MSN was the first big project I led at Futurebrand and the iconic butterfly logo I designed remained unchanged for over 10 years – longevity like that for a brand identity is almost unheard of at Microsoft.
The identity was inspired by a Bill Gates quote from the late 1990's envisioning how the "internet should be available on any device, anywhere and at any time''. The explorative nature of a butterfly, rendered in the Microsoft colors is one of the earliest examples of online gradient use. The identity was initially designed in flat colors, but in working with the technologists at Microsoft, we planned for the then imminent advances in technology would allow for the full gradient version of the identity to implemented.
I led the global rebranding of Intel for FutureBrand starting in 2005, and the largest rebrand I have led – but they don’t get much larger! The visual identity system addressed everything in both print and digital – from the ubiquitous bezel stickers, to websites and videos, building signage and Formula 1 sponsorship, CES and other trade shows all on a global scale. A global image image library created through custom photoshoots around the world to show how Intel technology impacts daily lives and then the whole system codified into expansive online brand guidelines.
This is another logo I designed that has lasted a long time - now over 15 years. The logo itself is a simple expression of Intel, it’s business and it’s history. The square dot of the “i” is allegorical to the processors that Intel produce, and the two parts of the oval represent firstly the R&D that goes into the development of Intel’s products and secondly the marketing and delivery of those products to the world - then Intel goes and does it again (and again). The logo takes some visual cues from the brilliant and ubiquitous “Intel Inside” program logo to create essentially a simplified representation of Moore’s Law.
But more than just the logo, there are two components of the identity system that were pivotal to the success of the rebrand. Firstly was to put Intel front and center, thus drawing the attention away from both the product name (remember Pentium) and also removing the then de facto Intel logo - the old Intel Inside program swirl logo. Secondly was to create a visual representation of what is “inside” - a colorful graphic representation of the silicon chip. This process began by getting a photographer of jewels to capture a beautifully lit shot of a silicon chip – then using that to develop a vector version that could be scaled and used in endless permutations.
I led the AMD creative team on a four year re-branding program including logo refresh and full visual identity system implemented across all print and digital applications from websites and videos to bezels stickers and collateral to tradeshows and co-branding initiatives. The impact of the work coincided with a high-point in AMD's history with record market share against Intel and a quadrupling of their stock price.
Workuity is a visual identity I ceated for new co-working space in Phoenix, AZ. The identity conveys the company’s focus on creating extraordinary flexible workspaces that combine the community, and connectivity of a co-working facility with the sophistication that small businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups demand.
Working with a great new name created by Martyn Tipping, the Workuity logo takes the notion of flexible desk spaces, whether just a desk or a variable sized office as the inspiration for a strong and distinct symbol for their inspiring work environments.
I also designed the website and range of communications templates for Workuity.
Within a year of launch, Workuity had opened up their second facility in Arizona.
I designed the logo and visually identity system for Duke Farms, a property owned by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). Prior to the rebrand, Duke Farms was a private estate offering limited tours of the display gardens to a small groups of visitors totaling 3-4,000 each year. DDCF decided to close the display gardens and transform Duke Farms into environmental showcase and learning center and needed to build a brand around that concept.
A key consideration in creating the visual identity system for Duke Farms was signage and infographics. From the 22,000 sq. ft. Orientation Center to simple directional signs. This required working closely with the Duke Farms team and their architects to ensure the identity translated to permanent and temporary exhibits, interactive displays, and on the grounds information and directional signs that aid visitors as they experience regenerated habitats firsthand.
Additionally a simple user friendly approach to the new Duke Farms website was designed specifically with the consideration that visitors would be using tablets and mobile devices to navigate the property.
In the first six months after the launch, over 200,000 people have visited the Duke Farms, a massive increase not only in visitors, but in environmental awareness also.
One of several projects I have done that is the result of multiple acquisitions by a private equity firm. Hardware Holdings a regional hardware distributor and acquired several smaller distributors. After the brand strategy, brand architecture, and naming process, I created this identity and visual identity solution that tells the company’s story in a simple, memorable way – they source products from around the world and distribute them to independent hardware stores on Main Streets across the USA.
