The Trent Design Team had a great time at Chantal’s Wedding. It was a beautiful night and a beautiful wedding on a lovely evening in July.
Brian Hartwell, Chantal Oudin, Marilyn Trent, Genna Cowsert & Andrew Kopietz (Michael Johns not pictured)
Traverse City State Theatre
Members from Trent Design’s team were invited to attend this Year’s 4th Annual Traverse City Film Festival.
Arriving early Thursday morning, the staff leapt at the chance to take part in screenings for films like Baghdad High, Redacted, Religulous and Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. They sat in on panel discussions that focused on politics, film and the nature of making movies that become timeless works of art. Panel discussions were moderated by Festival founder and director, Michael Moore, and featured other media personalities such as Phil Donahue & (Body of War) Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain, Funny Face).
More pictures are on the way but for now, take a look at the festival through the eyes of some it’s volunteers and devoted staff photographers:
It was a full house for the opening film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, at the State Theatre on Tuesday July 30, 2008. (Image by Gary L Howe)
Concessions tray and musicians at the opening for Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind.
(Image courtesy Geoffrey Vail Brown)
Will Ryley from the film fest office posing at the singing in the rain opening
The Film Festival Loop bata bus. Photo by Geoffrey Vail Brown
Michael Moore responds to Phil Donahue during friday’s panel. Photo by Geoffrey Vail Brown.
Comedian Elaine May was brought onto the Friday panel at the last moment, and had the crowd laughing and thinking within minutes of beginning her talk. Photo by John L. Russell.
Director Stanley Donen during friday’s panel discussion. Photo by Geoffrey Vail Brown.
“The Phil Donahue Show, Live in Traverse City!” Phil Donahue with guests Michael Moore and Stanley Donen
Crowd at Open Space. Photos by Beth Price
Rounding off a busy Friday night, the team sat in for a public screening of Back To The Future (directed by Robert Zemeckis). Referred to as “Open Space”, the film was shown as a projection and cast onto the festival’s enormous inflatable screen which sat just off the banks of Lake Michigan. Movie-goers came from every possible direction and settled in for a relaxing evening.
Our last batch of tips. Fresh from our talk at Rochester’s DDA Guest Lecture Series. Download them here.
A part of our presentation from the Rochester DDA’s Guest Lecture series is now online and ready for viewing. Click here to start your download.
More of the lecture will be available by Friday- SEO, SEM & Top 10 Tips to Follow when Designing a Website.
Have a good week folks!
Above: Identity for The 5ive 9ine
Trent Design was chosen to brand and promote The 5ive 9ine Business Association that represents a partnership with six municipalities that are on the Hall Road Corridor from Mound Road to I-94. The goal is to obtain over 1,000 memberships from the retail stores, movie theatres, well established fine dining, and entertainment venues.
The promotions and membership recruitment represents a system of convergence marketing (a combination of traditional, print and digital communications). The new brand integrates billboard advertising, brochures, postcards, and a color coded way-finding system that connects to a map of the 5ive 9ine region. Colors on the map help define stores based on their geography and retail industry.
Above: Banners assist the audience their location on the 5ive 9ine.
Above: Fun billboard designs communicate to travelers and motorists.
Above: Brochures help draw membership and supporters for The M59 Business Association.
Above: These medallions apply to the map and identify the regions inherent to roads and shopping districts within The 5ive 9ine.
Our incredibly talented production artist & manager, Chantal was married this past Saturday. Congratulations Chantal!
Re-design by Lippincott (?)
Everyone hates Walmart right? The majority of the people i’ve met are pretty bipartisan about it across the board. I foster no strong feelings about Walmart being good or bad, really. We’re cool, me and Walmart. BUT when the opportunity to buy a garbage can with a collapsable revolving top shows itself, i’m left with no choice. I spring for the cheaper of the 2 options. Sorry Target. Let me know when Archer Farms is ready to mass-produce plastic kitchen waste receptacles but until then we’ll always have Paris.
For all you Walmart-hating, coffee drinking, tree-hugging, human activists out there, get a load of this: In a concerted push to soften their public image, the retailer is updating its look which now features a brighter color palette, friendlier typeface, and people-centric abstraction: an interpretation of it’s trademark ’star’. Try not to be too critical. Trust me, i could talk to you about this until you’re blue in the face. It’s not worth it.
What you’re seeing is an evolution from an identity that used a boring typeface and a stiff design element to symbol with a mission. I’d like to think it’s telling us the walls are about to give way to a brand with a little humanity in store. That or more civic-minded rights for it’s employees but don’t hold your breath.
Tip-off via Brand New
Since this hits a little closer to home, I thought i’d mention that this year’s Woodward Dream Cruise— an event that draws thousands of enthusiasts to Detroit each year— just redesigned their logo. I don’t really care much for cars or the event but i’ve always felt the responsibility to make the Dream Cruise look more marketable and systematic fell largely in the auto industry’s court. And year after year, they’ve failed dismally:
2005 Logo
2006 Logo
2007 Logo
I cringe every-time i flick on the television and tune into the local ABC affiliate here in Detroit because the on-air graphics are clunky, outdated and unattractive. Meanwhile, the news anchors and event organizers seem keen on ignoring the issue all-together. They happily cover the event and i sit off to side shaking my head because i don’t get it. With all it’s resources and vast amounts of talent, visually the event never looked much better than the theatre posters the drama department at my former highschool would make.
Other logo iterations
But at least this time, i think they’re going in the right direction. I should mention the new logo was designed by long-time automotive designer Dick Ruzzin and digitized by Rochester based studio Catalyst (who live just down the street from us here at Trent Design). Previously, Ruzzin was director of Design for both GM Europe and Chevrolet North America.
I think this new 2-Dimensional look does a better job of communicating the spirit of the celebration sans all the hokey 3D gradients and chunky type-treatments. Plus the color palette is a little more livelier. It’s not a total turn-off.
These re-useable cloth bags designed by Wink, Incorporated— a Minneapolis based designs studio— for Target are 10 times cooler than the plastic bags i’m always being handed at checkout.
Target tree and bulls-eye illustration by Wink, of course
All weekend i’ve been reading interviews on Grain Edit, which finally introduced me (more throughly) to some of the work by The Small Stakes.
This short film by Hillman Curtis is great. More here.
Paula Scher has updated the identity for the public theatre. Read more here.