Aurora Design

Summer 2017 the good people at Metroplex mentioned that they would love to do something to improve the experience in the Broadway Parking garage. They had recently added some cool programmable lights and made repairs but they craved a more inviting space for the public. We briefly talked about some ideas but tabled the discussion to push through current work.

While the project simmered on the back burner, I attended the AIGA national leadership retreat. Exposed to the energy and excitement of people working together thoughts of the garage kept coming back to me. Sure, it would be great to design something on my own. But maybe, just maybe, it would be more interesting if I invited other artists to work with me. And so began a unique project.

The Broadway Parking Garage is the largest lot managed by Park Schenectady. It is the place to park when attending Proctors, Bowtie Cinemas, Schenectady Greenmarket, or grabbing a meal. With five floors it is served by two elevator banks. I proposed that we create graphic panels on the doors of the elevators that would draw attention to the space, celebrate Schenectady, enhance way-finding and beautify. In essence, we would create hidden Instagram-able places.

Beyond a handful of representational sculptures Schenectady has virtually no public artwork. However, creatives form a significant portion of our upstate economy. Our parking garage project embraced and engaged designers from our community, drew upon their unique strengths and brought artwork to the public.

Using the AIGA Slack channel, designers were invited to express interest. From that group five design teams with strong ties to Schenectady were selected to propose concepts for digitally printed environmental graphics. Each designer was given specifications, a budget and assigned a floor number. In turn they produced suitable electronic files. I coordinated the project with Metroplex and our vendor.

As our door project progressed the large entrance wall to the garage was repaired and repainted and it became the perfect canvas for one more piece of Schenectady love. Paul and Chelsea from Bear Design Co. knocked it out of the park with their vintage-postcard-inspired wall.

The client: Metroplex Development Authority and Park Schenectady.

The team:

Floor 1 / Michael Rivette and Christina Sharp from Cinder Design Co.

Floor 2 / Becca Kennedy, PhD a UX designer.

Floor 3 / Ally Shivka from Potratz.

Floor 4 / James Lewis-Van Vorst who was at GE and now is with Elevation Ten Thousand.

Floor 5 and the wall / Chelsea Leder and Paul Engel from Bear Design.

In our brand- and media-saturated culture, our largest, most successful companies are investing heavily in design and designers. For them, design drives business by focusing on users, enabling innovation, and giving concrete form to abstract ideas.

• Designers guide our user experience
• Information graphics make complex data understandable
• Systems thinking is essential to the circular economy and sustainability
• And the smallest soap company knows that branding can transform their product into an intriguing must-buy or badge of honor

Today many Upstate New York companies are seeing that they have the most to gain by working with professional designers. In our internet-connected world, even a small regional company is in direct competition with the big guys, and locally the impact of good design is amplified in regional markets far from larger design centers like New York or San Francisco.

New York State of Design, sponsored by AIGA Upstate New York showcases examples of successful creative collaboration between upstate New York designers and businesses and organizations of all kinds. Designers from throughout the state submitted their most creative work and the final curated show and catalog celebrated their design thinking.

Entries for the show spanned a wide range of logos, branding, public awareness campaigns, posters, books, packaging, app design, motion graphics, and typefaces. Most works were created as part of a business strategy, but others were student work, personal, or from the pure joy of creation.

Of 178 entries received, thirty-six are featured in the printed catalogue and 60 were displayed in a traveling show. All entries are viewable on the website at www.newyorkstateofdesigncom.

Far from the vanity piece created only for the exhibitors, the printed catalog was designed to be a business disrupter. From its oversized presence to its vivid paper selection it stands out. Printed in a large quantity on lightweight text stock the piece has been distributed to incubators and coworking locations and will serve as a promotion for design and the chapter for the 2017-18 programming year.

The multi-color New York State of Design brand identity and logo were designed by Casi Hall. The lead text was written by Laura Shore.

Silver Addy Award

I was asked to create a catalog for the Paper is Part of the Picture exhibition showcasing the Strathmore Archives. But quickly my design responsibilities grew to include a promotional postcard, the exhibition banner, exhibition graphics and labels.

