Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Crit Feedback 26/01/11

Monday, 17 January 2011

Ultimate Holding Company: Manchester

http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/

Ultimate Holding Company is a unique organisation. It operates a radical and publicly engaged art studio, alongside a graphic design business that aims to contribute towards positive social and environmental change.

Originally, the studio set out to raise the design standards of street-based agit-prop, mainly for local direct action campaigns. This activity was always artist led and largely funded by occasional graphic design commissions from small ethical organisations and arts grants. Now it runs a complete commercial graphic design studio alongside its acclaimed art practice, which delivers publicly engaged projects around the UK.

The two activities feed each other with members and collaborators working across the two strands. This multi-disciplinary model, and our continued commitment to social and environmental political action, makes the Ultimate Holding Company unique in the country.

Ultimate Holding Company is constituted as a consortium co-op, run equitably by its members. It is a not-for-profit organisation, which reinvests its surplus in art projects, local social justice and environmental action.

For more information on our company policies and our aims and objectives please download the PDFs on the right.

Rizco Design: New York/New Jersey

http://www.rizcodesign.com

An eco-conscious team of problem solvers, educators and communicators, Rizco Design melds strategic thinking and eco-friendly expertise seamlessly.

Im not massively excited about the style of design, its quite different from what type of design.However, this is another sustainable Graphic Design studio that has a really good work ethic and even if I dont want to work for them it would still be useful for me to learn from them or get some feedback on my portfolio or help on where to head on my sustainable graphic design practice.

summrized position statement

diverse
type
editorial
print
sustainability
environmentally and socially conscience
interest to learn
open mindedness
simplicity
clean

gage mitchell design: Wisconsin ( a bit far but interesting company)

http://www.gagemitchell.com/

It's all about Branding

Gage Mitchell Design is a husband and wife duo composed of a creative, passionate graphic designer, and his meticulous, inquisitive copywriter wife. We are dedicated to helping clients communicate their message and brand in an effective, creative, and sustainable manner.

Your brand is about you and your company, so we strive to keep our personal opinions out of our work in order to find the true visual essence behind your brand. Therefore, working with us is like adding another member to your staff because we value teamwork and collaboration with all our clients and think of their values as our own when working on a project together.

Check out the Work section of this web site to see some samples of our work and if you like what you see, feel free to contact me about your next design project. We are open, responsive, and excited to hear from you.

Responsible Choices

Our commitment to quality design is synonymous with our commitment to sustainability. We practice this by suggesting print and production methods that cause the least amount of damage to the planet, which often saves money. Because caring for the environment isn't just an ethical decision, it also makes good business sense.

The exciting innovations in green printing, recycled paper lines, interactive tools, and sustainable manufactured goods give clients the opportunity to chose responsible products while staying within budget. This also gives the added benefit of letting their customers know that they care about the triple bottom line.

The commitment does not stop with our clients, though. Sustainable practices are built into our everyday office tasks as well.

:: Our staff travels by foot, bicycle, bus, or Community Car.

:: All office appliances, hardware and lighting meet Energy Star efficiency standards.

:: 100% of our power comes from renewable energy.

:: Local packages are delivered by Scram! bike couriers.

:: We recycle 100% of our paper waste (after reusing it to death).

:: We power down all electrical items daily to eliminate vampire power.

Sustainable efforts are part of our life and our business. We do this without pretension or preaching, after all we know we're not perfect. We do kill spiders.

Firebelly: Chicago

"Firebelly is a super-talented team of patient listeners, genius problem solvers and forward thinking designers"

"We’re tenacious about creating meaningful design, developing sustainable strategies and combining both to change the world.

Our expertise is in Authenticity + Sustainability. Firebelly believes in honest storytelling and genuine experiences—the sincere things that simply can’t be faked or forced. Creating sustainable design and developing successful long-term strategies means we consider more than the present needs of our clients: we strive to be future-proof and considerate of our global impact.

Whether in print, online or in motion" href="http://firebellydesign.com/capabilities/integrated">motion, we connect people in meaningful ways, produce tangible results and deliver more than our clients expect."

...I think that says it all really.

