Alicia Keys' charity—Keep a Child Alive— is now over ten years old. It has become so successful in its mission that its very goal has changed from "survive" to "thrive". For our rebranding, we shortened their name to an acronym, but preserved the imperfect lettering to capture the urgency of its mission.

Despite the fact that the very idea of an awareness "ribbon" was born from the AIDS crisis, the symbol no longer resonates with today's youth. Breast Cancer has claimed the icon for itself, along with a host of other diseases. Our re-design created a distressed red full stop—a new symbol of the urgency to end the HIV crisis. Used throughout the branding, the mark allows KCA to emphasize key messages and data.

There's a long held myth within the design community that logos must be simple. But for Six Degrees Dance Company, Polemic turned that myth on its head, creating a radically complex mark that at the smallest scale managed to still read as both people and the number six. At larger sizes, the intricate details of the dancers—hair follicles, fingernails, toes—created an authentic texture.

This approach also allowed the company to leverage their mark as an illustration. Dramatically cropping their logo in random ways created program covers, merchandise, and marketing promotions.

In addition to its silhouetted mark, Polemic also developed a fluid use of typography, which captured the motion of modern dance in a rather literal way.

True to our name, Polemic has always strived to be an outlier. We're interested in being authentic and human, and that often means honoring the quirks, warts and scars that we all carry. For our holiday presents, we decided to send out "the worst gift" each year. They work. They're memorable and surreal, and they are conversation starters. They stand out in an ocean of banal clichés that are sent around each year. Our decision (like many others at our office) was heavily influenced by the work of the brilliant provocateur designer Tibor Kalman. 

"We live in a society and a culture and an economic model that tries to make everything look right…But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it. So I am interested in imperfections, quirkiness, insanity, unpredictability. That’s what we really pay attention to anyway. We don’t talk about planes flying; we talk about them crashing." —Tibor Kalman

WestWayne—the sixth largest independent ad agency in the US—reframed its mission and decided to change their name. Their new model focused on brands as friends, and their new philosophy came with a rather thorough scientific investigation. The name, 22 Squared, reflects the work of a sociologist who theorized that Americans have 484 friends (actual friends, not social media "friends") over the course of their lifetime.

Polemic took hugs, quick notes jotted on a piece of scrap paper, and honest language to create an identity that harnessed the familiar, warm aspects of friendship. We also took all of that scientific research and distilled it into a number-driven brand book illustrated by Ted McGrath. The results were powerful, and 22 Squared (re)launched with remarkable success, winning over 4 new accounts within the first year.

Material ConneXion is the world’s leader in material innovation, and a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies, forward-thinking agencies and governmental bodies seeking a creative, competitive or sustainable edge by leveraging new material and manufacturing innovations.

Polemic developed MC's marketing and print materials, as well the branding for their new product, (Active) Matter, a subscription-based material sample catalogue.

Evelyn Reilly, an award-winning poet, and a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award, approached Polemic to design the cover of her most recent book, Apocalypso, a dystopian meditation on the Book of Revelation and global warming. Polemic contrasted the classic, elegant Didot typeface with a Hieronymus Bosch painting. The two elements are painfully intertwined with one another. Apocalypso is published by Roof Books.

The Language Flagship Group, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, leads the nation in designing, supporting, and implementing a new paradigm for advanced language education.

LFG is a national effort to change the way Americans learn languages. Flagship Programs at colleges and universities across the United States offer language programs to undergraduate students in critical languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi Urdu, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, and Turkish. As part of the effort to build language proficiency more broadly, LFG supports developing strategies and building capacity in the K–12 language sector to improve opportunities for U.S. students to pursue language education.

Polemic designed LFG's branding, employing international diacritics on Helvetica, a typeface synonymous with the International Style.

York Street Caterers is in the business of producing, managing and delivering an extensive line of food service solutions, and serving as a food event specialist offering custom catering programs.

Polemic designed York Street's branding, catalogues (including food styling), and its packaging. Throughout York Street's catalogue, we used quotes from famous epicureans to communicate their no-nonsense approach to food.

Katherine Kiviat and Scott Heidler spent years after the collapse of the Taliban documenting the rise of strong women in the wake of their oppression. Originally entitled Parwana—meaning butterfly—Katherine, a photographer, and Scott, a journalist, interviewed these remarkable individuals with all of their diversity and accomplishments.

