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Ultravirgo Shortlisted in Transform Awards

TA NA 2022_Shortlisted in.jpgOnce again, we're honored to have our work shortlisted in the 'Best visual identity by a charity, NGO or nonprofit' category of the Transform Awards for our work rebranding the Vision Zero Fund. (We've won gold, silver and bronze in previous years). We like the Transform Awards as they judge rebrands not just design, but on strategy and effectiveness as a complete transformation.

Ultravirgo Design Director named TDC Ascender

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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.

Behind the scenes of our Mental Health Awareness Month campaign

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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.

Read the story

Now Hiring: Mid-level Graphic Designer

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​​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.

Make it in Brooklyn

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A few weeks ago, we spoke to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership about why we love being based in Brooklyn. Read the story here.

Ultravirgo wins Gold, Silver and Bronze in Transform Awards

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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.

For: Belonging Now Available

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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.

#InThisTogether

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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.

Staying home

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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.

Ultravirgo founder named Board President of design non-profit

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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.

Announcing For: Belonging

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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

Solstreet in Times Square

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Our latest branding was launched in Times Square this week. We've been working with Solstreet over the last few months to brand their new company and product. They are bringing completely solar-powered street furniture to urban areas, starting with New York City. Their first product - a bench with integrated phone charging and community message board made its debut in Times Square as part of NYCxDESIGN.

Borders Are Imaginary

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This week, we launched our latest annual community project - following the great receptions we received for the prayer flags that we sent to an elder center in Nepal last year, and the holiday cards we sent to hospice patients. This year, we have produced stickers on the theme Borders are Imaginary.

Vote for us in the HOW Logo Awards!

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We are proud to announce that the identity system we developed for the Parkinson's Foundation has been chosen as one of 10 winning designs in the Identity Applications category of the 10th Annual HOW Logo Design Awards. And now we need your help - the winners are being voted on to award a Reader's Choice Award

Ultravirgo Takes Gold in Transform Awards

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We're honored to have our recent rebrand for the Parkinson's Foundation gaining more recognition, having been shortlisted in the Transform Awards for "Best visual identity from a charity/NGO/non-profit." 


Positive Press for For Magazine

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Since our launch earlier this summer, we've been thrilled to read the online reactions to For, our self-published magazine. Initial press coverage has come from a range of media in the design, social good and indie magazine communities.

Now Hiring: Designer

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Make a difference in the world through design. We are hiring a graphic designer to work on projects for our national and global humanitarian clients, including the United Nations, Parkinson's Foundation, and United Federation of Teachers.

Announcing For Magazine

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We are extremely proud to announce the launch of the inaugural issue of For magazine. Our independently-published magazine highlights important topics facing humanity, approaching each subject with a positive, optimistic attitude.

Graphis Typography Award

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We're honored to have our holiday card from last year win a Silver Award in the Graphis Typography 4 competition, and will be featured in the upcoming book.

Ultravirgo wins in Rebrand 100

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We're extremely proud to announce that our recent rebrand of the Parkinson's Foundation has been named one of the 100 best rebrands of the past two years - winning an Award of Distinction from the Rebrand 100, one of the most prestigious global recognitions for branding. 


Happy (Solar) New Year!

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Following the success of last year's holiday card, we decided to do a similar project this year, organizing our community to send good wishes to the community of another great organization. This year, we're sending them halfway around the world to an elder center in Nepal.

Celebrating Women's Potential

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Many powerful advancements were made toward women's equality this year, with some earth-shattering movements. But there is still much work to be done. To celebrate women's potential, we made a short year-end video for our friends at UN Women. Wishing you happy holidays and an empowered 2018!

Fighting Parkinson's. Together.

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We are proud to announce the launch of our brand for the new Parkinson's Foundation. Formed by the merger of our longtime client the National Parkinson Foundation with the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, the new organization is one of the global leaders fighting Parkinson's Disease. Parkinson's affects an estimated one million Americans and 10 million worldwide, making it the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's.

For: Maturing Inside Out Exhibition

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Our new magazine, For, started with an idea: that we can all individually do more for others. As we collected stories from around the world for our inaugural issue, For: Maturing, we wanted to do something extra for the inspiring people in the issue by showcasing them together in one public place. 

