Alphabet Arm Design News » Events

TEDx Cambridge > Thrive

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:21:23 +0000

Alphabet Arm recently collaborated with our good friends at Brandon Bird Design to design the branding elements for the latest TEDx Cambridge event: Thrive. The one-day event went over fantastically and we are proud to have been a part of this gathering of regional intellectuals and innovators. The talks, demonstrations and performances focused on an exploration of our brains and bodies, questioned the relationship between nature and nurture, and examined the different understandings of the good life — in essence, how do we thrive?

Brandon Bird Design, a multi-disciplinary design firm specializing in exhibit design, approached Alphabet Arm to contribute by designing the Thrive logo, printed collateral and consult on the signage and multimedia displays. Together, we created a logo that would literally represent the idea of a thriving organism. A logo that could show growth, progress, and vigorously flourish. The final logo solution was a mark that had several stages of growth and expansion that would reveal itself over the event.

Special thanks to Justin Ide for the stellar photography : http://www.justinide.com/

Guilty by Association: Update

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:03:13 +0000

As promised in a previous posting, here are some images from Guilty by Association, our recent gallery show with Chris Piascik. A big thanks to everyone who attended the opening and gallery talk at the Silpe Gallery, Hartford Art School. Our pal, Jamie Murrett did us a favor and provided photography. Have a look:

Open Office Hours 2.0: High Speed – Brand Audit

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:21:01 +0000

Is your brand lacking inspiration or languishing in a “we’ll try and tackle that tomorrow” strategy?
Does your in-house creative get handled by the Accounts Receivable department?
Is the tag line on your web site different than that on your business card?
Are you unsure if your messaging is highlighting your capabilities or targeting your ideal clients?

Gather your branded materials, business cards, sales collateral, website screen-shots and schedule a get together with us for some objective feedback and strategic advice on how to fine tune your brand.
We have nine years of experience working with start-ups and entrepreneurs. Our studio is known for developing thought provoking identities that help our clients appear focused, established and as innovators within their industries. These identities can then serve as the groundwork for an entire brand—from an office system and website to marketing materials and campaigns.

Event Date: Tue, 03/30/2010 – 9:30am – 11:30am
Location: Alphabet Arm 500 Harrison Avenue, 3R Boston, MA 02118

Guilty by Association

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:20:02 +0000

{Facebook event page}

We are quite excited to announce that we will be having a gallery show along with fellow Alphabet Arm’r Chris Piascik at Silpe Gallery located at the Hartford Art School. The show will feature a broad selection of our design work as well as art pieces. Come one, Come all!

Here’s the details:
Opening: April 6th 6:30PM – 9:00PM
Show Duration: April 4 – 8
Gallery Talk: 7:00PM
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00AM – 4:30PM, weekends by appointment
Sponsored by: CADC and the Hartford Art School VCD Department

Silpe Gallery, Hartford Art School
University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Avenue
West Hartford, CT 06117

Helping out the Little Wanderers

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:02:54 +0000

In all of the craziness of the holiday season, it’s sometimes easy to forget about the really important things. That’s one of the reasons that we volunteer every year at The Home for Little Wanderers annual “Big Wishes for Little Wanderers” gift drive. The most vital reason, however, is that volunteering is a small thing that we can do that hopefully impacts some kids who have little else to look forward to during the holiday season. The staff at The Home is great, and there’s always a solid crew of volunteers to help out. Donations were down again this year, which is unfortunate but understandable given the economic climate. If you are in a place to help out this year with a donation to The Home or another charitable organization, your gift will go even further this year.

Droppin’ Science… err.. Art

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:44:41 +0000

We were recently asked to give a lecture at MassArt in our home town of Boston. The topic was to be our design process. We pulled together a broad range of work ranging from identity design to CD art direction to print collateral. The turnout was great and the students seemed really enthusiastic—and we only had very minor technical difficulties—I’m looking at you Preview! One of the students, Caley Ostrander, posted a nice, little write-up on her blog [here].

Open Office Hours Tomorrow

Alphabet Arm — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:43:59 +0000

In case you’re still on the fence, we would like to encourage you to book a slot for our Open Office Hours tomorrow morning. You can read more about them at the original post, and see the calendar below for the open slots. They are a great way to get some very objective and honest opinions on where your business stands from a branding and creative standpoint. We’re also looking at them as a great opportunity to network and talk to some people who may be out of our typical circles. Lastly, we’d like to stress that it doesn’t matter the size of your company: big, small or in between, we’d be more than happy to chat.

If you’re interested in booking a slot, you can e-mail us here or call (617) 451-9990. We’re located in Boston’s South End (map).

Open Office Hours with Alphabet Arm

Alphabet Arm — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:57:59 +0000

Open Office Hours with Alphabet Arm Design: How does effective identity and branding help to quickly establish your start-up or new company? How can rebranding your company reposition you as a leader in your respective industry? Gather unique insight from the award-winning studio that has built their reputation on developing bold, creative and distinctive design solutions for their clients.

10 minute slots available from 9:30am to 11:30am on Tuesday, December 15th.
See available slots below.

Contact: openofficehours@alphabetarm.com / 617-451-9990 to reserve your spot.

Open Office Hours are your opportunity to receive targeted input and advice from industry professionals, without the pressure of cost or obligation. In the provided 10 minute slot, attendees are given an open forum to discuss anything related to identity and branding.

Alphabet Arm – 500 Harrison Avenue, Studio 3R, Boston

The ABC’s of Expressive Type

Alphabet Arm — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:22:22 +0000

By Donovan “Donny Bloggernaut” Brien

Being a student, one of the hardest things to concentrate on is making typography itself expressive. Graphic design, after all, is a layered and complex artform, and its very easy for students to forget about their type in the process of design. Knowing Alphabet Arm’s passion for typography and exceptional talent for making type expressive, I invited the team to come down and give a workshop at Boston University for the BU AIGA student group, which they happily agreed to do.

The workshop specifically concentrated on weathered type treatment both on the computer and by hand. The students were asked to create a composition based on their initials using a pool of resources provided for them. They were then taught various ways to use the type expressively and methods of achieving an archival and weathered feel to their type.

As the students worked, Aaron, Ryan, Ira, and Chris helped the students with technical issues, design choices, and suggested methods to help them achieve successful designs.

Overall, it was hugely successful and was extremely well received by the students. Check out some photos from the workshop below.

Cut & Paste Global Championships

Alphabet Arm — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:34:48 +0000

If you’re an O.G.A.B.C.B.R (Original Gangster Alphabet Arm Blog Reader) you might remember that Chris competed in the Boston, Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament. Tomorrow evening Chris will be competing in the Cut & Paste Global Championships in New York City. For those of you that aren’t “in the know,” the Cut & Paste competition consists of designers going head to head in a battle royal. The concept is simple, though ridiculous, design something from scratch, based on a theme, within fifteen minutes. Oh, and do it in front of a huge crowd of people. The Global Championship consists of the winners from each of the 16 cities (LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, BOSTON, NEW YORK, TORONTO, CHICAGO, AMSTERDAM, LONDON, BERLIN, BARCELONA, MILAN, SHANGHAI, TOKYO, SYDNEY) coming together to determine who is the champion of the universe (not to be confused with He-Man, he’s the MASTER of the universe you turkey).

Here’s the details:
Date: Friday October 16th, doors open at 7pm
Where: Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC