Last week, we celebrated with our good pals at O’Neil Printing as they launched their shiny new website. O’Neil has been innovating print since 1908, and they needed a new website to showcase their ever-growing set of resources and experience.

Just like any project we approach, we step back and look at the entire company to find its stand-out qualities that makes it unique, and highlight those particulars in the design. O’Neil Printing has been in business for over a century, and we’d like to think that any business that’s been at it that long has a few secrets up their sleeve. Although we could talk endlessly about O’Neil’s quality product, variety of services, sparkling equipment, or commitment to the environment, there are two things that really make O’Neil stand out: their people and their tradition of innovating the print business. O’Neil’s people are dedicated, service-oriented, and truly care about their clients. After all, O’Neil Printing is employee-owned, so they are invested in their work and their clients’ happiness. They’re also committed to approaching projects and business from a unique and effective perspective; a process of innovation that has kept the company young after all this time. Read the rest of the entry >

The word unique is thrown around a lot. This said, in our often cookie-cutter culture it’s rarely used in the true sense. Lucky for us, we were recently given the opportunity to work with a company that encourages its customers to embrace what they love and make something completely unique.

LexiWynn owners Seth and Alexa Holzwarth came to us in 2010 as a small start-up with a single goal – build their brand to allow them to be a stronger competitor in the custom purse design market. The pair had been making one-of-a-kind handbags for their friends since 2006. They eventually began throwing parties where guests could come and pick materials to design their own bags. From the uber-trendy to more classic, the outcome of the process is always unique. In fact, LexiWynn stands by their promise that once a bag is made, no one else can choose the same materials in the same application, ensuring that every bag is completely exclusive to its owner.

As designers, we love it when people are given the opportunity to grow their passion for design, whether it is with images, typography, or in this case, fabric. Because of this, we were so excited to work with LexiWynn. We wanted to help them as they worked to promote a sense of imagination, creativity, and sophistication.

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As a graphic designer, I am constantly looking for ways to improve my craft. I feel like the drive to further a career is crucial to any profession, but it’s especially true for one that changes and evolves as quickly as visual communication does. Being almost three years removed from college has left me in the precarious position of having to now go out and be incredibly ambitious with my learning. No longer is my education structured and pre-determined.

Because of this sometimes daunting responsibility, I thoroughly enjoy the various design conferences I’ve had the joy of attending in the past year or so. Granted, they have the dangerous potential of being nothing more than shallow “inspiration,” or rather, a thousand dollar pep-talk. But with the right mindset, design conferences can bring you closer with your peers, show you what is happening in the design world, and – among much more – maybe you’ll learn a thing or two.

All that being said, I had the joy of attending the Brand New Conference a couple weeks ago in New York City. This conference was a bit different than the last two I attended (AIGA in Memphis, and HOW in Denver) in both its structure and its content. As the title (and the website which the name is from) reveal, this conference was all about branding. Not only was this a  fresh contrast to the “big-picture thinking” of other conferences, the topic was one of the least discussed aspects of my education. That’s not to say that I don’t understand branding, but the anecdotes and processes vary so much from designer to designer that it creates an interesting dialog throughout the course of the day. Read the rest of the entry >

With baseball season winding down (and my precious Cubbies’ season ending months ago), all eyes are on the fall ritual of college football. And as with every season, the rivalry games are not to be missed. Last year, Nike decided to jump on the opportunity to promote their new Pro Combat football gear by creating some unique uniforms for a select few teams to sport during their most heated rivalry games. The concept is simple and genius: Nike gets to promote its new gear to teams that may otherwise not buy into it while flexing its design muscles to make each of these teams feel like the University of Oregon. Even if it’s only for a game or two. Read the rest of the entry >

The next interview I’ve been excited about for some time now, even though it came with a fair amount of whining from our special guests (because it was 29 questions instead of five, and it wasn’t a video blog). I’m pleased to introduce to you my good friends and fellow designers, parents, wisecrackers, educators, authors and flat out smart and great peeps, Jenn and Ken Visocky O’Grady. I have been their inspired fan for many years and love their view on education. Their books (both of which I think you all should have in your library – read on for more) should be required reading for all designers. So take a few minutes to read a great interview and get to know an amazing couple.

1: Do you know your first names rhyme?
Jennifer and Kenneth rhyme?

2: How did you two meet?
KEN: When I was a Junior there were these two graduate students that would run crits an advanced class we all had to take. The class was hard. We would work on projects with a two week turn-around time and minimal feedback from the Professor. Then we’d all walk in, pin up our stuff, and get shredded to pieces by these two grad students. A few weeks in they started showing up drunk. The feedback was even less constructive. Students would cry. And then they disappeared. A few weeks after that Jenn was the new grad student running the crits. She still tore us to shreds but at least she was constructive and sober. Everyone would tell me after class that the grad student was checking me out. At the end of the semester I rolled out my best line in the hallway and said “Uh… Do you have any gum?” Yep. She married me.

JENN: I have plausible deniability on checking out Ken in class. He simply lit a project on fire (I kid you not, it involved flash paper—hot stuff), and that caught my attention. I can, however, confirm that his best line was “Do you have any gum.”

3: Where do each of you teach?
KEN: Kent State University
JENN: Cleveland State University

4: What are the strengths of each of your schools?
KEN: There are a few: Kent’s VCD program is huge — Over 400 majors. We have a considerable amount of full time faculty so students are often working with full-time faculty every semester as opposed to only adjuncts. We also have a great pool of graduate students assisting with and teaching classes. That makes for a lot of smart people, who know the program inside and out, there to help students find their way through. We’re also our own school and we’re in the College of Communication and Information instead of the being a part of the School of Art. I think that this is going to give us more opportunity as we grow to look at design from more than a form making perspective.

JENN: I see Cleveland State’s biggest strength in its diversity. Our design program is housed within the Department of Art, and is small–a concentration of a studio art major. But our classes are rich with differing student experience. I’d say in any given semester, in a class of 20, I have at least two or three students who weren’t born in the United States. If design is a both a reflection and shaper of popular culture, what happens when our cultural backgrounds aren’t homogenized? In any random semester, working on a group project, I might have a student from Azerbaijan, a student who matriculated through the Cleveland Public School system, and a person in their 50s who is switching careers. That diversity opens our eyes wider, and makes our imagining bigger. Read the rest of the entry >