Announcing For: Magazine

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We are incredibly excited to announce the latest Project from Ultravirgo - For: Magazine. A year in the making, with contributors spanning the globe, For is our most ambitious project to date. 

Ultravirgo founder joins Spark board

We're proud to announce that our Creative Director, Patrick Durgin-Bruce, has been invited to join the Board of Directors of Spark Design Professionals, a non-profit founded to empower owners of independent design studios.

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What Will We Build Today?

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An important question for creative people of all ages. It's also the title of my most recent book!

Happy Holidays!

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While reflecting on how to greet and thank our awesome community of clients, friends, and collaborators during this holiday season, we decided to invite them to join forces and help us spread some holiday joy.

Welcome, Luisa!

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A little late in posting here, but we are excited to formally announce the addition of Luisa Vélez to our team earlier this year.

Better Work. Better for All.

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For the past year, we have been working with Better Work - a joint partnership between the UN's International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, that works to improve conditions in garment factories - on a strategic rebrand. 

World Population Day

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Yesterday was World Population Day, an annual event to raise awareness of global population issues. This year, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund chose the day to kick off a yearlong push to improve investment in adolescent girls. Girls around the world face greater challenges than their male counterparts. Yet with the largest percentage of youth in history, we - as a global population - have a great opportunity to improve the future of humanity by improving the fortunes of girls around the world right now.


We've moved!

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After a brief stint in Dumbo, we've moved our office to lively Downtown Brooklyn. Housed in a former printing plant (our second office to be located in a renovated printing facility), our new studio boasts huge windows with tons of light and views. Note our new address below, and come visit anytime.

Communications Arts Typography Winner

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We are deeply honored to be among the winners of the 6th Annual Communications Arts Typography Annual, which was published this week. Our product designs for Mymo were selected as one of 142 winners from over 1700 entries, on the basis of creative excellence and quality of execution. One of the most discriminating awards publications in the industry, CA has a rich history of showcasing the best of communications design.

Welcome Maria

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We're thrilled to welcome Maria Silva, who joined our team as a Senior Designer on November 1.

Caring and Coping wins Health + Wellness Award

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Our ongoing work with The National Parkinson Foundation continues to gain recognition for excellence. The recently-launched publication Caring and Coping has been awarded with a Health + Wellness Design Award

Transform Magazine

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Sometimes you need to challenge your assumptions. That was exactly what UN Women was looking to do when they asked us to create Transform magazine. The Evaluation Office routinely audits UN Women activities, generating lengthy reports with analysis, insights and recommendations... that few people actually read. Looking to make the insightful, but dry, content more appealing to a broader audience, we created a newsstand-quality magazine, with a  journalistic design.

Brand New brand review

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Last week, Brand New, the blog of record for branding critique and analysis, featured our recent rebrand of UN Women's Empower Women.

Empowering a community to Empower Women

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When UN Women approached Ultravirgo to provide a visual and messaging system for the "Knowledge Gateway for Women's Economic Empowerment," they had a complex web site with a great mission: "dedicated to empowering women to achieve their full economic potential." However, the site was burdened with a long name and an uninspiring design. Launched in 2011, the Knowledge Gateway had been gaining passionate supporters, but lacked a brand vision.

A new kind of dynamic identity

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The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, part of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, explores how the development of technology is changing journalism, its practice and its consumption. Last year, we launched a new identity for the Center based on a radical idea - what if the logo itself analyzed journalism and morphed based on current activity in the industry? 


How to Become a 3D Printing Entrepreneur

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3D printing - or additive manufacturing, as it's officially called - is still in it's infancy, especially for anything beyond prototyping. But with our launch of Mymo a little over a year ago, we've been considering possible applications to finished products, and have learned a lot along the way. I shared some wisdom in the recently-published book How to Become a 3D Printing Entrepreneur.

Making climate tech accessible

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As we're all thinking about Earth Day today, we want to share a project we've been working on that aims to make climate-friendly technology more globally available. The Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN), part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was founded with the mission to speed up global adoption of envoronmentally-sound technologies. We were tasked with developing a visual system that makes their services more accessible, while clarifying the breadth of offerings.

What's in your bag?

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A little fun after a busy week: InVision asked me and a group of other great designers and programmers what is in our work bags. 

See the results on their blog.

