The Museum of American Finance, with all core exhibits, interactives, and brand identity designed by C&G Partners, was named one of New York’s “Not Boring Museums,” and one of the “city’s best venues” in the latest issue of Time Out New York. Kind words: “must-see,” “often surprising,” and “interactive exhibits here are top-notch.”
The Museum of American Finance opened in the tumultuous months of 2008, with all-new exhibits and a brand identity by C&G Partners. The firm also created the interactive installations in the Museum, but until now, we’ve not released the short videos we made about two of them. The goal of the Museum is to increase financial literacy, a goal as pressing now as it was then.
The exhibit “OIL! Whales, Wells … What’s Next?”, originally designed by the firm to be installed for one summer at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum, has just been reinstalled for a second season. Curated by our favorite East End museum director, Zach Studenroth, the exhibit traces the epic history of US energy addiction, from the days of whaling for lamp oil to the concerns of the present. See the New York Times article on last year’s opening here.
C&G Partners has created a traveling exhibit about founding father John Adams, the second president of the United States. Organized and funded by the Boston Public Library, the American Library Association (ALA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the project is based on a larger exhibit at the Boston Public Library also originally designed by the firm. The exhibit will travel to twenty libraries around the US for the next three years.
Paper company Crane & Co. has launched a new swatchbook, Crane Paper, 100% Cotton: The Definitive Collection. No trees or wood fiber go into the production of this paper because is entirely made of cotton. The swatchbook itself is made from cotton paper as well, and was designed by a C&G Partners team led by Partner Emanuela Frigerio.
(Learn more about the environmental aspects of cotton paper here. Download the entire swatchbook as a PDF here. See the end of this post for another surprising fact about Crane paper and US money.)
Not only is the paper 100% cotton, but no cotton is even grown to make it. It all comes from fibers left over during industrial cotton processing. And because there’s no lignin in cotton, no dioxin is created as a by-product.
The world tour continues. The bookmark designed by Ema Frigerio and the Adams team for the John Adams Unbound exhibit travels onwards at the fan site “Where in the World is John Adams?”. Latest stops: bumping into Al Sharpton and touring the Jefferson Library at Library of Congress, which is coincidentally another project of lead partner Jonathan Alger. Past post here.
We couldn’t resist: a group of fans have used a bookmark we designed for the traveling version of the John Adams Unbound exhibit as the basis of a new blog for pictures of it posed around the country. The bookmark was originally designed as a die-cut bust of the second President of the United States, who would then peer over the top of whatever book he might be marking. Both the original installation and the traveling version were created by C&G Partners for the Boston Public Library.
Stay tuned for more on the traveling show. Learn more about the Adams library project here.
C&G Partners has created a new identity, new website and new stationery for renowned New York-based architectural photographer Chuck Choi. Chuck has been commissioned by many notable architects, and we are honored that he also counts C&G Partners itself as a repeat client.
The Museum of American Finance (MoAF), with exhibits, interactive installations and identity by C&G Partners, has a new online store. A line of branded museum merchandise on sale there features the “MU$EUM” identity created by the firm. Who knew financial literacy could be cool? Proceeds support the educational programs of the Museum.
A stack of copies of 365, the annual book of the AIGA’s design awards program, arrived in the mail this week. Filling one spread: the firm’s New York University Timeline. Previous post on the award here.
Yesterday, C&G Partners launched a new website, a new visual brand, and new print collateral for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, a leading US organization in the advancement of the history, conservation, and enjoyment of European art, architecture, and archaeology from antiquity to the 19th Century. Here are some images from the branding, print and web projects, which use beautiful images and stories of the Kress collection itself to make the user experience memorable.
The new logotype. The elegant shape of the “K” was inspired by a decorative architectural detail from an S.H. Kress & Co. Art Deco building.
The stationery system features a collage of three different “punch marks,” which are decorative patterns that are embedded into a painting’s gilded surfaces:
The firm’s New York University Timeline exhibition is honored in this year’s 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition for excellence in information design. An exhibit at AIGA featuring the NYU project opens to the public today at the AIGA National Design Center (through 20 Feb 2009 at 164 Fifth Avenue, New York, M-Th 11-6, Fr 11-5). The design team for the NYU Timeline was led by partner Emanuela Frigerio.
