The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has tapped Elixir to develop their Holiday 2009 promotion. The theme will waft into The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s 700+ locations around the globe this fall, infusing all aspects of the sipping, sitting, and shopping experience.
Elixir will start by establishing a proprietary brand visual language that aligns the essence of the Holiday promotion with the brand story—from attitude and tone to palette, icons and seasonal décor. In-store applications will deck the walls, displays, collateral and packaging and extend to recommendations for gift merchandising and in-store music.
The March/April Communication Arts (CA) celebrates the magazine’s 50th anniversary, and Elixir is honored to be mentioned twice in this retrospective issue. CA, which originally stood for “commercial art,” predates most of us. It has always been there: fresh work beautifully reproduced, plus forward-thinking, history-respecting perspective. But in 1959, the magazine was blazing a trail in the CMYK wilderness and being perfect-bound by hand!
The current issue features two big-picture information graphics: a 20-page 50-year timeline and a Visual Communications Genealogy. The logo Elixir created for New Leaf Paper appears on the timeline {top of page 82}, which starts with, not surprisingly, the cover of the first issue and ends with Mad Men and Barack Obama.
And we are included in a Visual Communications Genealogy, which Editor Patrick Coyne describes as a work-in-progress: “to provide an understanding of the impact of mentorship on design and advertising.” Elixir is in very exalted company in the honeycomb of San Francisco design on page 126.
In addition to reminiscences and reflections, the issue is rich to the last spread with enticing resources: from book reviews to Swiss font furniture; from a photo-sharing site that encouraged us to strew our photos across the floor, to an application that converts digital photos to their Polaroid equivalent. This issue is a mega-maga-matic of our moment in time.
Elixir is delighted to be working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a non-profit organization established by Congress in 1984 to preserve and restore our nation’s native wildlife species and habitats. The Foundation directs public conservation dollars to the most pressing environmental needs and matches those funds with private contributions.
Elixir is creating invitations and event collateral for NFWF’s annual Bay Area fundraising event: ‘Celebrating the Great Outdoors,’ to be held March 24th. This year’s honoree is Julie Packard, marine biologist and Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. San Francisco’s own Stanlee Gatti will be designing the event.
Since its inception, NFWF has invested more than 1.5 billion in conservation, providing over 10,000 grants to more than 3,500 organizations in all 50 states and over 50 other countries.
The January/February 2009 issue of CA, featuring an in-depth article about Elixir, is on newsstands now. Founder Jennifer Jerde talks about Elixir’s “North Star” branding process, and clients describe their experiences working with the firm. Event designer Stanlee Gatti, who has collaborated with Elixir on projects for Lucasfilm, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the California Academy of Sciences, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, pays the supreme compliment, “I don’t think there’s anyone like them!” Download the complete article in pdf format here.
Just in time for holiday meals and festive toasts! Golden Star Tea Company’s White Jasmine Sparkling Tea is now available at all Whole Foods locations in California. The Elixir-designed bottle {which won Golden Star a Best Iced Tea Packaging award at the 2008 World Tea Championship} will stand tall on any bar, buffet or table. This innovative product {which won Best White Flavored Iced Tea at the show as well} is also filtering into San Francisco specialty shops, including Plumpjack, Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, and BiRite. You can shop on-line {https://store.goldenstartea.com/} too. Here’s to non-alcoholic, fine-food-friendly holiday cheer!
The new Sundance Almanac: A Catalog for Men. Elixir worked with Sundance to introduce an expanded offering of men’s apparel and accessories. The design is classic, rugged and warm—like a grey merino Henley wool sweater. The Holiday 2008 book shipped mid-October as a bind-in to the main Sundance catalog. Selected shoppers {The A-for-Almanac List} will receive it as a self-mailer. For cozy shopping, all items are also on the web.
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Elixir has completed the first phase of revisions for sundancecatalog.com. Sweeping enhancements to the site’s global navigation bring the spirit of Sundance catalog on line. Elixir also brainstormed a new creative direction for the home and category pages, to be implemented down the proverbial road.
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Shot in New Orleans, the Sundance Spring Catalog is now “in home.” Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot, along with resulting final covers. More »
