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?