The moveable walls feature both vinyl type (applied to custom-colored gray and yellow walls) and large full color Photo Tex panels. The artwork for those panels matches pieces featured in the catalog. While most of the originals are nine inches tall the walls are a 10.5 feet tall.

As show preparations progressed we were very aware that while the show is about paper there wasn't much paper accessible. (The archive pieces are hidden behind class.) In an effort to bring a tactile quality to the show we printed sixteen of Strathmore's trademark thistles on 24 x 30 inch sheets of Mohawk's pure cotton imaging paper. These thistles feature torn edges (to draw attention to the paper) and are invisibly mounted on foam core to literally pop them off the walls.

And finally, in the outer gallery, by the desk we wanted to showcase some of Mohawk's current paper promotions. Here you can sit, hold and interact directly with a paper promotion. To define this space we featured a brightly-colored wall of the modern Strathmore thistle pattern created by Marian Bantjes in 2008.

“This is an opportunity that won't happen again soon. Visit. Buy the stunning catalog, a gorgeous unbound portfolio...” —William Jaeger, in the Albany Times Union

The Strathmore Archive at Mohawk reflects 125 years of American design history. This exhibition, drawn from the archive, provides a rich, new perspective on the evolution of American graphic design from the 1890s to the present. It is a reminder that the history of graphic design includes the immense amount of printed ephemera that fills our lives. Even in our digital era, much design remains physical and tactile.

The Paper is Part of the Picture catalog brings the sensibilities of a modern paper promotion to the exhibition. It combines the latest print technologies (iGen digital printing) and old-world embossing. It pairs lush, dense pure cotton paper in two traditional whites with deeply felt-textured Strathmore Grandee in a color pulled from the archive itself.

Built to appeal to Sage’s population of art and design students, young designers and Mohawk employees. The individual, 9 x 12 inch unbound leaves are perfect for tacking to a studio bulletin board or framing and hanging on the wall.

Furthermore, the unbound leaves invite the viewer to interact intimately with the paper—to feel the rich texture of the cover and the subtle rise of the embossed type. Then experience the toothy finish of the thick pages. The catalog truly makes paper part of the picture.

The thistle pattern on the cover was created by Marian Bantjes as part of Strathmore’s 2008 rebranding under the direction of Michael Bierut. It is one of the most recently-created items in the show. While on the other end of the spectrum, the earliest piece is from 1899—representing more than a century of graphic design.

The featured artwork includes pieces by Will Bradley, WA Dwiggins, Lester Beall, George Samerjan, Simms Taback, Ken Keunstler and more. All of the interior leaves are show here to demonstrate the breadth of the work exhibited.

The show runs from October 3, 2017 through December 15, 2017.

The show was curated by Paul Shaw. The gallery director is Judie Gilmore.

Addy Award Finalist

Mohawk's audience KNOWS that Mohawk makes beautiful paper. What they don't necessarily know is that Mohawk is one of the largest manufacturers of fine paper envelopes in North America. And because they make the paper and manufacture the envelopes they are a one-stop resource for envelope solutions.

Envelopes are the original form of interaction. The handshake that sets the tone for written communication. And like packaging they are the wrapper that elevates the contents. They offer security, protection and privacy but they also reveal and conceal.

Our goal was to be inspirational, didactic, and easily accessible. To offer explicit suggestions for specifying envelopes that make a difference. To give the designer and printer tools that they can use with their clients. And to give Mohawk's own salespeople some statistics they could use to inspire customers to take a chance on colored paper or unique shapes.

And, of course, we wanted to showcase the wonderful range of papers and envelopes that Mohawk makes.

This gloriously oversized pieces is made up of ±25 different papers, 17 unique envelopes, seven ink colors and a stunning magenta foil stamp, 27 diagrams, distinctive patterning inspired by envelope security patterns and lots of footnotes about the science behind the story.

