J H I Blog

At the recent biennial Richmond AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) design awards ceremony known as GRADE 5, Carter took first place in a category very important to us: Collateral Materials.

The prize: a beautiful three dimensional letter “A”, recognition in our community for outstanding work, and the continued admiration of her team members here at J H I.

The winning design is for our client, The Visual Arts Center, who presented a landmark exhibition of portraits of U.S. servicewomen, very forcefully and sensitively photographed by renowned photographer Sascha Pflaeging. J H I produced an oversized brochure for the gallery show.

Maya           >           Carter           >           Lindsay

Also honored were the rest of the design team for their individual contributions: Lindsay for St. Catherine’s “Now” Magazine, quite possibly the most impressive private school magazine today, and Maya for a J H I self-promotion, the “Hold” issue of our “differentia” magazine.

To quote the judges: “ …if you have a great concept, present it and get out of the way”. And, that’s really true for graphic design in general. The astute designer’s job is to perfectly blend the elements of image and typography to allow the content to express itself. Often, if you are cognizant of the design, it is getting in the way of communication. That’s a very difficult place to get to. Restraint is everything in art…commercial or otherwise. Carter, Lindsay and Maya all achieved that, each in their own way, with their work.

To quote the judges once more: “impressive”. We agree.