The company is based in Chicago and it is another outstanding studio who believe in the same things that I believe in. I have little to no knowledge of the political and economic situations in Chicago but I am pretty certain that the relation design industry and the environment are the same. and my analysis of the 'beam' studio could also be applied to this design studio.

El Design: Canada

http://www.eldesigno.ca/?p=960

Celery Design : Paris/ Calfornia

Celery Design is a studio graphic design studio who also believe in cutting edge green design working across different media. They are very well established with Brain Daugherty who is the author of the well know book, ' Green Graphic Design'

"One of Celery’s roles over the years has been as an advocate for a new model of graphic design that deals proactively with social and environmental challenges. Through frequent lectures, magazine articles and public outreach projects such as the Ecological Guide to Paper, Celery has worked to influence other graphic designers to embrace sustainability as a crucial design objective. Celery’s work in this area was recognized with an Environmental Leadership Award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. The firm’s work has been featured in numerous publications including ID Magazine’s ID 40 list of influential design firms."

We advocate that designers actively engage with people both upstream (relating to business strategy and marketing plans) and downstream (relating to materials, manufacturing, and distribution) from the traditional designer’s area of expertise. The major goal of engaging upstream from the traditional designer’s role is to shift the focus of “green” design from a battle over cost to a strategic conversation about value. By collaborating with our clients and reframing projects in this way, we find that many roadblocks simply disappear. Rather than fight with every little element of the status quo, we try to change the context so that the status quo no longer holds sway. Green design can often perform well on the cost side of the equation, but adding value is the most effective strategy for green designers.

BEAM: London

BEAM London

BEAM is a Graphic design consultancy based in London who pride themselves in their design and their environmental commitment. When I first came across this company, I thought that this is the kind of place I would really like to work. They seem to know what they are talking about and really do care about the environment. Their commitment is shown through their company's website. They comply with all relevant environmental legislation and codes of practice and keep themselves up to date with environmental news. Another reason why I was really interested in this company is that they also produce a lot of publications. In this econimic crisis, one of The problem with sustainable design is that many clients still believe this to be a more expensive option and some may be out off. On the other hand, more and more people are becoming more aware of the impact their companies may have on the environment and therefore are becoming more environmentally responsible. Clients who need something branded or designed have their own clients and if they can say that their company is 'green' then that provides them with an extra 'point' for loving the environment which will boost their financial situation. Technology has evolved so much that its becoming cheaper for a designer to be sustainable. With the government becoming more and more supportive of solving these environmental challenges, designers , who are seen as one of the largest contributors to global warming and 'ruining' the environment, I think it is important for one to take responsibility.

EcoCreative: Austrlia

approach.

At Ecocreative we talk about 'communicating sustainability'. What this means to us is difficult to clearly define in this small space, though it's safe to say that our approach considers that the way we operate is at least as important as our work.

We choose to work with people that share our simple values. And although there's no reason not to have fun on the way, we regard the responsibility given to us by clients very seriously.

Clients entrust us with their projects, knowing that we will consider the challenges presented and actively seek a better way of communicating the message so that the process, the products and, hopefully, the resulting change in people's behaviours all support a more just, sustainable world.

people.

Our view is that effective communications consulting requires a collaborative approach. Regardless of the client or medium, all projects benefit from the input of our multi-disciplinary team.

Our in-house creatives provide the capacity to deliver results for any client, unlike many studios that regularly outsource consulting tasks such as graphic design, illustration or editing. Along the way, you can be assured that our management and administration team will keep things running smoothly.

And because we all work for Ecocreative, you can be assured that what's important to you is also important to us - and that your project will proceed with the highest commitment to quality, sustainability and integrity.

policy.

Sustainability is a big part of the way our business operates, so it makes sense that our growth can also be good for the environment.

During many years of establishing a sustainable process, we've developed the belief that nothing matters more than why we do something (except perhaps the way we do it). To this end, Ecocreative's policy every day is to conserve resources, consume ethically and responsibly (favouring recycled and recyclable materials), send no waste to landfill, and uphold a sustainable approach to doing business.

We pledge to continuously improve our performance as a business and we hope to learn from and inspire others to make good on this commitment.

If you would like to know more about aspects of our sustainability policy, explore the links on the left.