Tomas spent the evening Thursday attending the grand opening of SAX, a new restaurant concept by the folks behind OYA and SEI.  We’ve been alluding to some of the work we did for them in previous posts, and now that it’s complete and delivered we can finally talk about it.  The SAX brand and stationary was a blast to work on.  Like the restaurant’s interior, the brand draws heavily on decorative, baroque influences to create a detailed yet bold typographic and illustrative mark. As soon as we finished the logo we said to ourselves, “Man, wouldn’t this look great foil stamped onto a die-cut business card? Too bad the client will never go for that.”  Turns out we were both right and wrong… the client did go for it, and it does look great (if we do say so ourselves).  Best of luck to the SAX / OYA / SEI team with their new restaurant!

And in other news, our buddies in Lindsey Buckingham Palace contacted us again for another poster (you may remember the previous posters we made for them) and we were happy to oblige.  While we sketched out ideas we suddenly realized that of all the possible illustrations relating to the band’s name, we had somehow missed the most obvious option: Buckingham Palace itself. Well, no longer…

No one understands the importance of a well-designed graphic identity better than a marketing and communications professional. Well, our own marketing and PR guru came to us looking for a new identity, one with a clean aesthetic and a touch of humor that captures the personality and personal service the firm provides.

The JML Consulting logo and palette were developed from bits of Jenn’s own quick signature and a collection of her favorite hues. Rather than include a basic web address that was exactly like the firm name, she chose to pique the interest of potential clients by using something a little more fun. NomathNoscience.com alludes to the firm’s more creative and tongue-in-cheek approach to marketing, and while it’s just a placeholder page at the moment, it will eventually become the blog. Stay tuned for the full site launch!

]]> http://ripe.com/blog/2010/06/02/jml-brand-launch/feed/ 0 http://ripe.com/blog/2010/05/26/42-degrees-rebrand-website-launch/ http://ripe.com/blog/2010/05/26/42-degrees-rebrand-website-launch/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 15:48:02 +0000 Ian http://ripe.com/blog/?p=366 A couple weeks ago we launched a new branding system and website for one of our new favorite clients, 42° Catering.  We don’t throw the word “favorite” around often, but if you feed us like 42° has fed us, you’ll be right up there.  For example, if you visit their new site, know that we got to eat all that food right after the photographers finished shooting.

We really enjoyed working on their brand as well.  As always, we strove to create a mark that wasn’t only visually stimulating, but that made the viewer think.  The mark is reminiscent of a degree symbol, clearly, but in it one might also see plates, or glasses, or various other cooking and eating implements.  The business cards and comp cards reflect the circular nature of the logo by employing an arched die cut across the top of each.

On the website we wanted to visually focus on the food.  Chef Frederik De Pue creations are not only amazingly tasty, but amazingly beautiful.  Thus we crafted a Flash banner (again, using the same arch – brand consistency and all that!) that displays mouth-watering closeups of some of his dishes.  Another fun aspect of the site – we included a nifty, jQuery powered Contact slider on the top of every page of the site.  Contact pages are, for the most part, unnecessary for sites of this size and they generally end up feeling devoid of content.  Furthermore, the type of content they do provide is the kind that should be readily accessible whenever the client wants it.  Thus, a miniature contact page, if you will, is accessible on every page of the 42° site.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to drool over the food shots some more.

And just for fun, here are some behind the scenes shots from our photoshoot.  First shot: Chef Frederik De Pue plating some tasty salmon rolls.

Chef Frederik De Pue lighting something on fire (or doing a flambé if you want to be technical).  We can’t quite remember what he was cooking in this shot, but rest assured, it was delicious.

Senior Designer Maryam + the photographers + the 42° crew including Frederik and Dani sitting down to a meal at the close of the photoshoot, as if we hadn’t already eaten enough.

This was an incredibly fun project for us to work on.  It’s not very often that you find a client who’s as open and creative as the matchbox crew.  The concept – a Prohibition era speakeasy with down-home cookin’ – gave us an excellent starting point. The logo, for example, is reminiscent of marks of the era.  While it has been streamlined to a certain extent, it maintains a good amount of the art deco flair that was so prevalent during the period.

