This is in a reply to a twitter comment by @jwojchi about my compliments to Landor for their recent re-branding effort for DC Comics.

Great branding firms do not create for the past, they also just keep the present in mind when designing for the future.

Change is hard to give into, especially when it intrudes an era of historic connections with die-hard fans, but there is a larger chance that Landor’s work will in fact do what it promises to deliver, which is to turn DC Comics’ objectives into a lively, current and adjustable brand platform that is weathered for changes within DC Comics that outside spectators, like myself, can not be aware of. Read the rest »

Geyrhalter & Co. has an ideal location on Main Street in Santa Monica. It’s close to the ocean which makes for a perfect lunch hour. Walk two sunny blocks to the beach, take your shoes off, and eat your lunch. A true “sandwich,” as it were.

The lunch choices in our neighborhood are plentiful. Within a few-block radius we can choose omusubi or seitan and pico de gallo or pancakes. But with too many choices comes indecision. Read the rest »

I have been buying a lot of used vinyl lately. Mostly for under $1 and a majority of it focused on establishing a collection of all the classics: The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Dave Brubeck, lots of Motown and Verve Records, and of course the occasional 80′s record that just brings back those childhood memories.

It is interesting when you listen to the 80′s pop genre. The music you know, you think of as ‘amazing’ and then once you hear B-sides or tracks on full lengths that you have not been exposed to, they sound, well, dated. Or shall we say ‘cheesy’, and often plain embarrassing.

The same holds true for the record sleeve designs, as you can see in the examples below:

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I just recently came back from a trip to see my parents in Austria. We are all big lovers of Austrian wines and have an affinty for great design. It seems to go hand in hand in many cases, no  pun intended. As I tasted a Grüner Veltliner from a vineyard I have not explored so far, something interesting happened. I did not take the bottle with me while having the first sips.

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Back in 1997 Fabian Geyrhalter, our President and Creative Director, a graphic design student at Art Center College Of Design at the time, was approached by his brother Nikolaus, to design the poster for his second documentary film.

13 years later, the talented designers at Geyrhalter & Co are busy working on two new film posters, two web sites and several collateral pieces for Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion in Vienna, Austria. Fabian’s brother has since emerged as one of Europe’s most successful and important documentarians and we want to use this moment to look back at the work we have created for Nikolaus’ important films over the past 13 years. If you are intrigued, which we hope you will be, you can view trailers of his films via this YouTube channel. Read the rest »

92 year old Mr. Harman, of hi-fi equipment Harman/Kardon fame, recently purchased Newsweek for $1. Well and the $50 million in liabilities that come with it. Most of us have heard the story over past weeks. Last weekend, the New York Times released an interview with Mr. Harman that gives an insight on what he is planning to change about Newsweek as the new owner of the money-losing magazine. The first thing on Mr. Harman’s list, quoting the New York Times, is a change in its graphic design:

He thinks the magazine is “dull to behold, dull, dull” and wants its graphic design to be “as meaningful, as imperative, as the written expression.”

To us, this is a very significant statement showcasing the understanding of the importance graphic and brand design has gained with corporate veterans over the past years. It also signals that the marriage of design and content is seen to indeed create a more successful message delivery. While changes in staff and editorial views would be on top of the list for most newly appointed owners at this significant turning point, for Mr. Harman it seems to be the creation of a distinct and harmonious Brand Atmosphere in order to compete and win in an industry that is on the verge of collapse.

A smart move. In this day and age of content source overload, a news publication needs to create a product that differentiates and convinces through its design. We can’t wait to see the changes come around, maybe on Mr. Harman’s 93rd birthday?

I was thrilled to see a full page in yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Edition being dedicated to depicting the world cup to date. Being spoiled by the beautiful trend of seeing not only useful, but also extremely creative and conceptual information graphics these days – a trend that was definitely fed by Good Magazine – I was ready to analyze. Too bad I did not get very far, as the designer of this page clearly designed in color, which then got translated into a greyscale chart, with a gradation from dark to light and right back to dark again, making the chart impossible to accurately decipher and quite hard on the eyes. It surely is an unfortunate mishap to happen on a full page within the New York Times on a Sunday, but lesson learned: Design according to the medium and the restrictions from the very start of the assignment, because, like in this case, the medium is the message.

