Athletics Quarterly. Edition 3
Welcome to our Fall 2022 edition of Athletics Quarterly! Athletics Quarterly surfaces ideas and dialogues that embody our values as a creative studio, express our views on business and brand, and provide a window into our thinking and culture.
As the seasons change, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite projects from this past summer, look back at the fun we had these last few months, and welcome sweater weather. Many of the images in the header are from this year’s annual company retreat, a time for the whole company to slow down, reflect, and just have some fun. We hope you get the opportunity to slow down as well, and we hope you enjoy this edition of Athletics Quarterly!
Brands at Work
How inspiration gets real with Turf
Sound design makes happier people. Sound defines the way we experience the world. Coffee percolating. Wind in the pines. Familiar laughter. By designing with sound, Turf shapes welcoming spaces. Spaces where the values we want to inspire—well-ness, accessibility, creativity, sustainability—are quite literally in the air.
Turf approached Athletics to develop a new brand strategy, visual identity and site experience to present a more grown-up face to the world. They have grown at record pace, finding success working with some of the world’s most ambitious architects, designers and companies, helping them to bring their creative vision into reality. They wanted a brand that reflected that, without losing their authentic Turf flavor.
Women’s health reimagined with Tia
Carolyn Witte and Felicity Yost started Tia in 2017 to address the medical needs of a long-ignored, painfully neglected segment of the healthcare population: women. They started with a WebMD-style texting platform aimed at younger millennials and zoomers. The goal: to normalize conversations about topics such as birth control and gynecological care. As the Tia team rapidly expanded beyond a texting platform into in-person and digital care, they realized the need to broaden not only their geographic reach but their target markets as well. Our goal was to create a visual and verbal identity that would speak to a broader community of women across age brackets and clinical settings—while preserving the friendly personality that’s defined Tia from the get-go.
It might get loud with Terminal 5
Walking around New York, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by the cavalcade of advertisements and gig posters vying for your attention. As concert season ramps up, we have begun noticing posters all over the city from one of our favorite clients and venue, Terminal 5. These particularly colorful posters are eye-catching not just in form but content, and we couldn’t be more proud to have been a part of crafting this new identity. Join us in taking a look back at one of our favorite projects from years past.
Terminal 5, founded in 2003, is located in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. One of New York City’s premier venues for music, events, and performance, in 2019 alone artists ranging from Dwight Yoakam to Bikini Kill, Big Boi, James Blake, Ice Cube, and King Princess graced its stage. Loud, dark, and cavernous, T5 offers a perfect atmosphere to see high-energy shows by some of the most progressive touring artists of our time. To coincide with the renovation of its three floors and rooftop bar, The Bowery Presents invited Athletics to create a brand identity and wayfinding system that would help Terminal 5 break through in a noisy live music category, while helping attendees navigate the notoriously-complicated space.
Ideas and Dialogues
In Conversation with Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing
“The bold, insistent spirit of Off- and Off-Off- Broadway has been an inspiration to all of us throughout this particularly challenging moment for live entertainment. Our mission with the 2022 Obies is to support the stories seen on these stages and celebrate the talent and perseverance of the thousands of arts workers who make up this dynamic community.” — Heather Hitchens
In this edition of In Conversation—our series of discussions with colleagues and friends of the studio—we are honored to invite Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing. Heather joins us to chat about Broadway’s post-pandemic rebirth, American Theatre Wing’s latest events and grants, and the upcoming 66th Annual Obie Awards, celebrating and honoring Off- and Off-Off-Broadway for which Athletics is a long time sponsor partner and developed the brand.
Athletics in the News
Taking Risks is Vital to Standing Out with Jameson Proctor
The Creative Factor sits down with Athletics’ partner and Digital Director to discuss the importance of being able to translate your experiences no matter which direction your career takes you.
Tools Not Rules
For designers and creators of brands, the deeper integration and adoption of data, automation, and AI to inform marketing decisions will also fundamentally change how brand systems are developed, implemented and extended.
Plentitude – A Sustainable Drag Fashion Show
Winner of our annual Innovation Grant, Athletics’ Creative Technologist Ekene Nkem-Mmekam, along with collaborators, put on a live event that infused design, fashion, and drag.
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous is our no-frills round-up of all things inspiring our team. Featuring exhibits, concerts, experiences, reading material, music, and more, we’ve been sharing the things that move us since 2017.
This abridged newsletter edition features picks we hope will bring you some warmth, joy, and comfort! Find the full unabridged list with submissions from across the studio here.
Summer may have left us in a hurry…
But that means it’s decorative gourd season and we’re luxuriating in anything cozy we can get our mittened little hands on! Hot tip, you might find us living out all our fall fantasies at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, or at home making these recipes.
Typography as Art: the third publication in the New Aesthetic series features over 100 contributors and focuses on the expressive possibilities of type design that combine experimentation, process and the unexpected.
“Starting over again is a rebellious act against our failure.” Unwound are back. The Pacific Northwest post-hardcore band hasn’t played live shows in 20 years, and, now, the group has announced a 2023 tour.
Get your spooky on! It seems weird to describe a cemetery as beautiful, but this one simply is. For the perfect Halloween atmosphere, Greenwood Cemetery is open for after-hours tours starting at 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays through the Fall, with concerts in the catacombs on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
If you prefer your scares on screen, we have you covered. For at home viewing, try Bong Joon Ho’s suspense masterpiece, Memories of Murder (Hulu). For a fright with friends, try the classic horror film Ringu, at Japan Society (Oct. 7).
Until next time…
Thank you for reading this installment of Athletics Quarterly.
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If you’d like to share your ideas with our team, or have a brand project you would like to discuss, please reach out.
In solidarity,
Team Athletics
For more like this, explore our News section and read the previous edition of Athletics Quarterly