Pamela Geismar

Polaner Selections 2011

A local wine distributor hired me to design a label for their new Italian prosecco import. They wanted it to feel light and summery and affordable. I had a wonderful time playing with bubbles! The design they chose is based on the layout of an antique Italian lira coin. Below I included a few of the initial directions that didn’t get chosen. A fun project . . . and the prosecco is yummy!

The Functional Nutrition Alliance is the name of Andrea Nakayama's nutrition education business, where she trains coaches, nurses, doctors, and patients in how to apply functional medicine frameworks to health in order to address the roots of the presenting problems. Working in conjunction with the brilliant Andrea Nakayama, I created the logo and visual identity for the company, with an icon that represents a molecule with its bonds and attachments as well as a community of practitioners coming together around one hub; the mix of colors signals biodiversity and the variety of experiences.

The Five Senses Festival was a Pilobolus event, bringing their dancers together with musicians, artists, thinkers, and discussions for a wonderful mid-summer festival in a field in Washington, Connecticut. The design of the branding was meant to speak to handmade and handcrafted work, the human touch that is so important to Pilobolus, and an old fashioned sense of a town festival.

Five Senses Festival logo, 2018
Art direction by Itamar Kubovy

The mission of Mediterranean Artists Project Inc. (MAP) is to foster international collaboration and intellectual exchange among writers, artists, and creative thinkers. Based at La Verrière, an 18th-century farmhouse in the South of France, MAP provides a unique environment for creative exploration and expression. For the logo, we wanted to emphasize the in-person aspect of this endeavor, and shy away from anything that would feel corporate. The logo includes a hand-drawn illustration of the house that is the center of all the activity, surrounded by type in many blues to allude to the Mediterranean Sea itself, the center of this region.

I designed these two boxes of mix-and-match stationery exclusively for Anthropologie. Each box had a set of notepapers, cards, and envelopes that didn't allow for a perfect match, only perfect mixes. The patterns are tied together by scale, palette, and pleasing juxtapositions. The palettes were developed in conjunction with Anthropologie to complement their colors and personas for the publication season.

Anthropologie / Chronicle Books Custom Publishing
Design and art direction
Two boxes, each with 5 notepaper patterns, 2 card patterns, and 5 envelope designs

The TrulyFood Cleanses are a set of four seasonal cleanses where the participants eat a whole-food, nutritious, plant-based diet focused on supporting a different organ each time (based on the season and Chinese medicine). For the logo, we wanted to make the cleanses seem accessible and easy, since many are scared off by the idea of cleansing, and to make it clear this program was about eating good food (not starvation) with the support of nutritionists and a community of cleansers. The logo incorporated images of beets, hands, fruit, community, food, and a fork.

Jennifer McQuaid is a therapist and educator who also works on behalf of asylum-seekers. My challenge was to develop a website that could hold these different aspects of her career equally. Plus reflect her strong visual sense and love of beauty. I created one pattern iterated in a palette of cool blues to have it be a unifying visual that is also unique for each section of the site.

Art direction and design
Site development by SquareSpace

Hannah had been a pediatric cancer patient and was now in remission. She (and her family) wanted to produce and sell homemade fudge to raise money for the organizations who had helped her so much, so this pro bono logo was a feel-good project as well as a ton of fun.

Hannah's Homemade
Creative direction and design

Seven times over nine years I was called to design the annual report for the United Nations Development Programme, the development arm of the UN. The first year I had the privilege of working under my father, who designed their logo that year, and learned from him how to make a message clear and concise. After that first year I was on my own, designing with lots of text and inconsistent images, developing infographics, and organizing complex information into a digestible 44-page format, and in multiple languages and formats.

United Nations Development Programme
Art direction, cover and interior design, and graphics
Art direction: Rajeswary Iruthayanathan and Maureen Lynch

The Grand Strand Co., 2015

The Grand Strand Co. is a family business making beautiful, one-of-a-kind bracelets. Each bracelet is made of beads (the main strand plus one special center bead) that have meaningful properties. Each bracelet is unique, and men and women alike love them for their aesthetic as well as their evocative origins. The loose, hand-drawn logo represents the handmade nature of each bracelet along with a motivational, personal, you-are-here reference to the center bead.

The inaugural (and subsequent) issue of "Connections" magazine for CleanStart, a program of UNCDF that helps provide low-income households with access to renewable, sustainable energy by connecting micro-entrepreneurs with financing and knowledge. The magazine highlights countries where renewable resources are being actively developed and the companies and entrepreneurs who are making it happen. They wanted a bold, clean look that was celebrating their wins and appealed to their audience of vested parties and donors.

Folders designed for another initiative of UNCDF called SHIFT, and for Chronicle Books’ Custom Publishing program sales materials.

Presentation deck slide examples from Functional Nutrition Alliance, one for a teaching presentation and one for a pre-event slide carousel.

Fair Harbor Productions is a television production company based in New York. They wanted to use the Fire Island lighthouse as their icon so I redrew it to simplify it and gave the type a matching nostalgic feel.

The Reading Room is a wonderful local children's bookstore which also serves coffee and to-go food. THe logo needed to telegraph that this is primarily a bookstore, while indicating that food is available as well—and the owner suggested including their green baby dragon mascot, too. The Reading Room is the post-Covid reincarnation of Little Joe's in a new location, so we wanted continuity with the earlier logo. The Little Joe's logo was inspired by illuminated drop caps in classic children’s book illustrations. My sister painted the images for both logos.

Logo design and signage
Watercolors by Kathryn Geismar

Taking complex information and putting it in a format that helps make it digestible is one the most important design challenges. In work for the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Capital Development Fund and its renewable energy initiative CleanStart, and the Functional Nutrition Alliance, I've had many opportunities to either make a point or explain a process. Some examples of this work are shared here.

For a surprise 50th anniversary party for my parents, I handmade invitations with wood veneers. I used different woods for the two numbers to represent the individuality of the celebrants. Their two numbers are stitched together with embroidery twine to hold them together and to represent the "+" between their names. Individuality and connection — maybe that's the secret to a long marriage!

Personal project
Concept, design and execution
Approx 8 inches square
Wood veneer, embroidery twine, transfer type