Featured Illustrator: Christa Smith
Fall is a great time for meditation and reflection on what went well this past year. For this month’s “Three” our selected ADCMW members share with us: “What was your favorite project ever?”
My favorite project ever was a branding campaign for an infectious disease research repository. BEI Resources was looking for a new image and it was great to see how my concept came alive through different print collateral. However, what was even more exciting was the design surprise incorporated into the printed materials. The branding campaign was designed with warm and cool colored images so they become 3D when the reader put on 3D glasses. After all, there’s nothing more fun than when you add a little unexpected dimension to work.
My favorite project was also one of my most challenging. Our studio, Dever Designs, was charged with creating an exclusive limited edition commemorative volume, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the James Madison Council of The Library of Congress. The job started with a twenty foot table covered with boxes full of photos, documents, and memorabilia of the councils activities. From this array our team was to deduce, write, and produce a coherent history, wrapped in a unique binding suitable for presentation as a gift. Needless to say the project was at times seemingly endless, but it yielded one of the most beautiful and unique pieces of my career. The finished volume was 124 pages, custom bound in a gatefold hard cover volume that closed with hidden magnets to align an embossed line drawing of the library’s unique dome then tied closed with contrasting ribbon. The whole piece was then ensconced in a custom handmade presentation box, stamped with the individual recipients name. The project was so well received that a follow up custom paperback edition was created as a gift for the library to present to special guests and patrons. I guess that the projects that challenge us the most yield the finest results when we remember to work with our clients rather than against them.
My most favorite recent project was the launch of the new American University Web site last March. I was part of the launch team to build some excitement among students, faculty, staff, and alumni prior to the launch date. It was a lot of fun planning and executing something that had taken 2 years and many, many hours of creative input to develop. The team consisted of staff from media relations, marketing, special events, Web communications, and publications. We used a truly integrated marketing approach and came up with a theme to “rediscover” the Web site. I developed art that was used on T-shirts, a USB flash drive giveaway, and other things. I created art for the old Web site that was used to count down the days until the launch and pique curiosity and it linked to another page that showed the old site “peeling” away to show a hint of the new one. We had cookies decorated with our “connect,” “interact,” and “explore” tag line. I even helped select music for the event which was held on campus in our performance hall. The event was a huge success and many people attended to see the official unveiling, visit kiosks to see what the new site offered, eat those cookies, and try to win an iPod Touch. Our President later told one of the team members that his favorite part was walking on stage to the theme from “Mission Impossible” which was my suggestion.
What was your favorite project? Share with us in the comments!
