editorial : design : strategy
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Cities are the future. SPUR is a membership-based organization that strives to make San Francisco a better city through its research, education and advocacy of good planning and effective government. As strategic advisors to SPUR, Exbrook has guided the redesign of their website, the creation of the monthly journal Urbanist, the development of their quarterly Calendar, and many other projects.
Shown here are 16 of the more than 40 covers we designed for the Urbanist, chosen to illustrate the spectrum of editorial ideas and design concepts on the complex themes of urbanism.
The flagship of the free knowledge movement, Wikipedia has grown to be the most important collaboratively created repository of knowledge in history. Built by more than 100,000 volunteers, it is currently the 5th most visited website on earth and the only non-profit in the global top 100.
The annual report from the Foundation that operates Wikipedia should be a compelling expression of that story. To that end, Exbrook focused on illuminating each distinct idea within the extraordinary vision statement that inspires this community. These ideas were visualized, using exceptional photographs selected from among the 10 million freely offered on the Wikimedia Commons, and featured in a pictorial essay at the front of the report.
TODO was a themed monthly guide to what's new, cool and quirky in San Francisco. The pocket-sized publication (shown actual size) had unique distribution through taxicabs and select establishments. Standard offerings such as Eat, Drink, Shop, and See were reimagined through themes as varied as escape, phobia, home-grown, noir, green-ish, debauchery, disaster, and design.
Acting as Consulting Creative Director, Exbrook developed the themes with the TODO staff, art directed the covers, and designed the format and main spreads. Photography by Daniel Furon.
Big Magazine is recognized around the world as a New York publication that features innovative art direction, provocative photography and high quality production.
For Big's series on American cities, Exbrook was asked to direct both content and design to portray San Francisco after the 2001 dotcom bust. We conceived the theme SEARCH, which resulted in twenty photo essays by established art world photographers including Todd Hido, Richard Barnes and Bill Owens, as well as emerging photographers such as Dwight Eschliman and Noah Webb. Working with photo editor Marin Levinson and veteran editor David Weir, we intermixed these photo essays with articles by science-fiction visionary Rudy Rucker, young student writers of Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia, and other unique SF voices.
This 152-page large format book provides a in-depth view of what drives the inhabitants of the Bay Area, where so many American lifestyles, work cultures, products and trends have originated.
The 2005 World Environment Day marked the first time that the United Nations initiative was hosted in the United States. The San Francisco-based organizers saw this as an opportunity to host a week full of public events and as a way to put cities and the mayors who lead them at the forefront of environmental leadership. The event signaled the mainstreaming of eco-awareness with Al Gore's presentation of the now-legendary "An Inconvenient Truth".
The ambitious scale of the endeavor required a distinct and rich brand identity system that could span street banners, billboards, website, posters, programs, signage, delegate badges, as well as the Urban Environmental Accords. Creating a contemporary positive appeal, the campaign communicated how people could join in the "greening" of cities and the UNEP mission of sustaining life for future generations.
For the anniversary of Wikipedia's founding in 2001, the Wikimedia Foundation invited Wikipedians worldwide to celebrate on January 15th, 2011. And celebrate they did: more than 400 parties were held around the globe. To express the spirit of the occasion, Exbrook developed the thematic message: 10 years of ... and asked people to complete the phrase on posters and stickers.
For the event branding, we created an open system of graphic elements that were licensed CC BY 3.0 for free use and modification. Hundreds of design variations were produced and applied to cakes, invitations, posters, buttons, balloons and banners. Exbrook also gathered all unique language expressions -- 58 in total -- of the Wikipedia wordmark. These and the Wikipedia 10 identity were applied to a range of garments and T-shirts.
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hello at exbrook.com
Communicate ideas.
Build brands.
Create positive social change.
For this you need design.
It makes ideas visible and changes how people see and act in the world today.
At Exbrook, we believe anything worth doing is done better through design.
We focus on helping progressive organizations use design effectively.
Strategically.
Meaningfully.
EXBROOK was founded in 2000 by David Peters and Rhonda Rubinstein to lead individuals and organizations in the strategic use of visual design and editorial processes. Our work has been recognized internationally in exhibitions, publications and with numerous awards.
Recent and current clients include:
Alliance for Climate Education
American Institute of Architects
Fifty Crows Foundation
Great Nonprofits
Human Rights Data Analysis Group
Numerate
SPUR
The Ocean Conservancy
UN World Environment Day
Vermillion Institute
Wikimedia Education
Wikimedia Foundation