Carbone Smolan Agency is an independent

branding agency A branding agency is a firm that specializes in creating and launching Brand, brands and rebranding, rebranding. The role of a branding agency is to create, plan, measure, and manage branding strategies for clients, including support in advertisin ...

founded in 1976 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

In 1976 Ken Carbone opened the New York office of the Canadian graphic design firm Gottschalk+Ash International. In 1977 he met and became business partners with Leslie Smolan. Theirs was an expanded view of "graphic design" beyond its two-dimensional applications and embraced the range interdisciplinary communication practices including customer experience design, architectural graphics, branded environments, and packaging design.Design Observer Interview with Debbie Millman
Design Observer, April 27, 2012. Carbone and Smolan bought out their Canadian partners in 1980, and renamed the company Carbone Smolan Agency. Carbone is creative director; Smolan is director of creative strategy. Company has served many notable corporate and cultural brands including such organizations as

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group International Limited (MOHG) is a Hong Kong hotel investment and management group focusing on luxury hotels, resorts, and residences, with a total of 33 properties worldwide, 20 of which are fully or partially ow ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

, Tapestry Inc.,

Dale Carnegie Dale Carnegie (; spelled Carnagey until c. 1922; November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal ...

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

and

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...

. In December 1985 Carbone Smolan Agency presented its credentials for the “Signalétique du Grand Louvre,” the visitor information and signage program to complement the Louvre's visitors' entrance and underground plaza being designed by

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

, creator of the

Louvre Pyramid The Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre) is a large glass and metal structure designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard ( Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smalle ...

. The

French government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...

awarded the New York-based Carbone Smolan Agency the signage project October 3, 1986. Introduced to the public 1989, Carbone Smolan's visitor information and signage program was predicated on the Arrondissements of Paris plan and remains in place today. In their report on the selection of Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan as

AIGA Medalists The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. ...

in 2014, AIGA journalist Angela Richers noted, "In 1985 they won the commission—an honor for a relatively young studio. The project’s success and high visibility helped establish CSA as a studio of major importance in the larger design landscape. Since the Louvre commission, CSA has served many of the most significant cultural institutions in the United States (see references below). Carbone Smolan Agency's Louvre way-finding system is also featured in "Graphic Design Since 1950" by

Alliance Graphique Internationale Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world's leading graphic artists and designers. There are 527 members from 43 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top co ...

, This visitor's information program was also recipient of the Communication Arts 1990 Award of Excellence and featured in Communication Arts magazine. In the ensuring years, Carbone Smolan Agency has designed for numerous notable cultural institutions including

AIGA The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity ...

, MoMA (New York),

Jewish Museum (Manhattan) The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

, and

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded in 1910 using land from Mount Prospect Park in central Brooklyn, adjacent to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum. The garden holds ...

. CSA has 20 exhibits in the AIGA permanent archives.

Awards and recognition

*2014

American Institute of Graphic Artists American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

(AIGA) Medalists, Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan *2012 GDUSA's American Web Design Awards, Website design Niles Bolton Associates *2010 Chicago Poster Biennial, Poster Finalist: Diego Rivera by Ken Carbone *2008 SEGD Design Awards Merit Award, W. L. Gore Capabilities Center *2008 AIGA 365: 29, American Institute of Graphic Artist *2005 ReBrand 100 Awards: Best of Show, Assurant

References

External links

Carbone Smolan Agency website

Ken Carbone On The Future Of Design
at

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

Advertising Guru Ken Carbone Reveals 'What Drives an Entrepreneur
at

Wilkes University Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...

{{Authority control Graphic design American graphic designers Design writers Branding companies of the United States Companies based in New York City Brand valuation