What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
A love for creating imaginative and compelling graphics. I remain in the profession because there is nothing in life I’d rather do more. For those of us in the graphic design field, our greatest joy is visually solving our client’s problems and exceeding their expectations.

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
In 10 years from now, I’d like to continue to work and participate in the graphic design field. You never know what surprises and challenges lie ahead.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
Paul Rand and Saul Bass have been my greatest influences. Their methods and style for designing logos and corporate identity programs has shaped the way I work. The body of work of these two designers is extraordinary and have influenced many generations of designers over the years. The writings of Paul Rand have helped to shape how many graphic designers think and navigate through our profession.

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
One of my favorite pieces was a logo I designed for a company called “Market Snatchers”. A visual of a hand is shown lifting up the letter “M” to imply how this marketing company assists other companies in obtaining a greater market share of their niche market.

What do you wish you did better?
Delegate. I tend to want to work on all aspects of a project, but that way of thinking is not always in the best interest of the project.

Why Connecticut?
When I took a position as Art Director for Marketing Corporation of America in Westport, prior to opening up my own studio, we decided the time was right to leave our 2 bedroom condo in White Plains and move to a home in Milford. My wife is originally from Connecticut and so are many of her family members, so it seemed like the logical choice to make.

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
Pat Frankel, Art Scholz and Tim Dvorak. These are three highly talented designers and illustrators I worked with during my years as a designer at the General Foods Corporate Design Center.

What are your loves/passions outside of this field?
Watching reruns of “Seinfeld”. Following the New York Knicks. Going to see the band “Chicago” at least once a year. Taking walks along the beach with my West Highland White Terrier named “Shamus”.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
How important it is to know the specific type of design job you want after college graduation. In other words, if you want a job in package design, then pursue that. If you have to take another type of design position in the meantime that’s okay, but don’t lose sight of your dream job and continue to pursue it. You can only be happy if you are doing what you love to do and doing what you are best at.

What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
Possibly at age 1 when I consumed my first Crayola crayon, later realizing, “Hey, these aren’t for eating.” I stay in it because I’m always in it. There’s no off switch, nor would I ever want one.

Example 1, grocery shopping: “Why is milk packaged in a carton instead of rubber cow utters?”

Example 2, driving: “CT plates should be available in PMS Hexachrome Magenta C”

Example 3, at the dentist: “It’d be awesome if these pamphlets had a dancing tooth saying ‘clean me’ in Gotham bold.”

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
Be Our Neighbor. It’s not just about good design, but the gathering of a community.

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Drinking wine on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. And of course, doing quirky, creative, interesting design for quirky, creative, interesting people.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
Fellow CT creatives, Stefan S., Wes A., my sister, my guy

What do you wish you did better?
“THE BOOKS”

Why Connecticut?
This state is wild!

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
Again, my sister and my guy come into play. Also Michael Francis Barnes.

What are your loves/passions outside of this field?
Alpine climbing, art, outer space, art, glow stick twirling, art, banana eating, art.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
I know nothing now but hope to know something then.

Sites that go with the samples:
http://www.thebananaland.com/
http://be-our-neighbor.com/
http://campkayak.org/
http://gunniethedunnie.com/

What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
I originally went to FIT in Manhattan for Fashion Design. I lived, breathed and was nourished by Vogue as a kid…but after a year into the program I was disappointed in finding way too much dirt and indulgence in the industry. By then, I found much appeal in Advertising, so I switched majors. Advertising lead to Package design, consumer graphics lead eventually lead to Graphic Design. It all bleeds together for me and I have to say, it certainly helps to have a multifaceted background.

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
I have to say the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational piece gets the most attention. I love the simplicity of Huge Type. After 10 years of trying to get the client to like small, petite, discreet, and completely illegible type, it was actually refreshing to just go BIG.

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
In my very own little private studio built just for me…close enough to the family and yet….just far enough away.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
Without a doubt, Margo Chase. In many ways, I feel a kinship or a parallel journey in design sense. I started out in college rapidographing all my logos by hand. I never grew tired of the process. We share the love of using the ancient art of chinese calligraphy as well. There’s something peaceful in grinding your own ink.

I simply heart her.

What do you wish you did better?
Being that I am now just learning Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks, I’m looking forward to utilizing these programs as efficiently as I do Illustrator and photoshop.

Why Connecticut?
I get asked this all the time by my city friends. While I did love living in the city, what I missed most was actually driving my car to the grocery store. There’s a quality of life in a sleepy little town like Deep River that I love. It keeps you centered and your way of life humble. It’s all about the simple things.

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
I learned an enormous amount from both John Visgilio and Rena Debortoli. They’re both brilliant and set the standards that I hold for myself now.

What are your loves/passions outside of the field?
Cooking. I have Tyler Florence, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver on my iPhone, I think that says it all.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
That I’m actually good at what I do. It took me 10 years to realize that.

The property is from the real estate portfolio of client TF Cornerstone.

