IDENTITY & BRAND DESIGN
COMPANY AND PRODUCT NAMING
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
LOGO DESIGN
ADVERTISING & DIRECT MAIL
EVENT BRANDING
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
WEB & MOBILE APP DESIGN
PACKAGING DESIGN
POSTERS & PRESENTATIONS
BOOK DESIGN
ANNUAL REPORT DESIGN
BROCHURE & NEWSLETTER DESIGN
SIGNAGE
AND MORE...
 

LOVE LA

Hearts are rotated to shape the ❤ , “L”, and “A” – inspired by Milton Glaser’s iconic I ❤ NY logo.

If you're looking to support Los Angeles in the aftermath of the 2025 wildfires, consider donating to The National Domestic Workers Alliance, a 4-star Charity Navigator-rated non-profit dedicated to assisting cleaners, gardeners, and other service workers who have lost their livelihoods due to the LA wildfires. 

https://www.domesticworkers.org

ONE805 : ROCK FOR FIRST RESPONDRERS BENEFIT CONCERT GRAPHICS

In response to the devastating January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, I sought a meaningful way to contribute to the recovery efforts. This led me to collaborate with One805, a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting essential first responders. One805 has a commendable history of enhancing public safety by funding necessary equipment for Fire, Police, and Sheriff departments, as well as supporting the welfare of these vital community protectors.

I had the privilege of designing the visual identity for their March 2025 benefit concert, "Rock For First Responders." This high-profile event features an impressive lineup of artists including Hootie & the Blowfish, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Alan Parsons, Macy Gray, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

My role involved creating a cohesive suite of concert graphics, from promotional posters to social media assets.

Event Identity / Microsite / Printed Program, Memory Book & Other Collateral

Between 2017 and 2019, I had the privilege of crafting the visual identities for an exclusive WeightWatchers + Oprah Retreat. WW extended invitations to sweepstake winners and their guests for a weeklong, all-expenses-paid luxury retreat, complete with unexpected delights, the highlight being a surprise luncheon with Oprah.

The project encompassed two distinct event identities (WW rebranded in 2019), password-protected event microsites, mobile web applications, as well as all printed materials and promotional items distributed during the retreat.

THE MEMORY BOOK
When brainstorming ideas for a farewell gift, the idea came up to present guests with a blank photo album to house the professional photos from the event to be sent post-retreat. I suggested we could make this a more meaningful and personalized memento by creating a limited edition Memory Book with a recap of the people, places and things they had experienced that week and designated spaces to incorporate the professional photos, they were sent after the event. The Memory Book was presented to participants at the farewell dinner. They used the back pages to leave each other notes and exchange information.

Event organizer: Porch (Diana Dolan and Liberty Hanson Wild)

LA CARES

The "LA CARES" logo is a symbol of compassion, unity and hope, designed to support wildfire recovery initiatives across Los Angeles. The emblem merges the letters "L" and "A" of "Los Angeles," where the "A" form shaped shaped by the silhouette of two individuals embracing. The design represents the spirit of community solidarity and mutual support.

BOOK DESIGN – COVER AND INTERIOR PAGES

I was commissioned by rare book expert James Pepper to transform his manuscript into a professionally bound book. My primary responsibilities included designing a cover that met the approval of the Chaplin Estate and selecting an optimal book size for perfect binding. The challenge was to ensure that the dimensions were functional while maintaining the aesthetic integrity.

The book can be purchased from James Pepper Rare Books.

FROM THE CHARLES CHAPLIN NEWSLETTER:

In 1957, Dawn Addams cast a lucid gaze upon the film she had just starred in as lead actress, A KING IN NEW YORK:

TOGETHER FOR LA

The "Together for LA" logo is a symbol of unity and hope, crafted to support wildfire recovery efforts across Los Angeles. It integrates the letters "L" and "A" from "Los Angeles," with the "A" formed by clasped hands that can represent prayer, gratitude, or (in time) celebration through a 'high five.' The design embodies a community coming together in solidarity and support.

SANTA BARBARA COURTHOUSE WAYFINDING MAP

The Santa Barbara Courthouse, a celebrated national historic landmark, serves both as a vital functioning courthouse and a major tourist destination. Recognizing the dual nature of the building, the need for clear navigation was important.

