Portfolio
Pamela Ryckman
Visual ID, Website, Social Media, Business Cards, Email Signature (Visit Website)
By most standards, Pamela had already made it as a writer when she approached us: she was writing for the New York Times and other major publications. But she had a glimmer in her eye, an idea for a book, and a wish to land major speaking engagements. A year later she launched her first book (Stiletto Network), received knock-out reviews, and appeared in features with The Today Show and Rock Center.
At the core of the materials we designed to support Pamela’s career shift sits a logo made out of questions marks — a symbol of her curiosity, wit and intelligence. Pamela, we are blown over by what you’ve accomplished in such a short time and can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.
Twentyten
Book Design
A handmade book of original poetry, stories, illustration, and photography from the year 2010. Cover is white ink silk-screened on fluorescent yellow gaffers tape and overlayed with silver-coated acrylic paint. Edition of 20.
In the Key of Strawberry
By 2012, violinist and author Arnold Steinhardt had written several dozen essays about music. The trouble was, they were buried in a PR site written in the 3rd person and designed as a promotional tool for his music career. If you’ve heard Steinhardt tell a story, you’ll understand why this was the wrong platform for a writer whose voice is personal, warm, and whimsical. Creating a design that would be true to that voice became our challenge, and we hope the resulting site will gain the readership it deserves.
Choas Theory
Book Design
A handmade art book inspired by chaos theory. From Wikipedia: “Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible.”
Kneerim & Williams
When literary agency Kneerim & Williams approached us to design their website, they had an unusual request: create a site that won’t bring us a ton of new prospective clients. The stacks of manuscripts they were already receiving through word-of-mouth referrals were more than enough, thanks! Thus, simplicity and understatement became our guiding lights as we designed a site that would confirm the agency’s glowing reputation amongst those in the know, but that wouldn’t make a sales pitch.
Atelier New York
We’ve presented many seasons of Atelier New York’s drool-provoking fashion offerings, but it’s the boots — irregular, hand-made, and gorgeous — that have awed us every time. The Soho shop’s all-star designer lineup inspired a playful “shooting star” treatment of their names; a stark design lets the photographs do the talking; and a custom zoom-and-pan feature allows visitors to get up close and personal with each item. Bib not included!
Stone Roberts
If it surprises you to learn that artist Stone Roberts spends 6 to 12 months (solid) on a single painting, it probably means you’ve never seen one of his masterful works up close. The luscious detail is breathtaking, and we knew the website would fail to represent the work if we didn’t give visitors a great way to explore those details. At the time, high-quality zoom-and-pan functionality simply didn’t exist. So, with a little in-house coding, we built our own.
Small Giants
When Bo Burlingham, editor at large of Inc. magazine, approached us about designing a website to promote his first solo book, we had no idea Small Giants would one day become all but required reading at Round Hex. And it’s not just us. Unlike most business books which come and go, this one seems to have come and stayed. Having seen his traffic stats, we know! As for the design, our goal was to remain faithful to the book’s cover but bring it to life with a minimalist animation of the jumping fish.
Peter Nocella
Composer Peter Nocella’s enthusiasm for intellectual and musical exploration is infectious. And it was this quality that inspired us to ask: how might one translate principles of musical composition into graphical composition? Is it equally important to create tension between dissonance and consonance when working with hearing and seeing? To find out, we sliced up Peter’s headshot, positioned the pieces like notes on a staff, and created the mouse-activated animation that remains his homepage today.
Mira Wang
She may play Mozart on a 1715 Stradivarious, but violin virtuoso Mira Wang is nothing if not modern — and it comes across in her personality as much as in performance. It was Mira’s duality that inspired this design’s contrast between an antiqued photo backdrop on the one hand, and peppy colors, off-kilter content, and animated graphics on the other.
Labyrinth Books
Labyrinth Books wants you to get lost. And they mean that in the best way. The Princeton-based shop is a place you’d actually want to get lost — lost in their stacks, lost browsing tables of staff picks, and lost in books you didn’t know you were looking for. Bringing that experience to a full-featured online store was the challenge put to us in 2004, and they’ve been going strong ever since.
Curt Cacioppo
Composer, pianist, and scholar Curt Cacioppo writes music that communicates a deep love of his Italian heritage and of Native American culture. His website and logo draw on these inspirations to present a full career of performing, speaking, teaching, and writing.
Paula Kluth
Dr. Paula Kluth is a consultant, author, and scholar who guides teachers and parents in creating engaging classrooms inclusive of students with disabilities. While she is a formidable figure in her field, we did not want to design a site that would portray her as an imposing expert. Our goal, instead, was to communicate the warm, friendly, inclusive, and hands-on nature of the educators she works with. In the process, we created a logo that brings this voice to a range of print and digital materials.
Lord of the Rings
Jonathan Mooney
Eric Salzman
