The founder of Art of Wow, a budding event planning firm that does upscale birthday parties and corporate events, came to TSD with high expectations. With experience planning several birthday parties for family members, she was ready to pursue her passion full-time. Our mission: to create a sensational, eye-catching, cohesive brand that makes you say “WOW!” She left the creativity up to us, but expressed a love for bright pink, bright green and script fonts.

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is an international professional organization whose mission is to improve the educational experience of all individuals with exceptionalities, including disabilities and gifts and talents. Each year, CEC hosts a conference  for professionals in the special education field. The planning for the annual conference begins more than a year in advance and CEC chose TSD to work on their 2014 conference materials. They wanted to create a captivating comprehensive campaign that embodied the spirit of Philadelphia, the host city. In addition to designing a logo, print advertisements, and online banners, they asked us to brainstorm unique promotional giveaway items since they used the same ones every year. In order to promote the 2014 conference at their 2013 convention, many of the materials had to be created quickly.

Octane is a public relations and advertising firm that came to TSD looking for a logo design for their client (D.C. Department of Disability Services). Octane created a number of logos internally, but couldn’t get the client’s board of directors to agree on the same logo. So, the firm hoped our designers could get the job done. We knew this project would be challenging for several reasons. Besides gaining the approval of the directors, we also needed to incorporate feedback from a focus group.  In addition, we had to develop a logo that represented disability challenges without using typical non-profit imagery – and would be DC-centric. Finally, we had to accomplish all this without being able to communicate directly with the client.

The Gray’s on Pennsylvania is a government-assisted apartment complex on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. The complex features modern amenities and comfortable city living. The developers came to TSD looking for a brand identity for the building. The challenge was to create an identity that was memorable, had strong curb appeal to draw in prospective residents, and represented the neighborhood. The branding also needed to be flexible enough to be appropriate for multiple types of projects. Additionally, we were in charge of creating the name of the complex.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, in conjunction with the New Zealand Embassy, came to TSD looking for a logo for their initiative. The initiative involved 10 countries spread across the world. So, the challenges were clear from the start. We needed to create a logo that represented these countries and their new partnership. In addition, we had to get all the countries to agree on the same logo. These challenges posed potential issues with the design, as well as with client management.

Academic Travel Abroad (ATA) is a travel company and tour operator that specializes in unique educational travel opportunities. ATA came to us looking for a way to stand out in a competitive market that includes National Geographic and The Smithsonian. But, creating a distinct look and feel wasn’t the only challenge. TSD also needed to work in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History. All designs had to undergo multiple internal reviews from both organizations while staying within their brand guidelines.

RAW by Noelle Marie is a vegan cosmetics line founded by a young entrepreneur with a passion for makeup and a love of animals. Noelle’s cosmetics feature fun, vibrant colors that appeal to a younger demographic. Noelle came to TSD looking for a brand identity that would help her line stand out from the competition and reflect her personality. The challenge was to build a brand from the ground up that represented the animal-friendly mission of the company and generated mass commercial appeal.