ELIXIR
Elixir (San Francisco) was founded by Jennifer Jerde in 1992, specializing in high-end corporate identity. Jerde and her team still revel in what she calls “juicy design projects,” with the opportunity to represent businesses through beautifully produced printed pieces. Gradually though, Jerde and her colleagues have found themselves being retained to think strategically for their clients, without initially being hired to design a thing.

Jerde is articulately anti-lingo; her two preferred words for describing her firm’s approach to branding strategy are organic and authentic. Near the conclusion of the branding work sessions she leads, Jerde passes the client’s current visual communications through the “branding filter.” This gentle vivisection is based on her firm’s premise and practice that type is incredibly important. In addition to designing logos, Elixir is sometimes hired to refine them. What may seem like typographical tweaking is actually microcosmic brand-storming. Because the Elixirians believe that every company should base its brand on its “authentic differences,” it logically follows that ready-made commercial typefaces may not send the right message, that such logos might seem pre-fab rather than custom-crafted.

Senior designer Nathan Durrant is capable of analyzing type almost indefinitely. His motto could be “No nuance too small.” Durrant had a typographic field day designing materials for Candra Scott and Richard Anderson, interior designers whose firm specializes in restoring historic hotels. Their work is invisibly academic, highly detailed, and very tactile.

For their identity system, Durrant had an opportunity to mine his file of “old and odd typefaces and ornaments, primarily from the Victorian era, when there was a dramatic explosion in eclectic display type and bizarre mixtures.” The client lent Elixir an old monogram design book and a vintage luggage label, which they asked the design team to use as inspiration. www.elixirdesign.com