County Supervisor Peggy West and Congresswoman Gwen Moore both spoke to the group of community leaders and representatives – including homeless veterans – who are committed to ending homeless in Milwaukee. Congratulations to all the participants on implementing an ambitious and comprehensive plan.

Photos by Tessera Design

As a designer, I am completely taken with their unexpected, extensive use of the very un-winter-like grass green. Yes, it’s a nod to the environment, but from a color theory perspective, it is also a genius use of the complementary colors green and red (not coincidentally the Canadian national color).

However, red is also a predominant color in most countries’ flags and clothing and ALL the bright colors (and cool snowboarding and Alpine event prints) just seem to pop off of the saturated green back drops of the various venues. The American speed skaters in their dark and light blue gear have looked amazing flying around that green-lined oval.

I mentioned that red and green are complementary colors. That means they are on the opposite side of the color wheel. Remember making those around 1st Grade? What many people forget, is that a lot of striking designs employ the use of opposite colors. Green and red. Yellow and purple. Orange and blue. Each “warm” color has its “cool” counterpoint and finding the right shades of each can create amazing color combinations.

So the next time I hear someone automatically discount green and red as “too Christmas-y,” I will beg to differ and point to the color wheel and the visually stunning Vancouver Winter Olympics. Canada gets the Gold in Graphics.

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

The logo is meant to be fresh and contemporary, while conveying the sense of optimism and community that is inherent in Brighter Futures’ mission, which encompasses  over 80 participating organizations working toward promoting health, safety and self-sufficiency for youth, families and neighborhoods.

If you would like more information on the great work going on at Milwaukee Brighter Futures, please log on to: milwaukeebrighterfutures.org/

For more information on logo development, please contact Tyra Baumler at the e-mail or phone number listed in the Contact section of this Tessera Design Web site.

Under Cindy’s direction, Tessera Design came up with a compromise that pleased everyone involved with the project and is a great look that can be used for the YMCA’s other Day Camp marketing materials — including postcards and signage.

For more information on the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee’s Day Camp program, please go to: www.ymcamke.org/daycamp.

If you have a Marketing Department in need of graphic design support, please contact Tyra Baumler at Tessera Design at info@tesseradesignwi.com.

Norma’s enthusiasm for branding that drive and the five cities along it — Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Kewaunee, Algoma and Sturgeon Bay — as the “Schooner Coast,” was truly infectious and I was going to see it for myself. So on a cold, gray Saturday, I hit the road to experience the history and mystery of those Great Lake harbor towns.

My trip began at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (www.wisconsinmaritime.org), an impressive building on the mouth of the Manitowoc River. Don’t miss the opportunity to tour the WWII submarine, the USS COBIA while you are there.

Heading north on Hwy. 42 from the museum, you’ll pass the Manitowoc lighthouse and enjoy an awesome view of Lake Michigan the six or so miles to Two Rivers (www.ci.two-rivers.wi.us/), proudly boasting it is “The REAL Home of the Ice Cream Sundae” in its pretty Central Park.

Next on the drive is Kewaunee (www.kewaunee.org/) which has a quaint downtown and what must be a beautiful and bustling harbor in the summer months. Passing through Wisconsin farmland from Kewaunee, you enter Algoma (www.algoma.org), home to a stunning and award-winning boardwalk overlooking its signature red lighthouse.

Highway 42 merges with State Highway 57 at Sturgeon Bay, taking you to the end destination of the 60-mile Schooner Coast tour — The Door County Maritime Museum (www.dcmm.org/museum.html) — which is located in the heart of Downtown Sturgeon Bay and the host to more intriguing Wisconsin maritime lore.

From this trip, Norma and Monica’s input and a little Internet research, I developed this logo for the Schooner Coast. If you are ever visiting Door County from Milwaukee, Chicago or points south, I would highly recommend detouring from I-43 and taking this route through these five historically rich and picturesque cities — whether on the way there or the way back — it will be worth it.

Tyra Baumler
Owner, Tessera Design

Jan knew that Tessera Design was a good fit to provide a great piece within their budget and tight timeframe. The MMHTF had a lot of important information they needed to convey, so to soften the impact of the large amount of copy, we used a dark brown instead of black for the text. Incorporating a light sage color in the background that MMHTF also uses on their Web site also lessened the contrast. A few inexpensive stock photos were all we needed to create an engaging cover.

Overall, the brochure was a huge success. Barbara has received many compliments on it. She is thrilled about how “professional” it looks. Non-profit doesn’t mean non-professional — quite the opposite — and it’s nice to be able to create a piece that does justice to the community-friendly work of professionals like Barbara and Jan.

