Looking to reposition itself in the financial marketplace, Opes Advisors came to Elixir for help shaping their brand and perception via new messaging and a visual language. Opes is an innovative financial advisory firm that integrates wealth management and mortgage services to help clients make better financial decisions throughout their lifetimes. Its founders have insight from first-hand experience on how real estate is an essential component of good financial health. Their expertise and life experiences spurred them to build a company of immense integrity and unprecedented approach to financial planning, one that considers the impact of financial decisions now and into the future.

Celebrating the Great Outdoors, the Foundation’s third annual Bay Area fundraising event, was held on March 28, 2011. The invitation and related collateral were inspired by event designer Stanlee Gatti’s vision for the event—a pop-up, tented forest on San Francisco’s Crissy Field. Elixir collaborated with UK illustrator Mary Woodin to create immersive scenes that emerge on dimensional corrugated cardboard panels produced by Oscar Printing.

Elixir recently had the pleasure of collaborating with publisher Chronicle Books and Kokkari Estiatorio on the design of a cookbook for this acclaimed San Francisco restaurant. Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors, authored by Executive Chef Erik Cosselmon and Janet Fletcher, presents almost 100 of the restaurant’s most popular recipes and illuminates the Greek traditions that inspired them. Photographs by Sara Remington are featured throughout.

We’ve had the curious pleasure of sharpening over 1,000 pencils this month in preparation for our annual holiday mailing, an Elixir tradition dating back to 1996. This year’s inspiration was a favorite quote, “Luck favors the prepared,” which has been attributed to Louis Pasteur. We had the quote foil-stamped on custom-made boxes—to house a single Blackwing pencil and the shavings we made while sharpening it. We are outfitting everyone on our list with a sharp pencil and a compassionate eraser as we all head into the new year and whatever it holds in store.

The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) held its annual East Coast fundraising event in Greenwich, Connecticut on September 25, 2010. Celebrating the Great Outdoors is the third NFWF fundraiser Elixir has worked on, having developed materials for both the 2009 and 2010 successful West Coast fundraising events in San Francisco.

prAna brought Elixir in to establish the brand’s visual language and, in tandem, to begin developing prAna’s first direct-to-consumer catalog. The company had built a loyal following among climbers and yoga practitioners who valued the brand’s authenticity. Without compromising the soulfulness that defined its first 17 years in business, prAna wanted to attract a broader audience of outdoor enthusiasts, artists, and other “cultural creatives” to drive significant growth. The management team described prAna’s desired revitalized brand position as balancing “the thrilling tension between mindful living and living on the edge.”

L to R: Lavender, Rosemary and Orange Blossom Lotion; Meyer Lemon and Sage Shampoo; Lavender, Jasmine and Blood Orange Conditioner; Meyer Lemon and Sage Bath Gel. The fruits of Elixir’s recent packaging project for The Spa Hotel Healdsburg are now available.

Founder Betsy Fields came to Elixir in 2009 with her first bag of homemade granola … and, one short year later, From the Fields’ (which Elixir also named) is producing more than a ton of artisanal granola every month—still in small batches—for selected stores around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The multidisciplinary firm, founded in 1997 by partners Joshua Aidlin and David Darling, has completed public, commercial and residential projects in addition to furniture and interior design commissions. Aidlin Darling Design has been honored by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 2010 as a Finalist in the Interior Design category of the National Design Awards. The Awards Gala will be held on October 14, 2010, in New York City, in conjunction with National Design Week.

Levi Strauss & Co. recently sponsored the Care to Air Design Challenge, seeking “the world’s most innovative, covetable, and sustainable air-drying solution for clothing.” Levi’s awarded $10,000 in prize money on August 16 at the temporary Levi’s Workshop on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission district.