptual, is to make it look delicious, and I know Lisa knows how to do that. It’s something you want to eat, in the end.

L: I work better with somebody who trusts me and lets me do my thing, like Renée. If they’re standing over me, and they’re anxious and concerned and they don’t really know food and don’t maybe believe that I know food, then they’re second guessing everything. That completely takes away my inspiration.

R: It’s a mutual respect. If we have a conference call, I know that I’m not thinking about the food. Lisa’s thinking about it. I’m thinking about the lighting and the set. Then all of the parts are coming together to make the shot.

What’s your process?

R: We have the timing down. Before the shot, I rarely set anything up before Lisa gets here, because I know she’s going to get here and she’s going to start making the food. So I know I have X amount of time to put the surface down, put the plate down and get everything moved around.

L: We’re both really good at time management. We both work linearly, step by step. And I can count on her—usually we get everything established, as much as we can, before there’s food out there. I don’t want to go back. We shouldn’t still be examining—do we like this surface, do we like this plate, and so on, unless you run into a problem. You lay a foundation, so that with each step you can get more and more detailed and there are things that are more and more perishable, and more fine-tuned. You go from the biggest to the smallest. Not everybody works like that and that makes me insane when they don’t.

R: I always have stand-in food, even if it’s macaroni and cheese, or even if it’s uncooked pasta. I like to have something for a sense of the color and texture of the food, because sometimes when I get the stand-in food, I find that I’m off base, or it’s too busy. When my shots are too busy, I start taking stuff out.

What makes food photography different from other types of photography?

L: It’s perishable. It’s dying—well, it’s already dead. But it’s dying more and more. Like flowers. It’s organic. It’s fading faster than most things do.

R: I prefer shooting food, even more than a still life. Sometimes when I’m doing a still life I might be on my own and so I have way more time. With food I know I have less time and I’ve gotta move quickly.

L: There’s sort of a magic moment when everything’s as good as its going to get and after that everything’s downhill. Then you’ve gotta start making difficult choices like well, we don’t like that so if we correct that, we’re gonna lose this, and which is more important? We have to prioritize.

Giving a federal program a little character

L&A was brought in by the USDA to create a new brand for their poultry and egg "Grade A" awareness and education campaign. Targeting consumer, distributor, and producer audiences, we developed the character concept and rendered an illustrated mascot. To make the program more engaging, we wanted a solution with personality, but seamlessly merging an expressive character with the official Grade A shield was challenging.

Our design was adopted wholeheartedly by the USDA and voluntarily incorporated into retail packaging by two major poultry producers. The Perdue company even commissioned L&A to develop a turkey version for additional products.

Watching gray-suited high-government officials debate the muscle tone of a cartoon chicken was a bit surreal. And seeing final approval with a full rollout plan showed us that the regulatory affairs of our nation may actually be in good hands.

Repositioning America’s Charities for a changing audience

Through workplace giving programs, America’s Charities raises and manages more than $30 million per year in donations to over 5,000 charities nationwide. They saw that the changing demographics of an emerging young professional audience, with different sensibilities, required repositioning their organization.

Enhancing the story of a client that does so much societal good is incredibly rewarding. We helped evolve the brand by not straying too far from the existing brandmark, retaining their existing equity and current audiences.

The more time we spent with the mark, the more it seemed to take on the characteristics of different birds: seagulls, vultures, penguins, anything other than what it was—an eagle in motion. On some days it appeared to guard the logotype, on other days it seemed to be roosting. After much experimentation, we found that the eagle form was best expressed through the depiction of its beak.