In collaboration with the Santa Barbara Courthouse Docent Council, the project entailed the design and implementation of an intuitive wayfinding map strategically placed just beyond the Security Screening Area. The map, which measures 3 feet square, is designed to enhance the visitor experience, enabling tourists and guests to navigate the expansive and historic site at their leisure.

This latest iteration of the map was developed through a series of collaborative sessions with the Docent Council members, ensuring accuracy, user-friendliness, and aesthetic alignment with the historic character of the courthouse. This project highlights our commitment to enhancing public spaces through thoughtful and accessible design.

LOVE WINS CELEBRATION MARK

On June 26, 2015, I woke up to the news that the Supreme Court had ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. That same morning, I designed this symbol to celebrate and commemorate this landmark (and long overdue) decision. Love wins!

FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGNS / ANNUAL REPORTS / OTHER

ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity that provides emergency shelter and other aid items to families around the world who have lost their homes to disaster or conflict.

I’ve been design ShelterBox USA’s major fundraising campaign materials and annual reports for several years now. .

BOOK TITLE + BOOK COVER DESIGN + BUSINESS CARD/BOOKMARK

Author Megan Mori has written and designed a short book based on her own experiences of how to be happy and in the fact of illness.

”My own journey has taught me that each of us has a unique path, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to healing. I’ve created this book as an opportunity for you to start thinking about healing, and to develop your own path as you keep focused on your adventure. “

Brand Definition & Visual Identity

FOLD Santa Barbara offers handcrafted linens for food makers, food eaters, and party throwers + vintage tabletop treasures.

The logo won a Communication Arts Award of Excellence and appears in Design Annual 57 (Sep/Oct 2016). 

Team: Irene Hoffman & Viktoriya Filippova, owner of FOLD

Photos: Lerina Winter, Viktoriya Filippova

Styling: Viktoriya Filippova
 

Mental Wellness Center commissioned me to design an event identity for their annual arts fair – Artful Minds – celebrating the creative expression in arts and crafts of those living with mental health challenges.

I worked with Liat Wasserman, Mental Wellness Center’s Director of Development and Communications, on a design solution that features original art by artists who participated last year and the years before.

PERSONAL PROJECT

Design Within Reach (DWR) hosts an annual competition inviting people to create a chair using only the foil, cap, cage, cork and label from no more than two bottles of champaign, sparkling win, or sparkling cider. The chair can be an original design or the likeness of an existing chair.

I created a bean bag filled with shredded cork, and made figurines out of the champagne wires.

INFOGRAPHICS & ILLUSTRATION

RONA BARRETT ILLUSTRATION + BOOK COVER DESIGN

Rona Barrett is an entertainment journalist, columnist, broadcaster and producer. She runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.

Her insightful reporting and signature style became familiar in print. I was commissioned to design the bookcover of her book – Grey Matters – a collection of short essays.

”My own journey has taught me that each of us has a unique path, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to healing. I’ve created this book as an opportunity for you to start thinking about healing, and to develop your own path as you keep focused on your adventure. “
– RONA BARRETT

VISUAL IDENTITY

One Climate is an initiative to reaffirm the County of Santa Barbara’s leadership in addressing climate change, by unifying messaging and outreach for several major climate efforts launching in 2020 and beyond.

2019 HARVEST T-SHIRT GRAPHIC

LOGO DESIGN + STATIONERY

Love Seats is a baby gear detailing service for families and businesses based in Santa Barbara, California. Love Seats steam cleans and restores even the muckiest of children car seats, buggies and high chairs.

The upside down heart represents a baby’s bottom or ‘seat’.

ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS

THE SANTA BARBARA PUBLIC GARDEN fosters the conservation of California's native plants through its gardens and research. Most of this work takes place in the new Pritzlaff Conservation Center.

BRIEF
Create a wall panel for the lobby of the new Conservation Center, promoting the theme of conserving California’s flora.

Team: Irene Hoffman; Paula Schaeffer, Frederique Lavoipierre, Dr Steve Windhager (SBBG). Production and installation by Santa Barbara Signs.

STUDENT HANDOUT

Mental Health Matters (MHM) is a program of Mental Wellness Center designed to introduce basic facts about mental health to elementary, middle and high school students.