Organized by the defining characteristics of an envelope—texture, color, style, flap shape and size the Field Guide is chock full of demonstrations that will make you look at envelopes in a new light and just maybe persuade you to up your envelope game.

Great projects never happen in a vacuum. They take a team. Many thanks to my project partners—Chris Harrold the VP and Creative Director at Mohawk. Anthony Narducci of O'Neil Printing and special thanks to friends Becca Kennedy for her support and research assistance and Curtis Canham for his illustrations.

New York State of Design
Silver Addy Award

Photos graciously provided by Mohawk.

To coincide with the opening of SallyeAnder's flagship store I redesigned two of their customer favorites—Baby Soap and Baby Balm.

Putting the emphasis on the pure, mild and safe formulation the overall look was kept quiet and delicate. The palest pink paper with one color modern orange type makes the soap feel fresh and timely while quietly nodding to historic tone-on-tone styles of the thirties and forties.

A fun twist of modern slab serif type completes the picture.

These really are the best products for your baby's tender skin.

Addy Award Finalist

The Whistling Kettle offers no fewer than twenty one tea samplers for sale in their stores and online.

Until now the samplers were package in simple clear plastic cubes. Together we created a series of colorful cube boxes that make the samplers feel like a delightful present—or a decadent splurge.

Custom constructed boxes with a unique click-shut lid hold the internal tea packets securely while keeping the box simple to assemble and fill. Inserted digitally-printed cards show through the die cut on the box top identifying the six teas contained inside. The flip side of the card contains steeping instructions for each tea.

Simple graphic patterns printed in four bright colors and metallic gold make the packages feel both luxe and playful.

Silver Addy Award
New York State of Design

The most simple and basic of SallyeAnder's soaps, Lye Soap, is made from a recipe our grandparents would approve of.

Formulated from pure and natural olive and soy oils this soap is lovingly crafted for your most sensitive skin.

The simple wrap hearkens back to the forties with a bold black shield on a rugged twill background. The typography is friendly and straightforward and punctuated by two spunky stars.

Dana Swalla, Ph.D., P.E. settled upon the name Moment for her research and consulting firm specializing in product and process development. Moment is the tendency of a force to twist or rotate an object, an important, basic concept in engineering and physics. The symbol for Moment Consulting mimics this rotational motion and encircles a stylized m – reinforcing the name.

SallyeAnder's new premium men's skincare line consists primarily of seven exquisitely scented skincare bars. The scents are masculine, strong and just a bit unconventional.

To capture the spirit we've used textured urban gray paper which is balanced with neon-toned engraving. The inherent opacity of engraving inks allowed us to reproduce bright colors with the bonus of a great tactile experience for the customer.

The line is simple, uncomplicated and fashionable. One bar can effectively be used for body, shave and shampoo.

The design elements are similarly uncomplicated. Components included: development of the logotype, abstract K symbol, seven bar labels that highlight the essential oils, balm packaging, promotional postcard, small signs, web graphics, social media icons and an interactive handout for trade shows.

The interactive handout is a favorite element. Approximately the size of a bar of soap, it has a utilitarian matchbook-style side stitch binding. This binding allowed us to insert eight neon-colored sheets of paper with simple black digital printing to create a memorable piece. The paper hues correspond with the engraving on the soap labels. The cover, printed on the same urban gray paper as the bar labels is digitally printing with white ink.

Silver Addy Award

Logo and brand identity for CeCe's Wool a new venture from third-generation farmer Cecilia Tkaczyk. CeCe's Wool brings together a love of sheep and dogs, while supporting local farmers and rural economic development.

“I wanted to create a company that focuses on sustainability and support local farms and businesses,” said Tkaczyk. “Our carbon footprint is small but our economic impact will be significant.” Almost all of CeCe’s Wool products are made in upstate New York and incorporate wool from local farms. A portion of the sale of every dog bed will go to support the Center for Sustainable Rural Communities, an organization dedicated to building vibrant, livable rural communities.

Work included logo development for My Best Friend Pet Beds, a product brochure, thank you and care instructions, display panels, web consulting, business card and product labeling.

