Ok, so last October I’m watching Wisconsin Foodie on PBS and I knew as soon as host, Kyle Cherek, started discussing the pork chops with Trattoria Stefano owner, Stefano Viglietti, that I was going to be making a day trip to Sheboygan.

You see, I was the weird kid who could have any meal I wanted for my birthday and I ALWAYS chose pork chops. And these clearly were not my mother’s pork chops. (Sorry, Mom.)

Plus, it gave me a great excuse to stop in at the Kohler Arts Center – which is only a few blocks away from Stefano’s trifecta of downtown eateries: Field to Fork, Il Ritrovo and Trattoria Stefano.

My friend, Kris, was kind enough to keep me company on this little Sheboygan adventure, so we headed up north on Saturday and started with lunch at Il Ritrovo.

I am by no means a food critic, but what follows is a brief photo journal of our gourmet day.

We split a Bufalina Bianca pizza with bufala mozzarella, bufala ricotta, smoked mozzarella, parmigiano, prosciutto di Parma, fresh tomatoes and arugula. It was very Neapolitan and we had a great view of the wood-fired oven.

Our server, Jason, was very friendly and also told us about Stefano’s fourth restaurant which is on the river, The Duke of Devon. Darn, I guess we will just have to go back.

Kris and I perused the selections of fresh cheeses and produce in the shop and then we headed straight to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. We thoroughly enjoyed Mark Fox’s installation, Dust, and even got photographed in a few of the center’s professional photos. They don’t allow public hacks like me to take photos in the building – except for their world-famous bathrooms. Below is a photo of the gorgeous tile in the women’s bathroom at the entrance.

This is just a pretty picture of the church through the trees outside the JMKAC. We weren’t going to let the cold get in the way of a great day trip.

We had some time to kill, so we FORCED ourselves to go shopping at The Shops at Woodlake. Then we returned to Sheboygan’s little corner of culinary heaven for the pasto principale (main meal) – those infamous chops with the locally-sourced ingredients.

Again, I am not a food expert, but our server, Reed, was just lovely and very knowledgable about, well, everything. Kris had the tuna special and I, of course, had the Cotoletta di Maiale con Guanciale: Pan-roasted Willow Creek Farms pork chop stuffed with smoked pork jowl, pancetta, garlic, rosemary, parsley and water buffalo caciocavallo cheese. Topped with tomato conserva and a white wine pan sauce. Served with mashed potatoes, cream-braised fennel and fresh sautéed spinach. Need I really say more? The awesomeness speaks for itself.

We preceded the meal with some excellent cuttlefish and ended the evening with a little slice of chocolate decadence.

I think Kris summed it up best when she said that meals like the one we enjoyed Saturday at Trattoria Stefano, “Make your life better.”

Ciao, Il Ritrovo and Trattoria Stefano! Thanks for making our lives a little better – one pizza and pork chop at a time.

– Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

Tessera Design has worked with lots of nonprofits on lots of fundraisers, but none has been quite as unique as the Men We Love book.

Every year the Alma Center – led by founder, Terri Strodthoff – compiles a beautiful hard cover book (we are designing it for 2012) and fills it with memorable dedications.

The dedications are both a photographic and written tribute to a man that the dedicator loves, admires and respects.

Men that are honored include fathers, brothers, sons, friends, clergymen and bosses – among many more – and represent all walks of life and professions.

Wendy Burke Slocum is instrumental in coordinating the book and the end result is something of a masterpiece of well-loved Milwaukee-area men.

When you purchase a dedication, which benefits the Alma Center’s domestic violence prevention programs, you get SO MANY COOL THINGS, which include:

• A portrait sitting with our friends, Reminisce Studio by Miranda & Adam – nationally recognized, award-winning photographers

• A two-page spread in the 2012 book featuring a short essay written by the dedicator(s) to describe the inspiration the man has provided

• One hard-cover copy of the book

• One high-quality 8×10 portrait

• A ticket for the Men We Love book release party on the field at Miller Park

In 2011, the Brewers Community Foundation sponsored the event and hosted the book release party ON THE FIELD at Miller Park.

Some of the dedications are surprises and some aren’t, but either way, it’s quite a sight to see your man on the Jumbotron!

To learn more or to order a dedication, please go to: www.themenwelove.org.

If you have questions, or to order by phone, please contact Laura Watt at the Alma Center at 414-265-0100 ext 110.

“Like” Men We Love’s Facebook page to keep up to date on all the progress of the book until it is unveiled at Miller Park on Friday, June 15, 2012 – just in time for Father’s Day!

Don’t go see Impressionism Masterworks on Paper for the water lilies. Because there aren’t any. Save those for the guest bedroom at Grandma’s house. See it for the draftsmanship of great artists like Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pisarro.

I think I expected something very French Vanilla in this Milwaukee Art Museum exhibition, expertly curated by Christopher Lloyd and Laurie Winters, but what I got was a very Neapolitan-By-Way-Of -Paris collection of masterful avante-garde drawings.

There’s something so immediate and vital about a sketch dashed off in minutes or a sweep of white pastel on cardboard that captures the light “just so” that speaks to me more than a meticulously-labored oil painting. These artists are able to convey the intense light and dark of the inner and outer worlds of their subjects with a minimum amount of marks on paper—yet their styles and subjects diverge widely.

So with the time you have with out-of-town relatives or guests these holidays, please take a couple of hours to wander through the charcoal and chalk smudges, and pen and ink swashes, that make this Impressionism exhibit at MAM – not entirely French – but trés magnifique nonetheless.

