Much respect to Steve Jobs and the Infinity Loop. Mahalo. I made this hoping Bono or Al Gore would wear it to the Apple Christmas party. Here’s to hoping.

Servicing the real estate market in Hawaii and abroad for nearly 100 years, Title Guaranty is a well known island brand that rarely stops for anything, much less a conversations on typeface. At ASWS, we’re privileged with receiving requests for re-branding or updating a clients visual assets, and TG proved to be our most challenging identity refresh to date.

Assessing all the visual assets and identities existing within the company was the first step to creating a plan and determining design constraints, mostly obvious, but some hidden. Their subsidiary companies, field offices and inter-office communique where part of the larger visual restructure as well.

Like most large companies, the life of a corporate identity can often fall prey to augmentation by internal or external forces over time. From incorrect fonts loaded into MS Word, to overnight design solutions for rapidly developed products or initiatives, TG was prone to those situation and more.

Like painting a moving car, re-branding an active company with specific needs internally and in the field proved challenging. After many discussions with the redesign group to explore new logos, we decided simplification of assets was the best solution overall. The original logo was refreshed with new typefaces and proportions. A graphics manual, updated collateral, typefaces and logo files were generated to support the refresh initiative. Structure and organization of their visual assets proved more valuable than attempting to reinvent a living logo mark. This makes plenty of sense, as their company name implies.

Signage for field offices

ASWS co-directed and edited a series of interviews for C2C Homes, a startup design-build company with plans to provide pre-fab homes to Hawaii. Different locations for the interview were scouted but ultimately the production team decided with conducting them at the C2C workshop, near the old Plantation stacks in Waipahu. In the video above, we couldn’t resist shooting B-roll of general shop activity, capturing some steel welding work (which resembles a alpha-male version of glass blowing) for one of their Pre-Fab projects. Check out their custom built two-story office at the end of the clip.

The interviews were designed to be used as part of their marketing collateral for the C2C website and upcoming trade shows. Design-Build Pre-Fab is a fairly new concept to the Islands, with the CEO explaining the process allowed for better comprehension, and presumably,  lower client anxiety.

In post-production we did a simple animated introduction using the C2C logo in After Effects. The idea of a spinning steel bolt became obvious when the logo was turned on its side. Sometimes you get lucky. Thanks to Mike (Mike May Media Services) Sheryl (HOMDesign) and Clif for letting us ride shotgun on this one.

Aaron Yoshino has patience and lots of it. His observation skills are military grade, his energy is combustible, and his timing is laser like. Put a camera in his hands and you’ll get results – amazing results. Collaborating with Honozooloo (his nom de plume)  for hi2059 made me an instant life long fan of him and his work. In the far future, we’ll look back at life during Honolulu of 2011 and Aaron’s library of images will be our biggest window for sure. For those impatient for such futures, his first solo show starts this week at Hotel Renew. Not to be missed. Check the FLUXHAWAII website for more information.

AARON YOSHINO PHOTOGRAPHY
On Display June 13 – July 14, 2011

Showcase website Noupe breaks down their top ’50+ Beautifully Designed Free Themes and Widgets to Enhance your Tumblr Experience’. Who knew that Headline was the french blue button down shirt of the Tumblr-sphere.

Our fourth year of design duties with Alexander & Baldwin involved three islands, a bio-mass generator, a Kaua‘i rainstorm, a night shot on a 200ft crane, three cargo ships, massive refractions of light and getting locked in a sugarcane field. A total refresh of photography highlights Alexander & Baldwins’ massive asset portfolio across the entire state. Hard work and good fun.

Working with our Kaimuki neighbors, Coffee Talk gives ASWS the duty of updating their hard-working rewards card. New color scheme, updated contact info and a refreshed logo to keep the inside of your wallet design friendly.

A little sample of work under development at ASWS. More to come.

A few years ago ASWS was asked to provide design support for the Hawaii International Film Festival, we collaborated with the HIFF team to re-brand and strengthen their identity and collateral. A few years on, it’s great to see HIFF is stronger then ever with a growing attendance of younger viewers and volunteers. This year I got to take in a few movies and overdose on popcorn. Here’s a short list of my highlights from HIFF 30.

• Beth Gibbons (Portishead) voice in the credit track for the Tempest
• Bill Cunningham’s Photo Documentary
• Getting offered a stash of poke by the DP during ‘To Live & Ride in L.A.’. Thanks for the sweet sticker!
• Seeing even more friends names in credits this year
• Hearing the audience react to ‘How wasted are you?’ in ‘This Film is Broken’
• Getting over Star Wars
• Being the only guy to probably break a wine glass at HIFF this year
• Being mistaken for Taika Waititi (Director of Boy)

Good times. Big mahalo to Sarah, Andy, Sean and Chuck at HIFF for the passes.

Final shot from the last pack of 600 speed Polaroid.