“Art direction and design for cultural organizations”
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
I've had several opportunities to work with The American Heart Association (AHA) on their fundraising Gala materials. Because of the organization's notoriety, we were able to enlist the pro bono services of esteemed vendors and artists.
For the "Hero in All of Us" campaign I was able to work with two artists I'd long admired, Italian illustrator Gloria Pizzilli and Brooklyn-based typographers Volume One. Working with Taylor James out of London, we produced a fully animated short that played to the donors at the Gala, Our project was submitted for Cannes Lion advertising award consideration with a video hand animated by art director Matt Holt.
Although the Gala itself is considered to be a black tie event, we decided to take the theme to it's logical extreme and create a post-modern deconstruction of golden age comic book. The use of primary colors, large format and dynamic splash pages gave our materials a bold look that provided a refreshing departure from prior AHA themes.
Award submission: Cannes Lion
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC
I was fortunate to become part of The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) internal art team directly after Pentagram's redesign of their identity. Working with Michael Beirut's system was a joy, with its bold use of images, vivid colors, and clean type. As a member of BAM's art team, I also enjoyed the work of managing other designers and directing vendors.
Award: Print Regional Design Annual 2001
RXART
RxArt is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help children heal through the extraordinary power of visual art. I had the opportunity to develop the branding and design for a program of materials intended to help patients and their families explore the art installed in children's wards in hospitals across the country.
EAST FOURTH STREET CULTURAL DISTRICT
East Fourth Street Cultural District, aka Fourth Arts Block, aka FAB. This vibrant street on Manhattan's Lower East Side has a long history of contribution to the cultural life of the city. The executive director was looking for an identity that captured not just the energy and eclecticism of the street, but also created the sense of a community coming together out of the chaos.
Over a number of years, I helped the client develop several interwoven identity systems and projects to meet their unique needs: maps, brochures, way finding, sub branding, environmental signage. One of our favorite products of our collaboration was our pigeon mascot. This denizen of the street seemed the perfect representative of FAB's ethos: slightly scruffy with an artistic flare.
SITI COMPANY
This is the third time I've had the opportunity to rework SITI Company's identity, which is fitting for a theater company that is in a perpetual state of reinvention. Ann Bogart's SITI company has been around for more than 20 years, and are loathe to repeat themselves.
A small, avant-garde theater company with an international following, SITI is built on three core principals: training, performance, and education. It is also a company of individual performers, writers, and technical artists. Working closely with Anne and the other company members, we developed an identity that was built around the idea of "three" -- three rings creating the whole, three steps up to a stage, three phases of development. Along with the logo, I developed an iconic graphic style for their materials meant to reflect the physicality of their performance with ink and brushstroke, eschewing traditional photography in many cases.
BLUNT THEATER COMPANY
I originally met with the founders of Blunt Theater Company to work on their logo and a poster for that summer's production. After the logo and poster were done, I wound up playing Falstaff in that production of Henry IV, and several other roles over the next few summers.
The company’s home was a stone amphitheater in a community garden on the Lower East Side, and their shows were thrifty and clever. With that identity in mind, we aspired to reflect this approach in their promotional materials, with an economy of art and type that would stand out in the clutter of the neighborhood.
MIX INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
