When Malcolm Gladwell’s agent contacted us about designing the cover for David and Goliath, we were – in a word – overjoyed. While we haven’t met Mr. Gladwell, we are huge fans. Echoing the established visual language of Gladwell’s four previous book covers, designer Nate Durrant developed a single strong image to communicate the story in the most minimalist way. The trompe l’oeil effect – making the cover look as if it has been whacked – relates literally to the title and figuratively to the book’s central theme.

Eric Schlosser is masterful at delivering in-depth reportage and investigative analysis on dark, quirky subjects – things that sometimes we’d rather not know, but know we should. When Eric asked us to design the cover for Command and Control, he shared his creative vision in the same exciting email: “99.9 percent of the books that have been written about nuclear weapons have a big mushroom cloud on the cover, and I have a different idea. I would like the cover to resemble the cover of an Air Force accident report – bureaucratic, official-looking, and yet odd enough to be intriguing…”

Tipping Point, founded in 2005, is a non-profit dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area – by supporting the non-profits doing the best work in this fight. Designer Beth Wong developed the invitation package and event collateral for this year’s Tipping Point gala (our fifth). Over the years, everyone at Elixir has contributed to the communications we’ve helped create for this remarkable organization. With Tipping Point, we never know where the creative ideas will come from – they are all so articulate, so collaborative, and so committed. Knowing that we have become part of their community feels good. Actually, it feels great.

Sundance is not only a real place, but an extraordinary one. It’s the birthplace of the eponymous festival, the catalogs, the cable channel, the institute – and a testimonial to Robert Redford’s commitment to preserve its breathtaking natural beauty.

Marnie Burke de Guzman is an orchestrator of cultural engagement. She created ArtRise to steward large-scale cultural projects into being, much in the way that a producer makes a movie ‘happen.’ Today’s audiences yearn to experience culture beyond the confines of exhibition space. Marnie is a skilled shepherd of teams, a forger of alliances between cultural institutions, civic organizations, artists – and the audiences themselves.

Front Porch Farm is a bastion of bio-diversity. We could describe the owners as bespoke farmers, since most of their products are grown to order for fine restaurants and specialty grocers. And we could describe the farm as a “Noah’s Ark for food,” since the owners are zealous about sustainability. Their dream is to raise all the ingredients for complete meals of deliciousness – and they’re already making wines to accompany them.

Summer Search is a youth development organization founded in Northern California in 1990. They’ve since taken their holistic model to the national level, replicating the program in six additional metropolitan areas. Summer Search partners with high schools to identify low-income students who display certain character attributes. The students receive year-round support – a unique combination of experiential opportunities and a circle of relationships anchored in professional mentoring.

The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a national advocacy group promoting school choice for parents. This cause is ardently bipartisan — and highly nuanced. If you are concerned about education reform in this country, American Federation for Children are folks to pay attention to.

We hand dip our business cards. We’ve been doing this for over fifteen years. Each card is one of a kind – and a mini-metaphor. The firm’s name is blind embossed. It has no color, but you can see and feel it. So, we are visible yet invisible – it’s the solution that you see. On the back of each card, floating in space, are the names of everyone at Elixir. Your own name is bolded, and you are surrounded by your colleagues. (We could say they have your back.) We believe our collaboration is essential to how we do what we do.

We are thrilled to share the news: Elixir has been nominated for a 2013 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, Communication Design category. From Cooper-Hewitt’s website: “The National Design Awards program celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement.” Cooper-Hewitt, part of the Smithsonian Institution, first launched the awards at the White House in 2000.