I’ve recently had the opportunity to begin working with Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee™. The project was structured around a music tour where the coffee company would be partnering with the band, Third Day. Although they have a stellar product and concept, the company wasn’t completely satisfied with their brand identity and were to redefine it. Given that we were on a bit of a time crunch, we sought to develop a product and information line that drifted from the current band identity but didn’t seek to immediately overthrow it. This way, we could a strategy for the brand in the time that it deserves. The line turned out great and included information cards, business cards, coffee bag labels, tote bags, tee shirts, vinyl signage and a splash page for their website. This is a wonderful company to work with and I am looking forward to working with them on further developing their brand identity, website and packaging.

I highly recommend checking them out at DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com. They have a great product and and even greater desire to help the people of Rwanda who are growing the coffee.  

• Every bag purchased provides a rural farmer with a proper Living Wage and the dignity and self respect that comes from providing for oneself.

• In 2004, Land of a Thousand Hills committed to paying at minimum of $1.26 per lb. to the grower for their finest coffee, more than three times the unjust 40 cents often paid by other coffee companies. Currently, the growers are consistently paid an average of $1.86 per lb.

• Land of a Thousand Hills also invests one dollar per 12 oz. bag sold to fund micro-finance programs that help Rwandans start small businesses. Approximately $3 total per 12 oz. bag is invested in the Rwandan economy.

Coudal Partners is about to kickoff the 2009 season of Layer Tennis on Friday. It is always a lot of fun to follow each season. Pick up your free season tickets here.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Think Tank, an event that the Nashville Chapter of AIGA puts on each year. I attended this event last year which definitely wet my appetite for becoming more involved with the local chapter. Think Tank is a day long event which attempts to answer the question, “What’s next in communication arts?” The process is through series of speakers as well as a round table discussion.

The speakers this year were Mike Janda, founder of Jandaco, Rich Roat, co-founder of House Industries, Armin Vit of Under Consideration, and Seymour Chwast, director of The Pushpin Group. Mike Janda began the conference with a talk that highlighted twenty-four points for running a successful design business. His presentation was enlightening and inspiring. It really got me thinking about the difference of being self-employed versus a business owner and how I want to make decisions with my career that will lead me to the later. Rich Roat was the next guest to speak. Rich’s presentation gave a past, present, and future look at House Industries. It was intriguing to not only hear about their business successes but also their failures. I was in awe of the creative liberty and exploration that they have been able to achieve while still maintaining a successful business. After hearing about everything that they are doing at House, I decided that it was finally time to break down and place an order for the House Ten Year Book and am anxiously waiting its arrival. Armin Vit gave his presentation next. I have been a fan of Armin ever since I read this interview on Veer where he said that he could not draw. Being a designer who also had insecurities about my drawing abilities, I have been inspired through following the success of his design work. Armin gave his presentation on Design/Words/Life and the way that he sees them interacting. His insight was not only educational but also hilarious at the same time. Seymour Chwast was the final speaker of the event. He spoke about his early days as an illustrator in New York. He talked about running a studio with Milton Glaser as well as the creation of the Pushpin Graphic, which the studio published. Seymour also present his more recent work which includes the creation of the The Nose magazine. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion involving all the guests.

Sadly, I did not win the copy of Adobe CS4 that they were giving away. However, I did win the House Industries Agent Provocateur Logo Book and Knickers. The printing on the book is incredible and documents there work on redesigning the logo for the lingerie company Agent Provocateur. Additionally, the Knickers tend to have a nice fit and are extremely comfortable. Kidding.

All in all, the event left me more educated, motivated, and inspired. It is great to be able to spend and entire day immersing yourself in a subject that you are passionate about. Additionally, I have begun to build relationships with other designers in the area through AIGA events. Everyone that I have met so far has been incredible and it is great to be able to gain insight from others in the field. I hope that through future events, these relationships continue to develop.