City Museum is difficult to describe—even with great branding. Part playground, part always-evolving art exhibit, the 10-story building is full of climbable sculptures and interactive exhibits; a bus teeters off the roof and tunnels snake under floors. Much of it is made from discarded materials cities have left behind. And while City Museum attracts visitors and attention from around the world, its brand was outdated and limited. The existing logo had decades of nostalgia tied to it. We kept its essence but reimagined it with updated type and fresh colors. By adding a rectangular box, we gave it context and opportunity for variations. The rectangle symbolizes the building itself, and different versions highlight the exhibits inside (and outside, and on top of). Along with a new color palette and typeface, our team designed brand patterns inspired by some of the textures and motifs found at City Museum. New brand language encapsulates the adventurous, rebellious spirit and inspires visitors to explore. It’s all summed up in the new tagline, “Weirdly wonderful.”

Creative Director: Mike Spakowski
Designers: Beth Bennett, Rosie Linhares & Katie Werges Pour
Copywriter: Julie Rechtien
Account Manager: Erika Cruse
Project Manager: Christen Ringhausen

The Financial Field Guide is designed to raise the basic level of financial literacy for young adults. Using Simple illustrations and bite size explanations as the tools to tone down the intimidation of personal financial concepts. Everyone’s financial situation is different, but the financial terms and concepts at the core of personal money management is knowledge everyone should have. This book is designed to be a starting point for basic money questions and to provide a reader a direction for further research on a topic. Let the Financial Field Guide help guide you and increase your confidence when it comes to making financial decisions.

Grand Center Art District is a landmark destination for the arts in St. Louis, Missouri. Nestled between disparate economic areas and a major university, the district needed a cohesive wayfinding system and identity befitting the cultural hub. The project challenge was to encourage engagement and awareness of destinations within the district through a functional wayfinding system. A re-brand had just been done for the district but did not have the associated strategy to accomplish the desired aspirations for audience engagement. The project vision was grounded in a deep discovery process finding that a colorful, vibrant system with iconography was needed to reflect the district’s diverse energy and incredible collection of organizations within the district’s tight footprint. The existing hardscape was dominated by concrete, so color had to be tastefully integrated with signage to brighten the landscape. A street banner system was an effective, cost-conscious way to integrate color, define district boundaries, and create a sense of place. Use of black created a sophisticated base to the system. Once the design template was created, the design team facilitated the conversation about accessibility and fabrication methods to provide changeability. The design team engaged the city’s Office of the Disabled to review and approve all designs. The resulting system has encouraged traffic and engagement within the district for people of all abilities, interests, and backgrounds. With its inspiration taken from music and energy, the Grand Center Arts District signage is a true ensemble experience.

Andy Palombo: Creative Director
Troy Guzman: Designer
James Butler: Designer
Jacob Valier: Designer
Judy Glik: Strategist

Twenty years of masterfully roasted coffee had earned Goshen a loyal following and plenty of potential to expand. What they lacked was a visual identity that resonated with their audience — and a brand idea to inspire it. To help Goshen stand out on intensely competitive retail shelves and draw more visitors to their cafes, we infused unexpected meaning into the brand name. “Goshen” became a symbolic mashup of the words “Good Shit Energy,” and a North Star for the unapologetic and positive vibe of the new brand.

Shannon Levin: Designer & Illustrator
Katy Fischer: Creative Director
Jane Winburn: Account Manager
Brian Hopson: Strategist & Writer
Geoff Story: Strategist
Eric Thoelke: ECD

To celebrate their 75th anniversary, UNICEF planned to hold a gala in 10 cities simultaneously (as well as online!) premiering a commemorative film about the work that they do. For the invitation, they needed a thematic vision that would create a sense of community and unity across all the different locations. The final product—a firework-filled, gold foil-stamped universal UNICEF theatre. Complete with a logo marquee and a shine that reflected the wave of a searchlight, this invitation was the perfect promo for the film-focused fundraiser.

