Looking Back Before Charging Ahead
Can you believe it’s 2012? Or twenty twelve if you prefer. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Bad Feather. Looking back it’s hard to believe how much we’ve done.
We moved our operations from the Gowanus Canal to DUMBO before nestling into a sunlit studio atop a brownstone in Park Slope. By April we were up and running on some great new projects and Heather was featured in the CRAVE NYC Guide among “more than 100 women you need to know”. Summer slipped by in a haze of web design and development, but not before we received word that the identity we designed for the Poetry Project was chosen for LogoLounge Volume 7, due out in the Summer of 2012. In September Brad stepped back into his teaching shoes and created “Fundamentals of Web Design”, a new class in the design curriculum of the Fordham University Visual Arts Department. The Fall saw the launch of several new websites to add to the queue of great projects from 2011.
If you haven’t had a look at our work in a while, check it out. We’ve had the opportunity to work with some truly incredible arts & culture and non-profit organizations over the past year and there are still more portfolio updates to come.
We’re not really ones for resolutions, but we are excited about the possibilities that 2012 holds. After all, we’re only getting badder.
Back to School Reading List
September is back-to-school month, and this year Brad is going back to school in a new role. He’s teaching a brand spanking new ‘Intro to Web Design’ Class in the Visual Arts Department of Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus. For the past few weeks, in the development of a curriculum and lesson plans, we’ve been thinking about things like the balance between design and code, the importance of a foundation in web standards, and most of all, what to recommend for reading.
Here’s our ‘Intro to Web Design’ reading list for this semester’s new web designers:
- Speaking in Styles: Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers
, Jason Cranford Teague
- Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition)
, Jeffrey Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte
- Above the Fold: Understanding the Principles of Successful Web Site Design
, Brian Miller
- CSS: The Definitive Guide
, Eric Meyer
- HTML & XHTML Pocket Reference: Quick, Comprehensive, Indispensible (Pocket Reference (O’Reilly))
, Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Here are some additional getting-started, web-based references:
Once you’ve got the fundamentals under your belt, we recommend you dig a little deeper. Study up on CSS3, HTML5, Web Typography, and our new personal favorite, Responsive Web Design. Below are some of Brad’s top reads on these subjects:
Read the rest of this entry »
Heather Featured in CRAVE NYC
CRAVE is a network of cool and inspiring women that hosts business chats, symposiums, and fabulous parties to connect and promote female “entreprenesses”. Since 2002, the CRAVE company has been publishing CRAVE guides in prominent US and international cities. They recently launched the 1st NYC edition.
Heather and Bad Feather were invited to be featured among “more than 100 women you need to know” in the new CRAVE NYC Guide. Look for the books, which will be sold in Barnes & Noble stores and by other NYC retailers. In the meantime, you can contact us to purchase a copy.
Operation Gastronomia: We’re Hungry
Here at Bad Feather we finally took pause from our regular workload, much of which involves designing and building other peoples’ websites (resisting urge to make O.P.P. joke… we recently tallied 30! custom WordPress sites) to create one of our own: A long discussed, but never prioritized project – Heather’s food blog.
This week we proudly launched OperationGastronomia.com. Let’s call this a beta version, as there are of course many plans for added plugins and design embellishments, but Heather is cooking up a storm as usual and it was time to put her content out into the world.
So now you know what we’re eating. Check it out, and follow Heather’s twitter stream @opgastronomia for more tasty bits. And most important of all, buon appetito!
Speed Round: What the heck have we been up to?
Spring SPRUNG! And we enjoyed it in Dumbo.
We made several new WordPress sites for some cool projects, including this one.
We moved! Once and for all into our new, permanent home in Park Slope (photos and details to come).
We took a hard earned break and went to Italia! Heather kept a journal about it here.
And now? Well, we’ve got some killer projects underway and we hope to update the portfolio on this site with lots of great new work soon.
We’re also ready to initiate a summer internship, so if you are, or know of, a smart young designer, send your portfolio and a little something about yourself to .
It’s Getting Hot in Here (kind of)
Winter is finally melting away here in Brooklyn as the days get longer and, more importantly, warmer. It’s time to thaw out this website.
