Tessera Design

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

OK – after three attempts to take a decent photo of this billboard – success! As we mentioned previously, Tessera Design created the new highway signage for the “Become a foster parent” campaign for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and the Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center at Adoption Resources of Wisconsin.

This sign happens to be in Hales Corners at the intersection of Highway 100 and I-43 on the way to Beloit. If you have seen any others across the state, please leave a comment or email Tyra at info@tesseradesignwi.com with the location. Thanks!

Tessera Design is proud to be a sponsor of Project Homeless Connect: Milwaukee and humbled and excited about their event being held at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center today at State Fair Park.

Project Homeless Connect has brought togethers dozens of resources and many, many volunteers to provide the homeless with, among many other things, free: haircuts, hygiene items, clothing, job resources, legal consultations and mental as well as physical health screenings.

We’re involved because of a really great network of amazing people — which we will hopefully be able to recognize more in a future post. But for now we, are so happy that so many people are being shown compassion and support today through this community event.

We mentioned that Tessera Design created a logo for Make A Difference – Wisconsin to represent their mission to educate teens on financial matters. It was really nice to be mentioned at their recent recognition event and to meet some of the volunteers and other supporters.

It’s the dedication and enthusiasm of those people that make it so easy to continue being a part of the effort to get the word out about Make A Difference. So with the help of Executive Director, Brenda Campbell, Tessera Design created this set of posters that can be posted in high schools throughout Southeastern Wisconsin.

The bold text and colorful graphics get the simple message across to both educators and students and are also good examples of branding using the organization’s new colors – deep blue and bright green. We think the design is pretty on the money. (Sorry, too easy.)

For more information on Make A Difference – WI, please go to: www.makeadifferencewisconsin.org

If you haven’t heard of Ten Chimneys, please click here for more info, and if you have, then you might know what an interesting little gem is sitting in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin about 45 minutes west of Milwaukee.

Ten Chimneys was the summer home of legendary stage actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine from the 1930s through the 1990s. The estate was saved from the wrecking ball and designated a National Historic Landmark and can now be toured from May – November.

Our tour was led by a fantastic team of docents, Annette and Myron, who made the two hours fly by with their knowledge of the Lunts and the anecdotes about their famous guests. The bedrooms are even named after such guests, including Noel Coward, Helen Hayes and Sir Laurence Olivier. The articles in the home have remained almost entirely as the Lunts intended and used them.

Whether you are interested in Broadway, set design, architecture, interior decorating or want to experience a great love story shared by two of America’s most-beloved actors, Ten Chimneys is worth a visit.

(Pictured below are the Main House and the Swedish-themed Cottage.)

When Marilyn Boeldt, Director of Development & Communications at Adoption Resources of Wisconsin, suggested a redesign for the Foster Care & Adoption Resource Center logo, Tessera Design was all for it.

In the case of dated logos – change is definitely good. FCARC was ready for a fresh, contemporary look and it coincided perfectly with the new statewide billboard campaign promoting foster care and adoption which is supported by Clear Channel Outdoor.

We’ve been wanting to get a photo of the billboard on I-43 and Highway 100, but if you live in Milwaukee, you know it’s been just a tad windy the last few days. So as soon as the weather cooperates, we’ll post a shot of the awesome (at least we think so) new highway signage.

Speaking of Boston… we just want to congratulate Monica Baer and Terri Kaminski for running a very successful Briggs & Stratton Yard Smarts Boot Camp last weekend in Boston.

Recruits were chosen after submitting photos of their own lawns that needed a little TLC and then were flown to Boston to learn yard care tips and tricks – including environmentally-friendly lawn mower tuning. They spruced up a local lawn with Trey Rogers, Ph.D., the Briggs & Stratton Yard Doctor, and toured the Boston Public Gardens.

Tessera Design created these postcards for the event and is so happy that the weather was amazing and that Boot Camp was really informative and fun.

This is a personal appeal, because it is near and dear for three reasons:
1. It benefits special needs kids.
2. It utilizes art therapy.
3. It is sponsored by my friend, Nancy Zimbalist.

As an amazing art educator in the Boston Public Schools system, Nancy has seen her budget cut to non-existent ribbons. She is compelled to purchase equipment and supplies with personal or private funds to help her classes, “get past the frustration and into the creation.”

Through donorschoose.org, she is asking people to support 100 of her special needs students with a die cutting machine that will help them build fine motor skills and integrate their work into large collaborative murals.

Please consider signing up at donorschoose.org and donating even a small amount towards Mrs. Z.’s modest goal – maybe in honor of a child you know or a great teacher you’ve had. Once you donate, you will receive an e-mail every time someone else gives until the goal is reached.

It will be so exciting when the only cutting being done is on that machine, by those special kids, who will be strengthened personally while producing beautiful public art.

Please go to: www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=445682&verify=1218772100

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

We love that our last blog was about Jan Wilberg, who referenced the butterfly in our previous blog, because she is a client after seeing our work for Adoption Resources of Wisconsin and calling CEO, Colleen Ellingson, for our info five years ago. Colleen is also the person who carefully chose the secondary color palette of orange, green and purple for ARW’s Our Home Our Family curriculum, which we mentioned discussing the monarch. Now how’s that for some synchronicity?

And how’s this for having the fabulous Jenna Czaplewski, Development & Communications Specialist at ARW, for our Guest Blogger to explain OHOF so much better than we ever could? Jenna says:

“Our Home Our Family (OHOF) is an interactive training curriculum for foster and adoptive families. The program is a joint effort of Adoption Resources of Wisconsin (ARW) and Loving Couples Loving Children (LCLC), Inc. OHOF is designed to help support foster and adoptive parents strengthen their partner relationship, as well as their relationship with their children.

There are three core levels, each level containing four modules, and three supplemental levels, each containing two modules of study. Each OHOF module is research-based and includes facilitator-led learning, DVD Talk Show segments, activities and handouts for participants to take home and complete with their families.

The OHOF curriculum has been tested with foster and adoptive families for five years. We have found that families feel that their family functioning has improved significantly and that the improvement has continued long after the training has ended. Parents tell us that they feel better about themselves and their relationships with one another and their children.”

To learn more about the amazing work like OHOF being done at Adoption Resources of Wisconsin, log on to: http://www.wiadopt.org

Jan also has a blog about having an adoptive family at redswrap.wordpress.com (It’s honestly made me cry – it’s that good. -Tyra)