Soulellis Studio

We designed a new logo for Urban Center Books earlier this year as part of our ongoing work for the Municipal Art Society of New York. You'll find it on bags, bookmarks and on the spine of the new book Unpacking My Library, just published by Yale (book design by Pentagram).

The much-loved architecture and design book store, considered to be one of the best of its kind in the US, is closing in January. MAS is moving to West 57 Street and until new retail space is found the book store will be online only. Anyone who has browsed this place in person knows how much it will be missed. Can't wait to see it reborn in 2010.

In the spirit of "ideas worth sharing," TED will introduce a new program that allows anyone in the world to host their own TED event. It hasn't even fully launched but events are already occurring in Taipei, Tokyo, Melbourne, Austin and USC. Currently working on the new identity (shown) and the guidelines that will go out globally. It's great fun and it looks like it's leading to a much larger branding system for all of TED (TED Global, TED India, etc). More coming soon!

One goal in life has been to get to a TED conference, so I was really honored when Richard Saul Wurman recommended that they collaborate with me for a special 25th anniversary logo for TED2009. What you see here apparently graces the cover of this year's program book, among other things (...still haven't seen it...fingers crossed that it looks good!). TED2009 is going on right now in Long Beach, CA, with Bill Gates, Seth Godin, Nate Silver, Tim Burners-Lee and Oliver Sacks among this years' speakers; listen in to the official TED2009 tweets here.

We're working on a few other special projects with TED. More to come soon.

New identity, mission, tagline and annual report for The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS). During the last year we've worked with MAS to strategically re-brand the 115-year-old NYC institution. More to come over the next few weeks, as stationery is printed, website is launched and guidelines are finalized. A nice brand moment for us (and more importantly, for MAS).

Here's some freshly-printed letterhead of a freshly-designed identity for a totally new non-profit by the author of this (and founder of this). But the real home of this brand is going to be online, not in print. More soon, after it launches.

AAP, Spring 2008. NEWS04 coming soon. Take a look at NEWS03, NEWS02, and the first issue.

The van's dirty, it's not the greatest photo, and I risked my life taking it while driving, but it's a perfect "in situ" shot of the A&E identity and van that we designed for Sears. They inherited the brand from Montgomery Ward and it's the second largest fleet of home repair service vehicles in the US (the first being Sears' own Parts & Repair Services vans, which we also branded). The graphics were designed to be as visible as possible when the vans pull up in driveways for a service call.

Richard Saul Wurman is a legend in many worlds. When the creator of TED launched his new annual conference in 2006 (eg — the entertainment gathering) he worked with Soulellis Studio to create an event logo that was easily applied to screen, program, baseball cap, bag and badge. Judged by many as the best conference of his career, we're now part of the team bringing eg'07 to life at the Getty Center in LA. Event branding by Soulellis Studio, website by Krate. [pictured — Richard Saul Wurman with Frank Gehry and Sidney Poitier at eg2006]

We've had a terrific long-term relationship with the Council on Competitiveness, a non-partisan think-tank in Washington, D.C. They recently agreed to a strategic identity overhaul, so we set out to give them a highly legible graphic system that builds on their existing assets. We retained the gold star that they've used for years, but placed it in a new context, with more weight and impact. Times New Roman is out — Akzidenz Grotesk is in. We recommended integrating "Compete" into the identity as a one-word mission statement and a critical call-to-action for its audiences. We're now systematizing the identity program across a complete range of publications, signage, stationery and website. A totally redesigned Compete.org will launch in December 2007.

We collaborated with Nancye Green to create a friendly brand identity for Naomi Judd, who sells her skincare products through direct response marketing (paid television and web). Naomi's actual signature was our inspiration for the logo, which we applied to products, packaging and print. Calligraphic illustration by Iskra.

Amy Lau is an immensely talented interior designer who runs a tight shop here in NYC. We've been honored to work with her to create a new identity and collateral materials for her debut at this year's Kips Bay event. Stationery, photo cards, portfolio boxes and press kits are built around a four-color palette and Gotham. More images soon.

This was one of several concepts for a new identity proposed to the Open Space Institute, an established non-profit land-conservancy in New York. They pursued a different approach, but the punch of these icons still seems appealing.

What are the design criteria when proposing a new identity for a $50 billion retail giant that operates 3,800 stores? Creative possibilities were limited, but in the end we were able to push a very imposing and corporate identity — one they had used ubiquitously for 25 years — to a slightly warmer and friendlier place. At the time, we lobbied (unsuccessfully) against the swoosh, a mandate from the client. After a few years they've now finally dropped it from national advertising, and I must admit: I miss it.