Since the start of 2011 Bad Feather has been quite busy. On top of our regular work load and usual influx of new year project proposals, we’ve been moving. After what was a good 3.5 year run at the Old American Can Factory, we decided it was time to move on. The Fall of 2010 seemed to slide by with little time for studio hunting (Did you just get a headache when you thought about New York City real estate? We don’t blame you). So when an opportunity for a 3 month studio sublet in DUMBO came to our attention, we took it. We thought we’d buy ourselves some time and check out the neighborhood as a potential suitor for Bad Feather.
Now for the drama. It turns out the artist whose studio we agreed to sublet failed to mention one very important detail until the last minute – the space is unheated. We admit, we were excited by the sweeping views and didn’t ask about this seemingly unimportant detail (silly us thinking heat was a given). Shortly after we rang in the new year unpacking boxes, we realized it was far too cold of a space to work in during what seemed to be one of the harshest NYC winters we’ve had in a while. So for the past few months we’ve kept our eyes on the forecast, hopeful for temperatures above freezing, and have been alternately bundling up and heading over to DUMBO to fire up space heaters or hunkering down to work remotely from our apartment.
Since January we’ve felt a bit like passengers aboard the Battlestar Galactica, wandering aimlessly in search of a new home. Go ahead and laugh at that geeky reference and then tell us you don’t think Edward James Olmos is a total bad ass. It was stressful for a time not knowing were we would finally set up permanent shop, and we’ve been eager for a return to routine, not to mention an end to the hassle of shuffling servers and equipment. But the good news at the end of this saga is that we’ve finally found earth a new studio, and it may just be a gem. We’re comfortable now (current forecast: a whopping 48 degrees) in our DUMBO outpost where we’ll remain through the end of this month. And then we’ll begin the transition with hopes of being settled into our future home later this Spring. Photos and the continuing tale of our journey to come…
For now, we’ll leave you with this photo we took from our roof in DUMBO. Nothing like a great view to warm your heart while your butt is freezing:
Print Magazine 2010 Regional Design Annual
Bad Feather is psyched to announce that we’re in the 2010 Regional Design Annual from Print Magazine.
Our self-mailing invitation/poster for Sonic Union’s industry launch party was selected for this annual review of award-winning print design work.
As you might imagine, New York City puts up some tough competition as a region. We’re flattered to have been included. Congrats to all the winners!
Bad Feather Gets Freaky
Last week we proudly launched FreakonomicsRadio.com. Freakonomics Radio, produced in partnership with American Public Media’s Marketplace and WNYC, is a project from the authors of the best selling Freakonomics books that includes a weekly podcast, regular segments on Marketplace, and one-hour specials to be broadcast on public-radio stations across the country. Bad Feather designed and developed the website as a place for listers to experience this content as well as a wealth of web extras, including additional audio and articles.
It was an exciting challenge for us to bring a fresh look to this new piece of the well-known Freakonomics empire. In addition to the website design, we also had an opportunity to further develop the branding specific to Freakonomics Radio through the design of a web ad campaign and promotional graphics for the iTunes store.
And if that’s not enough for you, Bad Feather designed illustrated charts and this fancy infographic to accompany the inaugural content at the launch of the website. This included a new podcast, marketplace segment and a web extra, all exploring the hidden side of major league baseball stats.
During our involvement in the project we listened to all the podcasts (there’s plenty of great archival content to be consumed on the site) and can definitely count ourselves among the many fans. Check out FreakonomicsRadio.com for yourself, and if you like what you hear, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and check back for more.
What Does Web Design Have to Do with Farming?
Over the past year we’ve been working on a web-based project for a man who doesn’t have a personal email address and never uses the internet: our friend and farmer, Ray Bradley. Since leaving his career as a chef for farming more than 10 years ago, Ray has been profiled by everyone from enthusiastic bloggers to the New York Times (it’s frequently mentioned that he’s a childhood friend and former sous chef of David Bouley). But even with great press and a longtime, loyal community of supporters, farming is a tough gig. Ray can use all the help he can get to build his customer base and sell all the delicious produce and products he raises and then treks from New Paltz to NYC twice a week.
