Customizing for a Good Cause

Here at Galison/Mudpuppy, we do many customized projects that we're very proud of – projects that involve cultural institutions, companies and organizations with various missions. In the spirit of the holiday season, we wanted to bring attention to two such organizations whose mission it is to help those less fortunate.  We were lucky to work with both Heifer International and Marriott International to create customized Magnetic Tin Figures designed specifically to help achieve their goals.

If you’re not familiar with Heifer International, it’s a wonderful organization founded in 1944 that seeks “to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.”  We met with them at a trade show and discussed creating a product for them to retail that would educate children about their mission and their work. Under their direction, we created a beautiful tin that highlighted Uganda, Poland, Peru and China. 

For Marriott International, who is a Feeding America fundraising partner, we created a tin featuring the Marriott Bear That Cares.  $3 of all the proceeds go to the charity’s goals of feeding America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engaging the country in the fight to end hunger.

If you're looking for thoughtful and unique gifts this holiday season, we would highly recommend looking into both Heifer Int'l and Feeding America!  Last year, our boss Jerry loved the Goat, Chickens, and Ducks bought in his name and donated to a family through Heifer Int'l.

Galison Down Under!

Crikey! A custom portfolio – Visions of Port Philip – that we worked on with some lovely Australians has made its debut! On October 17, 2009 to be precise.

Galison is proud and honoured to be a part of an exhibition which opened at the National Trust of Australia –the trust is re-launching its Visitor Centre and Gallery at McCrae Homestead on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne, and officially opening the new Visions of Port Phillip: The Burrell-Twycross Collection and Gallery.

And it all started with a quick phone call.  

A few months back, Chris Lopez, who is the granddaughter of John Twycross, the photographer whose images were used to create the custom portfolio, and who now lives in NY, was looking for a project to further enhance the exhibit planned to feature her grandfather’s photography. She wanted something that visitors could purchase as a souvenir and that would serve to represent the exhibit and accurately reflect the beautiful black and white film 19^th and 20^th century photography she’d had painstakingly preserved. A package of our Portfolio cards that her husband had purchased years prior at a local Barnes & Noble served as inspiration. Picking it up from his desk, she admired its quality and the artwork and got to thinking. Turning it over, she noticed the manufacturer – us! – and got in touch. After a discussion as to what would be entailed, our capabilities, our pricing and turnaround times, we arranged to meet in person.  

With copies of the photographs in tow, Chris came to our midtown office full of ideas as to what themes she wanted to incorporate and what feelings she hoped to evoke in creating the note cards. Armed with Chris’ input and some history of the area, our designers got to work. The result is a beautiful set of cards that have a nostalgic and nautical sense of years gone by. Chris and her brother Wil were a joy to work with – we’ll travel back in time or in real time with them any ole’ time!

Take a look at some some of our other custom projects!

 

Galison Helps the Art Gallery of Ontario Celebrate their Frank Gehry Renovation

To celebrate the opening of their Frank Gehry renovated gallery space, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) asked the Galison Private Label division to create stationery products highlighting their collection of more than 73,000 works of art.  The main goals of the renovation were to increase the space and to engage art viewers from all ages and walks of life. We took all this in consideration while developing the AGO stationery collection.

The focus was on four of the gallery's most popular paintings — J.E.H. McDonald's Montreal River, Claude Monet's Vétheuil in Summertime (shown on the Little Keep It Box of cards below), Tom Thomson's The West Wind, and Mary Hiester Reid's A Garden in September. 

Each painting was used as the focal point for a stationery collection that included formats from our own Galison line: Little Keep It Box of note cards, Sticky Note sets, and two Write On journals – both full and pocket size. We helped select formats that would appeal to a wide audience, and that have been among our best sellers for years. In the design process we stayed true to the original artwork and developed color palettes inspired by the respective painting. Early in the process we knew this project needed a "less is more" design approach so we used color economically, accenting the products for a most contemporary yet true to the original art appearance.

