25. UNBOUNDARY
Founded in 1987 as the graphic design studio Executive Arts, Inc., or EAI, the firm now known as Unboundary made it big offering clients brilliant design solutions. The trouble with EAI, says creative director David Cannon, was that people had a hard time keeping the vowels in the right order. The Unboundary website playfully critiques the lack of clarity in the EAI name, reflecting that, “Maybe if it had even one consonant, EAI would have worked better.” What to do? Use your own in-house talent to rebrand … yourself.

Enter Unboundary. Cannon admits that the scope of the Atlanta-based firm’s work has changed dramatically in the years since EAI, which is another important reason for the change. “Unboundary now does much more strategic planning, looking carefully at where the [client’s] company is going rather than just producing artifacts.” Unboundary has expanded its services to address a multiplicity of corporate needs: developing mission and vision, building brand architecture, facilitating corporate and employee communications, developing advertising and identity— in addition to addressing clients’ design needs.

Designer Courtney Garvin, working closely with Cannon and others, developed the Unboundary identity system out of a desire to express two important ideas. First, says Cannon, the goal was to produce “something differentiating … something that communicates the limitless. We produced 11 different designs for business cards, allowing built-in versatility—to the dot—and infinite possible configurations. The multiple designs are fun for clients, too; they often like to ask for more than one card.

“Second,” he explains, “the dot configurations for the identity package were individually hand-selected click by click from carefully chosen palettes, giving the system a sense of craftsmanship and a sort of cross-stitch feel.” With Unboundary’s new identity there’s no way clients—or potential clients—will have any trouble connecting the dots.
Melea Britt Alexander