We’ve just launched a strong new branding campaign for the University of Colorado Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies with the theme “Who says dreams have to change.” Using provocative shots of kids and their dreams, and alluding to courses taken later in life that help fulfill those dreams, the campaign uses print, web, online, outdoor and social media to get the word out. What were your dreams as a kid? Did those dreams come true?

When the Gill Foundation indicated they wanted a fun holiday card, we were fixated on something to do with supporting LGBT philanthropy. But Tim Gill and his communications guru Fred Sainz stuck to their guns, saying they wanting something energetic, more like jib-jab. Prancing with the Stars is the result. It was a major collaboration among our interactive and graphic designers — especially Kevin and Leslie and Alan, ably led by Beth. We also teamed with Coupe Studio to produce the hilarious soundtrack (that’s Leslie’s voice for Santa or Mrs. Claus) and FireAnt Studio, who did an incredible job with the remarkable animation. What I love is that it’s funny, but it has a serious point. As they sing, “we’ve still got work to do!”

With the launch this week of the new Homebrewers Association website, we now have two of the three sites live for the Brewers Association. This one features tons of cool stuff for the homebrew enthusiast, including extensive commenting and sharing for every post, video posts from YouTube and Vimeo, tools such as Find a Brewery, Find  a Homebrew Club, Find a Supply Shop, lists of events and competitions, even a “homebrewopedia.” And to add some levity, our Brewing 101 instructional video takes a carefully sardonic approach to the topic, created by by our motion graphics whiz Alan Dague-Greene. Enjoy.

Our office has been divided in half, much like the brain.

The interactives (often accurately compared to the primitive brainstem in brain analogies, as opposed to designers, who can only be compared to well-developed frontal lobes) are the left brain, the designers are the right brain. Interactive on the south side of the building; designers on the north. We have two hoods: SoPo and NoPo.

SoPo is hot. And they know it. The sun makes them crazy over there, but so do the extremely high levels of testosterone. These are the guys who keep everything going. They hold clients hostage who don’t know how to manage their own content. They Know The Code, and They Have The Power. The Evil Brainstem.

NoPo is temperate. And possibly shrinking. One of our guys is being stealth-coopted by the Brainstem. We are having an identity crisis in NoPo. We’re struggling to understand our importance in the scheme of things, and to come to terms with our demotion from Expressive Artists and Diva Stars and Favored Children to graphix producing machines that could be laid off at will and replaced by nanobots, under the new business models. We discuss our feelings of powerlessness and how we need an advocate for our team in our design team meetings, which are mostly bitching sessions, which is too bad, because we used to be very urbane and sophisticated and have better things to do, we gifted Frontal Lobes.

We are trying to integrate the two halves. But conditions in the overall culture and economy are causing a correction in the price of everything, and art and design are not exempt. Everything is under review at this time. Change has come to the Design Department. It ain’t like it was back in the day any more.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the recession we’re in now led to a turnaround again in the status of artists and designers. Maybe we will come full circle from Roosevelt’s adminstration to Obama’s, and have a new WPA for artists. Some of our designers were lucky enough recently to be able to work on designing a logo for an organization called Veterans Green Jobs, and the client wanted a WPA influenced design. So we looked at what they did during the New Deal for inspiration. There was an awesome little design renaissance called Art Deco going on at the time.