Designer: Mary Rosamond Kunnath
Creative Director: Cheree Berry Print
Production Artist: Mary Rosamond Kunnath
Account Manager: Kristen Armstrong

Named one of Sauce Magazine’s best new restaurants in 2022, Bistro La Floraison is the latest endeavor of Tara and Michael Gallina, co-owners of Take Root Hospitality, offering an artfully curated selection of wines, crafted cocktails, and classic French delicacies in the heart of Clayton, Missouri. Bistro La Floraison needed a brand that captured the spirit of their sumptuous menu and romantic dining experience. Using typography from VJ-Type Foundry intertwined with floral drawings by local artist Andy Millner, the brand invites patrons on a whimsical escapade that may just make you blush.

Shannon Levin: Designer
Katy Fischer: Creative Director
Andy Millner: Illustrator

To honor the craft of American metalworking and pay tribute to the man who ran B&C Machine Co. Shot on a digital Leica with available light, we let the machines, workbenches and warehouse tell their own stories. The posters became forever keepsakes for friends and family, even leading to another run of postcard-sized replicas.

Chief Creative Officer: Mike McCormick
Designer: Luke Partridge

Since 2005 Design & Detail has been providing the interior design community with exclusive resources and superior service. They have grown in size and ability to offer designers guidance and individual assistance with their projects. This type-driven website redesign project included a brand refinement, elevating the brand online to the level at which it is perceived in the industry. Featuring an expandable navigation, brand-focused interactivity, and a members-only eCommerce portal, this is a custom-designed and unique experience.

CD, Design: Bob Schuster, Hello And™
Web Development: Eric Elves, Kestrel Co.
Strategy: Lauren Clark, Kestrel Co.

For the past decade, local housing advocates and housing professionals have been sounding the alarm about the growing lack of affordability in the city of New Orleans, and the role that stable housing plays in the health and wealth of residents. This year, People’s Housing+ (PH+) was created through a strategic partnership of three NOLA-based community development organizations: Crescent City Community Land Trust, Home By Hand, and Tulane Canal Neighborhood Development Corporation. With more than 40 years combined experience among the merging partners, PH+ is now a one-stop affordable home shop, providing marginalized communities with an affordable pathway to housing, stewardship and multi-generational wealth. Our team developed a brand identity to communicate the new organization’s strategic vision, which came to life print marketing collateral, a launch event poster, banner signage, as well as a new website.

The Anatomy of Caves is an informational poster created as part of a graduate illustration studio course. The goal of the project was to condense a complex topic into a digestible and visually engaging format using a combination of both illustration and typography. Given the multitude of caves in the Midwest, I chose to devote the poster to educating children about the different sections or environments within a cave and the creatures they might encounter there. A subsection at the bottom also provides fun facts about specific caves in the United States that a child might be keen to visit in person. I enjoy creating work that educates via design and illustration, but also leads children out from the pictorial world to the tangible world. I believe that the learning graphic design produces is only complete when the viewer actually engages with the objects or places the designed object references. As such, the poster would be ideally suited for use in a classroom, science museum, or even at a state park for educational programs with young children. Formally, I am interested in making work like this poster that explores the intersection of graphic design and illustration given my background and training in both fields.

In support of the 46th season of The Black Rep Theatre, this poster series promotes all five shows — produced and written by Black playwrights. Committed to creating opportunities for new African American voices, these plays are reimagined to embrace the shared experience of what it’s like to be Black in America, then and now. All posters feature a miniature tabletop theatre and hand-painted wooden characters that are individually cut, constructed layer upon layer and illuminated in vibrant color to celebrate the power of The Black Rep in its rawest form. This is art promoting art.

Chief Creative Officer: Mike McCormick
Director of Design: Kris Wright
Group Creative Director: Kay Cochran

A local real estate development company was planning a new 300-unit residential building in The Grove neighborhood of St. Louis. The building was being designed with wellness and nature in mind, with amenities like a bike repair area, pool and walking trails. Inspired by both the building design and the geographic location on which it would stand, we landed on Terra, meaning “earth” in Latin, for the building’s name. We developed a logo, color palette and brand pattern inspired by Terra’s juxtaposition of natural landscapes in an urban setting, along with Danish folk art, Scandinavian architecture and geometric shapes.