UN Women: Beijing+20 iconset

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We're proud to have recently added UN Women to our growing list of United Nations agency clients. We have some exciting projects in the works, but the first is this series of thematic icons. Honoring the 20th Anniversary of the landmark Beijing Declaration, each icon illustrates one of the twelve key critical areas of concern detailed in the document.

Interview with Cool Hunting

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I recently had the pleasure to sit down with the editors of Cool Hunting to discuss our plans for Mymo, our 3D-printed jewelry line.

Read the article:
Mymo's Reinvented Monograms

Macon Magic

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College Hill, in the heart of Macon, Georgia, has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years, and has become a case study in revitalization of economically-depressed areas. The Knight Foundation has been heavily involved in the turnaround, and released a report last week to share eleven lessons learned that can help other similar communities. Written and reported by veteran radio journalist Dan Grech, the report offers great insight, and we were thrilled to be able to bring it to life online and in print.

Ultravirgo wins two Health + Wellness Design awards

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We don't often enter award shows, preferring to put our focus on gaining recognition from our clients. But we take the design of health materials very seriously, and are proud to have two of our projects included among the 135 winners chosen in the inaugural Health + Wellness Design Awards.

Now more mobile

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If you're reading our site on your phone, you should be finding it a little easier to navigate now. We've recently refreshed the layouts for small devices and tablets. While it's not a ground-up responsive rewrite, we have used RWD principles to help adapt the layout to smaller screens. Enjoy!

Welcome back to school!

It's that time of year again - when the long, lazy days of summer become long, productive days in school or at the office. While it can be a hard transition, it is also one of looking forward to the great achievements to come. In that spirit, we just launched a new video for our friends at Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost, celebrating California schools.

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Creating tools to communicate vital health info

As part of their mission to improve quality of life for the one million people in the US living with Parkinson's Disease, the National Parkinson Foundation asked us to help create an educational series about living with the disease. Titled What You and Your Family Should Know About Parkinson's, the series is designed to empower local chapters and partners to produce ongoing educational events for patients, caregivers, and family members.

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Putting the education in education law

When we built the first website for Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost (affectionately known as F3) back in 2007, they were a young law firm with a handful of attorneys. In the ensuing years, they have grown in size (over 60 attorneys in six offices), services, and reputation - becoming the leading education law firm in California, and counting roughly half of the school districts in California as clients. 

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Upcoming speaking dates

I (Patrick) will be speaking about our launch of Mymo at a few upcoming events.

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Spirit of ABNY 2014

Last week, the 2014 Spirit of ABNY Awards honored those who have provided a distinguished level of service to New York City. Produced by the ABNY Foundation (affiliated with the Association for a Better New York), this was our third year producing materials for the event, and we love helping recognize the best of our city.

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Mymo in Offscreen

We've been fortunate to get some great press on the launch of Mymo. But there's still something about print, and it's extra special when the coverage comes from a publication you love to read anyway. So, we were thrilled to be included in issue No. 8 of Offscreen magazine. Offscreen is a beautiful, independent mag that tells the stories of the people behind online businesses. 

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United Nations ICPD Programme of Action

Twenty years ago, 179 countries met in Cairo to adopt a forward-looking 20-year plan to address the population issues of the early 21st century. The resulting ICPD Programme of Action was remarkable in its recognition that reproductive health and rights, as well as women's empowerment and gender equality, are cornerstones of population and development programmes. The visionary plan is rooted in principles of human rights and became the steering document of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

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Voices from the Sleep

Last night, we had the pleasure of witnessing our good friend and client Bruce Levingston perform at Carnegie Hall. While we have seen Bruce perform in many venues over the years, Carnegie Hall always brings out the best in his programming. 

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A new site for an 142-year old energy leader

As part of our brand update for Sprague Energy last year, we delivered conceptual stills to guide the web team in rebuilding their site. And we're happy to say that the new site following our template is now live.

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Bringing accountability to sanitation & water

At the end of last year, we launched a bold new site for Sanitation and Water for All, a global partnership of the foremost leaders working to provide clean water and sanitation facilities around the world. A direct extension of the brand platform that we launched last summer, the site is built to express the core attributes of coordination, transparency and accountability that SWA pledges to bring to the sector.