THE BRIEF
Recreate and refresh a two-page ‘Gratitude Journal’ card handout for students on their week-long course. These were traditionally professionally printed.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION
Instead of a two-page card printed externally, I designed a standard letter-size sheet which can be printed in-house and easily folded down to a pocket-sized format (1/4 page). I also proposed a new title for it – The Mood Explorer. It has been very well received.

COLLABORATORS/CLIENT
Liat Wasserman, Mental Wellness Center
Ann Lippincott, Mental Health Matters

Other credits:
The Brand Flip cover was designed by Marty Neumeier, and the original interior layout (for The Brand Gap) by Heather McDonald.

The Journalist's Guide to American Law was created for Cyan Design Studio.

 

As Marketing Director and Board Member of the Santa Barbara chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, I was responsible for designing all event graphics.

The role was creatively rewarding, as I had considerable creative freedom, but also challenging because the graphics were intended for an audience of design peers.

BRAND DEFINITION & STRATEGY / VISUAL IDENTITY / ADVERTISING / DIRECT MAIL / WEBSITE DESIGN / APP DESIGN / MARKETING COLLATERAL

The Santa Barbara Choral Society engaged me to perform a complete overhaul of their branding, including naming, mission statement, and taglines.

Collaboraters: Kate Rees, Susan Robbins, Marylove Thralls (SBCS), Ruben Mislang, M4 Interactive (web development), Zach Mendez (photography)

EMOTICON TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO WEAR A MASK

To encourage people to wear a face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, I created a series of mask-wearing smiley faces people can use as avatars on their their social media profiles.

PICKLES & SWISS

brand identity

Pickles & Swiss is a purveyor of fine sandwiches with shops in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Los Angeles, California. Their ingredients are always fresh (no freezers), made with natural ingredients, with gluten free options. I was commissioned to refresh their visual identity with a new logo, typopgraphy, and colors.

SEE International is a non-profit humanitarian organization that seeks to provide eyecare services to anyone in need of them, regardless of their background or ability to pay.

THE PROBLEM
The initial six years of a child's life are pivotal for the development of healthy vision. This period is often referred to as a "vulnerable period," a time when children are at the highest risk of experiencing detrimental vision changes that could potentially result in vision loss.

Young children may not report if they feel that something is wrong— simply because they don’t realize that something is wrong! The same goes for parents.

SEE International aimed to address this issue during their mission in Honduras.

THE CHALLENGE
Ther goal was to craft a public service announcement (PSA) that would effectively educate parents on the early signs of eye disorders in children, facilitating timely intervention.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION
Drawing inspiration from a photo by Jay Farbman, I decided to crop the images to focus exclusively on the children's eyes. This not only safeguarded the privacy of the children but also directed attention to the eye disorders themselves. To further engage the audience and destigmatize eye health issues, I incorporated vibrant local colors into the design, making the information not only accessible but also appealing.

THE RESULT
This public health flyer was placed public spaces around Honduras. It helped increase the numbers of parents who turned up with their children at SEE International clinics.

Photography by Jay Farbman.

Santa Barbara’s Solstice Celebration annually invites artists to submit poster concepts for the Summer Solstice Celebration on a chosen theme. In 2021 the theme was ‘Bloom’. This was my entry.

The Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Celebration is a free, three-day art and music festival, which includes a colorful parade.

BRAND STRATEGY + IDENTITY DESIGN + ADVERTISING + WEBSITE + STATIONERY + MORE

Wonder delights shoppers with its creatively curated collection of unique gifts, furnishings and jewelry. Their style is eclectic and their name reflects the innocence, curiosity, and breadth of what they do. 

CREATIVE STRATEGY
Wonder is more than a gift shop, as customers often purchased items for themselves. The challenge was to create a brand positioning and tagline that reflected that.

The care with which Wonder curates their offering inspired the brand positioning: The museum store without the museum and the corresponding tagline is Curators of Beautiful Things. The positioning extends to the way the shop floor is organized: into permanent and special 'exhibitions.'

Photography by Jay Farbman
 

I worked with Opera Santa Barbara and M4 Interactive to redesign their graphic identity and webs.te. To unveil the new logo and website, we launched a four-week teaser campaign taking out a full-page ad a week in Santa Barbara's Independent Magazine.

