AUDUBON
The Project: Building a community of individual major donors
Why: Audubon’s success as a conservation leader had been funded, in large measure, through a powerful direct mail/membership culture. A new development leader for national Audubon brought strengths in identifying, cultivating, and retaining major donors — and a mission to expand Audubon’s community of supporters.
Our Work: We developed a communication platform and suite of outreach vehicles to support a new major donor giving group, The Lucy & John James Audubon Society. To help shift Audubon’s fundraising culture, we provided staff with training in development writing and audience-centered messaging and served as writing coaches. And we supported individual state organizations, including Texas, Oregon, and Arizona, in their member communications.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design. Featured photography: Will Mosgrove
JOHN W. GARDNER CENTER FOR YOUTH AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
The Project: Create Knowledge. Ignite Change.
Why: John Gardner, founder of Common Cause and tireless believer in jump-starting the process that turns young people into leaders, has a “home” in his honor at Stanford. As part of the Graduate School of Education, the Gardner Center brings the best of academic institutions, think tanks, and communities together as a force for discovery and change. But although its mission is simple — creating new knowledge that ignites improved futures for young people — the process behind that mission is not so simple to explain.
Our Work: Research and conversations with leaders at the Gardner Center yielded new ways of talking about the Center’s impact in the world: creating knowledge and igniting change, in schools, in communities, and in the lives of young people. By focusing on big ideas — closing the gap between research and practice, for example — together with our clients and design partner, we shed light on the why, how, and the end result.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design
THE MAYBECK FOUNDATION
The Project: $21 million capital campaign to restore the Palace of Fine Arts
Why: Designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition, the Palace has become one of San Francisco’s most beloved icons. More than 1.5 million people visit every year — architects, birders, history buffs, kids, eco-tourists, and most of all, sweethearts. The Palace is the most photographed wedding spot in the City — as the campaign says, “A Landmark to Love.” The challenge? Rallying people who love the Palace to support its restoration for future generations.
Our Work: Conducting focus groups among existing and prospective supporters, we identified key elements of the campaign, named the campaign, and developed print and Web communications that showcased personal stories about the Palace as well as the landmark’s historical and cultural significance.
Partners: Web and end of campagin report, Jacqueline Jones Design. Case brochure, Grant, Scott & Hurley. Campaign identity illustration, Michael Schwab. Major Photography, Robert Mizono
YOUTH HOMES
The Project: Introducing Youth Homes, an agency with a 30-plus year track record for fostering children, to new potential supporters
Why: Reductions in public resources increasingly threaten funding for Youth Homes’ programs, which provide at-risk children with residential care, support for family reunification, and transition to independence at age 18.
Our Work: Working with volunteers, including a co-writer and pro bono designer, we developed a personal and compelling campaign platform that brought the Youth Homes mission to life. Our “calling card” brochure for the agency, put its plainspoken mantra right on the cover: We never give up on a kid. The brochure debuted at a major donor event and became part of a highly successful year-end direct mail outreach campaign.
Partners: Co-author/editor: Karen Mulvaney. Jacqueline Jones Design (gifts in kind)
MUSEUM OF PERFORMANCE & DESIGN
The Project: Campaign for a permanent home
Why: Museum of Performance & Design, the first museum in the country dedicated to the performing arts and theatrical design, is a treasured collecting, exhibiting, and educational institution. But it lacks a permanent home to house its diverse collections, welcome visitors, and support innovative programs.
Our Work: In collaboration with the designer and with input from the staff and board, we developed a set of campaign messages that put the scope of the museum’s portfolio — from costumes for Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula recordings of Carol Channing’s iconic performances to rare artifacts of Chinese opera — front and center.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design
SUN VALLEY CENTER FOR THE ARTS
The Project: Raising funds for new regional hub of arts and culture
Why: The community surrounding Sun Valley, Idaho, had an arts center that displayed intriguing works and engaged people from all ages and all walks of life in the arts experience. With the local population growing — and the inspiration to produce new programs that further enrich the community through the arts — the center’s volunteer leaders set out to achieve an ambitious vision: A bold new home for the arts that could welcome more visitors, more exciting exhibitions and artists, and more diverse arts experiences.
Our Work: After research among museum constituencies, we named the campaign and worked with our design partner to bring the vision for the future museum to life. Key to our work was capturing the passion of people who had already experienced, supported, and stewarded the museum — and conveying their excitement about the difference a true, forward-looking arts center could make for the community.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design
CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
The Project: Gifted. Global. Curtis.