Silver Creative Group has built a solid reputation for developing effective marketing campaigns for real estate projects. Silver Creative has helped to brand and launch a number of high-profile residential, commercial and mixed-use properties in the tri-state area including Riverbend District in Harrison, NJ, Waypointe in Norwalk, CT, and the New York rental buildings; 2 Gold Street, 455 West 37th, 505 W 37th, 99 John Deco Lofts, 4705 Center Blvd and 4720 Center Blvd.

Paul Zullo and Donna Bonato, a husband-and-wife team, started Silver Creative Group in 2001. They moved the business from Brooklyn, New York to their current location in South Norwalk in 2003. Today, the nationally recognized creative firm employs a dozen people. Silver Creative Group combines sharp, clean design with smart creative marketing to create effective integrated marketing communications campaigns. Silver Creative has won many awards for the creation of brochures, print advertisements, exhibit booths, packaging and websites.

What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
From an early age, I’ve always liked to draw and create. When I was in high school, the only class I excelled in was anything to do with art. When I went on to art school, I had to take a graphic design class, and I was hooked. I couldn’t believe that people made a living doing something so fun and cool.

I stay in it because I love what I do. On any given day, I have dozens of ideas buzzing around in my head. The fact that I get paid to make those ideas come to life is like the icing on a very yummy cake.

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
I don’t necessarily have a favorite piece, but I am especially proud of my logo work.

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
In 10 years I hope to have the kind of business that allows me to pick and choose the projects I want to work on, rather than taking on a project because of that pesky mortgage. I’d also like to see at least one of the many business ideas in my head come to fruition. And finally, I’d like to be independently wealthy (which I guess goes hand in hand with the above). In 10 years I’ll be getting ready to send my second child off to college — yikes.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
Jessica Hische is a big influence — I love her type. Alejandro Paul is an amazing type designer, too. Designers like Tina Roth Eisenberg, Khoi Vinn; I love, love, love their simplicity.

There are a ton of outside influences as well — my camera is filled with a bunch of stuff that grabs my attention. It could be anything from my kids to the color of the grass to the way the sunlight reflects off of a building.

What do you wish you did better?
Among other things, I’d love to be able to balance my work vs. play time a little better. I love what I do — but sometimes the downtime is just as important. I just read a great quote that said something along the lines of being a freelancer isn’t choosing your own hours, it’s choosing which 16 hours of the day you have to work. Isn’t that the truth?

Why Connecticut?
I was born and raised here; so it’s not really a question of why, but more why not?

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
I worked with a great team at my last full time job — for ImageMark, in Wilton. And Amy Graver and everyone over at Elements.

What are your loves/passions outside of this field?
Shoes. Photography. My kids. Letterpress printing — not necessarily a passion, but I have a huge desire to learn the trade. Letterpress printers in Connecticut: please let me come play and learn!

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
Be happy. I love what I do for a living; if that isn’t a reason to be happy, then I don’t know what is.

What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
I’ve always loved drawing, and about halfway through high school I committed to the idea of going to art school. I used to screw around with flyers for bands or inserts for mix-tapes before I ever had any idea what “graphic design” was. Shit like that was a lot of fun. I connected the dots shortly thereafter.

Why I stuck around? I’ve had the privilege of working with some pretty inspiring students and professors at school and that’s just continued through my professional experience. That, and the fact that I just really like doing it. Why not, right?

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
I’d really have to split it down the middle between a poster series I did for my senior project and a website concept I did for Hartford Art School.

The posters were cool because it was a ton of thought work followed by a ton of handwork. I didn’t take it to the computer until after I’d cut and stitched what felt like an infinite number of chipboard letters. It was nice to “make something,” instead of just pushing a key or clicking a mouse.

The website concepts get to share top billing because it was a legitimate opportunity to use a jackalope in a project. For real though. Can you believe it caught the ax?

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Career-wise I’d like to have my graduate degree and a short list of awesome people that I like to work with. Or be an off-the-bench shooting guard for the Celtics. Either would be pretty cool.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
Everything. For better or worse, I like to think that anything I’m doing is a direct product of my environment—where I come from, the city I live in, the books I read, the food I eat, the music I listen to, the people I know, etc. It’s all present and accounted for.

What do you wish you did better?
I don’t think there’s a single thing that I’ve maxed-out on, that I can’t do better. I guess it’s about learning and applying and then repeating the process, for everything. Not to say that the trying isn’t there, I just don’t like to believe that at 25 years old I’ve perfected anything.

Why Connecticut?
I grew up here, and Hartford was the place I wanted to start my career. The city gets a bad rap, but you know what? It’s sick, and I love it.

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
Danny Mercadante and Jeff McCarthy who I was lucky enough to come out of high-school with; Devin Scheffel, my boy from the Pratt days, who could both draw and rap; Anthony Acock, Vaughn Fender, Porto, Caitlin Schiller and Wojciech Pirog from not-so-far back; Finally, I’ve had the pleasure of living/working with my lovely and talented girlfriend, Kat Riehle. She’s also an ill designer though she’d frown upon my use of the word ill.

What are your loves/passions outside of this field?
I’ve got a terminal case of the wanderlust. You name a place and chances are I haven’t been there, but I’d probably shake my already loose morals to do what it takes to change that. I also like playing basketball, and my rabbit, whose name is Bunneh.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
The strength of street knowledge, when keeping it real goes wrong (and when it’s fully appropriate), and that the Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with.

