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20:14 CNY Party: Year of the Horse

There was a stampede of fun at our annual Chinese New Year party. Q&A rang in the wood horse with tables full of Chinese take out, Dragon Bite Punch and our customary photo booth. This year marked our sixth CNY party celebrating clients, vendors and friends.

For those of you born in 1954, 1966 or 1978, you share this year with:
Genghis Khan; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; French President Francois Hollande; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

According to Feng Shui practitioner, Lai Hon-fai, the year will be favorable for women and the places they govern. Noted Q&A Principal, Wendy Quesinberry, “The year of the horse sounds awesome.”…

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Looking Up: The CF Foundation Stairclimb

“This is either going to be a great idea or the worst thing ever.” And so began the call from our friend, Jeff Barlow. He had been designing materials for the CF Foundation’s Stairclimb event for many years and it was time to pass the baton. He was well aware of the disease’s history in my family (see Help Q&A in the climb to fight CF!) and wasn’t sure what my response would be. I immediately accepted.

There is nothing happy about Cystic Fibrosis, but the Q&A team wanted to inspire a passion and energy to a very worthy cause. We decided to focus on the challenge of the climb. The entire Q&A team took on the challenge in 2010 and were well-versed in what it’s like to climb 56 floors. There’s a bit of arrogance after the first few flights and when the first water stand appears, you think you’re invincible and just breeze past it with a smile. This choice is immediately regretted two flights later. Suddenly your feet feel like they are stuck in cement. Surely you’ve already climbed a hundred flights. Breathing hurts. It’s conceivable that you’ve entered the stratosphere—until you see that you’re on the 16th floor. You dream of crews bringing emergency water supplies. Somewhere near floor 48, you think that you could actually make it and see yourself winning a big golden medal.

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Recognition: 2012 American Packaging Design Award

The 2012 Dragon has already been beneficent to us! Competing with over 1600 entries, Q&A received a 2012 American Packaging Design Award from Graphic Design USA for  our Consolidated Restaurants VIP Package (GDU will publish the list of winners some time soon and we’ll link to the official page).

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CNY2012: Year of the Dragon Party Portraits

No more General Tsao’s Chicken, please! Other than me OD’ing on Chow Mein, the inscrutable General’s chicken, and Dragon Punch (thanks goes to Charina Pitzel for the recipe: 1 part Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum, 2 parts ginger ale, 1 part unsweetened cranberry juice, add lime wedges) our party was a hit. Thanks to everybody who came. It was great fun.

Below the fold is the gallery of our portrait shots (thanks to Mike Anitas at Vine Studios). We totally expect to see these in the party-poop section in the back of Details magazine.

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Recognition: 2011 American Graphic Design Awards

The sad gray days of Seattle in November had fallen upon us when a thick awards envelope appeared in our mail box to cheer us all up! Competing with over 8,000 entries, Q&A received seven awards from Graphic Design USA for the following projects: Q&A 2010 Chinese New Year Invitation Q&A Promotional Tabloid, “mattie” Elliott’s Oyster House […]

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Stop being beige

When I was a kid in the 70s in Melbourne, Florida, there was a house where the owners painted huge murals of 19th century nautical scenes. The entire house was the painter’s canvas. I cherished the times we drove by that house. I thought it was beautiful. And you never knew when it would get repainted into a new battle scene.

I remember hearing that the neighbors hated it and people complained. And then one day we drove by and it was all white with green shutters. I don’t know if the owners moved away or were pressured to conform.

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Recognition: HOW magazine thinks we’re cool

Q&A was honored to be recognized (twice!) in HOW Magazine’s September/October 2011 Self-Promotion Design Annual. Only 95 designs were featured, which included our new stationery suite (unveiled in January 2011) along with our oversized promo tabloid “mattie”. HOW Magazine is a design magazine distributed bi-monthly providing businesses in the design industry with technology tips, new design information and profiles of professionals who are influencing design.

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