Once more I was working with a great name created by Martyn Tipping and in this case allowed a rare opportunity to present only one concept to the client. But given the name - what else would the logo be?
I also designed their website and collateral templates in addition to trade show graphics with comprehensive brand guidelines created to codify the use of the identity system.
Brave Thinking Institute was founded by Mary Morrissey, widely considered the world’s foremost expert on “dream-building,” and a global leader in the art and science of transforming dreams into results.
After working with the brand strategy team to develop a brand architecture that would allow the organization to bring together all of their programs and offerings under a single umbrella. The identity I created for Brave Thinking Institute is clean, contemporary and impactful – incorporating icons for the organization’s key practice areas Life & Transformation, Love & Relationships, Business & Leadership, Health & Well-Being, and Life Coach Certification.
Additionally I created a singular typographic approach for all Brave Thinking Institute programs and initiatives, that in a consistent way links all of their products and offerings.
To illustrate the difference, I have included an audit slide to illustrate the visual state of the organization before the launch of fetch new identity, and a slide showing .
Tinuiti is the largest independent performance marketing agency in the world. Previously known as Elite SEM, they had built a stellar reputation as an agency and as place to work. Company culture and incentives were the driving force behind their growth, leading to the acquisition of CPC Strategy and Email Aptitude. This acquisition spree culminated in their decision to rebrand under one name - Tinuiti.
The logo and visual identity that I designed for Tinuiti that expresses the simple truth that marketing today appears on screens of all shapes and sizes from phones and tablets to watches and laptops and our interaction with those screens is continual.
To support the new name and identity, I also created a Brand Book, signage specifications, launch animation and brad guidelines.
Mopria (Mobile Print Alliance) is the industry standard for mobile printing from any device. The technology that allows you to print wirelessly from your phone to a Mopria enabled printer. The logo I designed graphically represent that through color – a WiFi symbol made from RGB colors (the phone or tablet) and CMYK colors (the printer colors).
One interesting challenge with Mopria is it was founded originally by Canon, HP, Samsung, and Xerox (and has since grown to include more manufacturers), which meant working across time zones and getting four giant corporations to agree on the solution - against aggressive deadlines. All in all it went really smoothly!
For over 50 years, the world’s most successful brands have turned to The NPD Group to know what is selling, who is buying, and why. NPD tracks over a trillion dollars in consumer spending a year, resulting in an extraordinary collection of information that they combine with nearly a half-century of expertise.
To mark NPD’s 50th birthday and to align them better for the future, I created a new logo and visual identity system implemented across all brand touch points including website, PowerPoint templates, collateral, signage, stationery. Additionally I created robust brand guidelines and a brand book to celebrate the anniversary.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) realized they needed help to tell their brand story and explain the relationship between AASHE and their flagship certification program, STARS.
After working with my strategy partner interviewing internal and external stakeholders to develop a new brand story and messaging matrix for AASHE, i created a new, contemporary visual identity that sets AASHE apart from the multitude of sustainability-related organizations in the space, and also clearly defines the relationship between AASHE and STARS.
The redesign of the STARS certification program creates a more obvious visual connection between AASHE and STARS. As shown the new STARS logo is built from a section of the AASHE logo and is now clearly identified as a program of AASHE.
To support the launch of the new AASHE identity and updated STARS program, I created a brand book and brand guidelines and broad range of templates.
JDC are the largest Jewish humanitarian organization in the world providing rescue, relief, and renewal for Jewish communities outside of North America. JDC Young Professionals was a new initiative of theirs that offers transformative global service and travel experiences, innovative educational programs, and tailored leadership development opportunities for young Jewish professionals around the world. But the JDC Young Professionals name was not appealing to a younger audience that weren’t even familiar with the JDC brand.
The new name, Entwine, was inspired by a quote on their lobby wall from Ralph I. Goldman, JDC’s Honorary Executive Vice President: “There is a single Jewish world, intertwined, interconnected.”
The new logo and identity system expresses that connection while allowing a controlled flexibility within the system for different events.
- from digital to more traditional printed collateral and flyers. Robust guidelines has helped manage the identity while showing through sample how to bring regional cues into their communications.
