NBC Television Network

The NBC Peacock had been a part of NBC’s history since it first appeared in 1956 to announce the arrival of color television. The network’s feathered friend quickly became identified with NBC and was widely used as a promotional device, but not as the official trademark. In 1979, NBC decided to take a new look at their visual identity and reevaluate its effectiveness within an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The decision was made to officially adopt the Peacock as NBC’s corporate symbol. The new trademark needed to be strong, unified and colorful, while creating an indelible link between the Peacock symbol and the network’s initials to reinforce the perception of NBC as a leader in the entertainment industry.

A sleek, stylish, and strikingly simple peacock evolved from a detailed illustration into a forceful and flexible symbol. The colors of the logo represent the tonal spectrum of color television. Together, they symbolize the contribution of every member of the corporate family. Separately, they give each division a distinct, individual identity.

The peacock and the NBC name offer quick, easy corporate identification and a bright, familiar face for every facet of the company’s business, whether on the air or on the road. Over 25 years later the Peacock remains as distinctive, identifiable and contemporary as when it was first introduced. The standards manual has eliminated any disparities in design style and ensured a consistent level of quality across NBC’s advertising, design and promotion departments

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York, New York

Design of Logo, promotional materials, anniversary poster, clothing, brochures and print collateral. Rendering the founder’s name as brush-stroke dancers captures the exuberance and vitality that made Ailey’s work internationally famous, while the fuchsia-purple color scheme reflects the diverse cultures and backgrounds of the company’s performers.

Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, Ohio

Like a picture frame, the Toledo Museum provides a setting for the display of art. Like a window, the Museum is an open, enlightening place. This “window” provides views inside the institution by serving as a visual stage for its collections, exhibits and cultural activities. The four words that comprise the Museum’s name are integrated into the picture frame, allowing imagery, colors and textures to show through.

The Museum’s primary color is a dark bluish-green. It suggests the color of glass, a product with an important connection to Toledo’s industrial heritage. It also connects directly with the Museum’s famous Libbey Glass collection and Glass museum.

Together, the name and the frame form a logo that embraces every aspect of the Toledo Museum of Art. The logo brands the Museum’s collections, programs, publications, promotions, and multimedia platforms as well as the Peristyle Theater and the Toledo Symphony's headquarter which reside on the museum's campus

Crane & Co.

Crane & Co. possesses a reputation for elegance and integrity in business and social stationery. Over the past two centuries, the Crane watermark has symbolized uncompromising quality in paper made from durable cotton – the choice for all US currency since 1879.

For the past two decades, the challenge has been to help grow Crane’s market by communicating to specifiers of quality paper the merits of Crane’s products and, thereby, allow them to remain competitive against the technological changes of the 21st century.

From the beginning, the strategy was to design promotional items that go beyond seductive yet meaningless print promotions that are readily discarded by recipients in favor of useful, informative tools and reference guides. Throughout, a conscious effort was made to keep items compact in order to minimize paper and reduce waste.

While there is no single, overriding, brand aesthetic, four key attributes define the design—usefulness, efficiency, simplicity and compactness. The signature “Crane” logotype defines the corporate brand and is visible on packaging, promotions and individual product lines. A small linen-bound book in a muslin drawstring pouch extols the virtues of the watermark among other luxury brands. A letterpress monograph celebrates 100% cotton paper products, while Crane’s Global Guide assists with the selection process through a multi-tiered directory. New product launches include Crane’s R, a recycled and recyclable line of papers; Old Money, paper made from recovered shredded U.S. currency; Crane’s Social, a large selection of social papers, and Crane’s Choice a new 25% cotton fiber paper.

Crane Business Papers has recently joined forces with and is now part of Neenah Paper.

Darien Library
Darien, Connecticut

A recipient of the Connecticut Award for Excellence in Public Library Service, the Darien Library ranks among the top 10 small libraries in the nation. Over time, the library experienced such an increase in the breadth of its services that the current location was no longer able to meet the needs of the town, where 95% of the residents hold active library cards. In 2000, the Library embarked on a long-range planning process that revealed the need for a new library. The Library embarked on a capital campaign and took the opportunity to rethink its brand identity. A primary goal was to graphically convey the library’s emphasis on “extreme customer service” while cultivating an awareness of its collections, services and programs for all ages. The Yankee culture of the town in combination with the spirit of the library necessitated an identity that would be timeless yet also flexible enough to accommodate continuous advances in technology, service, and media.

