Tessera Design

In 1999, Adoption Resources of Wisconsin sponsored an event called “Journey Home” which took key movers and shakers on a tour of the foster care system. These legislators, policymakers and administrators got to experience a day-in-the-life of a child seeking permanent adoption placement – which may involve the police, the hospital and the courts – among other things.

ARW is re-creating that program in 2011 with the support of Jockey International. Marilyn Boeldt asked Tessera Design to create a logo. We designed a logo that is in keeping with the spirit of the original event and works as well in black and white as it does in color.

This logo will represent a great program intended to spotlight the needs of foster children in Wisconsin and keep critical funding available to help get these kids out of the system and into loving homes where they belong.

All of the people at the Outpost Café in Bay View are super nice, but this year one of them was able to help me with a little more than my usual breakfast order.

Artist-in-residence, Katie Gamb, makes these beautiful chalk creations on the specials board, so I decided to ask the recent MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) graduate to create a New Year’s illustration for Tessera Design.

I showed Katie a sample I liked with strong contrast and told her I wanted artwork that involved snow and that it should be her original idea. The final piece is this whimsical, wintery wonderland set in a birch forest – something I never would have thought of myself – which is what is so nice about working with other artists and letting them be creative.

Thank you, Katie, and thank you to everyone who has made 2010 a success and will make 2011 even more exciting in our colorful little corner of the design world. Happy New Year!

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

We had mentioned that we were hoping to post more about the Project Homeless Connect event held at the State Fair grounds last month. This is what we have been hoping to see and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

Tyra was approached to take photos of the event, but knew this assignment was a little out of her league. Through her work with Adoption Resources of Wisconsin, though, she knew of the perfect photographers.

Happily, Miranda and Adam from Reminisce Studio agreed to take on this volunteer project for Community Advocates and Fuel Milwaukee, and the results are nothing less than fantastic – just like we expected.

Please take a look at the photos on Miranda and Adam’s blog: http://www.capturingyourday.com/?p=1891

The images are such great reflections of the men and women struggling with homelessness, but not hopelessness. Thank you for making these people feel extra special that day and taking their info to send them their portraits!

We’re not posting any pictures here, because we REALLY want you to go look at all of their great work on their site…

The last holiday card we’d like to feature this year is from Donor by Design. DBD sent a thank you package to clients and friends who work within their respective non-profit fields and who bring a “spark of hope” to those around them.

To symbolize this spark, they enclosed a candle that was handcrafted by President Bruce Berglund’s son, Cameron. They are called “Camdles” – how cool is that?

The DBD team all got together at YMCA Camp Minikani to personally sign the Tessera Design-created cards and package the Camdles for delivery. On the back of the cards was an address to the Donor by Design site specifically sharing some of their bright ideas from the past year.

Thanks to Lora for this photo. We heard the group enjoyed a great day together – another bonus of this special holiday idea.

There are three things that we really like about this simple, yet effective, custom-designed holiday card for HSI Properties:

1. The atypical red, white and blue color scheme is cool and clean and sets it apart from other Christmas-time cards and makes the message and logo pop.

2. The strong use of blue is actually a subtle way to reinforce HSI’s corporate color and bring in a touch of branding to a non-marketing piece.

3. Ryan Schultz agreed with numbers 1 and 2.

The inside message reads, “HSI Properties extends its best wishes for a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. We look forward to another year of growth and success in 2011.”

Tessera Design concurs and is optimistic about a New Year of new opportunities.

Tessera Design created this card for Adoption Resources of Wisconsin as part of a holiday donor appeal that included a lovely letter-within-a-letter from CEO, Colleen Ellingson, who told of one family’s challenges with attachment issues in raising nine adopted children. As the mother put it:

These special children who have found their way to our front door have pain, worries and needs that simply won’t go away with a trip to Disney World…

ARW finds homes for these deserving kids, as evidenced by the beautiful photography by Proud to Introduce Photography & Design of several children who will be sharing the gift of family in time for the holidays this year.

For more info on Adoption Resources of Wisconsin, please go to www.wiadopt.org.

We mentioned Lora Dow in a previous post, who is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Donor by Design Group, and now we would like to share a little of what they do and what Tessera Design does for them.

In their own words, “Donor By Design Group LLC is a professional services firm that works for not-for-profit organizations. Through the sharing of critical expertise in a variety of disciplines, Donor By Design helps organizations achieve their mission.”

One of the many ways DBD helps groups achieve their capital fundraising goals is through developing an individualized campaign that includes a case for support. Tessera Design has created over a dozen of these cases for DBD clients throughout the country – from Montana to Indiana – which include a campaign logo, multi-page case document and vision boards.

Pictured below are a couple of pages from the Champaign County YMCA’s case in Illinois, along with an example of the coordinating signage.

Tyra has worked with Lora and Donor by Design President, Bruce Berglund, as well as many members of the DBD team, for over 10 years now. Their professionalism and dedication are only outmatched by the positive results they achieve for their clients. You can check out more of their work at: donorbydesign.com.

Ever since designing the HSI Properties logo in 2008, Tessera Design has provided graphic design support to this professional real estate services company on a number of projects.

HSI Properties (hsi-properties.com) continues to grow under the guidance of Principals Ryan Schultz and Brett Haney and one of their current developments is the Junior Achievement of Wisconsin Kohl’s Education Center, located on Liberty Drive just north of Good Hope and east of I-45.

Tessera Design did some Photoshop work on, and the layout for, this signage for the groundbreaking in October. However, since everyone – including general contractor, Beyer Construction – is on pace to meet their March/April 2011 completion, the sign has since been removed to make way for progress. So we’d like to thank Robert Mueller of HSI for sending this earlier photo.

We can’t wait to see the finished facility, designed by Kahler Slater Architects, and will post photos of the real deal this spring. The JA Biz Town and JA Finance Park learning labs will be housed at this site and will provide hands-on experiences for students in the areas of work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills.

Someone recently asked if we designed holiday cards for clients. Do we ever!

Tessera Design will be featuring several designs in the coming weeks and wanted to begin with the Happy Holidays postcard for Y Day Camp developed by Cindy Miresse, Marketing Manager of the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee.

We’re so happy that the card got kudos from the Y camping crowd in Colorado – all the while utilizing the new national look and logo for the YMCA.

And there was a yummy fudge recipe on the back. Can’t beat that.

When you’ve been a professional graphic designer for 18 years, you tend to accumulate a lot of files – both digital and literal. Samples come in and pile up and eventually get filed, but the thing is, none ever get tossed.

Take this kooky cat (or bird) who has been floating around the back of a flat file for something like 15 years. Every year I think I should edit those drawers, but every year Mr. Turkey gets a pardon.

I think he was an illustration for a children’s magazine article, but it makes no difference. I keep them all – the good, the bad (there are a few), the great and all the ones in between.

Those sample files are an honest record of my career in art and it’s fun to look back and see how trends have changed and how much I have learned. But I keep them mostly because I appreciate every client who has ever entrusted me with their project and am so thankful that I get to make a living doing what I love – graphic design.

So, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You to all my Tessera Design clients and Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design