Creative Theme

Raw Bistro Pet Fare • Packaging Raw Bistro Pet Fare not only takes great care to provide dogs with premium raw pet food, but they also make a conscious effort to be a sustainable company. Made right here in Minnesota, Raw Bistro believes in the importance of local, organic, free-range and grass-fed ingredients. We’ve been working to build the Raw Bistro brand since the beginning, including their most recent “2.0” packaging to meet demand as they grow. We’re proud to be part of such a responsible company—see more about our work with Raw Bistro at RAWSOME Packaging.  

Last year we had the opportunity to design the Dunwoody College of Technology 2013-2014 Annual Fund campaign materials—which was a fun challenge, since Dunwoody was gearing up to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2014. Dunwoody is a well-respected fixture in the Minneapolis education scene, providing generations of students with highly valuable skills and practical, hands-on training for careers in a variety of industries. Our goal was to highlight the unique education Dunwoody offers and create a unifying concept that would excite donors and rally them to support the fundraising campaign. Our concept focused on Dunwoody’s ability to stay relevant to the ever-changing needs of industry. Dunwoody technicians machine-tooled our “100” design into steel using the latest technology. This, together with historical images from aircraft maintenance during the First World War and bakery courses in the 1960s, told the story. Congratulations to Dunwoody on its 100th anniversary on December 14th, 2014—we’re proud to be part of the celebration!

It’s not often we get to work directly with food here at ThinkDesign Group, so we had a ball concepting and creating the cover for the food issue of Contexts, a quarterly publication of the American Sociological Association. Before we got our hands messy, we considered how to best connect the cover with the magazine content. The food issue addresses the subject of food in a social context from many different viewpoints, spanning the range of angles from the economic and historical to the trendy and global. The challenge was to find a way to represent so many different perspectives—and spices were the perfect medium. They are timeless, stateless, and come in a seemingly endless variety. Even better, they allowed us to flex our typographic muscle. From concept to photograph, the process itself can be likened to the making of an old family recipe—trial and error, the tweaking of ingredients, a little mess-making, satisfying, and serving many. Bon appétit!

At ThinkDesign, we are constantly challenged by the issues that are critical in the world today. Finding a clear way to frame and address these issues is what we do. Case in point—mental illness is in the news every day. Our client, People Incorporated, offers community-based programs that help support people who face this challenge. But providing that support is only part of the battle. Public perceptions about mental illness is the other. Peoples’ attitudes about mental illness have changed a lot over the past couple of decades, but there’s still more to do to make it OK to talk about mental illness. That was the starting point for this year’s annual report. Our design for their theme, “Changing Minds,” aimed to strip down the “us vs. them” mentality that underlies the stigma and shame—represented by the silhouette on the cover—and focus on real people and their stories on the inside spreads. There’s nothing more inspiring to us than to be able to use our design skills to break through old ideas and find new ways forward for the future. That’s the power of thinkful design—and why we love what we do.