Kradel Design

Did you know that engaging in a simple, repetitive physical motion like walking can increase your creative output by an average of 60%[1]? To share knowledge about creativity and creative processes with corporate, government, academic, and non-profit clients, Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel, director of Thomas Jefferson University’s Creativity Core Curriculum, offers creativity workshops. In these workshops, clients may choose to create customized Pivot Cards: For Creative Redirection©. These cards are a collection of directives designed to productively disrupt the creative process of an individual or team and are developed collaboratively with clients using a proprietary method. The resulting cards represent custom content that will spark creativity across a range of creating thinking categories and encourage people to feel the confidence to break into new ways of working that lead to innovation.

Reach out to maribeth@kradeldesign.com if you are interested in a workshop for your team!

[1] Wong, M.(2014, April 24). Stanford Study Finds Walking Improves Creativity. Stanford Report. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2014/04/walking-vs-sitting-042414

The Spinal Cord Injury care team at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital provides all new patients with an extensive resource binder filled with carefully curated and supportive information for new patients. The final image features an augmented reality component that enables patients to closely inspect a three-dimensional model of the human spine. These images introduce new sections of the binder and showcase a hopeful and realistic future where people with spinal cord injuries lead beautiful and vibrant lives. While life is likely to be different after a spinal cord injury, the future can offer joy.

As societies strive for long-term mental health solutions, it is essential to address sources of generational trauma and provide intervention and services for marginalized youth and young adults in the child welfare system. In partnership with the non-profit organizations, Health Bridges International and Paths of Hope, and supported by a Jefferson Smart and Healthy Cities grant, Associate Professor Stephen DiDonato of Jefferson College of Nursing and MS Health Communication Design program director and Assistant Provost, Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel of Kanbar College recently travelled to Perú to work with boys living in residential care settings. Using participatory design methods, the boys leveraged their collaborative creativity to promote collective healing and the development of a shared identity through both visual and verbal means.

In a day-long workshop, children and caretakers developed images and narratives for house mascots to represent the identity and spirit of their shared home. Mascots tell a story, add humanity, and are hugely popular around the world. They represent sports teams, schools, geographic regions, corporate brands and more. DiDonato and Kradel-Weitzel trained the caretakers to lead the workshop to support bonding and healthy attachment between caretakers and children. Through co-creation of a house mascot, children developed an increased sense of unity among one another and caregivers and were empowered to recognize their creative output as valuable.

DiDonato and Kradel-Weitzel will assess measurable impact of this pilot regarding both the initial mascot development workshop and longer-term implementation of the mascot within the homes. This effort resides within a larger initiative to develop a Global Center of Excellence for Child Welfare Services.

Posters Against Ebola is a response to the most recent and largest Ebola epidemic in history. This deadly disease is surrounded by many controversies, locally and globally. Posters Against Ebola provided a place for designers, artists, and activists to express ideas, solutions, and opinions about this disease and the human reaction to it. All proceeds from the sale of the editions of 53 unique posters included in the collection go to Doctors Without Borders. The work can be seen and purchased at postersagainstebola.com and is available for exhibit. Shown are images of the catalog, my personal poster contributions and an exhibit of the work at SPACE gallery in Philadelphia.

Please read PRINT Magazine's interview about this project here.

I received a Sappi Ideas That Matter grant to assist a local organization that supports arts programs in underfunded schools through financial aid and arts programming. The organization reproduces children’s art at a large scale, sells those reproductions to corporations and uses the earnings to support its mission. With these funds, I created promotional designs and bilingual materials that helped children and their parents to understand what it means to allow their art to be used for this purpose.

In collaboration with writer, James Murphy, Kradel Design created a series of 6 birthday cards for Einstein Healthcare Network. These cards would be sent to Einstein employees on their birthdays to encourage them to take advantage of the LiveWell program. LiveWell's purpose is to support employees' health and well-being through better management and prevention of chronic conditions.

Cards were designed to target specific age groups. Each card is a three panel accordion fold with a unique pattern on the back.

Here is a sampling of identity work created by Kradel Design to establish a visual voice for a variety of clients across industries.

Founded in 1991, Design Science was one of the first consultancies to focus on the person-product interface. The company is composed of design scientists with backgrounds in human factors, cognitive psychology, industrial design, information systems, medicine, and anthropology. Design Science is dedicated to improving the quality of peoples’ lives through the skilled application of human factors engineering and ethnographic research.

 The existing mark focused on representing the difference between design and science whereas the new mark both respects their differences and amplifies their connection. It is a visual that represents both something molecular and imagery reminiscent of childhood play and discovery, such as a tinker toy or jacks. It encourages the viewer to simultaneously hold two thoughts in their mind—what is functional and what is human as we strive for the advancement of healthcare technology.

The process involved intensive research of marketplace competitors, a visual audit, stakeholder interviews and close client to designer communication through an iterative visual exploratory process that included examination of how the mark would live in different environments, scales and color situations.

To provide a window into the iterative process, the first images shown represent the chosen direction. Below that are two alternate directions. These options guided valuable conversations about what would ultimately be effective for Design Science in the long term.

This page showcases a collection of posters promoting various events and causes.

* Designer, Activist, Woman—a panel discussion for Jefferson University featuring women using their design skills for political and social purposes.

* Wear Your Voice—promotional piece for a t-shirt design competition for students sponsored by AIGA Philadelphia and Adobe. The letters were applied to fabric, then folded and photographed.

*Migratory Pattern of the Designer—announcement poster for a spring lecture series at Philadelphia University highlighting the global origins and influences of the speakers.

* Original Champions of Design—lecture poster illustrating the working process of the two principals. Front, back and detail images are shown. This poster displays an experimental illustration style that translates traditional cross-hatching into vector art.

* The Design of Equality—lecture poster and banner for an event featuring Emory Douglas (Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party) with an introductory presentation by Kelly Holohan (LGBT activist and designer).

* The Hurricane Poster Project—a response to Hurricane Katrina sold as part of a collection of posters with all proceeds going to The Red Cross.

Created for Pearson Press, Disrupt Together is about the tight linkages between innovation and opportunity recognition. It covers many aspects of design thinking and teamwork as key factors in disruptive innovation. The cover image uses custom title typography to break through a sea of noise to reveal the clarity of a blue sky.

This was a thank you gift from Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University) to high-end donors. The scarves were hand-done using "ebru"—a 15th century Turkish technique for dyeing silk. The packages were laser cut with a Turkish pattern, and, since each scarf was unique, allowed the viewer to see the colors of the scarf inside without opening the package. 

The scratchboard medium requires drawing backwards—drawing the light instead of the shadow. The pieces shown include a series of Victorian era circus imagery and a functioning clock based on the story, Cinderella. The clock features a pendulum with the glass slipper that the two evil step-sisters fight over as it swings back and forth.

This work has been recognized by Creative Quarterly Magazine and AIGA.

As a member of the collaborative studio, 705 West, I have been creating images for a variety of assignments and personal explorations using the drypoint technique. Some images involve intaglio inking, chine-collé and other media.