Brand Einstein

Woody first established Pirtle Design in Dallas, Texas in 1978 and over the next 10 years produced some of the most celebrated graphic design work of the decade for clients such as The Dallas Museum of Art, TGI Friday’s, Dallas Opera, Simpson Paper Company and more. In 1988 Woody merged Pirtle Design with Pentagram and for the next 18 years was a partner in the New York office and worked on some of the firm’s most prestigious projects for clients such as Brown-Forman, Bacardi, Flying Fish Brewing Company, IBM, Champion International Corporation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Nine West, Knoll International, Wellesley College, Princeton University, and Amnesty International, plus many others. In 2005 Woody left Pentagram to re-establish Pirtle Design where he continues to create compelling designs with a conceptual twist. Visit www.pirtledesign.com to see his work.

Michael Schwab is one of America’s most recognized and respected visual creators. He is a designer, an illustrator, and an artist. His work is simple, concise, dramatic, and iconic.His clients include: Nike, Polo, Wells Fargo, Amtrak, Sundance, Pebble Beach, Muhammad Ali, Robert Redford, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and many more. From his studio in Marin County, CA Michael has and is still winning awards in virtually every major graphic design and illustration competition and is regularly featured in publications worldwide.

Jane Brown has over 20 years of experience developing corporate and brand identities bringing both agency and client-side, as well as print and digital media expertise. Jane worked for firms such as Landor, Luxon Carra, and MetaDesign. She also led internal creative as Creative Director of Brand at the University of Phoenix and as Design Director at Gensler. Her client portfolio includes brands such as Citrix, Adobe, Japan Airlines, Chevron, Intuit, Patagonia, SFO Airport, Wells Fargo, Xerox, and many others.

Joe Stitzlein is Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of Stitzlein Studio, a design and strategy practice that builds digital brand systems for the next generation of leading companies. Prior to opening his own studio Joe was Executive Creative Director for Google Brand Studio and Senior Global Creative Director for Nike Running. He’s also held design positions for Landor, SY Partners, Chronicle Books, and Pentagram. Along with leading the Nike Free shoe creative, he’s designed iconic brand identities for Netflix, dwell magazine, Lilly, and the Mac OS X. He’s worked alongside Steve Jobs to define photography and packaging standards for Apple, and Michelle Obama to launch her Let’s Move program. His work has been featured in Adweek, the AIGA annual, the Annual of the Type Director’s Club, Atlantic Cities, the Annual of the AIA, fastcodesign.com and at the Cannes, amongst others. I first met Joe when hiring him as an intern at Landor in San Francisco. He has obviously risen to a full fledged Jedi Master.

Tom Suiter is a proven creative leader and innovator. He formerly served in various senior creative leadership roles for companies such as Landor, Apple, and CKS Partners in which he was a co-founder. He’s led the creative for well-known brands such as GE, Hyatt, Caterpillar, McDonalds, United Airlines, eBay, Amazon, Pixar, and many more. In 1998, Tom and his team was hired by Steve Jobs to lead the marketing communications support for all Apple products, including the launch of the iMac product line and graphics for the Apple Store prototype.

Bill Gardner is Founder and President of Gardner Design and Founder of LogoLounge. Logo Lounge is one of the largest resources of logo designs and a leading source for logo design trends. Bill was a founding member and President of the Wichita chapter of the AIGA and in 2014 received the first-ever AIGA Wichita Fellow award. And in 2015, Bill was among the inaugural inductees into the Wichita State University Fine Arts Hall of Fame. His design work has appeared and been featured in CA, Print, Graphis, The NY Art Directors Club, The Museum of Modern Art and more.

Michael Vanderbyl is one of the most widely recognized multidisciplinary designers of the past 40 years. Everything he designs is brilliant; from brand identities to retail environments, to product design. His clients have included Esprit, Baker Furniture, The Walt Disney Company, IBM, AmericaOne, Robert Talbott, Teknion, The Blackstone Group, Luna Textiles, and more. Michael has been awarded the AIGA medal and is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), and in 2012, was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Many designers believe that the brand should touch and influence everything in the customer experience. Michael is one who has actually achieved this for his clients, even to the extent of product design. Michael has been a major influence in my own career as a designer, and to say the least, this interview was an honor for me. For more about Michael Vanderbyl go to http://www.vanderbyl.com and watch the two videos on his website homepage which highlights his views on branding and design, along with showcasing some of his work.