Silver Addy Award

No Bite Me has been a top selling product for SallyeAnder for years. An herbal blend that is proven to repel all sorts of insects, No Bite Me is safe enough for everyone in the family—including infants and pets. It is a fabulous product with a cult-like following.

However, it was time for a refresh. We needed to bring it in line with the new SallyeAnder branding, but we couldn't create something unfamiliar. We needed to take the elements that customers had grown to recognize and love and gently improve them.

We started by cleaning up the elements we wanted to keep. We knew  young Sam had to stay. Redrawing him was out of the question. So we took the artwork and literally tidied him up—removing line work and darkness in his face, brightening his colors, whitening the background and generally adding impact.

With Sam in good shape our focus turned towards the type. We explored setting the name in several commercial fonts and rejected them all. There was something about that weird type that resonated with the clients. So instead we redrew it. The new letters are more compact and easier to read while maintaining at least some of the child-like quality of the original.

Originally only used for the cream display, we expanded the green gingham pattern across the product line. And it now appears on every product in the line and on promotional materials.

With the elements assembled, the design became about simplification—extracting the key descriptors and creating a visual hierarchy that could work in the many formats we needed.

The proof will be in sales but the initial response has been very favorable.

This summer SallyeAnder is introducing two new soaps in their Essential Soap line and both feature organic produce from local Hudson Valley Farms. In addition to labels we are building excitement with a trade show banner and postcard that will serve double duty—both as a handout and as a mailer to existing customers.

Photos by Eva Deitch Photography.

A year and a half after their initial release, Sanavi organic-flavored sparkling spring water was ready for a brand refresh. 100% All-Natural Inc. wanted to increase the shelf presence of the bottles. In addition, as the flavored water market has grown more crowded they wanted to put their USDA certification right up front and at the same time draw more attention to their brand name. Some subtle tweaking of the front display panel accomplished all of their goals.

On the store shelf the quiet color gradations group the brand solidly and create a billboard effect.

As the rebrand rolled out we also introduced a new flavor—the first combination flavor in the line—Orange Mango.

In addition, the switch to a new printer produced more striking and vibrant labels.

New York State of Design
Silver Addy Award

Whistling Kettle is two charming retail locations and a successful online loose-leaf tea business. Owners Kevin and Meahgan came to me to help revive their Tea of the Month Club. While the program has been successful they had some simple goals:

• To increase Tea of the Month Club sales

• To capture gift recipients as new customers

• To encourage re-subscription and participation in special deals

• To create a gift-like experience

• To elevate the monthly shipment to reflect the premium quality of their teas

• To delight the customer

Working together we created a new corrugated shipping box, colorful labels, two tea pouches (a sample pouch and 4 oz.) and digitally-printed note cards that both welcome and thank customers and direct them to the website for special club-only offers.

The conveniently sized custom box fits not only the standard Tea of the Month Club 4 oz. pouches but also up to three tins of tea and a catalog of their complete offerings. The box face highlights the broad offerings of tea—the world of tea on your doorstep—and promotes the benefits of loose leaf tea and the fifteen broad categories of tea they stock. Cheeky text on the flaps encourages the recipient to put their kettle on. A colorful sticker adds a bright pop of color. 

As the project progressed it was expanded to include a complete logo redesign. With a nod to the tradition of tea but in a style fitting their modern, urban stores. The logo uses a modified bold sans serif typeface with a stylized black tea kettle with a new WK monogram.

The pouches (which are still in production) carry on the theme of the carton and feature clear windows to showcase the tea.

Design of identity, newsletter and supporting materials for youth agriculture and community service program. “Jennifer Wilkerson is a skilled professional who brings great energy and artistry to her work. Our bi-annual newsletter Dig Ideas was transformed by Aurora Design, and our logo successfully represents Roots & Wisdom’s mission and optimism.”

Designed for trade shows, conference and paper specification events, this display booth was created as a backdrop to both attract attention and to set off the amazing selections from the Strathmore Archives.

