Elixir is honored to be working with the San Francisco Symphony on an invitation to their sneak preview of Keeping Score: Season 2. Keeping Score is the San Francisco Symphony’s national project to make classical music more accessible and meaningful to people of all ages and musical backgrounds, and a key component of its almost century-long history of music education.

More than five million viewers tuned into the first season of Keeping Score on PBS in November 2006 with documentaries on Ludwig van Beethoven, Igor Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland. Season 2 features three new programs that explore the music and stories behind Hector Berlioz’s symphonic love letter Symphonie fantastique; Charles Ives’s sonic portrait of New England in his Holidays Symphony; and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a work that may ultimately have saved his life.

The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas premiere the second season of the Keeping Score television series on PBS on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). Click here to watch the trailer. The programs work in tandem with an interactive website, www.keepingscore.org, a national radio series, and a national model education program for K-12 teachers that helps them integrate classical music into core subjects.

Invitation; event collateral: auction preview, program, pledge + table cards.

Smiley faces at the table. Photo: Drew Altizer.

Standard Bearers: Stanlee Gatti and Stanley Burrell (aka MC Hammer). Photo: Drew Altizer.

Kyle and Jen. Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

Becca Prowda and her husband, Tipping Point Founder-Director Daniel Lurie. Photo: Drew Altizer.

Light up the night. Photo: Catherine H. Bigelow.

For a gallery of guests (all smiley) and in-depth reportage of the event, we recommend Catherine’s post on 7×7.

Athleta has been acquired by the Gap after a decade of designing women’s athletic apparel. The purchase was completed last Fall, and Athleta’s website recently relaunched under the Gap umbrella of brands…

Elixir worked directly with Athleta founder Scott Kerslake from the earliest days, collaborating on the name and creating the still-in-use identity. Also, Elixir’s catalog concept supported initial fundraising efforts. Over the next seven years Elixir evolved the brand’s strategy, catalog design, and art direction. Back in the late 90s, both the nascent brand and its catalog were innovative, providing a new perspective by focusing on the confluence of performance and fashion.

Our congratulations to Athleta on its splash into the big brand pond. Go team!

For those of you considering a flooray into the world of “art for the floor” consider the advice of the Financial Times, which has separately described Claremont Rug as “one of the world’s best sources of antique carpets.” You can read more about Claremont’s business and one-of-a-kind “white glove service” at the New York Times.

Shown here: a handful of Claremont Rug’s newest acquisitions. At the showroom, you can see, touch, and put your best foot forward on museum-quality rugs. {6087 Claremont Avenue, Oakland CA 94618. Hours: Mon – Sat 11.00 am – 6.00 pm}

Hadji Jallili Tabriz – 3rd Quarter, 19th century

Laver Kirman – circa 1875

Kashan – late 19th century

Sultanabad – late 19th century

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.

Anthony Mazzei, Hlaska’s founder and CEO, recently had occasion to describe his initial experience working with Elixir: “The first thing I noticed about Elixir is how much time they take to ask questions to understand our brand. Elixir does not take the easy way, they don’t look for shortcuts.  They are so passionate about our products that the work feels seamless, like they are part of our company. They helped keep our goals both realistic and ambitious. They are always on time, and everything they touch looks 50 times better than the original. They are worth every penny.”

In Kyle’s pocket these days: Hlaska’s Evergreen wallet in Cognac. The vegetable-dyed leather is embossed with wood grain “lifted” from an actual piece of cedar. The wallet also comes with pine-grain emboss (in Natural) and ebony-grain emboss (in Black, natch).

On Jen’s arm on-the-go: The Caliper Briefcase from Hlaska’s first collection. Structured walls and multiple pockets keep her everything secure and highly tidy.

Experience the entire product line {from cufflinks and ties to watches and weekenders), at Hlaska. 2033 Fillmore Street at Pine. +1 415 440 1999.

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.

Alyson has worked with Elixir since 2000 on diverse assignments: branding strategies, voice guides, interviews, and client marketing materials. She is also an invaluable contributor to the studio’s own self-promotion, crafting blog posts, staff bios, and project descriptions.