Once again, we're honored to win in our favorite category at the Transform Awards - 'Best visual identity by a charity, NGO or nonprofit.' We took home Bronze for our work rebranding the Vision Zero Fund. (We've already won gold, silver and bronze in previous years). We like the Transform Awards as they judge rebrands not just on design, but on strategy and effectiveness as a complete brand transformation.
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Congratulations to Ultravirgo Design Director, Benjamin Tuttle, for being named an Ascender by the Type Directors Club. The Ascenders is the world's premier portfolio-based competition dedicated to type in all its forms, and the inspiring up-and-coming designers who are elevating the medium.
]]> In addition to his type-focused graphic design work, Ben is an accomplished type designer, releasing two typefaces last year through the new Order Type Foundry. Plebeian is an award-winning experimental sans serif text typeface that explores the modularity of latin letterforms.
Pastiche Grotesque is described as "type design fanfiction", looking at late 19th century Gothics through the lens of mid-20th century Neo-grotesques.
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At Ultravirgo, Ben has led numerous type-focused projects for clients including the United Nations, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the International Labour Organization. For United Community Schools, he crafted a bespoke typeface that is the centerpiece of the brand identity - designed without spaces, it utilizes icons to "fill in the gaps" between words, inspired by the way the organization fills in the gaps in student's lives.
And for this year's Mental Health Awareness Month, he led an effort pushing the boundaries of variable-font technology in Gravity by Dinamo to ensure that users' mental health demands were typeset as large, loud and proud as possible.
If you're looking to bring an expert typographic eye, or to create a custom typeface for your next design or branding effort, give us a call.
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As our campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month gains recognition across the web - with features including AIGA Eye on Design, Design by Women, Fonts in Use, and Awwwards - our Creative Director, Patrick Durgin-Bruce, spoke to Communication Arts magazine about the behind-the-scenes challenges, influences and lessons from working on the campaign.
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The campaign has been a resounding success, galvanizing thousands of mental health advocates to make real demands both online and direct to legislators. Over 8,000 letters were sent to Congress and media outlets, and over 1,500 people signed up to become AFSP Field Advocates to support ongoing advocacy.
Also, as the new 988 hotline launches this month, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention worked with April Wilkner & Gogo Lomo-David to release a fun new PSA to promote the campaign.
Use your design skills for good! We're looking for a full-time mid-level brand designer to join our team to work on projects for national and international causes.
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Who We Are
We are an independent branding and design agency that empowers brands on a mission. We partner with good organizations, and good people, using strategy-led design to ignite creativity and deliver unexpected solutions that expand impact.
Who you are
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Benefits
A few weeks ago, we spoke to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership about why we love being based in Brooklyn. Read the story here.
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We're honored to have won three awards in the annual Transform Awards which honor the best rebranding work - taking one each of Gold, Silver and Bronze. Our favorite awards are the ones - like Transform - that judge not just design, but also strategy and the achievement of the project's goals, and we are honored to be among such esteemed company.
]]> United Community Community Schools won Gold for the "Best Use of Typography" and silver in the "Best Visual Identity by a NGO/Non-Profit" category. The identity is centered on a monospace brand typeface that we created custom for their use.
After a few delays, we are thrilled to announce that For: Belonging, the second issue of our self-published magazine, is now available for purchase online with immediate shipping, as well as in select stockists.
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Our second issue explores how the intersection of identity, location and culture affects our connection to others. In this moment of political divisiveness and online connecting, what are individuals doing to help others feel like they belong?
132 pages with 10 exclusive stories from Hong Kong, Iraq, Mexico and more.
Features include:
US Representative Rashida Tlaib, one of the first Muslim women elected to the United States Congress, opens up about her outspoken style of serving low-income urban communities.
Courtney Barnes, a South African teen who started as a participant in a "surf therapy" group that offers mental support to at-risk youth and found it so compelling that she become a coach.
Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of Girl Scouts, talks to two teen scouts about the importance of girl-specific spaces and how they empower girls to become leaders with confidence and courage.
A special visual gallery showcasing photos created by displaced Yazidi youth who fled the Islamic State, using photography to tell their stories to the world, produced by the 100cameras project.
And many more.
The current pandemic has fostered a lot of cooperation between people and organizations, and we are proud to have been able to help a couple of our clients out.
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As of Friday, March 13th, we have transitioned the office to remote work in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
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Continuing his commitment to leadership and supporting the industry, Ultravirgo founder Patrick Durgin-Bruce has been named the Board President of Spark Design Professionals. Spark is a non-profit group of independent graphic design business owners with the mission of elevating business practices in the design industry. Spark has a uniquely-specific focus on the business side of running a successful design studio.
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A year ago, we launched the first issue of our self-published magazine, For, telling stories of people who improve the world *for* others. And we're back, getting ready for the launch of our second issue, For: Belonging, coming this fall packed with some amazing stories. It is now available for preorder from our new crowdfunding campaign.
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