The booth uses select pieces from the collection of 125+ years of Strathmore ephemera. Each piece was photographed and then its colors compressed to two shades of gray. The compressed color palette provides an overall harmony to the booth and enables us to blend work from diverse eras and set off the existing blond display boxes. The lovely Hoefler and Frere-Jones created Strathmore wordmark (also based upon a piece in the collection) takes center stage.

Captivating on its own, the new booth quickly fades to the background once you begin to examine the work in the warmly-lit cases.

Logo for William Nechamen an NFIP and floodplain management
trainer and consultant.

Mohawk Fine Papers

A paper lover’s dream come true, Strathmore Notes Fine Paper Journals are the perfect union of carefully considered texture, fiber, color and bookbindery. Each journal is covered with a durable and beautiful felt-textured Charcoal Gray paper, which is foil stamped, blind embossed and hand sewn to interior pages made from Strathmore papers, in three distinct finishes. And every journal comes with four bookplates borrowed from the historic Strathmore archive. The exuberant wraps are a celebration of Strathmore’s legendary and ever-changing thistle mark.

Best print work produced | For Print Only | Under Consideration 2013/14
Addy Award Finalist | 2015

Another reworking of an old soap label for SallyeAnder's popular Gardener's Hand Soap. Sold mostly through garden shops and hardware stores, this earth-friendly soap is made from scraps of SallyeAnder's Essential Soaps with the addition of cornmeal for extra scrubbing. The simple label feels equally at home on a garden center's shelves or as a gift for the gardener in your life.

The 2016 election elicited a strong response both home and abroad. Born out of the Pantsuit Nation movement dozens of local groups have formed for commiseration, support and political action. Here in Schenectady one group immediately went to task writing postcards. Both to support and encourage compromised or threatened communities, and to lobby news media outlets and legislators the humble postcard has become an act of patriotism.

When the organizers came to me they lacked a name, a formal structure and even a mission statement. They simply knew that they wanted to be positive and optimistic and they wanted writing postcards and letters to be a foundation of their work. Reflecting on the first few meetings they quickly settled on the name Progressive Schenectady.

My goal was to give them a logo that was a bit of a disruptor. No red white and blue. No patriotic stars, stripes or eagles. Instead I've looked to the disenfranchised women of our past to pull inspiration from the suffragettes.

In the late 1800s the Women's Social and Political Union of the UK selected the colors purple, white and green to distinguish their political movement. American suffragettes of the time adopted these same colors and introduced the color gold, or sunflower, to help pass a referendum in Kansas in 1867. I've chosen to use the original purple and green, which are unusual to today's tastes and have a dramatic weight that makes them work well for a logo. Exact shades were chosen with care to ensure vibrant reproduction in four-color process printing and on screen viewing.

The diagonal sashes worn by suffragette marchers throughout time inspired the simple yet striking design. The words rise mimicking the sash worn from hip to shoulder. And as a logo, devoid of that symbolism, the words rise off the horizontal plane feeling both optimistic and propelled forward. Meanwhile the two words visually bump up against one another, creating a bit of frisson. That tiny bit of discomfort makes the mark more unusual and memorable.

The letter forms are suffused with meaning to those who recognize them. The distinctly American typeface is Gotham—brought to prominence by Barrack Obama's Hope campaign.

And finally, created as a signature, the monogram version (PS, like post script or pant suit) has the same construction as the full logo simplified and thematically driving home the reference to hand-written letters and postcards.

SallyeAnder came to Aurora Design summer 2016. A family company with a 30-year history of doing everything themselves they were ready to take the next step and contract with a designer. As the second generation of the family took the helm the diverse product line was refined and they realized that 60+ unique product labels had resulted in weak overall branding. And the hand spun nature of their product labeling didn't reflect the premium quality of the contents.

Made from organic and food grade essential oils and pure olive and soy oil, SallyeAnder products are predominantly displayed in open containers that invite customers to select products much like selecting the perfect produce at a farmers market. SallyeAnder had long relied on simple brown bags with adhesive labels.

