Shortly after July 5, 1988, John and I received a letter from The Washington Water Power Company inviting us to prepare a proposal for their upcoming annual report project. It just may be the single most important letter ever sent to our firm. Then called Anderson Mraz Design—and only five months into our new venture—we went on to produce 14 annual reports for the company known today as Avista Corp.

Thumbnails and a half-size annual report dummy with placeholder imagery were created with pen and Pantone markers. Interestingly, the printed 1988 book looks amazingly close to these studies.

Who knew we’d be fortunate enough to still be working with Avista thirty years later? Our work for them today includes not only print, but also traditional and digital advertising, videos, television and radio, and environmental graphic design, as well as comprehensive marketing campaigns.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

The two or three of you who regularly follow this blog will no doubt have noticed that we’ve been somewhat quiet of late. I have no excuses, other than that CK is a merciless tyrant who insists on meeting deadlines. (Okay, maybe “merciless” is a bit unfair. He does allow bathroom breaks every six hours.)

It’s pretty much always like this in December: a mad rush to get things done by the end of the year—and with the added challenge of working around holiday schedules. Yet we always seem to make it. And we always seem to wonder where the time went.

Which, naturally, brings me to this one-minute video on the life of a worker bee. It’s the perfect encapsulation of how I feel as we approach Christmas and the last week of 2017.

Happy holidays, y’all. Thanks for reading.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life the writing life  |  comments(1)

Hey kids! Are you “surrounded by fools and non-entities, by people with bad taste and silly desires, by boring people undeserving of your attention, by people who can be understood quickly by applying a broad and negative brush—creeps, stuck-up snobs, bubbleheaded party kids, smug assholes, and, indeed, jerks?”

The problem isn’t them, it turns out. It’s you. And since “nothing is more central to your moral character than your degree of jerkitude,” maybe it’s time you took stock. Luckily, Eric Schwitzgebel is here to reveal How to Tell If You’re a Jerk.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Got any plans for Wednesday, November 29? Yes. Yes, you do: You’re going to go see the encore presentation of the November 18 HD simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s American premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel. I know, it’s a mouthful. I’m just that excited.

Anthony Tommasini says if you’re going to see one opera this year, this is it. (He’s wrong, of course. You should see it regardless of whether you were planning to go to an opera at all.)

Alex Ross calls it “a huge, hyper-complex creation” whose “vocal writing borders on the outlandish.”

I say—after having seen it with the missus over the weekend—that it’s an apocalyptic nightmare; a spectacular display both of Adès’s compositional skills and of no fewer than 15 (!) solo singing roles. It simply has to be experienced to be believed.

I mean, if nothing else, you’ll see Cynthia Miller perform on ondes martenot. And coloratura soprano Audrey Luna will hit a note so high it’s never been sung in the 137-year history of the Metropolitan Opera. Win-win.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

When people have their writing “corrected,” they usually discover that their long, complicated sentences receive the most correction and criticism. So they resort to—guess what?—writing short, simple sentences. This is called the “my puppy syndrome”: “My puppy is cute. He has a long tail. He wags it a lot. I love my puppy.” All of these are accurate sentences—but not ones at the adult level. Please don’t give up on long sentences. It’s just that as you increase your sentence length and complexity, you also need to increase your vigilance and the care you take to revise.

from One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook,
by Frank L. Cioffi (Princeton, 2015).

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

It’s kind of funny when you think about how project opportunities come about. Especially the connections made along the way. Just take a look at the current work for our Colorado clients, which actually began right here in Spokane:

• Gonzaga University contacts us to refresh their school’s logo and tagline.

• More GU projects follow.

• The university hires a new marketing and communications director, with whom we continue to work.

• The director departs for the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

• A year later, he calls us for some brand-related work for UNC.

• Later on, he volunteers to serve on the City of Greeley’s marketing committee.

• Greeley issues an RFP to create an image campaign for the city.

• Our UNC contact calls the RFP to our attention and asks us to participate.

• We decide to pursue the work, though we’ve never even heard of Greeley.

• Surprisingly, we’re chosen over four other firms.

• We begin a six-year working relationship with Greeley.

• The city’s image campaign is called Greeley Unexpected (“GU” for short, ironically).

• That work leads to a project for Greeley Water and Sewer…

• …which leads to work on yet another project, this time for Greeley-Evans School District 6.

• All of this means, of course, several trips to Greeley over the years.

• We learned it’s home to some of the nicest people on the planet.

• Not to mention the best-tasting tap water in North America.

• And the Chophouse, my favorite Greeley Restaurant.

• Here’s the crazy thing: It turns out the owner is a graduate of Whitworth University…

• …whose athletic logo we also happened to design. (Go Pirates!)

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

“Anthropomorphic pumpkins, mirror divination, and space-traveling witches”: a collection of vintage Halloween cards.

In addition to my annual plea to read The Willows, allow me to recommend a Lovecraft novella: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Sarah Bond explains “how to be a bit more erudite in your candy selection this year by choosing candies that correspond with Roman historical figures.”

In case you were considering swinging by helveticka world headquarters with a gift of candy, know that Abba-Zaba is my weakness.

Finally, courtesy of Linda, the answer to the question we’ve all been asking…

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

This suffix, applied to nuclear physics, modern biology, and early AI—and even a certain carnival ride—was “a totem of high modernism, the intellectual and cultural mode that decreed no process or phenomenon was too complex to be grasped, managed and optimised…displaying to all our mastery over matter, life and information.”

That’s right, folks. It’s “A Tale of ‘Trons’: The Suffix that Tells the Story of Modern Science”—though I’m a little disappointed that there’s no mention of my favorite tron of all.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment