Brand Language

826 National’s Unnatural Marketing Strategy

By Delphine Hirasuna | November 24, 2010September 4, 2014

Bear with me. This is hard to explain. We got interested in this story because we loved the graphics and packaging for the new Museum of Unnatural History in Washington D.C., which isn’t a museum and not a real store either. It’s the Washington D.C. location for 826 National, a nonprofit tutoring, writing and publishing organization founded to assist kids aged six to 18 with their writing skills. It got its start at 826 Valencia Street (hence the name), a storefront location in San Francisco’s Mission District. To make the place seem “cooler” to kids, the 826 founders decided to disguise it as a “Pirate Store” and stocked it with pirate supplies like peg legs, message bottles and hooks. Kids loved it and sales helped support the tutoring programs.

Photography

Zuckerman’s Bird’s Eye View

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 9, 2010September 4, 2014

“When you take anything out of its context and put it against a white background, you see something different” explains photographer Andrew Zuckerman. “It forces all attention on the subject….It’s the absence of space and color…in the end, all you’re left with is the form and range of colors contained in the subject.”

Like his previous books “Creature” and “Wisdom,” Zuckerman’s latest book, “Birds,” is shot entirely against a white background. Using a Leaf Aptus 75S digital camera along with high-speed strobe lighting, Zuckerman caught details that would be impossible to see if the birds were photographed in their natural environment. Instead, Zuckerman set up a mobile studio, mostly at zoos, in four countries and coaxed 74 species of birds into the camera’s range. The result is microscopically crisp detail and dazzling nuances of color. To see more Zuckerman birds and a behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot, visit Show-Off, a virtual nonprofit gallery conceived and curated by San Francisco/Newark, UK-based design firm Dowling Duncan.

Public Art Programs

Art Exhibit for the Birds

By Delphine Hirasuna | June 16, 2010September 4, 2014

Placing manmade installation art in a national park seems counterintuitive since national parks were established to preserve and protect wildlife habitat. But the 1,491-acre Presidio is unlike any other national park. Set in San Francisco’s tony residential area, it overlooks the Golden Gate entrance into the Bay, the reason why it served as a military outpost for 219 years (successively under Spain, Mexico and U.S. rule) until Congress closed the army base in 1994 and made it into a national park. Today, the Presidio is a mix of forested hiking trails and historic buildings converted to other uses, including the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Its proximity to urban surroundings has also resulted in some interesting collaborations. In 2009, For-Site Foundation (a nonprofit dedicated to the presentation of art about place) in partnership with the Presidio Trust invited 25 designers, artists and architects worldwide to propose custom-designed habitat for the wildlife living in the park. From there, 11 concepts were chosen for a site-based art exhibition called “Presidio Habitats: For the Place, Of the Place.”

Design Education

Design School Awards MBA Degrees

By Delphine Hirasuna | March 19, 2010September 4, 2014

An ongoing complaint from both design and business professionals is the “other side’s” tunnel vision approach to addressing market problems. Yet it has become increasingly accepted that all roads to innovation lead through design, and that design strategy factors into every step along the path, from engineering and finance to product placement and the customer experience. Design-centered businesses are no longer an anomaly. It takes design thinking to solve business problems and vice versa – and to do it fast, because competition is no longer regional or national, it’s global.

So, it is reassuring to note that the California College of the Arts in San Francisco is awarding its first MBA in Design Strategy degrees this spring. The full-time, two-year MBA program is the only one of its kind in the United States.

By Delphine Hirasuna | January 14, 2010November 26, 2013

A consistent award-winner coveted by designers, architects and lovers of modern design, the
365 Typographic Calendar now celebrates its tenth year. Each month includes a brief description about what makes the featured font distinctive and a biography of the type designer.

The typefaces for 2011 were chosen by the Studio Hinrichs team from the archives of the 20th Century’s design and architectural icons including A.M. Cassandre, Le Corbusier and Frederic Goudy, plus contemporary stars including Zuzana Licko, Christian Schwartz and Ondrej Jób.

The 365 Calendar is available in two sizes: A wall-hanging 23" x 33" version that can easily be read from across a large room and a smaller 12" x 18" version suitable for smaller spaces and for desk use.

Super Size 23" x 33" (58.5cm x 84cm) $44 retail
Desk/Wall 12" x 18" (30.5cm x 45.75cm) $26 retail

Both versions are available at museum shops across the US and online from www.kenknightdesign.com. For inquiries outside of the US, please email Adi at Studio Hinrichs.