Each ad was designed to ignite curiosity and lay the groundwork for the big reveal. We directed our audience to the "Life Set to Music" microsite for additional hints and invited them back on January 5th, 2023, for the grand unveiling. The campaign was shortlisted for the Communication Arts Advertising Annual 2023 competition.

Opera Santa Barbara commissioned me to redesign their visual branding – logo, typography, color scheme. The new logo is an O for Opera, while the inside is an apostrophe or single quotation mark alluding to the storytelling or narrative nature of opera and musical theater.

Ruben Mislang of M4 Interactive, took an old, clunky website and rebuilt and designed it from the foundations up. I helped by applying the new branding look and feel.

Future items will be designed by their in-house team.

PERSONAL PROJECT

A personal project inspired by Enzo Mari’s minimalist fruit posters, the poster is designed to celebrate the California strawberry.

EVENT NAME & ADVERTISING

Event name, print ad and social media assets (shown here) for a winter shopping event in Summerland, CA. This was a full-page ad in the Montecito Journal.

The tree serves as a an approximate map of the shops in relation to Lillie Avenue.

Visual Identity Refinement / Website Design / Print Collateral

Originally commissioned to redesign the Unity Shoppe website, I used the opportunity to refine the visual identity which had been designed many years earlier.

Working with a limited budget, the project involved identifying and modifying a similar font, refreshing the brand color pallette.

Project team: Liat Wasserman, Unity Shoppe (client), Ruben Mislang, M4 Interactive (website development).

VISUAL IDENTITY + DIRECT MAIL + DIGITAL ADVERTISING + INTERACTIVE ONLINE AWARDS CEREMONY + DVD PACKAGING

EXHIBITION POSTER

"In 2011, artist Steve Walls showcased his photography work at Galerie-Espace. Photos ranged from Montreal’s Glam Gam burlesque toupe, rave kids who make their own clothing to New Dandy’s and “the occasional mom turned tattooed blogging model queen.” The exhibit, I Guess We’re Strange, celebrates the artists who are pushed to the fringes, the family that bonds them together, and the sense of doing things rather than saying."

Original text by Jessica Alley. More here. 

ANNIVERSARY MARK
 

Swiss Miss is a design blog run by Tina Roth Eisenberg. On the occasion of the blog's fifth anniversary, she invited designers around the world to submit a photo to celebrate the event. These were my contributions. Other contributions can be seen on this Flickr group.

INTERACTIVE ONLINE AWARD WINNERS APP

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT | ART DIRECTION | DESIGN | PROJECT MANAGEMENT

In April 2010, Apple introduced the iPad and in October, I designed the Cresta International Advertising Award’s Online Winner’s Reel. It is a a video-rich mobile web app optimized for use on smartphones, tablets and also desktop computers. Developer: OneBite.

ILLUSTRATION

This illustration was created for a special email invitation by Blackbird Architects to an event at the Santa Barbara Zoo (a Blackbird client). The event was organized to celebrate Ken Radtkey's AIA fellowship and the studio's accomplishments, and honor the clients and consultants who helped them achieve this.

A simple eco-friendly and cost-effective label for Flagstone Pantry's Muffin Mix.

The jar FP had sourced had no flat surfaces, so instead of an adhesive label, I created a four-page booklet attached to the jar by rubberband. This makes the jar reusable (no sticky label to remove) and since the booklet has all the ingredients and instructions, easy to replicate the recipe.

LOGO DESIGN

Right Brain University offers free group energy healing sessions for cancer survivors, civilians, veterans and first responders, transformational test-taking anxiety relief, business coaching and life coaching with emotional release work and somatic healing, both online and in Santa Barbara, California.

CASCARONES / THE JUGGLER

Once a year, during the festivities of Old Spanish Days week, commonly known as Fiesta, the main thoroughfare of Santa Barbara transforms into a vibrant marketplace. Here, vendors proudly display their cascarónes — intricately decorated eggshells filled with confetti, a symbol of joy and celebration deeply embedded in local tradition. These festive ornaments are traditionally purchased to be playfully crushed over the heads of friends and family, enveloping them in a cascade of colorful confetti.

In homage to this tradition, I crafted a unique cascarón in the form of a juggler for the daughter of a close friend, who shares my passion for collecting these delightful pieces.