The Write On blank journal shown at left is based on Tom Thomson's The West Wind.

While we love all our design children, our favorite product for the AGO is the sticky notes. The fine art imagery on this charming format resulted in a most sophisticated stationery piece. The set shown below shows Falls, Montreal River, by J.E.H. MacDonald.   

 

This Write On Journal is based on Mary Hiester Reid's A Garden in September. 

     

Heading to Ontario? Read about visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario by clicking here. 

You can purchase the AGO products at the museum's online shop:  www.ago.net .

--Roza Mikova, Creative Director

  Galison Custom Division

Galison Helps Anthropologie with their ABCs

In addition to designing and producing products for the Galison and Mudpuppy lines, our designers work on private label versions of our formats--and sometimes create brand new formats--for some well-known clients like Barnes and Noble, Target, and most recently, for Anthropologie.

Anthropologie was thrilled with the success of the Galison retail products they sell, and asked us to create some products for their Monogram Collection. I asked Shelby Spears, Senior Designer at Galison, about the project, and she wrote...

 

 

The monogram project came about when Anthropologie approached Galison in need of some stationery for their current store monogram collection. Aware of the success of our sticky notes and file folders, Anthropologie chose these two bestselling formats for the project.

The design process was both enjoyable and challenging. As we started the research, we soon realized that choosing the perfect typeface was going to be our biggest challenge. Each typeface embodied a different design language, and it was difficult to narrow down the many choices to one final concept. Our inspiration came from the 19th century treatment of initials and typographic flourishes, and we thought this design approach suited Anthropologie’s store aesthetic.

Our color palette was based on Galison’s best selling “Confetti Garden” sticky notes, which are also sold at Anthropologie. The colors of cherry red, blue, orange, and apple green popped and made for a bold, bright collection of monogram stationery.   

Galison’s monogram program for Anthropologie has been featured on several blogs, and we were also mentioned in Real Simple’s December issue in the article entitled “50 Fabulous Gifts Under $50.”

You can purchase our Anthropologie monogram sticky notes and file folders at Anthropolgie retail stores or online at www.anthropologie.com.

----Shelby Spears

 

Susan adds:

Yes, thank you bloggers.  Anthropologie's Monogram Collection was featured in http://designismine.blogspot.com/

So if you would like great monogrammed sticky note sets or decorative file folders, visit Anthropologie. All letters except I, Q, U, V, X, Y, Z!

And remember, Galison's Home Office Collection also sells decorative sticky note sets and file folders, as well as memo mouse pads, file totes, memo note boxes, and new weekly organizers with lots of sticky notes and a memo pad, too.

Botanica Sticky Note Set:

 

Dandelion Weekly Organizer 

 

 

 

Brooklyn Botanical Garden & Our Cherry Blossom Journals

Hello all! I’m a member of both the Web and the Marketing teams at Galison/Mudpuppy and would like to make my first blog post as “Mudpuppy” in honor of Galison’s mascot. Here it goes:

Two weekends ago, the weather in NYC was so gorgeous that I journeyed to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to view the seasonal cherry blossoms.  That trip was a floral heaven! The delicate pink petals gracefully rested on the tree branches, yet it also pains my heart that rain will eventually wash the pretty flowers away. 

So if you haven’t gone, please go when it’s still in the peak season!  (Here’s information on the garden and also a list of some cherry blossom festivals in other cities too)

After enjoying the flowers, I decided to buy a little souvenir from the gift shop.  Wow! What a stunning display of cherry blossoms products!

There were lotions, handkerchiefs, journals…Wait! Did I just say journals?! I see our Galison “Cherry Blossom” Write On Journals prominently located on the display table! I was such a tourist that I took several pictures of them. I’m so proud of us!

We actually took journals from our stock and imprinted the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s name in gold on the covers as a special project for the garden. (You can read more about how to have this done at Galison Custom)

The serenity of the park and the enchanting garden soothes my spirit.  It was like a mini trip to Japan.  Sayonara!

- Mudpuppy