Creative Director: Mike Spakowski
Designer: Rosie Linhares
Copywriter: Julie Rechtien
Account Manager: Erika Cruse
Project Manager: Christen Ringhausen

A 9-hole VR Golf experience with scripted, in-game UI, tutorial, scorekeeping and endgame sequences.

Creative Director: Andy Wise
UI Designer: Dan Rayfield
Senior Technical Artist: Colin Freeman
Technical Artist: Ayushman Johri
Technical Artist: Noah Ilbery
Creator and Dev. Lead: James Kane
Senior Developer: Kevin Olson
Senior Developer: Ethan Michalicek
Developer: Irina Fawcett

Cat Schmitz is an artist, designer, and (most importantly) a human based in Brooklyn, NY. If you don’t recognize her name, you might recognize the big cheerful blobs, buoyant hearts, twisty noodles, demure cat paws, and floaty polka dots. Those and other off-kilter shapes are the stuff of Cat’s work — comfort objects for grownups. We created a brand identity inspired directly by Cat’s work. From the color palette and logo, to the custom typeface and product photography, each element is at home in the world of Cat.

Creative Director: Dan Rayfield
Brand Designer: Ashford Stamper
Account Service: Madeleine Sutherland
Art Director: Terri Mitchell
Writer: Emily Bihl
XD Designer: Corey Helling
Photographer: Daniel Kayamba
Producer: Kirsten Leimkuehler

Twenty years of masterfully roasted coffee had earned Goshen a loyal following and plenty of potential to expand. What they lacked was a visual identity that resonated with their audience — and a brand idea to inspire it. To help Goshen stand out on intensely competitive retail shelves and draw more visitors to their cafes, we infused unexpected meaning into the brand name. “Goshen” became a symbolic mashup of the words “Good Shit Energy,” and a North Star for the unapologetic and positive vibe of the new brand.

Shannon Levin: Designer
Katy Fischer: Creative Director
Jane Winburn: Account Manager
Brian Hopson: Strategist & Writer

The District, in downtown Columbia, Missouri, is a thriving, vibrant mixed-use district located adjacent to universities and local colleges. The District needed a plan to build identity and help establish entryways into downtown capturing the energy of the neighborhood.

Arcturis was commissioned to develop a Placemaking Masterplan involving gateways, streetscaping, and creative means of identity for the area. Based on sound analysis, public involvement, and placemaking strategies, the resulting masterplan developed a summary report identifying the planning process and implementation strategy. Arcturis assisted with the creation of the landscape planning, art, environmental graphics, lighting design, and implementation.

The masterplan established The District Gateway Plaza as a major entry point into downtown Columbia. This plaza is a gathering spot, location marker, and graduation backdrop for celebratory pictures. Therefore, The District wanted to ensure the concept reflected the city’s unique personality and diverse history.

A large “Columbia” dimensional letter sculpture anchors the focal point of the gateway. A public campaign aided in choosing the words, phrases, notable dates, and milestones etched into the letters of the sculpture.

Design inspiration nods to the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism and the written word through textures and forms of newsprint. Tall stainless-steel letters include subtle etched milestones that encourage patrons to explore and learn while strolling in between. The “O” in Columbia is a layered globe with graphics cut out, applied, or etched, and anchors the plaza and illuminates the graphics from within at night. The sculpture was proudly fabricated by Columbia-local metalsmith, Russellbilt.

Russ Volmert: Planner
Troy Guzman: Creative Director
Jacob Valier: Designer
Judy Glik: Strategist
Brian Burmeister: Landscape Designer Brian Waite: Lighting Designer

Our city sits at the confluence of three mighty rivers — the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois — at the end of the sprawling Missouri River valley. The rolling hills that cradle our neighborhoods are the transition between the grassy plains and the wooded Ozark Mountains. Forest Park is one of the largest and most beautiful urban parks in the world. Between Gateway Arch National Park in the East to the Katy Trail in the west, our region holds over 600 parks, 130 miles of greenways and over 100 miles of trails. The Local Lands STL Poster Expo celebrates this abundance of public outdoor spaces with posters from 40+ local designers and illustrators.

Designer: Christian Fricke

Designed around an integrative “employee experience framework,” this university’s human resource office communicates its mission and values through a layered design approach. Concentrating on the dynamic relationship between well-being and inclusivity, graphic and interior design are utilized to create a space with robust experiential design.