Ascent Media Group has 4000 employees in more than 70 facilities in Southern California, New York, London, Singapore and other locations throughout the world. Ascent Media provides effective solutions for the creation, management and distribution of content to major motion picture studios, independent producers, broadcast networks, cable channels, advertising agencies and other companies that produce, own and/or distribute entertainment, advertising, news, sports, corporate, educational, and industrial content.
The logo I designed is a simple representation of a peak as a metaphor for ascent - but in the application graphics, the angle of the logo becomes a strong graphic device used as an overlay or a holding shape both flat and linear to connect all Ascent communications. To further support the brand I art directed an extensive photoshoot to create an image library that was exclusively shot across in their facilities showcasing the world-class talent Ascent has that helps create many of the world’s most popular movies and TV shows.
Bounteous is a digital marketing agency and a portfolio company of private equity firm Mountaingate Capital. The company is based in Chicago, and has offices in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Denver, Toronto and Berlin.
At the outset HS2 Solutions and had just completed the acquisition of two other digital marketing firms: LunaMetrics and Infield Digital and realized they needed to bring together all agencies under a single, unified name and identity.
The Bounteous name (created by Martyn Tipping) comes to life with a bold, fun brand identity that has been implemented across all touchpoints. The logo I designed is what I would describe as ‘visual onomatopoeia’ where the typography of the logo is a clear reflection of the name and meaning.
I worked closely with the in-house Bounteous design team to ensure the logo and visual identity system worked seamlessly across all brand touchpoint from their website and business stationery to signage an PowerPoint templates and all points inbetween.
In the first year (2019) following the launch of the Bounteous brand, the company completed more acquisitions and brought on board over 50 new clients.
DPAA ( Digital Place Based Advertising Association) leads the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) industry as marketing to consumers outside the home is experiencing aggressive growth versus advertising inside the home. DPAA fosters collaboration between advertisers, agencies, ad-tech, mobile companies, location data, software, hardware and others while providing guidelines, standards, best practices and industry-wide research all promoting the effectiveness of digital place based advertising.
The identity I designed - DPAA inside two right angles – references the universal symbol for a screen, but also the symbol for cropping, a reference to the myriad sizes of screen we all interact with outside of our homes. The tagline “Digital Out-of-Home Everything is a direct reference to the pervasiveness of the tablets, elevator screens, watches, mobile phones, and other electronic billboards we see every day.
In addition to the logo, I also designed collateral, ads and trade show graphics.
Delta Electronics is a leading global provider of innovative RF, microwave and millimeter wave interconnect solutions – from mission-critical military and aerospace applications, to high-endurance communications and industrial applications.
I created the new Delta Electronics logo and visual identity system, and implemented across all brand touchpoints including website, PowerPoint templates, stationery, tradeshows and more.
While at Futurebrand I led the rebranding of the Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. The redesigned MSI logo sits within a hexagon shape – an appropriate metaphor for both Science and Industry. Another identity that has stood the test of time and has been serving the Museum well since 2008.
The Olga Lengyel Institute was established to educate teachers in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world about human rights and social justice through the lens of the Holocaust and other genocides so that such atrocities may never again take place.
The Institute is named after Olga Lengyel, a survivor of Auschwitz and author of Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz. An immigrant and philanthropist, Olga dedicated herself to remembering the martyrs and lessons of the Holocaust so that such atrocities would never happen again.
The new logo I designed is at once a speech bubble (dialog) and an embrace (healing), it it is figurative (survivor and memory) but also a nod to the original book logo from The Memorial Library that started TOLI.
My first ‘big’ logo and my first project when I joined Fitch in 1988. It was also the first brand guidelines I ever designed. The roundel had existed in an earlier form with a serif font. I updated it to a condensed font to allow the name to be larger within the circle and also make the logo more solid to reflect the industry behind the incredible endeavor. Again, another logo that has lasted 30+ years.
This was the last logo I designed at Fitch RS in 1989/90 prior to moving to the USA. Rodney Fitch was a big supporter of the LibDems and the project was a pro bono one. The bird symbolized the new political party rising phoenix-like with the combining of the Liberal and Social Democrat parties. Another logo design of mine that has lasted a very long time - amazingly the symbol is still used to this day although they typography has been changed.