For the menu, we opted to create a whole newspaper.  On the inside is the menu itself, but on the front and back we included articles about the origin of the restaurant and fun ads.  There are a few things we really love about this concept.  First off, unlike most menus that start to look dirty and crappy after a few months, these menus gain more character the longer they’re used.  An “aged” looking newspaper only adds to the feel the restaurant is going for.   And when the menus reach the point of no return and must be disposed of, they’re easily recycled.  What’s more, the cheapness of newsprint makes it economical to print new versions every once in awhile, which in turn gives Bulletin the ability to write up new articles, and for us to create new ads.  So what you see in the menu today may be completely different a few months down the road.

The website draws heavily from the interior of the restaurant itself.  On one of our first meetings with the matchbox crew we got a sneak peek at the amazing metalwork they planned on installing in Bulletin – it had come straight from the old Philadelphia Convention Hall – and we knew it had to be part of the site.

Also, if you visit the site, make sure to give the radio a listen.  There’s some great music on it – Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Helen Kane (Betty Boop) along with others.  What’s more, George Savvas, talented voice actor and friend of ripe, made several era-appropriate commercials and spots which we’ve sprinkled throughout the radio’s playlist. Thanks George!  (Give his agent a call if you’re interested in his services!)

So go try out the restaurant!  One of the benefits of having restaurants as clients is that more often than not they’ll feed you.  ripe was invited to the soft opening for family and friends over the weekend, and let us tell ya – that’s some damn good food.

The Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group (VSAG) is responsible for a lot of the hottest restaurants not only in DC, but around the country.  We recently worked with them when they were repositioning local restaurant Agraria to be more closely paired with its sister restaurant, Founding Farmers.  Working closely with the VSAG team we completely revamped the restaurant’s image — from their logo and name all the way down to the color of paint on their walls.

Soon after finishing the Agraria (now Farmers & Fishers) project, VSAG asked us to redesign their own website.  With its massive amount of content and VSAG’s numerous services, it provided ripe with a challenge that was quite different than we’d come to expect from restaurant-related businesses.

The final result of our efforts is the recently launched VSAG.com.  It incorporates various navigation methods so that different user types can find one that suits their needs, a new blog so that the VSAG can more easily communicate with their clients, and all sorts of tightly organized content.

Along the way the client also decided that if their website was getting a facelift, their collateral could use one as well, so we designed some sexy plastic (recyclable, of course!) business cards, and did a little work refining their logo.

We’re extremely happy with the result, as is VSAG.  We cornered Dan Simons, one of VSAG’s principals, and asked him for a quote:

“We are thrilled with the way the site turned out – it’s garnered us great reaction from our clients and from our partners, and more importantly, it’s complete and comprehensive,” said Dan. “The ripe team provided us with great ideas, responded to our vision, and have helped us move ahead with our international visibility.”

We look forward to doing business with you in the future, Dan!

Not only does the ripe brand give an elegant suggestion of green practices, but material consideration was given throughout the stationary package design. Printed on Mohawk (a notable force in the industry’s green movement), the paper stock was created with wind power and is 30% Post Consumer Waste. Additionally, the unmistakable ripe green was printed with vegetable based inks. In integrating these practices ripe hopes to give an example in influencing our clients in making more verdant choices. Our continually growing knowledge in the field of sustainably can be seen as an added service. We can’t wait to order the book, and continue down our path of green advocacy. We hope you’ll join us.

We just finished another project fairly recently as well; a logo for a program called “Art World” at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  Art World provides kids visiting the museum with a hands-on, fun approach towards art appreciation.

We knew that we’d hit it off with the client right off the bat when they told us in our first conference call that they didn’t want to see any sort of logo that resembled a “finger-painting or a bunch of kids holding hands or whatever.”  We couldn’t agree more… And yet, when faced with the task of designing a logo for children, it’s hard not to just pick up your pencil, doodle for awhile on a piece of paper, and call it a mark.

However, we’re very happy with the final product.  The logo, which we have come to call “the propeller”, was meant to represent some of the things that are found in childrens’ art while not falling into any cliché.  Thus, within the propeller there are several shapes that children often draw (stars, flowers), but the logo itself does not appear as a childish drawing.

It’ll be up in our portfolio fairly soon.  Feel free to give us your thoughts!