The Scouts were given the opportunity to create their own logos by tracing and drawing letterforms, combining them to make a logotype. The enthusiastic and knowledgable Scouts impressed RSM with their ability to envision and create unique logotypes. Merit badge certificates were handed out to all of the Scouts for their participation and knowledge learned of Graphic Arts and Architecture.

If you’ve been tuning into NBC on Sunday nights, you might have seen some familiar faces on the new reality TV show, America’s Next Great Restaurant. If you blinked, you might have missed us, but we promise… we’re there! The RSM team is excited to share our minutes of reality TV fame as we get our make-up done, turn on our mics, and frantically design logos, menus, and more for the contestants of America’s Next Great Restaurant.

Sometimes being only 60 miles from Hollywood has its perks…

Check out America’s Next Great Restaurant Sundays at 8:00pm on NBC to see more of the RSM team.

Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest indoor theme park and the first and only Ferrari themed park recently opened in November 2010. Located on Yas Island, only a few kilometres from Abu Dhabi city centre, the site hosted the UAE’s first Grand Prix at the Yas Island Marina Circuit in November 2009.

RSM was thrilled to be part of such a unique project. RSM’s passionate team of Ferrari enthusiasts completed the theme park’s identity signs, entry sequence, exterior wayfinding program, facility signage, and structured car park graphics.

In addition to being the world’s largest indoor theme park, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has quite an impressive stack of statistics:

• The 86,000-square-metre enclosed area of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi can fit seven football fields in ‘head to toe’.

• The Ferrari logo on the roof, the largest ever created, measures 65-metres in length and covers an area of 3,000-square-metres, which could fit at least seven basketball courts.

• The volume of concrete in Hoover Dam could fit inside Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.

• Ferrari World Abu Dhabi needed 12,370 tons of steel to create its structure; the Eiffel Tower only needed 7,000 tons.

• Ferrari World Abu Dhabi features restaurants staffed by four Michelin-starred Italian chefs.

RSM has been selected as the architectural graphics consultant for the new Aztec Student Center on the San Diego State University campus. 

Projected to open in late 2013, this new student union building will feature many on campus amenities for the students including a market, fitness center, food court, theater, retail spaces, bowling alley, and individual meeting spaces for the many student clubs and organization. RSM will be working with the student organizations, administration, and facilities group at SDSU to create a comprehensive and state of the art digital wayfinding, identity, and specialty graphics program that will integrate with the historic Spanish Mission architecture and invite students campus wide to congregate, study, eat, and play. 

The graphics program to be designed by RSM will include exterior and interior identity and wayfinding signage, a unique flexible electronic signage program throughout, as well as specialty graphics for the entertainment venues.

Continuing their many projects on college campuses, the design team at RSM is creating an architectural signage and graphics package for the new conference center located on the University of California at Davis campus.  Situated adjacent to the cultural complex on campus and across from the renowned Mondavi Center, this new UC Davis Marketplace will be an exciting new destination for the students, faculty, and visitors.  RSM is designing the branding and graphics for such amenities as the bookstore, market, café bistro, private dining areas, and study area.

Dynamic original wall murals and integrated architectural signage are being woven into the architecture to define the different functional spaces and create a welcoming place unlike anything on campus, to linger after the theater, relax with a cup of coffee, sip a glass of wine, or browse the bookstore.

The South Berkeley Public Library is quite a unique environment – there aren’t too many places one can check out Jane Austen and a jackhammer in the same location. RSM is excited to be designing the wayfinding and identity program for this public library.  Tools from the lending library are used both literally and figuratively to create a whimsical yet functional approach to the sign family. Ladders, hammers, and Pride and Prejudice – all in one location.

RSM principals Harry Mark and Martin Schwartz have just returned from a two week trip to China, having visited six cities and meeting on five exciting on going graphics projects.  The meetings consisted of project presentations, coordination meetings, signage mock-up reviews, and marketing meetings, along with a bit of free time to take in the exciting sites of China.

Nanjing Taiwan Trade Mart: Construction of the project is progressing at super sonic speeds, with opening scheduled for mid September 2010. Harry and Martin were on site to review signage mock-ups and coordinate with the local sign fabricator to ensure the design intent is carried through all of the details of this comprehensive identity and wayfinding program.

Yantai One: Concept design presentations of the branding, logo, and wayfinding family were enthusiastically received by the group of stakeholders in this dynamic growing city in northern China.  Coordination with a local sign fabricator at this early stage was arranged to facilitate a seamless integration of the graphics with the architecture and marketing initiatives.

One City: The city of Ma’an Shan in central China is the site for this family focused urban retail and entertainment center.  The RSM designed graphics family was carefully crafted to work well within tight budget constraints and unique cultural and language parameters.

Check back soon for more project updates from China….

On their most recent trip to China, Harry and Martin actually stopped working for a day, set the computers aside, put on their most comfortable shoes, and headed out to one of the most exciting Expo events to come along in years.  On what ended up being one of the busiest days of the Expo to date, the two self-proclaimed “architectural junkies” met up with 499,998 of their now close friends to join the masses and see some incredible new and innovative architectural wonders.  Not wanting to wait in what was close to 6 hour long lines to get inside some of the pavilions, the two wandered the never ending exhibit areas from country to country, snapping multiple Megabytes of photos, searching for the ultimate regional cuisines and beer, discussing and debating which were their favorite pavilions and most innovative use of materials, and finally searching for an open bench to rest their weary jet lagged feet. 

Advice to all who plan on attending the Expo before it ends in October – give yourself more then one day to see it all, and have plenty of patience with the long lines… but be sure to go!

The sign family has been designed for maximum flexibility and clarity.  The signage uses a system of custom pictograms and icons to identify the many uses and create a clear messaging system, with a dual language system complementing this simple approach.  The material palette adds clarity to the system as well with different complementary materials being used to enhance each of the district’s characterstics.

The graphics family of signs is rapidly moving forward into schematics and design development and the RSM team continues to hone and refine the designs, while coordinating with the US and China based consultant team.

The new site will be released in Spring 2010.