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Mymo in the press

We've had a great first month since launching Mymo in November. We only had a couple weeks to take orders to make shipment for Christmas, and we ended up way over our expectations. And - without much of an advertising budget - we have the kind words of our peers and the press to thank.

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Announcing Mymo!

It is with great pride and excitement that we announce our first product line... introducing Mymo! With Mymo, we are reinventing the monogram, using state-of-the-art 3D printing technology and a novel 3D geometry - to combine any two letters or numbers into a typographic sculpture for a necklace, keychain or ornament. 

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Designing data for nonprofit news

Today, the Knight Foundation launched another of their breakthrough reports, this one taking a deep look into the fast-evolving Nonprofit News industry. Titled Finding a Foothold: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability, the report features tons of data and analysis on 18 different nonprofit news organizations. We are proud to work with Knight, to design the report and bring clarity to the mountains of data, and illustrator/journalist Susie Cagle to bring levity to the subject.

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The most progressive UN Declaration ever

One year ago, The United Nations Population Fund asked us to help engage youth in a global discussion to help set UN population policy for the next 20 years. Hundreds of youth leaders met at the Global Youth Forum in Bali - joined by thousands participating online representing every country in the world (even Antartica!)- and drafted what has become known as the Bali Declaration. Setting specific, bold targets for improving the status of women, LGBT, and underprivelidged youth, as well as improving health, education, and employment worldwide, the Bali Declaration has been hailed by some as the most progressive UN Declaration to date. 

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7 Billion Actions campaign featured in Catalyst

We were honored to be asked by Catalyst magazine to tell the story behind the 7 Billion Actions campaign that we created with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Published by Pratt, Catalyst (formerly Catalyst Strategic Design Review) strives to "stimulate thinking and encourage conversation about the role of strategic design in defining and developing creative economies and thriving cultures for an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future". We co-wrote the article, which appears in the Designing Peace Issue, to tell the story of the thinking, strategy and tactics behind 7 Billion Actions.

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Six Lessons from the Knight Foundation

Last week, the Knight Foundation released a watershed report titled Why Contests Improve Philanthropy to share the lessons they have learned as one of the pioneers in developing contests to identify and fund initiatives that show great potential but might not qualify for the traditional grantmaking process. The report centers on six lessons on creating effective contests that supplement traditional grantmaking.

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Sanitation and Water - For All

Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a global partnership working to provide exactly what its name proclaims. While access to water has improved in recent years, 800 million people still do not have access to safe drinking water; and sanitation lags far behind with over a third of the world's people living without adequate sanitation facilities. 

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Filling the gaps in human rights

Currently running in The Netherlands, the ICPD International Conference on Human Rights is the second of three thematic conferences that will shape UN population policy for the next 20 years. (The first was the Global Youth Forum in December.) Hosted by UNFPA, the Government of the Netherlands and The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the conference is focused on identifying emerging challenges to delivering equal rights for all. We are proud to extend our relationship with the ICPD partners to deliver a visual identity system that set a tone of hope and empowerment for all conference materials.

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Spirit of ABNY Awards

Last week we attended the Spirit of ABNY Awards presented by the ABNY Foundation, honoring those who have provided a distinguished level of service to New York City. We were honored to provide designs for the invitation and event graphics. While last year honored the tech community of NYC, this year the recipients were chosen for their commitment and generosity to the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Honorees included the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, the Empire State Relief Fund, and US Senator Chuck Schumer.

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Happy Earth Day!

To honor Earth Day this year, our friends and longtime clients Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost decided to do a little more for the environment by planting trees in urban areas across California. To help them commemorate the occasion, we made a short video in honor of California, home to some of the most iconic trees in the country.

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A more usable Usablenet

Usablenet is a leading provider of mobile usability solutions to global brands. They provide the strategy, design and technology to create websites and apps tailored to each user's device and context. When you pull up the New Jersey Transit website on your phone, and get a mobile site optimized for train schedules, that's them.

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Whatever It Takes to Beat Parkinson's

As we approach Parkinson's awareness month in April, we are proud to share our latest work for the National Parkinson Foundation. What started as a project to design branded merchandise has become a national campaign involving NPF chapters around the country. The campaign, called Whatever It Takes, is designed to empower individuals and raise awareness of the many things that can be done to combat Parkinson's Disease. While other organizations are working on a cure, the National Parkinson Foundation has a unique mission: to improve the quality of life for the estimated 1 million people with Parkinson's in the US.