Why: Curtis, the most selective educational institution in the United States, educates some of the most talented musicians in the world — vocalists, instrumentalists, composers, conductors. Among Curtis alumni, Pulitzer and Grammy winners abound and performers command the stage from San Francisco to Shanghai. Leonard Bernstein, Alan Gilbert, Jascha Brodsky, Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Higdon, and Lang Lang — with stars like these among its graduates, the institute’s profile should be high. Yet Curtis’ presence and impact seemed … understated.
Our Work: Through research with key constituencies, and collaboration with development, marketing and communications clients at Curtis, we evolved a storytelling plan about the students, alumni, faculty, and supporters who ensure that what starts on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia reaches the world.
Partners: AdamsMorioka
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION
The Project: Answer the Call Campaign
Why: When budget cuts and the lack of sustainable, long-term stewardship threatened the future of California’s 279 state parks — the largest state parks system in the nation — the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF), the only public voice for parks, rose to the challenge. CSPF’s goal: launch a fundraising campaign to help save threatened parks from immediate closure, engage more park advocates, advance a long-term strategy, and ensure access to iconic Golden State natural and cultural wonders — from Pigeon Point Lighthouse to a forest older than the Roman Empire to miles of glorious coast — for future generations.
Our Work: Collaborating with CSPF’s leadership and development staff and design partner Studio Hinrichs, we named the campaign — Answer the Call — and crafted fact-packed, highly visual, emotionally resonant campaign materials, from a show-stopper brochure to fact sheets and a dedicated website. Stunning photography, much contributed by park visitors, set the stage for a multi-layered appeal.
Partners: Studio Hinrichs
THE SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN AT STRYBING ARBORETUM
The Project: Renovating, expanding, and making a more visitor-friendly botanical garden
Why: San Francisco’s climate provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to cultivate a grand and multi-faceted garden — a green respite in an urban environment and a home for diverse botanical treasures. But San Francisco’s garden needed refreshing — and was about to transform from Strybing Arboretum into the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It also needed to be more accessible to its youngest and oldest visitors. With city resources reduced and continuing to shrink, a public campaign was the only way to fund the garden’s evolution.
Our Work: Garden leadership began with the theory that supporters would be conservationists first, garden-lovers second. However, our research revealed that it was the emotional attachment to gardens — remembered, imagined, created — that engendered passion in donors. This love of gardens became the centerpiece of a campaign that emphasized personal connections and the cultural impact of A Great Garden for a Great City.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs). Photography: Jock McDonald
EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY
The Project: Repositioning an academic institution best known for its aviation programs as an undergraduate and graduate university with a wide array of programs
Why: Students interested in aviation already had Embry-Riddle on their radar. But the university also has much to offer students pursuing related careers — engineering, astrophysics, environmental science, safety. How to tell the whole story? By inviting recent students of diverse talents and interests to tell their stories — and encouraging others to aspire, to Look. Up.
Our Work: After extensive research in the Embry-Riddle community, we identified the university’s unique hands-on approach to education and its faculty mentoring as major strengths valued by both recent and prospective students. With our partners, we developed a highly visual, experiential, “you-are-there” viewbook and admissions travel vehicle.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs). Major Photography: Jeff Corwin
KQED
The Project: Campaign to raise $70 million for digital conversion, program venture funds, and infrastructure
Why: KQED, the most-watched-and-listened-to public broadcasting center in the country, faced significant expenses to comply with new digital standards.
Our Work: Interviews with long-time supporters turned up one important fact: Although many people cared little about digital technology per se, they were committed to the quality and diversity of programming they knew and loved. The campaign case emphasized just that: Rather than simply responding to technological needs, gifts supported KQED in its commitment to be more and do more for viewers and listeners.
Partners: Pentagram (now Studio Hinrichs)
STANFORD LAW SCHOOL
The Project: Rebranding one of America’s top law schools
Why: Good law schools become great when they attract the best faculty — and the best students. Stanford was already doing very well in admissions, but a new dean was determined to do even better.
Our Work: Interviews with distinguished alumni, other law school deans, and leaders of bench and bar revealed that Stanford Law often presented a hazy picture of its true strengths: The remarkable advantages that come from being part of a world-class university with leading programs in medicine, business, engineering, and located in Silicon Valley. It was time to showcase the unique intellectual and environmental assets of Stanford Law by asking — and answering — the big questions likely to come from the most qualified students. With our design partners, we created a series of print admissions pieces and a Web site that showcase the exceptional, inquiring, interdisciplinary culture of Stanford Law — plus the leading programs that enable students to build expertise in increasingly relevant areas of law.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
The Project: Rebranding from also ran to the one to watch — showcasing the university’s authentic identity
Why: Ask people familiar with California’s public higher education system to rank UC campuses and they might put UC Riverside near the bottom, despite the campus’ track record for excellent educational opportunities and research on issues relevant to growing communities worldwide. Why? “Location, location, location” — people outside UCR often perceived it as a low-profile institution in California’s smoggy Inland Empire.