"Cascarón" a documentary by Casey McGarry and Christopher Price, offers an intimate glimpse into the heart of Santa Barbara's cascarónes tradition.

ILLUSTRATION

An editorial illustration created for an online education program.

LYNDA.COM (NOW LINKEDIN)
design / project management / illustration / animation / copywriting

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN GRAPHICS (2014)
In December 2014, lynda.com kicked off a campaign called 12 Days of Learning, unlocking a free lynda.com course every day through December 24th. Think of it as an online 12 day advent calendar. The brief was to design an eye-catching, inspirational set of 12 social media graphics, with text not to exceed 20% of the image (Facebook rules) for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

LYNDA.COM E-NEWSLETTERS
Asset design and production management of the monthly email newsletter.

LYNDA.COM ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (2015)
Sourced, selected and retouched all the photography and designed the graphic design assets for this website. It was recently replaced with a LinkedIn one, so is no longer live.

WEB BANNER ADVERTISING
Working in tandem with several copywriters, I was tasked with created a series of static and animated web banner ads.

Team: Irene Hoffman (design), Heather Stallings (art direction, lynda.com)

VISUAL IDENTITY & COLLATERAL

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) developed the Global T Program which offers high school teachers an interactive lesson plan on international trade and logistics. The T-Shirt that Travels the World module traces the life of a t-shirt through the global economy in five one-hour lessons, designed to be taught over one week, that include videos, discussion, group activities, case studies, research, presentations, and debates.

Pianos on State, a local tradition and community musical experience, takes place during Arts & Humanities Month in October. Painted by local artists, each piano becomes its own interactive artwork and is displayed on State Street for the public to play.

In 2019, I collaborated with Phoebe and Magan Kunin on the Polka Dot Piano. We created the polka dots with LP stickers, including a few polka’s. It was heartwarming to see people playing it, even though it was a little out of tune.

A two-color tee shirt graphic for Santa Barbara volunteers heading by bus to Las Vegas, Nevada to canvass the vote in support of Jacky Rosen for Senate. https://www.rosenfornevada.com

Designed for the Creative Reaction Lab’s Artwork for Equity advocacy campaign, You+Me+Them=We is a bold, typographic poster with a simple equation that highlights our common humanity.

You can purchase it here.

PERSONAL PROJECT

SIMLTUDE NO. 1
On Nov. 16, 2018 I spotted a portrait photo of ballet dancer Sergei Polunin taken by photographer Kevin Abosch The gaze and shadows reminded me of Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait at 28. Turns out Sergei was also 28 at the time of the photo. A double similitude!

SIMILTUDE NO. 2
Some Hair Over the Rainbow (caption provided by Zsuzsa K. Farrell)

SIMILTUDE NO. 3
No caption necessary.

A foil-blocked holiday card for the Montecito Country Club.

VISUAL IDENTITY & COLLATERAL

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) developed the Global T Program which offers high school teachers an interactive lesson plan on international trade and logistics. The T-Shirt that Travels the World module traces the life of a t-shirt through the global economy in five one-hour lessons, designed to be taught over one week, that include videos, discussion, group activities, case studies, research, presentations, and debates.

AIGA, the professional association of design, celebrated its centennial in 2014. To commemorate the event, and inspired by the fact that its earliest members purchased their own Windsor-style chairs for meetings and events, AIGA invited its chapters to customize the skin of Real Good chairs from Minneapolis-based Blu Dot.

The Centennial Commemorative Chairs made their debut in the exhibition “Facing Forward: AIGA at 100” at the AIGA National Design Center in New York City.

CREATIVE STRATEGY
To create a concept that would involve as many members of the AIGA Santa Barbara chapter as possible and illustrate their creativity.

AIGA Santa Barbara members were asked to come up with 'alternative uses* for a chair'. Their answers were collated and used to create a typographic outline of a Windsor chair.

*In 1967, JP Guilford developed a test to stretch and measure people's creativity by giving them two minutes to come up with as many alternative uses for an object (for example a brick) as possible. It measures divergent thinking in four categories: fluency, originality, flexibility and elaboration. 

Team: Irene Hoffman (concept, design), Sarah Schumacher, Tracy Sherwood, Patty Driskel and AIGA Santa Barbara members (content).

