ONE HAND, ONE HEART

During the United Nations World Summit on Poverty in September, the image of a black hand with five different colored fingers representing the five races of man appeared on the sides of 250 phone kiosks throughout New York City. The message, “We Are All African,” was intended to raise awareness of the issues being presented at the U.N., including the AIDS epidemic and extreme poverty, particularly suffered in Africa. According to the press release put out by the School of Visual Arts, which funded the poster designed by America’s graphic design laureate Milton Glaser, the image was also meant to address “the current disaster on our Gulf Coast where racial issues may have contributed to the slow response.” But while the sentiment of the poster—of all humankind being connected—is commendable, an informal survey found it had many New Yorkers scratching their multiethnic heads. The image and maxim were at least as confusing as enlightening. One hopes Glaser keeps designing for good causes, but it looks like changing political and social consciousness might take two hands. The poster is available for purchase on SVA’s website ($35; $100 signed by Glaser). All proceeds go directly to organizations involved in One.org efforts, including the International Rescue Committee, Data (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa), and the American Red Cross.

PUSHING THE LIMITS

Provocative modern artist/architect/designer Gaetano Pesce is working with the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall to create his first museum exhibition in the United States in nearly a decade. Best known for designing explicitly figurative furniture like his UP chair—a spongy, full-bosomed chair with high hips shackled to a round ottoman by an umbilical cord—Pesce is a pioneer of incorporating political opinion (the chair was first unleashed in 1969 at a heady moment in the Women’s Liberation Movement) with equally innovative, if not organic, material like flexible polyurethane foam. Pesce now works mostly with elastic artificial resin, which works perfectly for his dramatic Nobody’s Perfect line of one-ofa- kind cracked chairs and odd, slanted shelving units. The museum plans to honor Pesce with its annual Design Excellence Award. Gaetano Pesce: Pushing the Limits will be on view until April 9, 2006.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

Despite the popularity of quick and easy online banking, the number of new walk-in bank branches continues to flourish. (Over the past two years, 2,765 branches opened nationwide, bringing the total number to 80,883, according to First Manhattan Consulting Corp.) In the face of such encroaching competition, credit unions have been forced to reinvigorate their brand identities—to differentiate themselves from the big bad banks that are popping up on every corner. This fall, the Iridium Group in New York is helping the United Nations Federal Credit Union to shake its staid, 58-year-old image and communicate better with its members. The creative challenge was to evoke a colorful yet realistic “slice of life” relevant to its 85,000 strong membership, which hails from several ethnicities. To give an idea of the challenge, UNFCU has only seven branches worldwide (three in New York, two in Geneva, one in Vienna, and another in Nairobi). As usual, Iridium delivered. The stunning creative campaign of collateral material, signage, and direct mail is on target and ongoing. It provides a true international vision and accuracy.