Progressive Art and Design
Feb 7th, 2008 by Boulder Design Festival 2009
cypher13 is the creative alliance between a tightly knit collection of young visionary designers, illustrators, website developers, fine artists, brand strategists, and information architects. This combined team conceives, designs, and implements creative solutions to create buzz, raise awareness, and maximize brand “awesomeness” through custom type and progressive design.
Their collaborative, JoyEngine is an art gallery, independent designer toy and apparel boutique, and an online art & design destination founded on creative collaboration. Uniting Boulderite creatives and talented Denver artists, their current record is 16 art openings in 18 months. Be sure to check out some of the “super talented people” associated with their collaboration like artists Jason Thielke, Shannon Bonatakis and Scot Lefavor.
I had the opportunity to talk with one of the partners, Todd Berger, about his experience in Boulder and his team’s creations. Working with big spenders is always a treat when you have complete creative control but their favorite clients are the little guys here in Boulder. In hopes to understand his team’s style, I asked for a sample of his work and “a super progressive art forward premium lifestyle brand.” Here’s what he had to say about his latest illustrative approach for SumoRainbow:
When I say “super progressive art forward premium lifestyle brand,” that’s what I mean. I realize that if you’re not part of the underbelly of art and design product based branding, that could be a mouthful. But, all you really have to do is take each term for what it is and add them up. The “super progressive” lends itself to the notion of thinking ahead, significantly ahead; the “art forward” means just that, the art/design is in front, leading and driving the brand and building visual momentum; and “premium lifestyle brand” means well, a brand based on a certain lifestyle with tastes leaning towards premium materials, premium construction, and everything relating to a product that one would consider premium.
Project SumoRainbow is still in the incubation phase and yet to be fully realized. We arrived at the name “SumoRainbow” through an extensive naming process. In the end, we chose to combine what we view as two of the most powerful, yet contradictory forces in the universe… a sumo wrestler and a rainbow. Think about it. Awesome, right? In combination, they form what we believe is to become a superpower in the world of street wear and art forward apparel and related accessories.
Details surrounding the “awesomeness” of this new brand are still in development… stay tuned Boulder!
I would love to know when they are having openings!