When I designed a calendar for the year 2000 for several european companies, who ‘private labeled’ it to use as a corporate gift, I focused on the symbolic meaning of the numbers that represent each month to coincide with the switch of the millenium. Yes, back then we were all freaked out about ‘numbers’.

I illustrated or photographed each piece and was in desperate need of a great looking old wheel for the calendar’s cover. Down the street from where I lived in Santa Monica there it was, in a shop window. A strange shop it was as it was never open to the public and no one really knew what exactly was being sold. I caught an old man opening a side door and that’s how I met Parke Meek. A remarkable man who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames, and who let a young Mr. Geyrhalter shoot his props for that calendar and shared his stories with me that fine day.

Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times announced that the little shop, Jadis, will be open today at 11:00 AM to the public to sell its vast inventory of curiosities, which were mainly rented by studios as props. In true fashion it was not yet open by 11:45 AM when I swang by to see if I could purchase that wheel as a memory of Parke Meek, who passed away in January at age 86. Thanks to the LAT write up, people lined up around the block. So instead of being in line, I opted to share this article about a great man, and some shots of my 2000 calendar with you:

Link to the Los Angeles Times Article

Pictures of the shop

Why is it that the more prestigious the design competition, the more it costs to enter?

Prices for a single entry can be around $120. But once you are selected to either receive an award, or be published in the awards annual, which after all is part of the exercise, there will be an additional fee of $280 – $400. And that is for just one single entry.

Sure, we play along. Sometimes. As we see fit, and for projects we feel deserve to be honored. But we too draw the line.

Let’s not forget that we are an agency, we have a PR budget and cash flow. How about all the students, freelancers, micro design firms, nonprofits and other entities that may have the big, creative, genius ideas that we should all be drooling over? The ideas that really look different because they come from folks that may not have ‘corporate’ breathing down their necks, or they do it for free, out of passion and just for fun? Isn’t that often when truly great ideas happen? They will never be in any of the ‘big’ award books showcasing the best, the brightest and most amazing ideas. The books that design students get for christmas, that turn into their text books of what they ought to measure their own creativity with, are lacking to showcase just that, the unconditionally best creative endeavours. Read the rest »

March 15th I was attending a concert of the amazing jazz pianist Keith Jarrett at the equally stunning Walt Disney Concert Hall. I went by myself, since my wife was not interested in seeing him again and going solo for this experience felt like the right thing to do. That day I received the book ‘Rework’ by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 signals in the mail, so I had a great companion.

Glued to the book, I intuitively used the ticket stub as my bookmark and as Mr. Jarrett started playing, I thought of the emotional connection that bookmarks have with the time, the space, the moment in ones life when a specific book was being read. But once the book is put to sleep on the book shelf, that memory is buried, indefinitely. Quite different to a piece of music which can reach your ears unsuspectedly at a gas station, a bar, a restaurant, the car radio, yet it has the same power of almost instantly catapulting you back to a particular scene of your life. The book on the other hand is simply ‘filed away’. I thought it would be great to create a simple web site for anyone to upload their otherwise ‘bookshelved’ bookmarks. Great to have them archived, fun to share and even more fun to peruse other people’s books with their unique or fun bookmarks. Who knows, if a good number of people start using it, we might want to add social components to the site in the future.

The book I was reading, ‘Rework’, has a chapter in it that talks about not trying to produce a finished product, but rather launch it in a bare bones state. If people like it then change the good product to a perfect one (‘Launch now’, Pg 93). Good is good enough. It also declares death to procrastination (‘Start Making Something’, Pg 38). Funny as I run my company in many of the ways described in the book, and many of the others are big aspirations for this year. So here I was at an inspirational concert, an inspirational setting, reading an inspirational book and I had a quick idea.

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