SAVE THE DATE 

As Marketing Director of AIGA Santa Barbara, I was tasked with creating a 'Save the Date' postcard for the final three events of the year.

For the same price as a postcard, I delivered a promo piece that acted both as a 'Save the Date' and as invitation to join AIGA: a business-card-size accordion-fold booklet.  One one side holds information on the three upcoming events, and the other offers information about AIGA, an invitation to join and a recap timeline of events organized that year.

Ventura-based printer V3 invited Trish Witkovski of Fold Factory to give a talk about paper and folds in direct mail marketing and commissioned me to design the invitation to the event which was going out to their customers made up mostly of designers and marketing professionals. 

I made the decision to capture the main pieces of information when folded, while making sure they integrated nicely into a layout design when expanded.

A WEDDING INVITATION

The bride and groom are keen gardeners, and the wedding ceremony itself was to be held under an old oak tree in on an old Scottish estate, so the invitation takes the theme of gardening and nature (and sustainability).

The wording of the inviation was printed on parchment paper and attached with a dried fern leaf to a card made of handmade paper which contained wildflower seeds (recipients were told to plant them). The card was then placed in a transluscent parchment envelope.

CONCEPT + ILLUSTRATIONS

A series of branded illustrations and icons for leadership consultant and trainer Deborah Naish of Naish Partners.

The first two in a what will be a series of art catalogues for the artist Cynthia James.

Printed by V3 Printing, binding by A1, letterpress by Classic Letterpress.

BRAND POSITIONING + TAGLINE + LOGO DESIGN + COLORS + TYPOGRAPHY + STATIONERY + WEBSITE

Tyson Ellis is an award winning Santa Barbara, CA based architectural and lifestyle photographer known for timeless, iconic images.

BRIEF
To rebrand his photography business. 

CREATIVE THINKING
The tagline: In our meetings, I discovered how much time Tyson dedicates to preparation, as he strives to shoot as much 'in camera' as possible, even going as far as determining the angle of light and shadows at a particular time of year in pursuit of that timeless, iconic shot. The tagline captures this.

The visual identity: The photographer's eye is always seeking the next shot, and Tyson is no different. So, the identity has a flexible component: a photo placed in his first name which allows for endless variations. And, with infinity printing, he always has a mini-portfolio on hand in the form of his business cards. 

WINNER'S CERTIFICATE DESIGN

The Epica Awards is a creative prize awarded by journalists working for marketing and communications magazines around the world.

BRIEF
In 2003, Epica introduced three new winner categories: gold, silver and bronze and needed new certificates. 

CREATIVE STRATEGY
To save on production costs, I proposed one certificate, rather than four, printed 4-color process with metallic inks – gold, silver, and bronze for winners, and blue for finalist certificates.

The rest would be overprinted and 'finished' in-house by the client by punching out a whole in the category achieved (gold, silver, bronze, finalist). 

EVENT IDENTITY + ROLLER POSTER + FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM + INVITATION + DIGITAL ADVERTISING + WEBSITE

BRIEF + CREATIVE STRATEGY

Design an identity and event collateral for the Grace, A Symbol of Change fundraiser in Monaco using a specific photo of Princess Grace and her favorite color: buttercup yellow.

DIRECT MAIL POSTER
*GRAPHIS WINNER*

BRIEF
Create a direct mail invitation for an evening with American graphic artist and illustrator Michael Schwab.

Do's and dont's: Side a: Michael's Bison poster, Side b: no graphics allowed in the area of the white border (on the reverse) to avoid show-through. On the address side, the bottom and right edges had to be fold edges for processing by US Mail.

CREATIVE CHALLENGES
The simplicity of the design solution belies the project's challenges. In addition to the two requirements set out in the brief, there was the issue of how to treat the reverse of the poster in a way that does justice to the original design by Michael Schwab.

The first two challenges – no printing on edges and honor original design – were addressed by recreating a mirror image of the front of the poster on the reverse in greyscale. This provided 'visual interest' and at the same time reinforced the depth of the blackness of the buffalo on the poster side (using show-through as an advantage).

The US Post Office requirement was the biggest challenge. Because of the address and folded edge requirements, opening the direct mailer in a natural way resulted in the open poster being upside down. To address this I strategically placed the type on on each spread in a direction that encouraged readers to turn the poster around, so by the time it was fully open, the invitation had made a full revolution and resulted in the poster being right side up.