We began collaborating almost a year ago with Ray’s girlfriend, Iris Kimberg (who happens to be a bit of a marketing maven), to promote Bradley Farm. Starting with a coming soon site and some good old mailing list sign-up sheets at the market, we collected emails addresses and began sending a weekly newsletter. Over the past 6 months the audience has grown to nearly 500 green market customers who are receiving notice of what’s coming to market and the occasional recipe, photo, or story from the farm. Ray is delighted with the positive response to the emails and when people show up at the farm stand telling him how much they were looking forward to those strawberries or how much they loved the photos of the chicken coop, it makes everyone feel more connected.
Last month we launched RayBradleyFarm.com, a WordPress site with info about Bradley Farm and a blog that hosts both news and press. The annual farm festival is coming up and we’re experimenting with selling tickets and fundraiser raffles online and will soon be taking pre-orders for Bradley Farm pork. All of our marketing efforts have been a work in progress and the website and its content will continue to evolve as the farm and its offerings also evolve with each season. We’ve talked about setting Ray up with a computer he can check emails on from the farm, and although he’s interested, he’s in no hurry to make that leap. In the meantime, he relays the weeks’ bounty to Iris who emails it to his customers.
This was a great summer for Bradley Farm’s famous heirloom tomatoes, so we can’t take too much credit for bringing people back week after week, but we do feel a bit proud when we show up at a crowded market stall each Saturday. it’s been a rewarding experience for us to utilize new media tools to help educate people about their food and the man who works to grow it. For more info, visit RayBradleyFarm.com.
Back by Popular Demand
This past summer Sonic Union brought back their now infamous prize wheel. Another season of spinning meant team Bad Feather had an opportunity to redesign the wheel with a whole new set of prizes. We took it as an opportunity to have fun with typography and created a unique design for each of the prizes.
The 2010 wheel highlights included a dollar bill, mini bar mini bottle, bag full o’ goods from the Union Square green market and tickets to a Broadway show. Check out the the gallery of type treatments:
Hot Bread Kitchen Gets Some Hot New Packaging
When we first started working with Hot Bread Kitchen a few years ago, the social purpose bakery was a big idea with a little bread stand at a greenmarket in Harlem. Since then they have grown into a social enterprise that employs immigrant women to bake delicious breads while learning valuable skills for careers in the food industry. They now have more than 20 retailers carrying their products, including Dean & Deluca and the Brooklyn Larder, and participate in 4 greenmarkets per week, including Union Square. Over the past year Bad Feather has worked together with Hot Bread Kitchen to develop packaging that’s as tasty as the the breads they bake.
Lavash crackers (organic, crispy crackers topped with a variety of seeds and spices – you want these) are one of their biggest sellers. The challenge was to design packaging that retained the DIY, homegrown aesthetic that has influenced the Hot Bread Kitchen brand from the beginning. In the early days Jessamyn would hand-stamp kraft paper business cards with the Hot Bread Kitchen logo, and that was a foundation for design elements used in all of the marketing materials we’ve since created for them. When we set to transitioning from their handmade packaging (stamped re-closable paper bags) to a printed design, it was important that we retained the stamped logo which results in a charming irregularity when the bags are lined up on a shelf.
We finally got our hands on a few bags of newly-packaged lavash and must say, they’re as tasty as ever and we could not be more pleased with the result of the finished product.
Email Marketing Party Magic
We had you at magic, right? Bad Feather recently had great success using an email marketing campaign to promote this year’s Sonic Union party. Maybe you’ve seen the self-mailing poster invite we created last year? We got loads of positive feedback on the design and we’re told the party was one for the record books. When we sat down to brainstorm ideas for this year’s party, the folks at Sonic Union were interested in promoting the event digitally. It is 2010 after all, and in addition to being a greener and more interactive approach, we saved some serious cash by eliminating printing and postage.
Aside from rethinking the distribution of the invitation, we wanted to design an invite to reflect Sonic Union’s industry reputation of being darn good party people. On our end the ideas started flowing with the mention of the Zoltar machine that would be one of several party attractions. We created this digital poster design that we felt appropriately conveyed 100% FUN.
The poster design was embedded in an HTML email campaign sent to an initial list of invitees. We sent this through a 3rd party service, utilizing their list management capabilities to wrangle the guest list Read the rest of this entry »
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