We recently completed a new identity and online presence for The Acting Company, the major touring classical theater in the U.S. Founded in NYC in 1972 by legendary producer/director/actor John Houseman and current Producing Director Margot Harley, The Acting Company has shaped the early careers of many notable actors including Kevin Kline and Rainn Wilson.

The launch caused quite a buzz, mainly thanks by Rainn Wilson’s tweet to over 2 million+ followers. We think marketing director Gerry Cornez put it best:

Were you one of the 1859 visitors to our NEW WEBSITE, signing on to www.theactingcompany.org — from 48 states (we’re not big in Montana or Wyoming) and 43 foreign countries?

Special thanks to associate artistic director Ian Belknap, production designer Paula Raymond, Margot, Gerry, and the entire TAC team for the herculean effort in digitizing and modernizing 30+ years of content!

The online presence, designed/programmed by John Pobojewski and Tinne Van Loon, is richly layered with all aspects of TAC’s rich program. The what, where, and when for all performances is presented with clarity. Current events, backstage commentary from the actors, and various education programs are also showcased.

Rick Valicenti and John collaborated on a new identity that is stenciled and strong, inspired by the visual language of the traveling case. 3st intern Rebekka Takamizu imagined future logo variations that could represent specific activities of the company from growing education programs to acclaimed productions.

We’re pleased to announce our participation in The Society of Typographic Arts (STA) Archive11 program. With Bud Rodecker / 3st and Rick Valicenti / 3st leading the design, we set out to elevate the archive event, connect it to the Chicago Design Archive (CDA), and increase participation.

We want to emphasize the stability and continuity of CDA. Amid the insecurity, instability, hiring/firing, questions of income and rapid change, the CDA provides an unchanging unsurpassed standard of craftsmanship, insight and beauty of work, while the STA provides a safe haven for personal relationships.

—Bob Zeni, Chairman of Archive11

We’re incredibly proud to be part of Chicago’s design history, and the Archive event provides a chance for all Chicago-area designers to measure up to the masters of Chicago design.
The Archive competition gets a new patina every year, so we started our process by looking to increase participation in the Chicago community. With the help of this year’s tremendous sponsors the Society of Typographic Arts was able to dramatically cut the cost of entry.

We selected a diverse, accomplished, and discerning set of judges including: Stefan Bucher, James Goggin, Robert Petrick, Paul Sych, and Nancy Skolos. Their selections will be displayed for the Month of October at the Harrington College of Design Monroe street galleries. In addition, we created two new awards to recognize the best of all the accepted work.

Our visual statement for Archive11 is one that emphasizes the STA’s connection to the CDA. We designed a trio of commemorative posters that feature a list of every designer ever inducted into the CDA. A selection of 33 pieces represent the best of class work from each decade, including 12 collectible designer cards, variations of which will be sent via mail to those on the STA mailing list.

Posters will be available 21 July at the Gig Poster show + Sale, as well as at all the events surrounding Archive11.

Enter your work now, the deadline is 23 July.
Go to archive.sta-chicago.org for more information

We are proud to be featured in International designers’ Network (Hong Kong). IdN is an international publication for creative people on a mission to amplify and unify the design community. It is devoted to bringing designers from around the globe together to communicate with, learn from and inspire one another. It has truly become what the initials of its title proclaim it to be — an international designers’ network.

Our work with our clients Jeanne Gang, Arik Levy, IIT College of Architecture, and Lyric Opera is featured, as well as some personal research that we constantly initiate as a vital component of our art/design practice.

We’re excited to announce our refreshed 3st.com. We’ve also rolled out a mobile version built on jquery mobile. It’s been a couple years, we think it was time for a little face-lift — don’t you? If you follow us on twitter, just a heads up, we’re changing our handle to @3stDesign.

Here are some of our newest projects.

• Fulcrum Point
• Gather Give Grow
• CMAP
• LOEB 2010-11
• Infinite Sum
• Arik Levy Book

Senator Richard J. Durbin presents

Samuel Skinner and Mayor Daley on stage for an animated panel discussion

Thirst has been working for the past nine months to help CMAP re-focus its brand presence and to design the publication and website for the plan in a manner that would make the 30-year future envisioned in the plan feel both attainable and new.

an identity refresh and branding guideline system
the look and feel of the future imagery
a 128+ page short version document
a 3000+ page website
an interactive/video kiosk

CMAP Project Co-Lead Erin Aleman

We are proud and grateful to be part of such an incredible team
that made this campaign come to life.

CMAP
Executive Director: Randy Blankenhorn
Project Co-Lead: Erin Aleman
Project Co-Lead: Tom Garritano
Chief of Staff: Jill Leary

Public Relations + Project Lead: ASGK
Branding + Design: Thirst
Website + Kiosk Development: Thirdwave
Illustration: Ginkgo Planning & Design, Inc.
Video: Mode Project
Photography: Wm Valicenti Photography

“[The Short Plan] looks flat-out amazing. You guys are such a pleasure to work with… even apart from your design genius, you helped to keep a high-pressure process on an even keel throughout.” Tom Garritano, Communications Director, CMAP

CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn and John Pobojewski

We’re excited to announce that last night Thirst had five pieces accepted into the Chicago Design Archives. The winning pieces are: Wright’s Utopia Catalog, AS+GG’s website, MCA’s Dry Ice Invitation, Thirst’s Top Five Love Songs, and the 09-10 LOEB Fellows poster.

A little bit about STA’s Chicago Design archives from the official press release.

Archive09, is an annual competition presented by the STA to recognize the best in Chicago design. This year’s competition drew hundreds of entries. Of that total, 44 were selected for the Chicago Design Archive (CDA), an online compendium of the most significant design work in Chicago’s history.

It feels great when others recognize work you’re mighty proud of. Thank you STA for a great night.

Here is a sample of our winning pieces.

Photo by Thea Dickman

Photo by Brian MacDonald

This falls under the category, we just had to share. We posted previously about winning a Sappi’s Ideas that Matter grant… well, in addition to winning a generous grant to make the one drop project we also received these incredible cookies! What else will they think of? Thank you Sappi, and Elini’s.

For more information on this program, please visit onedrop.movingdesign.com
Go here to read our original announcement on this project.

Thirst is proud to announce that Moving Design’s One Drop initiative has been chosen to receive a grant from Sappi’s Ideas that Matter.

Moving Design is thrilled to expand this program further and thanks Sappi for their generous contribution to this incredibly important cause.

For more information on this program, please visit onedrop.movingdesign.com
Go here to read our original announcement on this project.
See the other Sappi grant recipients on Sappi.com.

Massimo Vignelli had a comment on our recent website designed for Francois Robert:

Francesco, the new website is great, just like you: funny and professionally perfect. Naturally the introduction is by one of the best writers, no comment….. Un grande abbraccio e congratulazioni, Massimo

Robert’s site was built using a prefabricated shell. For $10,000 you can have your own version of this site with custom typography, a custom color scheme, full-screen imagery, optional video, and more. Just give us a call!

jrarch.com is now officially live. Go here to learn more about this project.

John Ronan is the winner of the 2009 AIA National Honor Award for his work on the Gary Comer Youth Center.

Rick’s Notes to Self paintings were featured on Design Observer.