The reception area welcomes visitors with an installation of dimensional, tonal letters elegantly introducing this department’s five areas of focus: Mind/Body, Financial, Work-Life, Culture, Career. These initiatives were foundational in guiding the team’s creation of a comfortable, inviting, human-centered space acknowledging the university’s diverse community. Striking graphics and bright accent colors are offset by polished concrete floors, exposed ceilings, light natural wood tones, and relaxed furniture groupings to create a loft-like space that feels congruent to the lively atmosphere of the urban off-campus location.

An abstract floor to ceiling graphic mural skillfully weaves the word ‘HUMAN’ into a network of symbols representing the human condition using unique iconography. This piece anchors the adjacent work café and conference center tying together color, texture, and brand identity.

The Human Resource group’s department initiatives are expressed in an installation of clean acrylic lettering within the lounge and pre-function space of the large reconfigurable training room. Sophisticated yet subtle, this focus on the department’s goals of inclusion and well-being serves as a reflective mission moment.

Andy Palombo: Creative Director
James Butler : Designer
Brian Waite: Lighting Designer
Olivia Graff: Interior & Lighting Designer

As my daughters’ birthdays are only days apart, we wanted to have a combined party. I designed a single invitation for the two sisters—one turning five, the other turning two—that centered around a custom die-cut numeral reading as a five on one side and a two on the other. I emphasized the duality with a limited color palette that highlights my daughters’ favorite colors—yellow for Ella and pink for Lila.

Based on a blog interview series, Rhonda Broussard – an expert in pedagogy, international education, and racial equity—uses conversations with education leaders from eleven countries to try to answer her one good question. A question that she couldn’t answer on her own, a question that could inspire different truths based on context, a question that could bring clarity in complexity. This book provides ample fodder for how you might define your own one good question. Our design for the cover of the book brings the One Good Question from a deep tangle of greenery and obscurity into clarity.

Commemorating Tony Jones’ final year as Nerman Family President of KCAI, Onward & Upward is a very special document and unique among the previous annual reports. To give the publication a commemorative look and feel, the cover typography has been printed with silver foil and the design spans the front and back cover.

Global product video for FieldView, farm monitoring software, to highlight the tool and its features.

CD: Tyson Foersterling
CD: Tony McAley
ACD: Chris Prestemon
ACD: Christian Fricke
Account: Melissa Youngblood
Account: Cassi McDonald
Partner: Antidote Studio

Between Gateway Arch National Park in the East to the Katy Trail in the west, the St. Louis region holds over 600 parks, 130 miles of greenways and over 100 miles of trails. The Local Lands STL Poster Expo celebrates this abundance of public outdoor spaces with posters from 40+ local designers and illustrators. I chose to feature the Chain of Rocks Bridge in North County, a familiar destination for my friends and family growing up. Over the years, the bridge has been transformed into a walking and biking path connecting Missouri to Illinois. I designed modular typography to convey the sites and sounds of the river below as it swirls and churns over large beds of rocks, making it somewhat treacherous for boats.

Design & Typography: Scott Gericke

Have a great summer! LYLAS! I was the first to sign your crack! We remember them all, but they never get old. That’s why our 2022 yearbooks won’t be hidden in a box somewhere in our basements anytime soon. Complete with a letter from our Principal (our President), a crossword puzzle, pictures of us as kids, office confessions, and office pets, it truly has it all. Will you sign our yearboook?

CCO/President: Heidi Singleton
Project Manager: Samantha Weathers
Account Supervisor: Amber Drummonds
ACD/Writer: Jessy Lobel
Sr. Designer: Johnny Pelhank
Designer: Elizabeth Ustinov

Made of the same beloved recipe as original Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Ezra Brooks 99 is proofed higher for a bolder flavor and a richer experience. In a new chapter of our “Turn It Up” integrated campaign, we use the power of sound to take tasting notes to the next level, capturing vast liquid landscapes and evoking the visceral energy of the first sip.

Chief Creative Officer: Mike McCormick
Associate Creative Director: Emily Daab Otero
Creative Director: Jon Hansen