It was incredibly important for Polemic that the book to not feel like "white people taking photos", so we employed the use of Farsi and took photographs of intricate Afghan carpets. For all interviews, the Farsi came first, and the actual hardcover below the dust jacket was written exclusively in Farsi. We also were able to art direct the entire book, composing the juxtapositions of the different occupations and personalities of the women.

Over the course of four months, Polemic documented, organized and developed the world's first formal aerial curriculum for Trapeze School New York, a preeminent circus school with locations across the country.

Polemic created custom illustrations, icons, and a layered diagram to document the various trick options and their difficulty level. The locations of the tricks throughout the diagram are specifically located to highlight the trajectories of learning certain tricks.

Trapeze School commissioned Polemic to design various promotional materials, including their first ticketed performance, the Vertical Three Ring Circus.

Michael Keller approached Polemic with a conundrum—how to market a faith-based organization without ostracizing the very community it seeks to reach. City Campus Ministry was created to offer a spiritual dialogue with urban college students who were questioning their faith, or curious about Christianity.

Polemic created a fashion-inspired branding package to give CCM a fighting chance with millennials. We created a custom condensed gothic typeface with fractured letterforms to communicate the incompleteness of living without faith. Ministry is rendered in full color, to show the other side of the story—faith makes you whole.

We extended this approach to their print materials and annual report as well—using only color photography when speaking about CCM's student outreach.

Located in the heart of Boston's college scene, Fire + Ice is a hibachi-style restaurant coupled with a great bar. Customers are able to pick from a host of different ingredients for their meals. For their branding update, Polemic adopted a more artistic aesthetic, using dynamic brush strokes and a clean square to signify the two elements.

We also had the wonderful task of creating a signature experience for the waiters and the customers—each grill is ceremoniously lit from a matchstick removed from an ice cube.

When Lenox Hill Hospital merged with Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, Polemic was commissioned to rebrand the prestigious institution. We merged the color palette, and since Lenox Hill is the name of both the neighborhood and the hospital, we connected words into a proprietary spelling. A descender was added to the custom X letterform, as a reference to the doctors' shorthand of prescriptions and diagnoses.

The rebranding encompassed all aspects of the Hospital, including ambulances, wayfinding, print materials, and marketing.

In 2008, the Utah-based publisher commissioned Polemic to redesign classic literature in the public domain. Selections included the work of William Shakespeare and Nathaniel Hawthorne, among other perennial classics.

Step far enough away from this promotional poster for Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues and all you'll see is a naked woman. Originally developed for a NYC fundraiser, the poster was also used in Princeton University for an on-campus performance.

The work takes its aesthetic and limited color palette from '70s-80s punk posters. Charles Isherwood of the NY Times, believed that the show was "the most important work of political theater in the past decade."

How do you begin to brand a high-end shaved ice cart? That's the question with which Polemic had to wrestle when a Washington, DC entrepreneur approached us with an idea for a Dupont Circle dessert stand. We took a simple approach and let the college-student-friendly tagline we developed speak for itself: "I like it shaved". The t-shirts sold more than the desserts.

Ars Nova, a cutting-edge theater for emerging artists, hired Polemic to create the marketing materials for their annual Play Group show. The year's theme? Netflix.

Well before its original programming and streaming-dominant business model, Netflix was in the business of mailed DVDs. Oh how times change. To capture the spirit of the show, Polemic pursued a trompe l'oeil approach, recreating the envelope, mailer, and website for their print and web promotions.

Custom typography for a giveaway t-shirt celebrating our principal's 30th birthday. Ironic because he's vegetarian.

At the height of the vinyl toy craze, Android 8 was looking to get noticed. Their concept? Take eight of the hottest designers to collaborate for a limited edition set of vinyl toys.

Android 8 hired Polemic to develop a strong identity. We created a LoFi aesthetic with a pixelated letterform, merging the A and 8 together, creating a mark consisting of eight pieces, merged together like Tetris.

This identity carried over to their packaging. The eight toys had to fit into these quirky shapes, providing an interesting constraint for the designers. From a marketing perspective, the set became a hot commodity—purchasing all eight toys recreated the logo.

Fran Crimi, one of the world's most renowned billiards player and a certified "BCA Master Instructor", approached Polemic to develop the identity for her new business.

Considering her elite status and steep prices (well over $100 per lesson), it seemed obvious that only diehard pool players would be interested. To separate the wheat from the chaff, Fran's business card had her phone number written only in pool balls. Don't know the game well enough? Then you can't call her. Come back when you're ready.

A simple pool triangle and a patriotic palette rounded out her identity for the American Billiard School.