Bob Wolf is Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Wolf Design Partners, which he founded in 2006. Prior to running his own firm, Bob was Senior Creative Director at Enterprise IG, Creative Director at Anspach Grossman Portugal and Design Director at Landor Associates. Bob has an impressive number of widely recognized brands he designed including Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, Hush Puppies, Unisys, and more. Bob is also a graduate of The Cooper Union, and his work has been honored by the AGIA, The Art Director’s Club of NY and LA, Clio, Graphis, ID Magazine, Print and more.

Dean Wilcox has extensive experience in branding some of the world’s most recognized companies such as Hyatt, Caterpillar, and Black & Decker. His work has been recognized by AIGA, CLIO, NY Type Directors Club, CA Interactive Design Annual, and more. Dean currently teaches a class on branding at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.   Dean and I began working at Landor on the same day many years ago. We ended up commuting together and sharing a lot of laughs. Dean was known for his incredible volume of designs he produced. Our Creative Director at the time, Tom Suiter once said of Dean that he wished Landor got paid by the pound based on the amount of work Dean created for every project he worked on.   View some of the work mentioned in the podcast at: https://www.facebook.com/brandeinsteinpodcast/

Paul is currently Creative Director and Partner of Woods + Woods which he founded with his wife Alison Woods over 20 years ago. Prior to starting Woods+Woods, he served as Executive Creative Director and Partner at Enterprise IG in San Francisco (formerly SBG Partners) and Design Director at Landor Associates.   He’s worked on projects for a broad range of corporate and consumer brands including Apple, Adobe, Disney Studios, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, Frito- Lay, Hewlett Packard, Intuit, Levi Strauss, Lucasfilm, Microsoft, Miller Brewing, Nestle, Nickolodean, Symantec, Tree-Top, 3M, Xerox, and more. The Embassy Suites identity he designed over 20 years ago has remained to this day. Paul was also one of the instrumental designers leading in San Francisco leading the first Bay Area tech-boom.    I first came to know Paul by following him on Instagram. He is both prolific and productive as seen in his daily output of work.   View some of the work mentioned in the podcast at: https://www.facebook.com/brandeinsteinpodcast/

Lindon has over thirty years experience in corporate communications. At Landor Associates, San Francisco, he was responsible for broad rang of branding programs that included, among others, Federal Express, Ryder Systems, Motorola and the NCAA. Lindon was also Executive Creative Director at Addison in San Francisco where he led branding assignments for Hawaiian Airlines, Intelsat, Progress Energy and Avery Dennison.   A graduate of Stanford University and of Art Center College of Design, Lindon has received over 40 major design awards worldwide.  His work has appeared in numerous publications and is included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.   I met Lindon while at Landor and worked under his direction on several projects including FedEx. I remember being extremely impressed by his ability at articulating the strategy beyond the designs being presented to the client. 

Courtney is currently co-founder and partner at Brand Zoo. He was previously Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer of Landor Associates, Chief Creative Office of Interbrand, and Partner and Executive Creative Director at SBG Partners. Courtney has incredible multi-category experience and has been responsible for some of the world’s most recognized brands including BP, Tommy Hilfiger, John Deere, FedEx, British Airways, Sea World, Transamerica, Union Bank, Williams-Sonoma and many more.   

Jerry Kuyper has over thirty years of experience in creating some of the world’s most recognized brands including AT&T, Cisco, Penn State, Touchstone Films and more. Before establishing Jerry Kuyper Partners in 2004, he held senior creative positions at leading branding firms including Lippincott, Siegel & Gale, frogdesign, Landor and Saul Bass. Along with being an incredible mentor for me at Landor, I think of him as the Forest Gump of branding because he's always seemed to be at the right place at the right time of brand history in the making.  Go to https://www.facebook.com/brandeinsteinpodcast/ or https://www.instagram.com/brandeinstein/ to see some of Jerry’s work referred to in this podcast.