Michael Schwab won a Graphis Award for this project.

Team: Bison poster design (front): Michael Schwab;  Direct mail poster: Irene Hoffman (design), Patty Driskel (copywriting), Tom Hinkle, V3 (printing).

COMPANY NAME + BRAND STRATEGY + TAGLINE + DESIGN + GUIDELINES + STATIONERY + PRESENTATION DESIGN

THE BRIEF

Julie Samson, a personal change strategist, approached me to help her define her business offering and to create a company name, tagline and branding for it. Her stated aim is/was to be the go-to expert and educational resource for enterpreneurs who are motivated to optimize their wellbeing and productivity as they navigate their growth-edge. 

CREATIVE STRATEGY

The Brilliant Edge's mission is "To provide enterpreneurs with the knowledge, skills, tools and systems to become wise stewards of their health and vitality as they create businesses that prosper."

THE COMPANY NAME + TAGLINE

The Brilliant Edge signifies the fine line we take everyday when confronted with making good or poor decisions. The tagline Where Intention Becomes Action reinforces this.

THE LOGO

The seven-point star was created to make an immediate impression of the company as an exciting business with a multidisciplinary approach to change and wellbeing. The marque originates from Gestalt Theory, which states that with open shapes, the mind will close the gaps and complete unfinished forms if there is enough information. It’s a visual metaphor for how the Brilliant Edge seven-stage system helps individuals going through change (open shapes) be comfortable with the process and fill the gaps between intention and action. Brilliance emerges when all seven stages come together.

This was one of three designs selected to be letterpressed at the AIGA Santa Barbara Holiday Party at Classic Letterpress in Ojaj, California.

EMOTICON

An editorial illustration or emoticon created on the day the UK left the EU.

EVENT IDENTITY + 400-PAGE BILINGUAL EXHIBITION CATALOGUE + POSTER DESIGN + ADVERTISING + STATIONERY + INVITATIONS + E-INVITATION + MORE

https://www.mglc-lj.si

"The 27th Biennial of Graphic Arts took as its point of departure and theme for reflection that turning point in the history of art when the ease of technical reproduction made reproducibility a new quality in the work of art and transformed the very concept of art in essential ways." More here.

I was invited to design the brand identity and all collateral for this prestigious, international art event.

Team: Irene Hoffman, Vesna Vidmar, Lilijana Stepančič (MGLC)
 

PLANNING + ART DIRECTION + COPYWRITING + DESIGN

BRIEF
Design a full-page print ad for The Santa Barbara travel store Circa Terra Travel Outfitters to be published in the annual Axxess discount catalogue.

INSIGHT
Circa Terra Travel Outfitters is known for its for gear, luggage, and mens and womens travel clothing, but even more than that people go there for travel advice and tips.

CREATIVE STRATEGY
Circa Terra is a small store with a modest advertising budget, so I set out to create an ad that would be easily and inexpensively extended into a campaign of ads (adding more countries, other travel advice, maps, etc) and stand out with it’s simplicity among the cacophony of smaller ads.

RESULT
Customers commented they tore out the ad and kept it for future reference. 

PERSONAL PROJECT + TYPOGRAPHY

In 2010, London-based author Nic Penrake created a series of poems and lines and invited artists to visually interpret them. The results were then put on show in a London gallery. This is one of my contributions. Black for Western grief, white for Eastern.

ART DIRECTION + DESIGN

This is one of my very first projects as a junior designer at Futura – a print campaign for a British jeweler. They liked it so much, they had the photos blown up for the store. 

With Joe Probert, creative director.

DO-IT-YOURSELF DIRECT MAIL POSTCARD

Making more with less, and hopefully inducing a smile. This was a little DIY promo mailer a London cleaner. Designed in black and white for inexpensive reproduction, the addition of a little piece of disaposable cleaning cloth (attached by staple) adds color captures the attention.

MAD ACADEMY STUDENT EXERCISES

In 2017, I taught Introduction to Photoshop and Design to high school students at the Multimedia and Design Academy at Santa Barbara Highschool (MAD Academy). These are the delightful results of their first animation lesson – The brief: animate a happy face with the tweening tool and export as animated GIF.