This year, 2012, is the Year of the Dragon – specifically a Water Dragon Year. Unlike the occidental dragon, the Asian dragon is not to be slain. It symbolizes dynamic, deliberate and innovative activities. Water, unlike fire, characterizes a patient, tempered approach. You can obtain more of this description, prediction and compatibility with your sign at:
http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Dragon.htm
Here are a few award-winning dragon-inspired designs by CWA:
AIGA Award: Nine Dragons Corporation
Asian American Film Festival (originating symbol): As printed in Rockport Press’ book, Letterhead & Logo Design #7.
The year 2000 was a metal dragon year. This dragon image was designed to promote the Asian Business Association’s annual New Year’s celebration on February 11.
The San Diego Police Department’s Pan Pacific Law Enforcement Association was created to help develop and establish cultural understanding and communication among the Pan Pacific communities. It has a strong and positive presence in the City Heights community through its SDPD Multicultural Storefront.
San Diego is preparing for the 2015 centennial celebration of Balboa Park in San Diego. CWA created a Friends of Balboa Park campaign brand and promotional materials, some of which have been selected to be shown here.
Brochure and booklet for fundraising and development purposes utilizes a verbally distinctive logotype design with a customize Bembo typeface by CWA type designers.
Light the Way Campaign
raised funds to cover cost to replace gaslamp fixtures
with LED lights.
I launched my fledgling graphic design company in 1972 and moved the following year from my home office into this early 1904 architectural charmer originally designed by the highly respected architect, Irving Gill. More on Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Gill.
If it wasn’t for Phil Kaplan, I would have never found this delightful place. Phil had a graphic design office in the front and introduced me to Robert Donald Ferris, an architect and owner of the building. Bob also had an office in the front and offered me a space next to the back courtyard. Phil, who was originally art director for Playboy Books in Chicago, was offered another great position at Architectural Digest Magazine, and moved out of his space a year or so later. I then took over his space and ran CWA Inc. from almost half the building.
Up until 1979, we enjoyed the beauty and serenity of this hidden piece of our Shangri-la. It was great doing my tai-chi chuan in the courtyard after work, sipping wine with friends under the swaying bamboo, and just enjoying nature in an intimate way.
I was not aware of Irving Gill until a few months later. But like an incarnate, my appreciation and application of “nature in design” seemed to coincide with Gill’s approach to architecture. Gill, who moved west for health reasons, may have been on a quest for an alternative architectural environment. According to Joseph Giovannini, “the desire for an easily maintained, sanitary home drove Gill’s aesthetic toward purity.”
This experience eventually inspired me to buy and move my staff into a 1912 Craftsman building in Bankers Hill. With much remorse, we left this Gill treasure for Bob to expand fully into the space. Bob was president of the San Diego Historical Society then and did much to establish Heritage Park in Old Town. Phil went on to become vice-president of Alfred A. Knopf Publishing in New York City. There are so many wonderful stories and experiences that proliferate here and to recount once again with all of you.
I just happened to visit these ole nostalgic haunts a few weeks ago with a friend and discovered a “For Sale” sign on the Gill property. It got my heart racing again. But in this economy, money’s tight, and unless I sell off something, I can’t do it alone. If any of you out there would like to conjure up an idea to make this cute ‘lil bit of San Diego heritage our pinnacle for design experimentation and innovation again, we’ll certainly do deserved homage to Irving Gill. And, just in time for Balboa Park’s centennial celebration in 2015.
It’s not everyday I get to be in company with such celebrated innovators like the world famous architect Frank Gehry and Lord Mayor Dr. Peter Kurz of Mannheim, Germany.
It was indeed a wonderful 20 year reunion for Peter and his charming wife, Daniela Franz, to visit us in San Diego this past month with their two children. Daniela is a graphic designer who had interned with us back then and is now juggling an extraordinarily diverse and exciting lifestyle.
Mannheim is the birthplace of the automobile and motorcycle where Daimler, Benz and Porsche are celebrated names. Surprise! Who knew?! We here in California are so preoccupied with our own car culture that it hasn’t hit us yet how much we can learn from other cities like Mannheim, where design integration is a way of life. And, how their appreciation and support of design, arts and culture is integral to the economic success of the region.
That said, it was a pleasure for me to take Peter to Los Angeles to meet Frank Gehry to discuss Mannheim’s future plans. Peter’s knowledge and sense of good architecture and world-class architects impressed me and made for a lively discussion throughout our whole trip on design’s critical impact on politics and society there. With growing diversity in the region, integration is of critical concern.
This photo of Peter, Frank and me in Frank’s office was taken by Meaghan Lloyd, a partner of Gehry Partners, LLP, just before giving us a tour of Gehry’s vast working space. There are now approximately 120 employees of which 60 are designers who are great model makers, a Gehry requirement. Frank also explained their consulting services to other architects based on his signature designs, well-known are the Disney Concert Hall, Guggenheim in Bilbao, Experience Music Project (EMP) under the Seattle Space Needle, Millennium Park in Chicago, and currently, Manhattan’s tallest residential condominium complex in NYC.
