Not too long ago I completed another project for Hazelden, a graphic for their Strategic Plan. Logo development is always challenging and fun, and this wasn’t unlike developing a logo, except perhaps for the fact that it had to potentially convey a great deal of information at a glance. That is, the concept needed to be scalable, with the idea was that one could “zoom in” on an area of the plan to gain greater detail and level of understanding.

As with all the Hazelden projects I’ve done, I worked closely with writer Teri Ryan to develop this concept, back and forth which is always rewarding professionally and also makes the end result much improved for it.

The logo is ready for application in a variety of formats, and I provided Hazelden with a couple shown here: a one-sheet summary document and a PowerPoint template. You can download a .pdf of the summary document [although it will have lorem ipsum text in place, to preserve confidentiality].

I am acquainting myself with Blueprint CSS this week, using it to build out the Stepmother Stories site.

I’m still figuring it out, but so far I really like what I see. Coming to this as a print designer, the idea of having grids for web design is, um, huge. The grid is 950px/24 columns wide, as-is. Or you can adjust it — either manually or using a Ruby on Rails compiler.

Below is the grid on, grid off [mouseover to see] which you control via the CSS class “showgrid.” This example uses SlipFire’s WordPress/Blueprint theme.

The grid is fab, but the aspect of Blueprint I’m most keen on its emphasis on typography, as evidenced by a “typography.css” file, as well as a mysterious subfolder labeled “fancy-type.”

I knew this was going to be good when one of the selling points at blueprintcss.org read: Typography based on expert principles that predate the web.

For a print-turned-web designer who’s studied typography and set metal type, reading that sentence is a little like sinking into a nice hot bath. *aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!*

Update 10/30/09: I found a nifty bookmarklet that toggles the grid on and off for you. Nice!

I worked with some fantastic people at Hazelden — project manager Dawn Carlson, writer Teri Ryan, marketing director Lisa Neary — to produce Hazelden’s 2008 annual report.

Hazelden’s vision, while not easy to achieve, is simple and beautiful: “All who seek recovery will find it, and the stigma of addiction will be overcome.”

In keeping with this, we paired simple but beautiful imagery with a simple but sophisticated layout. I’m very proud of this effort.