Opening to the public on Tuesday, November 18th, this interactive exhibit designed by C&G Partners celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the independent deposit insurance agency created by Congress in 1933 to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s banking system. The exhibition, open to the public on 17th Street in Washington, DC, a block from the White House, steps through the history of the institution, the forces that steered its evolution, and its mission to protect the financial well-being of all Americans. Originally planned to be a year of retrospective celebration, the anniversary year actually fell during one of the most hard-hitting financial crises of modern times.
In 2007, C&G Partners went to the White House for lunch. The sitting First Lady is always designated the chair of the National Design Awards given by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the firm was a finalist that year in the Communication Design category.
Here is a never-before-released photograph from last year’s event. (L to R: Laura Bush, Jonathan Alger, Emanuela Frigerio, Keith Helmetag, Steff Geissbuhler.) We were honored to be there — and of course we’d be thrilled to have lunch with the new First-Lady-Elect someday.
On October 30th, Jim Lehrer’s PBS NewsHour shot a segment inside the Museum of American Finance comparing the Great Depression to the financial events of today. Exhibits designed by C&G Partners are the backdrop for the segment (the installation was designed to function as a broadcast set if needed). The interview takes place, appropriately enough, inside an exhibit about the financial markets that features a ticker tape from the Crash of 1929.
In the segment, NewsHour talks with Economist Eugene White and author Amity Shlaes. Watch the whole clip here.
Here are some screen captures from the show. Read more…
A C&G Partners team led by Emanuela Frigerio has launched a new eco-friendly water bottle design as part of a campaign for Riverkeeper, the organization focused on the Hudson River watershed that started the riverkeeper trend throughout the country. The bottle is made from reusable, lightweight, tinted stainless steel and communicates the environmental importance of drinking local water versus bottled water. This product is part of a larger design project for Riverkeeper that will be featured here in the weeks to come.
Here is a sneak peek of all four bottle colors:
And a closeup of the red bottle, back and front, including a preview of the new identity:
C&G is featured in the new book Museum Design 2009, published in the UK by Heritage 365. The volume contains both an article written by partner Jonathan Alger on “museumless” projects, and a portfolio section containing a wide range of firm exhibit design projects. The portfolio features the work of all the partners of the firm.
Next Monday, October 20th, Partner Emanuela Frigerio will be mentoring young teen designers at the Teen Design Fair, held during Design Week at the Cooper-Hewitt. Emanuela appeared at the Fair last year as well, when the firm was nominated for the National Design Award. Young designers can ask Emanuela about a career in design, what it’s like to be a designer, and how they can get involved. The design disciplines covered will include architecture, landscape, interiors, fashion, graphic design, branding, media, games and products.
The firm’s website for the American Association of Architects, favoritearchitecture.org, has won an “Outstanding Website” 2008 Web Award from the Web Marketing Association.
“Outstanding Website” is a special honor level. From the Web Awards description: Recognizing that several outstanding sites may be entered in the same category and only one site can win Best of Industry, this award allows the Web Marketing Association to recognize work above and beyond the standard of excellence.
This month marked the end of the first full year of exhibition touring for “America’s Favorite Architecture,” the firm’s traveling exhibit for the American Institute of Architects, shown below at the new headquarters of contract furniture maker Haworth in Michigan. The exhibit is still going strong, touring around the country.
The exhibit celebrates the 150th anniversary of the AIA and documents the results of a poll to determine which 150 structures were most beloved by the American public and the architectural profession. The project was designed with green principles in mind, to communicate the AIA’s theme for their 150th year, “Sustainability.” At its last stop, all its parts will be cannibalized for local reuse, but for now, it’s still going strong. Two cloned versions are traveling simultaneously so that as many venues as possible can be visited in the shortest time.
Read on for a gallery of more snapshots of some of the venues from the first year, from libraries to corporate HQ’s.