Several visual directions were explored. The final solution resulted from the simple act of flipping the pages of a book interpreted through a progression of transparent color tints. The logo also refers to a wave, leaves or the wing of a bird, all suggesting movement and ascent.

Calamos Investments Brand Identity
Naperville, Illinois

When John Calamos Sr. transformed $5,000 of his parents’ grocery store savings into their retirement nest egg, Calamos Investments was born. Along the way he pioneered convertible bond investment strategies while advocating that the key to building wealth is managing risk in down markets.

After C&G Partners appeared on the CBS Sunday Morning Show during a segment about the creation of logos, John Calamos Sr. commissioned the firm to craft a new tagline and design a new brand identity for Calamos Investments. The initiative coincided with the company’s 30th anniversary and was intended to better reflect the remarkable success of the business. Additionally, a unified visual identity would allow all things Calamos to be linked by a single master brand that could acquire meaning independent of the company’s founder, an objective that reflected the company’s plans for growth.

Since the Calamos name is unique, a wordmark was chosen that employs modern letterforms in their utmost simplicity so that they read as abstract symbols yet remain legible as type. Silver, with its metallic sheen, reflects the performance aspect of the business, as well as its monetary rewards. To express the role of information technology in shaping investment decisions, photographs are overlaid with linear patterns drawn from data visualization. Their application reinforces the metaphoric role played by the imagery, while suggesting the deep research the company relies on in order to deliver superior results on a global scale.

Alhurra TV Network / Alhurra “Today” Show
Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.

Alhurra (Arabic for “The Free One”) is a commercial-free Arabic language satellite television network for the Middle East devoted primarily to news and information. Having designed and redesigned many national and international television network identities, C&G Partners was approached to create new on-air television graphics and a web presence that would give the network a strong brand image, signal a shift in programming toward more news-oriented content and appeal to a younger demographic.

Since increasing viewership meant offering a relevant alternative to such competing news sources as Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN, the strategy was to appeal to Arabic sensibilities without appearing overly Arabic, delicately balancing full transparency as a network financed by the U.S. with a visual language appropriate to and respectful of a modern pan-Arabic audience.

The resulting logo, three flowing colored ribbons that coalesce to form a bird in flight, speaks to the network’s goal to broaden its viewers’ perspectives, enabling them to make more informed decisions. The ribbons evoke banners, flags and celebration, while the bird symbolizes superiority, light, freedom and aspiration, all attributes consistent with a network dedicated to accurate, balanced and comprehensive news.

The New 42nd Street, Inc. is the nonprofit organization that oversees the redevelopment of seven historic theaters on 42nd Street and operates the New Victory Theater, The Duke on 42nd Street and The New 42nd Street Studios.

Design of a brand identity for Hillier Architecture, Princeton, Philadelphia and New York. Now merged with RMJM Group.

Artear / El Trece Television Channel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Brand Update

Artear returned to us in 2008 for some new thinking, a refresh of the brand identity and a new brand architecture for their many subsidiaries. Because most people experience the identity during a broadcast, not in static form, the reinvented mark was built to be in continuous, elegant motion.

For any necessary static applications, the symbol is shown frozen in mid-turn, literally a still from the animated version. Graphic guidelines in Castillian Spanish were also created to help Artear manage its complex brand across all its new properties.

Signature Theatre Company
New York, New York


Signature Theatre Company is unique among New York’s theatrical offerings: each season is dedicated to a single living playwright which results in the rare opportunity to experience performances derived from a writer’s direct involvement in the artistic production of a play. The challenge in designing a comprehensive visual language for such a pure theatrical experience was to create an image able to serve as a vessel for an evolving series of diverse voices and visions. For the 2007-2008 season, CGP conceived and launched a visual identity system constructed by layering the handwritten signatures of the theater's entire history of Playwrights-in-Residence. The theater name is reversed out of this cloud of signatures that extend along the edges so as to reveal the names of several recognizable playwrights.

The relationship between the logo's elements and the vibrant palette they are depicted in are free to change across applications, creating a truly dynamic identity. The cloud of signatures serves a myriad uses such as a frame, a backdrop, and even a vessel to hold photos or artwork. The repetition of this highly recognizable form allows consistency while remaining appropriate to this living institution.

ADL logo and brand identity was re-designed in collaboration with Publicis Kaplan Thaler.

The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." Now the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all.