Our goals were simple, elevate the brand. We wanted to keep the hand-crafted feel while creating a cohesive strategy to unite their products and establish a distinctive and timeless label appropriate for a variety of retail environments.

Ultimately we created a new logo with some handmade flair. Their compound name creates a word that is hard to say and spell. The solution makes the components of the name clear while strongly holding them together.

The tagline clearly proclaims their long history and describes the business succinctly.

The brand promise highlights their values and missions and appears on the back of every bag.

Each label has a strong hierarchy that focuses on the core brand, and the product name or scent. Quickly scannable they highlight both skin types and product descriptions—to make selection easier. Then a concise explanation—highlighting the contents and their healing properties.

A lively color palette differentiates products and tightly cropped vintage illustrations are a nod to the previous packaging.

Global brands have trusted Mohawk papers for their print collateral for 85 years. Now Mohawk wants to bring their famous print fidelity and customer service to the packaging industry.

The goal was to highlight Mohawk's extensive range of colors, finishes and weights and introduce manufacturers and designers to the breadth of papers available both in stock and as custom orders.

The sampler is contained in a shocking pink custom folder. Rohner press duplexed a sheet of Curious Collection Skin Pink and Curious Collection Particles Gold together to create a cover that demands attention and is substantial in your hand. Inside the 12 x 12 inch kit are twelve distinctive boxes ready to assemble. The kit encourages the recipient to interact with each sheet of paper and develop a sense of its tactile qualities—how it feels in the hand, folds crisply and the rigidity of the finished box. A handy tape strip makes assembly goof proof and quick.

The design of each box is consistent to keep production time to a minimum but they display a stunning range of specifications.

The range of papers includes: black, white, brown, kraft, silver luster, felt, linen, smooth, vellum, cast coated and grooved.

Each box is printed in one of three match grays (including a metallic gray). Each features both a crisp blind debossing and one of a range of foils including both glossy and matte foils and range of colors from rose gold, to dark pink, black, copper and gold.

Also included in each kit is a digitally-printed top sheet on hearty Superfine 150 cover and a four-page brochure that explains Mohawk's packaging offerings in more detail. The brochure also features Aurora-Design created illustrations of box and bag formats to inspire. Both of these pieces were printed in-house at Mohawk's Print Innovation Center.

The remainder of the kit was produced by Rohner Press.

Silver Addy Award | Best-in-show finalist
American Package Design Award | Graphic Design USA

In 1946, the world was changing. And in Cohoes, NY, the innovative papermakers at Mohawk quietly created a new product—Mohawk Superfine—the ultimate paper.

In the 70 years since it was created Superfine has developed a passionate following. To celebrate Mohawk Superfine’s 70th birthday we created an invitation to encourage designers, printers and paper lovers to write a love letter to Superfine.

The invitation asks Superfine fans everywhere, to send a birthday greeting, love note, fan letter, Instagram post, sketch, email or memory about your relationship with Superfine.

An icon and series of Instagram and Facebook posts were created to build support.

Silver Addy Award

This fun identity is was developed for a copywriter setting up a new practice. The two graphic elements are designed to be used together and separately—maximizing their impact.

Several years ago I met the lovely and talented Marylu Aragosa while working on a project with Metroplex. We have kept in touch over the years and I have occasionally helped with small one-off marketing pieces and tweaks to her existing website. This year I created a new website for Ferri Formals and Bridals. For her customers, we strove to create a site that worked well on mobile devices. But for Marylu we wanted the site to be easy to update and change. And, of course, we wanted to freshen the visual presentation and broaden its appeal to families throughout the northeast.

The site launched at the start of their once-a-year blow out sale. the sale images tie in to the site—with beautiful black and white images, crisp Bodoni italic type and bright pops of color. For the ads I shot the images one morning. Processed them in the early afternoon and within a few hours had a folder full of ads for Facebook and Instagram.