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Special Education Animation

We've been hard at work on a number of exciting projects that we can't wait to announce. In the meantime, check out this short 45-second animated video we did last week for the lawyers at Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost to promote their upcoming Special Education Symposia. 

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A voice for the 43%

Did you know that 43% of the world is under age 25? Almost half! And that number is over 50% in developing countries. This number represents a half of the world that has long clamored to have its voice heard - and has found technology and social media to be the platforms that finally give them the influence they have long demanded. Just look to Egypt and the Arab Spring for potent examples of the power that youth wield today.

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Young Audiences

Last night we had the pleasure of attending the Young Audiences Arts for Learning Gala at the always-glamorous Waldorf-Astoria here in New York. Celebrating their 60th Anniversary, Young Audiences is the nation's leading source of arts-in-education programs and services. As an agency co-founded by a visual artist and a writer with a Master's degree in Educational Technology (and parents of two very creative kids), we are huge believers in the value of arts and creativity in education. And were thrilled to be able help Young Audiences celebrate their 60th by designing the anniversary book for the event. 

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Go Vote

Today is Election Day in the States. Go Vote. It should go without saying, but the truth is voter turnout is never what it could be. It's an easy decision - regardless of who you support, just do it. :)

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Hurricane Recovery

After a week of a powerless office, and much scrambling for continuity on many fronts - with Patrick running things from Brooklyn last week - we are officially back and up and running. And we are quite appreciative for the patience of our clients while we get back up to speed. 

We feel quite fortunate to have weathered the storm without damage, and our hearts go out to all the small businesses and individuals less fortunate. We do have a couple free desks with high-speed internet and power. If any freelance designers or small businesses are without workspace due to the hurricane, drop us a note at creative@ultravirgo.com.

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From whale oil to biofuels, with a ribbon

We are currently rolling out a complete visual branding system for Sprague, a 142-year-old energy company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The impetus for the rebranding was operational: Sprague is separating into two companies for regulatory reasons, offering similar products and services aimed at separate markets. With an array of products (including diesel, jet fuels, natural gas and biofuels, as well as material handling services at 15 ports), potential for customer confusion about the new entities drove the strong need to develop a comprehensive brand. The challenge was to create a visual system that would unite the separate companies while clarifying the overlapping offerings of each. 

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Spirit of ABNY Awards

Last night was the Spirit of ABNY Awards, an annual awards ceremony and fundraiser for The ABNY Foundation, honoring those that make New York City a better place to live. This year, the focus was on the tech industry, honoring the "visionaries who connect tech to the big apple", including Foursquare, ideeli, Dawn Barber from NYTech Meetup, Alan Patricof, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, and of course Cornell & Technion for their forthcoming applied sciences university on Roosevelt Island. And with presenters including Mayor Bloomberg, NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, it was great to see firsthand the commitment that city government is putting behind the tech industry as the next big engine for growth in NYC. 

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Three things from the Healthcare Experience Design Conference that I am still thinking about

At Ultravirgo, we have long been passionate about using our creative skills to improve health, and many of our favorite projects have been for clients in health-related industries. With this in mind, I headed up to the Healthcare Experience Design Conference in Boston a couple weeks ago to get more perspective on the issues at the intersection of design and healthcare. While most of our work is on the communication side - branding and design, rather than developing the experience itself* - our ever-growing interest in health has us constantly looking for new ways to use design to improve health. 

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New Portfolio Projects and Quotes

We just added a handful of projects to the Work portfolio on our site, including the 7 Billion Actions campaign and AccessRH program that we branded for The United Nations Population Fund, the trilogy of album covers we did for Bruce Levingston, as well as a gallery of event invitations that we have produced in the last few years.

In addition, we've begun writing down some of the great things clients have been saying about us. We have added quotes from our longtime client Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost as well as the United Nations Development Program to accompany the projects in our portfolio section. We have some others coming soon, and all are being collected on our Clients page. 

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UVC founders' apartment featured

Ultravirgo founders, Patrick and Katherine Durgin-Bruce, recently had their apartment featured in the "Beautiful Spaces" section of Bellissima Kids. Founded by our friend Jeanne, Bellissima Kids is an international blog dedicated to stylish kid-friendly ideas, and we're honored to be included.

