The thought process

USPOWERGEN began as just a logo, then grew into my biggest client–staying with me as they grew from five, to fifty, to five hundred people.

Early work mostly involved bid documents and business stationery. But things changed when they aquired the $900M Asoria Generating portfolio. Almost overnight, they became responsible for 26% of the electrical supply to New York City. A couple of years later acquired Boston Generating in a merger transaction which valued USPOWERGEN at $5B. Boston Generating was then supplying 50% Boston's power supply.

They are a very exciting company to work with. Under the leadership of founder, Jay Worenklein, they were full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm. He wanted USPOWERGEN to lead the way. This was perfect for me because at that time I too was new to the Power Industry. So, I simply approached everything they needed done with an even balance of logic and imagination.

 

 

 

 

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arrow I added unique art for the offices which I commissioned from David Eustace. (Click here for the story behind the incredible photographic portfolio)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Small prints line a corridor wall. You can just see them in the background of the image above.

 

 

 

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This print, of one of the upper floors within Astoria Generating station, was hung on the facing wall opposite the large still life shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The strong and simple USPOWERGEN logo formed the foundation for all the acquisition logos and all the subsidiary companies of which there were about 12 in total.

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I kept all the other logos in one color so that the main brand was always distinctive.

 

ASTORIA LOGO

 

BOSTON GEN

 

 

 

 

 

Financial reporting covers featured the full trading name, US Power Generating Company, blind embossed. To differentiate, we used a red seal on the advance materials and a blue seal on the day of the board meeting.
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embossed cover

Merchandise was always subtly intelligent. A clear acrylic mug kept your coffee hot far longer than any regular ceramic mug. The torch keyring (below) had the logo inside the light beam.
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ketring


 

 

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The Investment Thesis was a powerful document clarifying investment opportunities at a specific moment in time. I worked with Adam Allen, Vice President and Treasurer.

 

 

 

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The New York stations achieved OSHA's VPP Star Worksite status in 2009–extremely rare for power stations and unheard of for stations over fifty years old. When they received their award, the OSHA representative explained that "more people had climbed Mt. Everest than achieved this safety standard." This achievement became the cover story for the pilot newsletter. I later sourced a lucite star that could be etched and used as recognition awards for the station staff who continued this high standard of safety at work.

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star

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Like the glass walls throughout the offices, the calendar meant everyone could see what everyone else was planning. It made things easier and helped avoid conflicts. USPG vacation days were blue. Board meetings were red. All other holidays were listed by date in case they too needed to be taken into account when planning an event or strategy.

 

 

For a designer like me, the beauty of a longterm relationship is that you have the opportunity to develop a visual personality for the company, because there is enough time and enough opportunity to establish the nature of the voice in every situation.

 

What the client said:

 

USPOWERGEN Corporate


PRACTICAL EXAMPLE #16 - DESIGN

The brief: A logo.

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arrow The office interior design was by Stephen Anderson of Montroy Anderson. It was a 10,000ft space, cost $2M and took 14 weeks to do. I was part of the USPG team and helped with selecting the furniture, the glass walls, and some of the light fixtures. When Stephen expressed his intention to create curved steel walls to separate the public areas from the private offices, I recommended Nicolas Fasciano as the artist to fabricate them. He treated the steel with various acids and degrading agents that created an incredibly rich surface which everyone loved.

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5 prints


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USPG LOGO

arrow The view from the corner office showing the New York Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

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mtg rooms

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The translucent dividing wall between the two meeting rooms could be made opaque at the flick of a switch.

 

 

 

arrows With the exception of the curved sculptural steel walls, all the walls were glass–designed to encourage openness and collaborative work between colleagues.

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thesis

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The Website.

(Original website picture to come)

The website was kept simple and understated until they ventured into development projects that needed public participation, at which point the project pages were made more didactic and more colorful. They were available in every language used by the local population and also used pictures to ease navigation.

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Shortly after the South Pier Improvement Project website was completed, USPOWERGEN decided to redesign the rest of the site and turn it into a content management site. I designed this and (name to come) programmed the templates. The new home page is below.

(Picture to come)

 

In 2010, I designed a Year-To-View wall calendar. It was 8ft wide and 4ft tall and laminated so that you could use dry erase markers on it. I bought a range of colors and provided a key in the left column so that each department could chose their own color. I left extra spaces in case they wanted to include a category I hadn't thought of. The planner was hung on a wall next to the coffee bar, where staff ate lunch and held informal meetings.

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I'd like to know if you found any of the content on this page interesting or informative–please click on the smile if you did.

smile000001Thank You :-)