Subtitled The Designer's Guide to Achieving Brilliant Results on Uncoated Paper, Printing Basics is a rich resource on color formats, technology, prepress, inks, coatings and printing. It methodically walks novice designers through the process of preparing print specifications, planning production, preparing files—all with the goal of getting optimal results on press.

We set the bar high and strove to define and explain production terminology while offering a rich selection of print demonstrations to clarify concepts. The final piece is suitable for use in a print production class at the university level with a breadth and depth of information and examples.

Printed demonstrations show the exact same image: as a halftone, duotone, and four-color process, at 72 ppi and 300 ppi; at 60 lpi and 200 lpi line screen; screened 60 lpi conventional and 35 micron stochastic; and with curves adjusted for uncoated printing.

Other pages demonstrate a spot color with opaque white substituted to smooth out mottle, the effects of coatings on uncoated paper, touch plates, and UV versus conventional printing. Over sized print demos in the back pocket compare the effects of paper color, paper texture, print techniques and color management. There is even a demo showing an Epson proof compared to digital and offset printing. The final insert is a print specs checklist on one side and a press check checklist on the other.

Printed by Sandy Alexander in Clifton, NJ, Printing Basics is a piece that you have to hold in your hand to understand the depth of the information communicated. It combines four-color process printing, multiple spot colors, additional black ink, stochastic and conventional screens (in multiple screen rulings), fluorescent touch plates, metallic ink, three different coatings, offset, digital and UV printing.

Joining Envelope Basics and Paper Basics, Printing Basics is the third in an educational series in development for Mohawk Fine Paper. Samples are available directly from Mohawk.

Silver Addy Award

On a quiet side street in downtown Schenectady, NY, Tara Kitchen creates dishes with the distinctive flavors of North Africa. Aurora Design was contracted to create labels for ten new food products for home cooks. Inspired by the tagine, a traditional earthenware cook pot of Morocco, these labels bring exciting color and dimension to shop shelves. Typographic details including quirky ligatures and expressive patterning hint at the exotic flavors within.

American Package Design Award | Graphic Design USA
Addy Award Finalist

In 2003, Mohawk Fine Papers became the only paper mill and one of the first large-scale production facilities in the United States to offset emissions from electric power generation with the purchase of RECs issued by wind farms. The windpower logo, created that same year, was designed to herald Mohawk’s commitment to sustainable energy—and for end users to demonstrate that same commitment on pieces printed on Mohawk paper.

Grumeti Fund

Grumeti Fund of Tanzania came to Aurora Design to help craft a brand that would resonate with donors, elite eco-travelers, and the local communities of the northern  Serengeti. Text and photos highlight the duality of their mission—serving the community and conserving the Serengeti ecosystem. The first piece, a long accordion-fold is a leave behind for talks given at the local Singita Resort.

Other pieces included stationery, business cards and flyer templates.

Silver Addy Award

Lisa Brigantino

Meant to evoke a beloved childhood play spot, the Hidden Pond Productions symbol was created for a unique, independent company that offers music supervision, talent supervision, intellectual property licensing and rights clearance of all kinds, branding, research and consultation as well as custom music scoring, production and sound design services.

Rescue Me is an intensive care balm that features 21 essential oils and herbs to soothe, heal and protect distressed skin. SallyeAnder wanted to update and refresh the packaging for this premium multi-purpose skin care product. The compass motif resonated with the creator who designed Rescue Me to be the only balm you need. In addition to the front and back labels the project included informational handouts and point of purchase signs.

A glimpse into the Strathmore Archives.

From 1900 to 1930 American paper companies, slowly shifted from selling paper as a commodity to promoting it as an essential design element. Strathmore Paper, one of the two firms leading this effort, relied almost exclusively on well-known designers, illustrators and typographers to show printers how paper was more than a substrate, but an element on a par with illustrations and type.

Paper is Part of the Picture was published to coincide with a presentation by artist and historian Paul Shaw at the 2015 How Design Live conference. The catalog features work by Will Bradley, T.M. Cleland, Adolph Treidler, Helen Dryden and Lucien Bernhard and gives a small glimpse into this powerful collection of design, illustration, lettering and paper promotion.

