LANGTON CHERUBINO GROUP
When meeting with a new client, most design firms understandably feel pressure to impress, so they develop presentations designed to wow with big ideas, grand strategies and powerful creative. Faced with coming up with yet another of these dog-and-pony shows, the team at Langton Cherubino Group in New York decided to go off script for at least part of the performance. According to Norman Cherubino, “We wanted to find a way to show them our fun and creative side, after showing our new work. We’re all New Yorkers, and there had been a lot of talk about the new logos on New York City taxis, so we gave everyone on our team a Sharpie and told them to decide what the cab should look like.” What ended up happening next surprised everyone in the room. “It was supposed to be just fun, but it turned into a long conversation about branding,” Cherubino recalls. “It gave them the chance to step back and think about branding [in a way] that wasn’t about them. It gave them the sense that branding is about way more than a logo.”

Because the firm is moving increasingly into interactive work, it only made sense to take flat artwork from the presentation and turn it into a showcase for their new-media capabilities. David Langton says, “Creatively, we wanted to take these ideas and keep them fresh, but add motion and sound. The challenge was to take something you made in one afternoon and keep that energy, but use all the capabilities you have as a firm.” By putting an old-school designer and young buck together on the project, then asking everyone in the studio from the bookkeeper to the designers to contribute ideas, they came up with a video that takes cues from all kinds of New York icons, including Woody Allen movies, crossword puzzles and graffiti art. “This gave everyone in the office a chance to talk about something close to their lives,” says Cherubino. “Everyone has an opinion about cabs, but it’s not just a cab. It’s the whole thought behind it. It shows creative thinking in action.”

Once the video was complete, the firm sent it out to clients as an e-mail, posted it to YouTube and put it up on the company blog. They added another layer of interactivity by asking people to vote on which cab design they liked best. Some of the choices include a supine Lady Liberty with her torch becoming a headlight, a splash of spray paint tagging a cab with the words NYC Taxi, a crossword puzzle pattern, a map pattern and a constantly running meter that appears on the passenger side door. As Langton notes, “The whole project encourages us to take more chances with our presentations.” And at last count, the office manager’s graffiti art submission was in first place. Laurel Saville

LANGTON CHERUBINO GROUP | DIRECTOR/ART DIRECTOR/WRITER: JIM KELLER | PRODUCER: NORMAN CHERUBINO | PROGRAMMER/DESIGNER: ROLAND DUBOIS CONCEPTS BY: NORMAN CHERUBINO, JANET GIAMPIETRO, LUCINDA HARK, JIM KELLER, DAVID LANGTON, PHILLIP REYLAND | WWW.LANGTONCHERUBINO.COM