Note: My favorites were by Jean-Louis Forain from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis Tennessee. Jean-Louis Forain. French (1852-1931) In Front of the Set, c. 1895-1900 Pastel on paper, 20 x 24 ¼” (25 ¼ x 29 5/8 x 2″) Collection of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

There’s nothing like listening to a panel of savvy social media users share advice with a great group of non-profit thinkers to motivate you to write on your much-neglected blog.

Thanks to Jan Wilberg of Wilberg Community Planning for moderating the discussion at the Milwaukee Planners and Grantwriters Roundtable with Matt Brown of MKE 123, Mari Maldonado from Volunteer Missionary Movement, Jim Raffel of Color Metrix, Alysha Schertz from Milwaukee Biz Times and Carol Voss of Independence First.

The takeaway from today’s talk is that the ideal social media presence is one that creates an engaging personality and voice for an organization and makes quality connections via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. At a minimum, have at least one person charged with communicating your group’s message and just, “Don’t be THAT person.”

As a visual communicator, I prefer Facebook, and I’d phrase it like this, “Be THIS person”:

1. Post pictures! People love pictures. People love to be tagged in pictures.

2. Make your profile picture colorful and attention-grabbing. It doesn’t have to be your logo.

3. Link, link, link to other pages and share their posts.

Facebook is fun – really. And it’s a great business tool. You can find Tessera Design there at: https://www.facebook.com/TesseraDesign

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

I have been working a lot on Tessera Photos and connecting with quality people on Etsy. In my search for great products and good deals, I found something even better – Aid for Abby.

Abby is an 11-year-old girl in Independence, Missouri who has Autism, Expressive/Receptive Language Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Her mother has begun selling Abby’s (rather amazing) artwork on Etsy to supplement their uninsured income.

After spending quite a bit of time reviewing Abby’s work, I purchased two of her paintings that I plan to hang in my office. I can’t think of anything better than encouraging a child’s artistic expression – especially one who can create such beautiful work through the spectrum of autism.

It might just be the best $7 I’ve spent all year.

I have to admit, since putting Tessera Design on Facebook, I have been neglecting the blog on this Web site. This is not good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the site, but Facebook has opened up a whole new world of sharing visual information quickly and interactively on the internet.

So if you would like the most current information on all the great logos, brochures, signage and graphics we produce, please check out Tessera Design and like us at: www.facebook.com/TesseraDesign.

In the mean time, we promise we will try and bring you more blogs about clients and projects and just plain cool art stuff.

Tyra Baumler, Owner Tessera Design

We’re really proud to announce that everyone’s hard work on Wisconsin’s Schooner Coast has paid off with a new Web site, a Savings Passport booklet and a billboard on I-94 near Holt Avenue in Milwaukee, courtesy of the “At This Very Moment in Manitowoc” campaign.

You can find a flip book of the Passport with hundreds of dollars in savings along Highway 42 on the Web site schoonercoast.org and the billboard is pictured below.

It’s an exciting time for the promotion put together by Baer Carlson Communications, the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and the Door County Maritime Museum since being awarded the Wisconsin Department of Tourism JEM Grant in March.

Wisconsin’s Schooner Coast will boost the travel economy along Lake Michigan’s western coast and get the much-deserved word out about the beautiful cities of Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Kewaunee, Algoma and Sturgeon Bay.

Branding your company is a big deal – no matter how large or small it is. When financial advisor, Eric Korbitz, CPA, CFP®, needed a marketing plan for his business, he hired Baer-Carlson Communications, which hired Tessera Design for a new look for Korbitz Financial Planning.

First, we started with a classic logo and incorporated it into a contemporary Web site (korbitzfinancialplanning.com) developed by Greg Smith of GT Design. The coordinating stationery and collateral materials completed the new identity system for Eric’s company.

Thanks to Monica Baer, Korbitz Financial Planning has a clear marketing message and Tessera Design gave them the graphical tools to promote their fee-only financial advising services in one clean, professional – yet personal – branding package that complements their tagline, “ Your goals. Your plan. Your terms.”

Huge congrats go out to the Wisconsin and Door County Maritime Museums, respectively, for securing a Wisconsin Department of Tourism Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) Grant for their Schooner Coast travel initiative. CONGRATS! The $39,550 grant was awarded based on a fantastic proposal developed with Baer-Carlson Communications that included the logo design and advertising created by Tessera Design.

The Schooner Coast is a 60-mile stretch of Highway 42 along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Manitowoc to Sturgeon Bay that includes Two Rivers, Kewaunee and Algoma. This grant will enable the maritime museums to strategically market this hidden travel gem and help boost the economies in all of these communities.

We couldn’t be more happy to have been part of this experience and look forward to helping promote Wisconsin’s Schooner Coast with more marketing materials – like this billboard at the Holiday Inn on Highway 42 in Manitowoc. Thanks to the JEM Grant Program, these five Wisconsin cities will be able to greet even more people with, “Welcome to the Schooner Coast!”

Tessera Design has many clients in lots of fields, but Uzelac Industries is definitely unique. They have combined innovative engineering and manufacturing to create large industrial drying systems that convert wet waste-product into dry by-product. It is an alternative to incineration options that is extremely cost-effective and green.

So how do you sum all that up in one name or phrase? Mike Uzelac recently introduced his Biosolids Management Solution (BMS) system in this brochure we designed and included a rather humorous, yet completely appropriate subhead – Just Get Rid of the Crap! – because that’s literally what they do so well.

Mike and Brad Peterson, Director of Sales and Marketing, also let Tessera Design focus on the community and environmental benefits of a Uzelac Biosolids Management Solution in this piece. The end result is a brochure that includes the necessary technical information on the inside, but is fun, friendly and more accessible to more people from the outside.