Work for the archives also included ads, posters and display panels.

The catalog was produced in partnership with Blurb.

Silver Addy Award

Cornell Cooperative Extension Schenectady County

The new Health Shares program works to reduce complications from cardiovascular and other chronic diseases through a program that improves nutrition by prescribing fresh vegetables for high-risk, low-income patients. Aurora Design submitted three potential logo designs and program leaders selected the mark featuring a striking heart-shaped beet.

This print demonstration for Mohawk Superfine Layers highlights the printability and thickness of this innovative product. Layers is created by applying cohesive glue to one side of legendary Mohawk Superfine cover-weight paper. After printing on an HP Indigo or dry toner press the sheets are then fused using standard print shop pressure. The resulting double-thick sheet has an impressive presence—combining the beautiful soft finish of Superfine and luxe thickness. The imagery reflects things that stack and layer to create great durability, rigidity and protection.

The humble envelope rarely gets the attention it deserves. At a time when direct-mail volumes are expected to rise, more professionals are realizing that the best hope they have of attracting attention lies in rethinking this humble piece of the mailing process. This exciting sample packed was inspired by Josef Albers’ artwork and designed to showcase Mohawk’s completely customizable window envelopes. The assemblage includes three rich color palettes: Elegant, Bright and Classic.

The 2015 holiday season kicks off Mohawk's celebration of the first 70 years of Mohawk Superfine.

We wanted to create a holiday card that felt joyful and celebratory. Inspired by lush out-of-focus photos of Chicago Christmas lights, and using a pattern from Mohawk's brand standards, four different colorways were developed. The red, green, blue and gold patterns coordinate with stocked foil-lined Superfine envelopes.

The color palettes are intended to capture the illuminated and overlapping quality of holiday lights. The distinctive brush script typeface was chosen to balance out the rigid structure with some fun drama.

Of course, since Mohawk is a paper company, the cards serve as an important print demonstration for Superfine Layers. Layers is created by applying cohesive glue to one side of Mohawk Superfine cover-weight paper. After printing on an HP Indigo press the sheets were fused using standard print shop pressure. The resulting double-thick sheet has an impressive presence—combining the beautiful soft finish of Superfine and luxe thickness.

Addy Award Silver Award Winner | 2016

A certification mark designating products that have been identified as the most natural and healthful products in their category. Aurora Design modernized the typography and created a mark that is not only distinctive but easy to reproduce.

Frequently appearing along with the USDA organic mark, the two marks share the same shade of green and similar proportions when scaled to the same dimension.

The dimensional portfolio includes pre-perforated and pre-scored packaging, promotional and presentation products for digital presses. The launch kit demonstrates uses for these new products and includes a complete catalogue, printing tips and designer-friendly electronic templates.

Schenectady Greenmarket

Invitation, flyer, banner ad and poster campaign promoting the annual fundraising dinner of Schenectady Greenmarket. Vintage clip art combined with chunky, quirky type set a strong theme that was economical, surprisingly sophisticated and remained fresh in its many iterations.

The logo for Schenectady Greenmarket ties Schenectady’s distinctive City Hall cupola to planted fields of green. Board Chair Betsy Henry says, “The iconic logo for the fledgling Schenectady Greenmarket has become recognized throughout the region. Jennifer’s oversight of our promotional materials has helped us to maintain a strong, unique and consistent public identity. I believe that much of our success in the past three years is due to Jennifer’s ability to make us stand out from the background noise.”

Curtis Instruments

As part of a website reorganization, Curtis Instruments,a global leader in technologies for emission-free transportation, approached Aurora Design to develop a series of graphic panels for their homepage. The panels depart from the tradition of photographic images. The subtle color change mimics the shape of the corporate mark and the bold color combination jumps out from the established background of blues and greens.

Unique sign artwork for a pedestrian street of cafes, independent boutiques and local businesses. Aurora Design worked with the Jay Street Business Association, Stracher Roth Gilmore Architects and Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority to develop the sign artwork and logo.