Tag: Print Production

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Catering by Windows — Advertising and Print Collateral Design

Catering by Windows French menu system folio showing high-key food photography, elegant white space grid layout, and warm typography designed by Keith Bloom for their flagship catering menu

Catering by Windows was one of Washington DC’s premier full-service catering and event companies — capable of producing an elaborate tented dinner for 300 or an intimate luncheon for 20, with equal attention to elegance, detail, and the particular personality of each occasion. The brief called for printed materials that communicated that range without sacrificing the visual sophistication their clientele expected.

The Bloom Agency handled advertising, catering menu design, and event catalog production for Catering by Windows’ flagship printed collateral — a sustained engagement across multiple major projects in the early 2000s. The work spans two distinct visual registers that speak to the breadth of the client’s offering: a refined, high-key French menu system built around clean white space, warm typography, and intimate food photography; and a rich, jewel-toned wedding and special events collection anchored by dramatic tablescapes, tiered wedding cakes, and the quietly confident campaign line “We do…” — two words that do everything simultaneously.

Photography direction for both systems was my responsibility, conducted on location in Catering by Windows’ facility showrooms and commercial kitchens. Getting food and event photography right at this level requires more than a skilled photographer — it requires someone who understands both the visual language of luxury hospitality and the specific story each image needs to carry within the larger collateral system. The fig imagery that anchors the French menu system, the candlelit tablescapes in the wedding brochure, the precise arrangement of prepared dishes in the catering catalog — all of it was directed and produced to serve the design rather than the other way around.

The engagement also included a co-branded collateral piece for Catering by Giant — a partnership between Catering by Windows and Giant Food that required a dedicated sub-brand identity and marketing materials carrying both partners’ visual presence with coherence and appropriate hierarchy.

Across both folios the Windows logotype — a custom wordmark in which the double-O carries a distinctive window pane graphic — anchored a consistent brand presence through every format, from full-size event catalogs and multi-panel brochures to direct mail and advertising pieces.

Creative Direction; Photography Direction; Copy Writing; Production Management; Account Executive

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Blueprint Magazine

Blueprint Magazine folio showing multiple quarterly issue covers and interior spreads designed by The Bloom Agency for the Democratic Leadership Council, including the Education and Quality of Life issues

Blueprint was the flagship publication of the Democratic Leadership Council — the centrist policy organization that defined the New Democrat movement and provided much of the intellectual infrastructure of the Clinton presidency. Subtitled Ideas for a New Century and published under the DLC’s The New Democrat banner, it was a serious policy journal with an editorial roster that read like a roll call of the era’s most consequential centrist voices: senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and cabinet secretaries contributing to a national conversation about a third way forward for American politics and economic life.

The Bloom Agency was contracted to launch Blueprint from the ground up and manage its full creative production for two years. As founder and creative director, I designed the Blueprint masthead and typographic identity — a confident condensed sans-serif wordmark in cobalt blue that established the magazine’s visual authority from its first issue. I assembled and led the agency team responsible for layout and production, defining the typographic system, cover design language, and interior grid that gave Blueprint its consistent editorial voice across eight quarterly issues. Each cover was designed to carry real visual impact — the Education issue’s bold “adults vs. kids?” challenge, the Quality of Life issue’s full-bleed display type against urban imagery — while the masthead remained a steady, recognizable anchor throughout.

Over the two-year engagement, we systematized every aspect of the production workflow to the point where it could be transitioned seamlessly to an in-house team at the DLC — which it was, as a cost-saving measure after the contract concluded. Launching a publication, running it at a high creative standard for two years, and handing off a fully documented, production-ready operation is a different kind of creative responsibility than a single design engagement. Blueprint was all three.

Masthead Design, Visual Identity, Creative Direction, Typography Design, Team Assembly and Management, Print Production Management — 8 Quarterly Issues