Our Work: Working closely with university staff, we conducted research among UC Riverside constituencies to uncover the true character and assets of UCR. What did we find? A university on the rise — at the hub of California’s fastest- growing region — and a proud community lacking a unified voice to communicate its strengths. With our client and design partner, we collaborated on a new brand to convey UCR’s “rising star” nature — and created a suite of outreach vehicles (print and Web) to illustrate the university’s impact and advantages. The centerpiece of this suite — “111 Things” — shines a light on UCR’s unsung successes.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs)
PACIFIC McGEORGE SCHOOL OF LAW
The Project: Admissions marketing
Why: Prospective students can’t understand a professional school’s strengths unless they come close enough to take a good look. Pacific McGeorge School of Law was moving up in the rankings, led by an entrepreneurial and focused new dean. The challenge? How to give more prospects a better look at an evolving McGeorge.
Our Work: Collaborating with the office of admissions and our design partner, we developed a suite of “come closer” tools – Look. Ask. Meet. Apply. — that facilitated a virtual meet-and-greet experience.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs)
HUMANE SOCIETY OF SILICON VALLEY
The Project: Building a one-of-a-kind Animal Community Center that would be a gathering place for adoptions, training, health care, and just hanging out, for animals and the humans who love them
Why: HSSV needed a way to convey that its campaign was not about facilities, but about unique human-animal bonds that an innovative new facility — as forward-looking as Silicon Valley itself — could deepen.
Our Work: With our partners, we developed a fresh communication approach that was both witty and highly visual, filled with animal-lover tips and information, putting the real stars — pets and their humans — center stage.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design. Major photography: Debra McClinton
BELVEDERE-TIBURON LIBRARY
The Project: Introducing two adjacent towns to a new concept in libraries
Why: The Belvedere-Tiburon Library, a respected institution serving both the town of Tiburon and the city of Belvedere, was being “loved to death,” with a crowded children’s room, virtually no dedicated space for teens, and woefully cramped technology space. Library leaders developed a plan to transform the already beloved library into an even more powerful hub of information and resources. But how could the library garner support for growth in communities that didn’t embrace change or see much wrong with the perfectly handsome facility they already had?
Our Work: Starting with focus groups among key constituencies, we identified various points of view about what a new library could accomplish. Then, working with volunteer library leaders, we helped name the campaign — Once Upon a Library — and developed communication materials to support library outreach.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design. Major photography: John Blaustein
UC SANTA BARBARA ARTS & LECTURES
The Project: Educate. Entertain. Inspire.
Why: For 50-plus years, UCSB Arts & Lectures has been the region’s most important provider of music, dance, writers, cultural icons and mavericks of all varieties. From the sass and energy of Pink Martini to classical rock stars like Lang Lang and Yo-Yo Ma to thought leaders from Jane Goodall to David McCullough, A&L has brought the world to Santa Barbara.
Our Work: While A&L’s product was well-known and beloved, support for the wide range of its work — as presenter, educator, and community asset — was less well-known. Guided by the A&L leadership, we collaborated to create a different kind of case statement to showcase how arts and ideas can transform and enrich a community.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design
FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO
The Project: Campaign for the New de Young in Golden Gate Park
Why: Time and the Loma Prieta earthquake had compromised the de Young so severely that getting insurance for major exhibitions was difficult, and unsightly trusses marred the exterior. What’s more, although the museum was surrounded by Golden Gate Park, from inside, there was barely any view of the world outside. A reinvention of the de Young was in order. And after failed bond measures, the board chose to raise the funds from donors through a $130 million campaign.
Our Work: Art museums often carry the whiff of “elitism,” making them a tough sell. Add in a high-profile, European architect — Herzog & de Meuron — and the air became even more rarified. The solution, developed with our partners: A witty My de Young/Your de Young/Our de Young series, revolving around personal stories of the museum experience.
Partners: Cahan & Associates Design. Major photography: Jock McDonald, Todd Hido
RICE UNIVERSITY
The Project: Centennial campaign
Why: As Rice University prepared to celebrate its centennial, plans emerged for a billion-dollar capital campaign that would invest in educating students to become leaders, providing solutions to pressing global challenges, and the Rice-Houston partnership.