See the feature >

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7 Billion Actions featured in Google Zeitgeist 2011

UVC had a great year in 2011, working with clients we love to create design and branding for meaningful campaigns, products, and companies. One of our favorite projects was the UN's 7 Billion Actions campaign, which encouraged people to take action to help the other 6,999,999,999 people on Earth. So, we were thrilled to see the banner we created for the campaign appear in Google's Zeitgeist 2011 Year In Review video. With over 7 million views on YouTube (not to mention over 300,000 people who have seen the banner in person in front of the UN headquarters in NY), it might just be our most-seen project to date. Check out the video to see our work (at the 0:10 mark) and the other events and campaigns that changed the world in 2011.  

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Sometimes the answer is already in front of you

In working on the promo materials for Premiere Commission's 10th Anniversary Gala, I couldn't help but notice the '10' hidden in the logo, just sitting there awaiting it's turn in the spotlight. A simple color change, and we have an instant anniversary logo - one that perfectly fits the master logo we designed in 2007, with it's embedded 1 nodding to the premieres the Commission supports. 

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Empowering Global Reproductive Health

Here at Ultravirgo, we are passionate about projects that improve public health. And we believe everyone has the right to enjoy quality reproductive health. But quality supplies and reliable information are often hard to come by in low-and middle-income countries, jeopardizing this right. Which is why we were proud to work with the United Nations Population Fund to help launch AccessRH, a new approach to reproductive health supplies procurement that also offers access to the largest database of contraceptive procurement statistics in the world.

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Night Break

The second disk in Bruce Levingston's Night trilogy was just released today, entitled Night Break. We've had the pleasure of working closely with Bruce and photographer Tony Notarberardino to create the cover designs for the series, starting with the first release, Heart Shadow. (The art for the final album in the trilogy, Still Sound, just went to the label yesterday).

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Hello, number 7 Billion

As of today, according to the United Nations Population Fund, the global population has reached 7 billion people. It's a difficult number to comprehend. For example, when we were creating the 24 foot banner that is hanging outside the UN headquarters in New York (and other countries around the world) my first thought was to use the extra-large canvas to create a grid of 7 billion dots and recolor them to create the message. Until I did the math, realizing it would require 352,254 dots per square inch. To me, however, the number is just an abstract figure anyway, and not what is important about the milestone. What is important are the 7 billion individual people that it represents. 

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AccessRH

We've been honored to be doing a lot of work lately for the United Nations Population Fund. We recently wrapped up a complete brand package for a new initiative called AccessRH. Combining their existing procurement system for ordering reproductive health supplies with the largest database tracking reproductive health supplies ordering in the world, the initiative is a giant leap forward in improving access to contraceptives, especially in developing countries. With 201 million women around the world expressing need for contraceptives that they cannot obtain, there is a huge need for improvement. Meeting their needs would avert some 52 million unwanted pregnancies each year. We are honored to be able to help UNFPA communicate the power of their groundbreaking efforts.

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Heart Shadow

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As part of our ongoing work for Premiere Commission, we had the pleasure of designing the album covers for Bruce Levingston's new Night trilogy. We just received a copy of the first album released: Heart Shadow, which was recently named WQXR's album of the week. We were fortunate to work with the talented photographer Tony Notarberardino, a close friend of Bruce's who took the portraits used on each of the covers, during a series of photoshoots on top of the infamous Chelsea Hotel. He perfectly captured the twilight atmosphere we were looking for, with subtle variations to fit the mood of each album.

Launching 7 Billion Actions

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This week, we attended twin launch events for the 7 Billion Actions Campaign that we have been developing with The United Nations Population Fund. As you may or may not know, the global population will be hitting 7 billion on October 31, and the campaign aims not just to raise awareness of not just the population issues involved, but to highlight the efforts (big and small) that individuals and organizations have made to make the world a better place.<

A global movement for all humanity

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We are thrilled to be working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to help support the recently-launched 7 Billion Actions campaign. With the global population set to hit 7 billion people (!!) late this year, UNFPA is taking the lead by starting a truly collaborative global movement. Partnering with corporations, NGOs, and non-profits around the world, the campaign aims to inspire awareness and action around the issues that impact our global experience - by moving the focus beyond the numbers, to the stories of the 7 billion individuals that share our planet. The entire Ultravirgo team is honored to be part of this historic moment, and look forward to contributing our expertise to the movement.

