Disciple Design's Good Deed Wins Addy Award; Reward for Creative Pro Bono Work
By Jennifer Larson, Memphis Business Journal
Friday, March 20, 1998
Craig Thompson, who knows that a striking logo can make a major impact, is looking forward to continuing his work with Noah's A.R.C, even if the account is not bringing in big bucks.
Thompson is creative director for Disciple Design and Advertising, a small Memphis ad agency that won a special judge's award for design for its work for Noah's A.R.C. during the 1998 American Advertising Awards, which are sponsored by the Memphis Advertising Federation. Disciple is a four-and-a-half year old agency with five employees.
Thompson likes the altruism of supporting the mission of Noah's A.R.C. (Adopting Romanian Children). Located at 6099 Mt. Moriah Ext., Noah's A.R.C. is an adoption agency started by Cindy and Lawrence Hamilton and Douglas and Lynne Billings to facilitate the adoption of Romanian children in the United States.
"It's a Christian organization," says Thompson. Noah's A.R.C. approached Disciple because Noah's A.R.C.'s founders were aware of Disciple's work for churches in the area.
"This is a brand new organization, they just founded it back in the summer," says Thompson. "They came to us and told us about it and really had no money, but they knew they needed some sort of identity."
According to Thompson, the Hamiltons and Billingses knew that Disciple would be sensitive to their project.
"We try to give high-end design work to those organizations without charging high-end prices," says Thompson. "That's sort of a mission for us."
The ad agency, which has produced work for Christ United Methodist Church's "Love Thy Neighbor" campaign, Germantown Baptist Church, and Abundant Grace Fellowship, does work for non-profits and churches and occasionally takes on a pro bono project.
Noah's A.R.C. became Disciple's most recent pro bono project.
"In this case, we donated our services," says Thompson. "We felt like what they were doing was a great cause, and so we decided to help them out."
Noah's A.R.C. came to Disciple with the name already decided.
"The imagery that came to mind for us was animals, of course," says Thompson. "When we do logos, we like them to be conceptual. We like them to expound on what the client is doing."
Thompson and his colleagues created a series of stylized animal designs to represent adoption and parenting for the Noah's A.R.C. stationery and letterhead; one is a turquoise elephant with a smaller white elephant within the larger animal. Another design shows a gold giraffe with a smaller white giraffe with gold markings looking up at the larger giraffe. The third design is a purple kangaroo with a small white kangaroo peeking out of the parent's pocket.
"They're just really fun and childlike," Thompson says.
"There's a concept of gathering that goes along with Noah's A.R.C.," he says, adding that this idea seemed to mesh with the concept of adoption.
Noah's A.R.C.'s founders liked the paternal and maternal aspects of the designs. The Hamiltons and Billingses approved the designs in December.
"We believe that those were a gift," says Cynthia Hamilton. "When we talked to Craig, we told him that this is what we needed and that he was an expert, and it was up to him and that we were going to stay out of it.
"You don't want to interfere with someone who knows what they do.
"He said, 'Sure, I'll help you.' He never gave it a second thought," she says.
Says Thompson, "We wanted to make (the designs) positive. It is a very sad situation. But we're representing the positive response to that."
"It was obvious to us that (the designs) were perfect. It's very uplifting," Hamilton says. "Our foundation is about hope; not dwelling upon what is but on what can be."
"Right now Craig is working on certificates for us," says Hamilton. "It's basically a honorary certificate" for people who participate in packing up clothes for children in Romanian orphanages.
In addition to the judge's special award, Disciple also won two Addys: one for Noah's A.R.C.'s letterhead and another for the organization's series of animal logos. Jaco Bryant Printers is responsible for the printing.