The Nurtur trademark, a monarch butterfly, metaphorically represents participants in the process of transformation. The company’s name literally stands for the support they need to change their lives.

Bertz also developed a brand identity launch video, visible here.

With a new brand identity visibly unique from its competition, Nurtur has now set its sights on completely altering its industry. The brand launch also seamlessly transitioned two distinct cultures (located in Connecticut and Texas) into one unified force.

Along with several other identities designed by Bertz Design Group, the Nurtur butterfly will be featured in the LogoLounge: Master Library series.

With this year being the 150th anniversary of the Boys and Girls Clubs, the pressure was on to make the 2010 fundraising gala memorable. To accomplish the task, Keiler’s Executive Creative Director, Gini Kramer, came up with a single-word theme…”YES.”

“As one of the most powerful words in the English language, YES can have a ripple effect and impact the lives thousands of children, especially when used in phrases like ‘Yes, I will mentor you,’” states Kramer.

This theme, which was used in all marketing materials for the gala, was incorporated with the Boys and Girls Clubs’ national campaign “Be Great” for the centerpiece of the gala’s promotional program — a two-minute video.

“We thought that the ‘Be Great’ campaign was a nice complement to our ‘YES’ theme,” states Paul Emery, associate creative director. “By adding our own twist to ‘BE’ and combining the two, we felt that it would be a good way to communicate what the Boys and Girls Clubs stand for and inspire the audience.”

For the production of the video, Keiler partnered with Content Pictures’ cinematographer Derek Dudek, who shot the footage with the RED digital camera at the Asylum Hill and Northwest Clubs. By using the RED digital camera, Dudek was able to eliminate film processing and maximize shooting time. Emery and Dudek essentially accomplished two shoots by using this camera because it also allows you to pull still shots from the video, which were used in other print collateral.

“Keiler and Company has not only been an advocate, but has actively participated in the marketing and promotion of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford for over a decade,” states Don Wilson, managing partner at Keiler and Co. and chairman of the board of trustees for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford. “By contributing to community organizations, it allows our staff to participate in something they’re passionate about, create powerful and emotional work, and give back to the community at the same time.”

The pets depicted on the stamps were photographed by Sally Andersen-Bruce near her home in New Milford. All had been homeless at one time; all but one had been adopted when they were photographed.

The stamps were introduced to the public on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The Postal Service is working with DeGeneres and Halo, Purely for Pets, a holistic pet care company she co-owns, to promote the campaign and to bring greater attention to the cause.

Sally Andersen-Bruce, a 1973 honors graduate of the Art Center of Design in Pasadena, California, has been president and sole proprietor of a photography business for more than two decades. From her studio in Connecticut and from many foreign countries, she has produced photographic art for corporate executives, products, annual and financial reports, Web sites, and United States postage stamps. She has, as well, worked with the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Museum of American Political Life in Hartford, Connecticut. In the late 1990s, she lived in Seoul, South Korea, while documenting global design workshops created for Samsung multimedia by product designers James Miho and Gordon Bruce. Assignments from clients such as IBM, Polaroid, AT&T, Pepsi, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal have taken her to India, Germany, England, Italy, France, Sweden, and Mexico.

What inspired you to choose this profession, and what makes you stay in it?
I have been drawing constantly all of my life. As a young child I would disassemble the music albums around me and recreate my own. When I realized that it was someone’s job to design these packages it blew my little mind. I love what I do and that is what keeps me going.

What is your single favorite piece in your portfolio?
I would have to say my tribute zine to Major Taylor (I am aware that picking a self-authored piece may be cheating). Major Taylor was an American cyclist who won the world one-mile track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination. Renowned as The Fastest Bicycle Rider In The World in the early 1900s, he accredits his success as a world champion to the value of good habits and clean living. He has a list of 12 guidelines to live by — some are very quirky, I illustrated each of these for the zine.

What/Where do you want to be in 10 years?
I’d love to be a little more financially secure and able to be a bit more selective with the projects I take on. Aside from that I can’t complain — it’s fantastic to be able to do my own thing. I would however like to be doing more gallery shows and possibly teaching again (on the side). In terms of location, I am not quite sure. I spent the last 4 years in Boston, and now I am back in Connecticut (my home state). Boston was great, but it’s also nice to be back in CT.

Who/What are your biggest influences?
I really admire artists like Steve Powers (Espo) and Parra. I look up to people like Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties) and Kate Bingaman-Burt (Obsessive Consumption) for their incredible consistency.

What do you wish you did better?
Just getting things done without over-thinking each detail.

Why Connecticut?
I was born here, my girlfriend is going to grad school here, many of my friends are here, and New Haven has the best pizza (anywhere).

Who are the best creatives you’ve worked with?
Vaughn Fender, Will Bryant, Ryan Frease, Ira Cummings, Troy Monroe, Aaron Belyea, Chad Kouri, Peter Stockmal… I could go on and on…

What are your loves/passions outside of this field?
Music, bicycles, skating.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
Everything. Hah, well that hard work really does pay off. That I am capable of making a living without a studio’s support.