Impressions + Influences

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I had an amazing evening at Carnegie Hall enjoying the music of violinist Colin Jacobsen and pianist Bruce Levingston--founder of Premiere Commission, which we design the marketing materials and CD covers for.

A Wedding in the Woods

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We just got our invitation in the mail to the wedding of Katie's brother, which we had the pleasure of designing. With non-traditional weddings - like this one in the woods outside Ithaca, NY - comes the opportunity to design a suitably non-traditional invitation. With a friend at a digital printing company willing to donate the printing, we had the challenge and opportunity of designing the invite to print digitally. Which we took advantage of by designing the invitation as a large full-color poster with full-bleed lush forest imagery to communicate the unique environment of the ceremony itself. The back includes a detailed map with color-coded directions from the key areas guests will be coming from, and direct latitude/longitude coordinates of the ceremony site for those with GPS navigation.

Welcome Eileen

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Ultravirgo is proud to welcome Eileen Beredo to our creative team as designer. If she picks up the phone next time you call in, be sure to give her a warm welcome.

Launching eMatters

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Today we launched eMatters - a new practice group focused on technology issues within the education system - for long-time client Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost (or F3, as they like to be called). We have been working closely with F3 to launch the new brand, starting with creating the name and tagline, and culminating with the video and email announcement. Taking the theme "Navigating the e-education revolution" we animated the video to visually navigate through the key issues that F3 guides their clients through. 

Stadium Tennis Center

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We just launched a new web site for the new Stadium Tennis Center at Mill Pond Park. Working with our long-time clients at Gotham Tennis Academy, this was one of our fastest web sites to date - designed and built in under 3 weeks. But with a large image slideshow header, clearly-organized content, and online registration forms for programs and court reservations, it provides easy access to everything you need to know about the facility. We've also been making some upgrades to the Gotham Tennis Academy web site that we designed as well, so take a look. If you have any interest in tennis, they're the kings in NYC.

Oh, and we have some unused tennis dome graphics from a previous project. Who wants to see a couple of friendly 282' long caterpillars over the East River?

A BOOM hits the web

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The launch of BOOM!, a planned community for gays and lesbians in Palm Springs, has created quite a stir in the blogophere - with coverage in dozens of press outlets including design blogs like Core77 and Fast Company Design, gay magazines like The Advocate, and mainstream news outlets like The Huffington Post and The LA Times. We were fortunate to help get the project off the ground - working with the developer on brand strategy and positioning, and Bruce Mau Design, who developed the identity and web site graphics. BOOM is an unprecedented collaboration of ten of today's most talented architects (including Charles Renfro of DIller Scofidio + Renfro, Juergen Mayer H, and our friend Matthias Hollwich of HWKN), who collectively present a bold new vision for community and architecture. This is definitely a project to keep an eye on, as we feel it's influence on the way we live in the future will be widespread.

Now hiring designers

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We are currently on the lookout for talented designers to join our small, expert team on a freelance basis. If you have 2-5 years of experience, outstanding concept and design skills, and love working in a small studio atmosphere, please contact us. Send CV; portfolio samples of branding, print, and web projects (or link to online portfolio); and pay requirements to hiring@ultravirgo.com.

Welcome to the new and improved ultravirgo.com

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In honor of our 8th anniversary, we're thrilled to launch our new web site. Over the last year we've taken a good look at our mission, clarified our focus, and bolstered our resources, all while completing some great projects for ingenious clients. The driving force behind the design itself was the desire to showcase much bigger images of our work - taking advantage of the dramatically larger screens that have become the standard since our previous design was launched four years ago. With that in mind, we went full-screen with images that automatically scale to fill the entire browser window (without Flash!). So, please, take a look around at our work, learn a bit about our studio, and tell us what you think!

Now Tweeting: ultravirgo

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We're now tweeting at @uvcreative (@ultravirgo is, oddly, already taken...). As always, you can follow Patrick at @pdurginbruce as well.

Update 2/10/11: @ultravirgo has become available - so we took it. Follow us there!

New Aging Conference

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We recently had the pleasure of attending the groundbreaking New Aging Conference, which we had the opportunity to produce the branding and marketing materials for.

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