Helping JDRF Shine

Over the past six months, Triple Strength has been partnering with the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on event materials for their annual Gala. Each year the event is themed according to one element of the event. The 2011 Gala, honoring the chapter’s 10th anniversary, was deemed the Diamond Gala. The black tie affair was also tagged with the slogan of celebrating Hope • Progress • Inspiration.

To begin the process of creating an identity for the event, TS met with representatives from JDRF and began brainstorming on potential style and visual elements. It was important to play on the history of the event with its ten successful years of supporting the cause of Juvenile Diabetes research. With the reference of the ‘diamond’ anniversary already in hand, it was just a matter of tying it to the spirit and courage that the event stands for. The answer came with a subtle nod to one of the world’s largest pieces of jewelry … the Hope Diamond.

The diamond became the key symbol for the event and emphasized its sophisticated nature. Supplementary design cues such as swash typography, filigreed sconce-like details, and high-contrast graphics give the collateral pieces the ultimate air of sophistication and make the Gala the must-attend event of the year.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is a great organization and it was great to help out with their primary fundraising event. This is not the first year that TS offered its services to JDRF, and we hope it’s not the last. If you would like to get involved, please visit JDRF online at www.jdrf.org.

For the Love of Interstate

If you spend as much time as I do driving, road signs and highway markers often fly by at increased speeds without so much as a glance. Interstate, the typeface most closely related to that of highway signage, tends to fade into the landscape as attention can be diverted else where. With its recent adoption by TS for internal and client work, no matter how fast I get to the office, I’m surrounded by the font and it’s many faces and weights. With its growing popularity, I’m waiting for an Interstate film to replace Helvetica as the typography documentary to see.

Interstate is a neo-grotesque typeface, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones, to model closely after the font the US Federal Highway Administration developed in 1949 for road signage. It is also used in Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, and elsewhere because of its readability at a distance and high speeds. When not applied to signage, Interstate is also used as display font for headings, call-outs and other featured content in publications and branding.

With the recent redesign of the TS brand, Interstate was chosen to replace Helvetica and Weidemann, as our studio fonts of choice. The past identity began to feel dated, and Interstate offered a modern alternative, with a number of faces to accompany. The font is strong enough to stand alone, so many applications are derived from typographic word art where the focus is on message.

Clients such as NSVRC and the Institute for Strategic Management Inc. have also been brought into the fold with Interstate being one of, if not the, primary typeface. For the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, Interstate pairs with Trajan to balance modern sans serif with a classic serif typeface. With the text-heavy nature of NSVRC publications, Interstate is used in the majority of copy to produce utmost readability in body and focal attention to callouts with bold and other heavier faces. In the case of the Institute for Strategic Management, everything from the logo and brochure, to web site headers and video production elements are all handled with Interstate. The brand is built upon the technical and modern applications of the font and showcases the state-of-the-art techniques ISM utilizes.

With its modern characteristics and contemporary style, it’s hard not to appreciate Interstate for it ability to represent action and progress. Companies and institutions looking to replicate these ideas often employee Interstate somewhere in their identity system. This has been just a tiny sample and there are countless to explore, but, at the very least, this may get you to focus a little longer on the next exit sign you pass.

Some other examples of Interstate

A Fish of a Different Color

In an ocean of electronic downloads, online radio stations, and shady sharing software, Grooveshark rises to the top through intuitive player controls, an expansive library, and a structure that keeps all parties involved, happy … a rockin’ logo doesn’t hurt either.

Grooveshark is an online music site that enables users to setup playlists from a library of tracks uploaded by other users. A rival of other popular sites like Pandora, Last fm, and rdio, Grooveshark enables total and complete personalization of what does, and does not, get played. A free service initially, upgrades are available to remove ads and other fund generating pieces from display on the site. With greater levels of activation, greater flexibility and customization of the application are available.

This site is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Often times, for whatever reason, there’s a song stuck in my head that I just have to hear. Whether you heard 3 seconds of it on your commute to the office, or just woke up humming it, if you don’t own the song on your iPod, or your work machine, you’re kind of out of luck. The beauty of Grooveshark, is that you can find that pesky song, and others like it, for free. You can’t download it, but you can feed-the-need. Online music sharing is a very gray area and just the words ‘FREE Music’ start to throw up red flags in our subconscious. GS works to provide licensers and other industry financiers with money from advertising and subscriptions. As a user, you can also be compensated for uploads. It keeps users, advertisers and music execs coming back time and time again.

The overall strength of the site is the intuitive nature of its playlist setup. Search for a song and then drag it to the player. The song starts to play as you continue to build. For someone who listens to a lot of music for an extended period of time, this is fast becoming my go to player. Unlike the other online apps, where you choose the first song and it builds a database of music per your preferences, you can pick as many, or as few songs, as you like, and let it expand from there. Users can setup favorites, and save certain tracks you love, making it even easier to get pumped up for your next presentation, or start to wind down on a Friday afternoon. Either way Grooveshark can make it happen … for free.

(above) Mobile upgrades for the Grooveshark app. My one complaint, more-so with Apple than Grooveshark, is that the iPhone has been rejected from the App Store.

Customized listing for user account. Add songs to the list, or mark them as a favorite for easy access.