CD faculty Michael Wiemeyer is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn. With his partner Kathryn Porter he leads Designlounge, a visual communications and design firm dedicated to creating meaningful and purpose-driven design solutions for non-profit and cause-related organizations. A native of Germany, Michael received his BFA in Graphic Design and Visual Communications from the University for Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, Germany. Before turning his deep interest in design and communications into a full-time profession, he completed a comprehensive 3-year vocational training as an industrial manager in a globally operating company in Germany.
Michael has been a faculty member at Parsons School of Design since 2004. As Assistant Professor he has taught Identity Design, Web Design, and the Fundamentals of Typography both in the Communications as well as in the Photography Department.
Riverdale Country School Capital Campaign
R+ The Riverdale Campaign: Inspiring Education – Brand Identity
Designlounge collaborated with Riverdale Country School to develop the campaign brand identity named “R+ The Riverdale Campaign: Inspiring Education” as well as to design supporting materials such as a campaign brochure, several annual reports, a website, and a poster, among others.
Topography of Type
This personal project explores if a specific typographical landscape—a “topography of type” —exists that is unique to an area and how it could be visualized in digital and analog formats. Can it be a virtual or visual corridor through which one travels to be in a specific place the same way that a kid might look at maps to travel to far away places in her or his imagination? I wanted to look at this project not just through the eyes of a designer but through the eyes of an explorer or mapmaker.
Topography of Type (print)
The intention has been to collect and select, compare and juxtapose obvious, fragmented or indecipherable messages made of letters in a specific area, or “landscape.” The collections are categorized with some connection to typical typeface classifications but also experiment with categories outsides the norm. This project consists of the website and a broadsheet newspaper format soon to be printed at Newspaper Club.
Topography of Type (web)
A lot of these images also find their way into my Instagram feed @michael_wiemeyer
Blue Chalk Media
Blue Chalk is a Brooklyn-based production and media strategy company that believes in the power of nonfiction visual storytelling.The company develops and produces narratives for digital media such as video production and documentary filmmaking in order to deeply engage and connect with the intended audiences. A separate division produces content commissioned as journalism with assignments ranging from long-form documentaries to interactive web content.
Logo identity and stationary system for Blue Chalk Media
The Blue Chalk team partnered with Designlounge to develop the logo identity and stationery system. We also created a digital format for presentations as well as administrative templates. For the official launch of the company, we designed promotional postcards and tote bags. See the Blue Chalk website for the identity integration.
A magazine about a trip to Italy
Traveling to any place—however remote, undiscovered, or already described and illustrated in countless ways—means to learn and to embrace unexpected experiences. A trip to Italy produced the desire to visually interpret our impressions in the form of a magazine called “Found It.”
Pages from a magazine designed on Michael’s trip to Italy
Every place offers something special. A unique set of colors. People that are the salt of the earth. Roads that lead to unexpected sights around every corner. This magazine visually and editorially expresses what we saw, heard, and felt when we arrived at a family-run organic farm south of Rome, visited rather old towns and cities in Tuscany, and connected with people we met from many countries. The stories—that only include our own photography taken during this trip—describe Tuscan color palettes, horsepower comparisons in Siena, a reflection on the perceived flow of time and more.
Petit St. Vincent Resort
Petit St. Vincent, also called “PSV”, lies 40 miles south of St. Vincent in the Grenadines and belongs to a group of islands sprinkled across what may be the most beautiful stretch of water in the Caribbean.
Brand identity for Petit St. Vincent Resort
Designlounge began working with the previous resort owners more than a decade ago to provide strategic advice and to design all brand materials in print and on the web. When the resort changed hands the new owners continued to work with Designlounge on all aspects of the visual brand, beginning with minor modifications to the logo identity and brand language. In order to maintain and strengthen the brand equity that had been established over many years, the redesign of materials such as brochures and newsletters were carefully calibrated to reflect the upgrades of the resort.