Our Work: Collaborating with Rice’s development staff — and gaining lively insights from Rice’s alumni — we developed a campaign theme drawn from a speech by Rice’s first president, Edgar Odell Lovett: "No Upper Limit. Still."
Partners: Lowell Williams Design
ROYAL VIKING LINE
The Project: Skald, a travel magazine for past cruise passengers
Why: Royal Viking Line, a luxury cruise company, was committed to extending the pleasures of travel — discovery, history, cuisine, arts, culture, and industry — to its past passengers to build loyalty and deepen relationships.
Our Work: In collaboration with our client and the designer, we developed a highly visual, information-rich magazine directed to cruise-specific experiences.
Partners: Pentagram (now Studio Hinrichs)
STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE,
OFFICE OF MEDICAL DEVELOPMENT
The Project: Bench & Bedside magazine
Why: Alumni of the Stanford University School of Medicine — PhD, MDs, and from years gone by, nurses and physical therapists — heard regularly from their alma mater. But somehow the news was never about them. The solution: A magazine that celebrates what was unique about the School of Medicine’s culture and alumni, from the first generation of graduates to the innovators shaping the future of medicine all over the world — a remarkable assortment of multitalented individuals — physician-musicians, physician-winemakers, scientist-journalists, etc.
Our Work: In collaboration with our design partner and the alumni association staff, we developed the name, concept, content, look, feel, and voice of a new publication. Bench & Bedside made its debut in 2007 and continues today.
Partners: Jacqueline Jones Design
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY
The Project: Raising the profile of an important institution of music and culture at an historic turning point
Why: With its centennial season on the horizon, the Symphony sought to strengthen its annual fundraising drive and raise general awareness of the Orchestra’s local impact and growing global profile.
Our Work: Starting with annual fund materials, we worked with our design partners to create a stand-out identity and messaging that deepens the connection between Symphony and community. Messaging hinges on the transformative power of music — its ability to inspire and connect people across generations and geographies and cultures — and on the power of people who are passionate about music to strengthen and sustain the Symphony. Collateral includes annual fund brochures, the Symphony’s first-ever “calling card” brochure — conveying identity, mission, and impact at a glance — and pieces to support major gift outreach and the transformative Second Century Campaign.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs)
PRINCETON ASPIRE
The Project: Post-campaign Communications
Why: When Princeton’s Aspire campaign drew to a close on June 30, 2012, there was much to celebrate. 65,000 donors, including more than 77 percent of all undergraduate alumni, made gifts that pushed the total beyond the goal of $1.75 billion to $1.88 billion. But the end of a campaign posed a challenge: How to keep philanthropy front and center beyond Aspire?
Our Work: Collaborating with Princeton’s development communications team, we generated several theme options that could provide an inspiring framework for post-Aspire giving. Princeton chose Burning Bright — referencing Blake’s Tyger, Princeton Tigers, and the ability of gifts to “illuminate” opportunities for students, faculty, and the university’s ongoing needs.
Partners: ChingFoster Design, Jon Roemer Photography
THE SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN AT STRYBING ARBORETUM
The Project: Renovating, expanding, and making a more visitor-friendly botanical garden
Why: San Francisco’s climate provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to cultivate a grand and multi-faceted garden — a green respite in an urban environment and a home for diverse botanical treasures. But San Francisco’s garden needed refreshing — and was about to transform from Strybing Arboretum into the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It also needed to be more accessible to its youngest and oldest visitors. With city resources reduced and continuing to shrink, a public campaign was the only way to fund the garden’s evolution.
Our Work: Garden leadership began with the theory that supporters would be conservationists first, garden-lovers second. However, our research revealed that it was the emotional attachment to gardens — remembered, imagined, created — that engendered passion in donors. This love of gardens became the centerpiece of a campaign that emphasized personal connections and the cultural impact of A Great Garden for a Great City.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs). Photography: Jock McDonald
UCSF NEWSLETTER
The Project: Raising the profile of an important institution of music and culture at an historic turning point
Why: With its centennial season on the horizon, the Symphony sought to strengthen its annual fundraising drive and raise general awareness of the Orchestra’s local impact and growing global profile.
Our Work: Starting with annual fund materials, we worked with our design partners to create a stand-out identity and messaging that deepens the connection between Symphony and community. Messaging hinges on the transformative power of music — its ability to inspire and connect people across generations and geographies and cultures — and on the power of people who are passionate about music to strengthen and sustain the Symphony. Collateral includes annual fund brochures, the Symphony’s first-ever “calling card” brochure — conveying identity, mission, and impact at a glance — and pieces to support major gift outreach and the transformative Second Century Campaign.
Partners: Pentagram Design (now Studio Hinrichs)
