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.