For more information on the Milwaukee Mental Health Task force, please go to: www.milwaukeemhtf.org

To read more about Jan Wilberg and her Community Planning services, please go to: www.jwilberg.com

To find out how Tessera Design can work with your organization, please e-mail or call Tyra Baumler at the address or phone in the Contact section of this Web site.

As I sourced photos, Jenna worked her magic finding a printer and a few hours later the 27 x 41 inch poster with the Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center phone number and Web address on it was on its way to press along with coordinating bookmarks.

For a trailer to the “The Blind Side” starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, please click here. It is a heartwarming story about adoption and is a perfect place for Marcus to so graciously offer the space for these call-to-action posters.

Tyra Baumler
Tessera Design

This all got me googling (that really is a word now, right?) the years 1969 and 1989 and what some of the major pop culture references were for those years — since Warhol is the King of Pop Art. Here is what I found…

1969 – Warhol has already exceeded his self-described 15 minutes of fame with his iconic screen prints depicting celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. He has just survived a near-fatal shooting the year before by a disgruntled associate, Valerie Solanas, immortalized in the 1996 movie “I Shot Andy Warhol” starring Lili Taylor.

In 1969 Mick Jagger first asked Warhol, who began his career as a graphic designer, to design the album cover for “Sticky Fingers” and you can see Mick’s letter here.

The top movies (wikipedia.com), top TV shows (trivia-library.com) and Billboard top songs (musicoutfitters.com) for 1969 were:

1.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In
Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

2.
The Love Bug
Gunsmoke
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – 5th Dimension

3.
Midnight Cowboy
Bonanza
I Can’t Get Next to You – The Tempations
(Honky Tonk Women – The Rolling Stones came in a close 4th)

Color trends in 1969 according to the Kohler Design Center meant you might have been enjoying Goldie on Laugh-In from your Avocado couch in your Cerulean Blue living room.

1989 – It has been two years since Warhol passed away due to complications from gall-bladder surgery and the Museum of Modern Art New York curates a retrospective that will also run at the Chicago Art Institute.

The 1980s were a perfect back drop for his earlier candy-colored bovines and shocking electric chair paintings. But little did people know that Warhol was a devout Catholic who collaborated with artists like Jean Michel Basquiat in the last decade of his life and that is what the MAM exhibit will commemorate in 2009.

A recent high school graduate from Milwaukee would take the train to that ’89 Chicago exhibit and write about it 20 years later on her Tessera Design blog on what was then just emerging as the World Wide Web.

The top movies, top TV shows and Billboard top songs of 1989 were:

1.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Cosby Show
Look Away – Chicago

2.
Batman
Roseanne
My Prerogative – Bobby Brown

3.
Back to the Future Part II
A Different World
Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Poison

“Say Anything” was my personal fav that year and also featured Lili Taylor. (To see the original movie trailer, click here.) Lloyd Dobler probably wasn’t aware that the color trends that year were jewel tones, as seen on this Benetton site, but the last of the 80s was about to give way to the recession and the plaid grunge of the 90s…

2009 – The Milwaukee Art Museum organizes the first U.S. museum survey exhibition on Warhol’s last 10 years. It features more unknown works like his Oxidation Paintings, Shadows Paintings and Camouflage Paintings and explains a personal side of Warhol that is rarely seen.

Milwaukee County residents can view the exhibit FREE on Wednesdays with proof of residency through January 3, 2010.

In 2009, the top grossing movie is about a robotic car that is definitely not the Love Bug. The top pop culture revolves around “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol” — not Westerns or Cosby family values. Bret Michaels and Bobby Brown are darlings of surreality TV and the tween bop of today cannot hold a candle to the Stones.

So if you are a Milwaukee resident, please take advantage of those free Wednesdays to see some real art, and if you aren’t, “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade” will be coming to Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn and Baltimore.

Self-Portrait (Strangulations), 1978 (detail). Collection of Anthony d’Offay.
© 2009 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The biggest challenge was to quickly create artwork for two new programs being promoted with the introduction of the high-end Snapper NXT mower line and design a postcard with all three. We were able to combine a lawn mower oil recycling program, state-of-the-art mowing mechanics and a yard care training seminar all in one.

The artwork for the “First Ever…” campaign also needed to work for a number of promotional items such as water bottles and luggage tags.

Tessera Design was able to meet Terri’s needs on a tight timeframe and the media tour was very well received from Iowa to New York.

If you would like more information about LittleWood Group’s marketing and communications, please go to: littlewoodinc.com

To learn more about Tessera Design, please feel free to browse the Web site or you can reach Tyra Baumler at the e-mail or phone listed in the Contact section.