What Becomes a Legend Most

Michael Bierut has been immortalized in the AIGA medalists gallery. The Design Legends Gala happens on 25 October in New York City.

Welcome to the Jungle

Or now that the area has been tamed, make that the forest. Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project, a collaboration of AIGA/NY, Worldstudio, and the Times Square Alliance, has planted the Deuce with a grove of 185 banners created by designers, artists, photographers and illustrators from around the world. Per the press release, “Each banner uses the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement.” Participants include Michael Bierut, Abbott Miller, Paula Scher, Armin Vit, and Pentagram co-founder Alan Fletcher, among others. The banners officially launch 1 September and remain on view through 31 October; when they come down, they will be recycled into tote bags and sold at auction, with proceeds to benefit students of the visual arts. Coming soon: T-shirts of your favorite design.

Arizona Cardinals Stadium Opens

The Cardinals’ new home in Glendale, AZ

The new Cardinals Stadium opens this weekend with environmental graphics and interiors by Pentagram. Michael Gericke and his team (in collaboration with Entro) designed the building’s overall graphic program, including identification, wayfinding, large-scale thematic elements, sponsor graphics, scoreboards and end zone treatments. Jim Biber and his team designed interiors for the locker rooms, club lounges, corporate lofts, and AZone team store. The stadium was designed by Peter Eisenman and HOK Sport. The first preseason game—the Cardinals play the Steelers—is tomorrow; the regular season begins on September 10.

Updates: Press conference with the designers, including Michael Gericke. The new stadium scores with fans: AP wire. Red is the color for Unbeige.

First pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Arizona Cardinals Stadium Opens"

Awards: Mohawk Show 7

Spread from Swarm, printed on Mohawk

Abbott Miller’s Swarm exhibition catalog for the Fabric Workshop and Museum was selected as one of five winners in this year’s Mohawk Show, honoring work printed on Mohawk paper. The award comes with the choice of a trip to the Sundance Film Festival or a cash prize of $3,000.

The 2wice Armitage issue was one of the top 20 finalists.

Beach Weekend

The Montauk Residence designed by James Biber was featured in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. (Scroll down to “High-Water Mark” in Style.) Pilar Viladas writes: “It may look breezy and insouciant, but it’s quite serious in its solid, sumptuous materials and attention to detail, like a villa that has found itself at the edge of the sea.”

Awards: Neenah Paper

The Ford Foundation 2005 Annual Report designed by Abbott Miller and John Kudos has received a Silver in Neenah Paper's quarterly Text and Cover Contest. The prize comes with $300.

New Work: The Daily Show

(Click image for larger view)

James Biber and his team have redesigned the set of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,“ the Comedy Central program that has become the preferred source of news for millions of Americans.

Jim was a big fan of the show and welcomed the opportunity. “Some projects are simply command performances: I couldn’t bear watching the show each night with someone else’s set design,&ldquo he says. ”The show has evolved beyond mere parody into an almost Swiftian satire. It needed a set that gave it an identity of its own, not an amped up version of CNN.”

The first phases of the redesign launched last summer; in the year since, it has became a running joke on the show. Of the controversy, Jim says, “We will likely be remembered for removing the couch. Even John McCain mentioned it this week. Couches are so soft and ‘late night’ and this show is so sharp and primetime. To their credit, the producers have never looked back.”

Pentagram has shaped much of the show’s look. Paula Scher and her team are responsible for the on-air graphics, and of course, the bestselling America (The Book), which is out in an expanded, paperback Teacher’s Edition this September.

Jim and Jon after the jump.

Continue reading "New Work: The Daily Show"

Awards: AIA NY State Design Awards

The Montauk Residence designed by Pentagram Architecture has received a Citation for Design in the 2006 AIA New York State Design Awards. Project design by James Biber, Michael Zweck-Bronner, Alex Mergold, Suzanne Holt and Denise Ramzy.

Pentagrammer Takes Adobe Award

Nina Boesch, a designer on Lisa Strausfeld’s team in our New York office, has received a prestigious Adobe Design Achievement Award. Nina won the Interactive Design category with her RISD degree project “Manhattan Dissected”, an interactive CD-ROM that guides users through a subjectively viewed Manhattan. (Demo here.) Nina was presented with the award—which includes a $5000 prize—at a special event held at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto last Thursday.

New Work: Mohawk Fine Papers

Lisa Strausfeld, Nina Boesch and Jack Zerby have redesigned the website for Mohawk Fine Papers. The relaunch follows Mohawk’s purchase of Strathmore last year; the design updates the previous version of the site, also created by Pentagram, which featured fluttering pieces of paper, now collected in a single stack. Backend by Avatar New York, our new development partner.