There is only a handful of architects in the world today who have inspired innovative engineering as Frank has accomplished. He is truly a designer’s designer. I propose that San Diego engage Frank Gehry sooner than later to help resonate design from our shores with his interpretive vision for the region, and would be only too happy to drive our new mayor for a meeting of the minds with an action plan in Frank’s office.
In Frank's office with his original corrugated chairs in the background.
Gehry's latest furniture design.
When I first met Garry and Cozette, it was at the Del Mar office, a fun and creative environment. We shared stories of our little kids and Hawaii, where Garry had fond memories tromping around the island as a Mormon missionary in his early years just out of school.
Originally from the islands, I enjoyed “talking story” Hawaiian style with Garry. It put a smile on our faces. Thus when I was asked to design a sign for Simile II, their first company name, it ended looking like “smile” to some. I guess it conveyed so much ambience in the area, someone decided one day to take it home.
We really clicked. A creative friend and client like Garry was an ideal relationship. We were both idealists trying to make a better world through different lenses. The result was the birth of a series of simulation games that I passionately created graphic concepts and packaging designs. Luckily, I had enough structural packaging engineering experience to pull off some odd concepts that we both liked.
Here is an array of packaging designs for Garry’s brilliant simulation concepts that I created. These are great memories that I cherish.
Aloha, my friend! You’ve been, and always will be, a tremendous blessing to all of us!
Calvin Woo
(more on Garry by Bernie DeKoven: http://www.deepfun.com/fun/2011/04/garry-shirts-a-life-completed/)
Guns or Butter; AT&T - New City Telephone Company, Where Do You Draw the Line: An Ethics Game, Trebedies Island: Economics of Monopoly Management, Relocation: A Corporate Decision; Cross cultural games: Bafa Bafa; Rafa Rafa.
A memorable, long-lasting brand is represented by a familiar, trustworthy, and in most cases, a single endearing feature. We hope you enjoy this Union Tribune article where corporate brandmarks were selected to represent the Top 100 Brands in San Diego.
Children’s Hospital’s “wordmark” designed by CWA Inc. was part of this select group. This familiar “face” to a trusted “name” was a result of CWA’s strategic planning that began by revisiting and refining Children’s vision, mission and positioning to increase utilization of its services and facilities, then translating keyword values into a wordmark designed to visually “own” this generic word.
Our team then helped Children’s build a wider-reaching and contemporary brand culture by establishing design implementation guidelines, digital templates and creative examples for in-house marketing staff to follow.
These skillfully designed examples included annual reports, advertising, promotional and fundraising materials, signage, interactive digital templates, pre-admission packets, design-friendly billing forms, and much more. This design-smart integrative branding approach gave Children’s an economical alternative that ultimately benefited the community at large.
Please feel free to call us for more information on how we also helped Hang Ten, Jack in the Box, Scripps and a few other CWA clients that are featured in this article.
Gary Crouch, president of Mountain Meadow Mushrooms, is featured on the March 2011 cover of SD County Farm Bureau’s News and stands tall next to his prize mushrooms with the San Diego Grown 365 label. This issue also includes a compelling article by Casey Anderson shown here that credits Calvin Woo for designing the brand and label. Other applications to come are fruits, vegetables, wines and horticultural (i.e. floral) products freshly grown in perpetually sunny climate and on soil unique to this region. Essential in positioning the brand, CWA Inc. built a foundation based on “origin” and “quality,” two intangible words translated visually into a bright tangible label and an ultimate signature for San Diego.
The San Diego Grown 365 brand, designed by CWA Inc., was featured in a recent article on Mountain Meadow Mushrooms in the Spring 2011 issue of Edible San Diego. Gary Crouch, founder and president of Mountain Meadow, is a pioneer in adopting this “locally grown” brand to promote his products. You might remember Gary and his company featured on Dirty Jobs, the popular tv series with Mike Rowe. Read the rest of this article to learn more of Gary’s foresight and marketing acumen.
After a comprehensive branding and naming strategy, workshops, design permutations, formal and informal group sessions conducted by CWA Inc. in 2003, the San Diego Grown 365 mark has finally established roots in the region.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading this article that ran in the San Diego Union Tribune’s April 26, 2011 issue. Thank you to the San Diego Agricultural Society, San Diego Farm Bureau, writer Robert Krier and the UT for this coverage and credit to designer Calvin Woo.
For a direct link, go to:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/26/program-puts-more-focus-on-local-produce/
San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles magazine featured Calvin Woo as one of the ten “2011 Stars of San Diego” in the January 2011 issue soon to be on newstands. Along with a composite photo of the 10 honorees, there is a nice 4 page coverage on Calvin’s personal and professional background with selected examples of branding, promotional and environmental design by CWA Inc. Great exposure also for Design Innovation Institute acknowledging co-founders Susan Merritt and Calvin Woo.
Thank you: Mark McKinnon, Publisher; Phyllis Van Doren, Senior Editor; Ron James, writer; David Harrison, photographer; and, the SDHGL staff.
