The Graphis Poster Annual 2012 winners have been announced, and TOKY’s poster for “Staging Old Masters: Former Prisoners Perform at the Pulitzer” (above right) — the innovative theatre/community program at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts — has been given the Gold. This is a tough, international competition, and we’re thrilled with the recognition — especially since TOKY was responsible not just for the design but for the original photography on this project as well.

Here’s a bit about the book:

Graphis Poster Annual 2012 features some of the most visually compelling posters from the past year chosen from thousands of international entries, including Platinum award-winning entries from Thomas Wedell and Nancy Skolos, Paul Garbett, Hei Yiyang, Carlo Fiore, Kasai Noriyuki, Andrea Castelletti, Guy Mastrion, Fritz Klaetke and Mike Barker. The 185 posters selected for this volume clearly demonstrate the potency of this medium. This year’s edition also includes a revealing interview with Stephan Bundi, an accomplished professional art director and designer who is internationally renowned for his poster work.

You can pick up the new book at the Graphis Store. Congrats to all the winners!

For the fourth year in a row, TOKY has provided the design work for marketing Mardi Gras St. Louis, a series of a dozen major events celebrated for six weeks during January and February. It’s one of the most exciting national Mardi Gras celebrations outside of New Orleans itself. While this year’s identity is completely new, we’ve continued last year’s efforts at communicating that Mardi Gras St. Louis is much more than the massively attended Grand Parade. From the Cajun Cook-Off to the Wiener Dog Derby, the series is packed with events for all types of audiences. Find out more above, and at the website, designed and developed by TOKY.

Want to be a part of the largest food-collection bicycle ride in the country? Grab your bike and join us for Cranksgiving: THIS Sunday, November 6th, at 10 a.m. at Schlafly Bottleworks!

Now in its sixth year, Cranksgiving is hosted by BicycleWORKS, with proceeds going to our friends at Food Outreach. Riders can choose from a 5-, 10-, or 25-mile route, on which they’ll stop by several local grocery stores to pick up non-perishable food items to donate to the cause. Last year, more than 650 riders collected more than 6,000 food items, making it the largest Cranksgiving event in the country!

TOKY has long supported BicycleWORKS and their many fine projects. T-shirts for this year’s event are currently sold out, but you can still order yours online. You’ll be able to pick it up the week after the event at BWORKS. Once again, all proceeds from the sales go directly to Food Outreach.

For more information about Cranksgiving, visit bworks.org/bikeworks. We hope to see you there!

Save the day of Saturday, October 1, 2011. Our neighborhood, Midtown Alley, is planning its Third Annual Midtown Alley Street Fest. This year its blowing up into something more amazing than ever before, with 10 bands playing throughout the entire day (for free). About a half-mile of Locust Street right outside our window will be closed off and ready for the crowds coming to see the live bands, try beers in the Microbrew Beer Garden, sample food from the many award-winning local restaurants, see the Antique Car Show and much, much more.

Many of the local businesses (including ours!) and available living spaces will have their doors open. Come down on the first and see what all is going on in the Neighborhood, and see why we love it so much here.

More information on the Midtown Alley site.
RSVP for the event on Facebook.

or like Midtown Alley Street Fest:

Poster designed by TOKY

In AIGA St. Louis’ 16th Annual Juried Design Show, TOKY did well. We were honored and humbled that we were given awards for “Best of Show”, “Judge’s Choice” (the only one given to a professional organization), and two “Best of Category” awards. Altogether we took home 18 of the total 43 awards given to Professional organizations (the rest were awards to students).

Best in Show: The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, “Ann Hamilton: stylus” catalogue

Judge’s Choice: Washington University Medical School “Century of Excellence” retrospective book

Best of Category / Branding: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, CAM Rebranding

Best of Category / Books: The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, “Ann Hamilton: stylus” catalogue

Additional Awards:

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, “Ann Hamilton: stylus” website

Armstrong Teasdale LLC, brand identity

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, “Contemporary Fund” mailer

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, “Mysterios de Mayo” identity

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, website

David Richard Contemporary Gallery, identity (Santa Fe, NM)

Bridge Tap Room, logo and identity materials

Laumeier Sculpture Park, Jessica Stockholder “Grab Grassy Your I’s” exhibit catlogue

Bike St. Louis, “Cranksgiving” poster

Brown School of Social Work, “Social Impact” magazine

Metro, “Core of Discovery” website

St. Louis Public Library Foundation, “Looking Glass” invitation

Schlafly Brewery website

SPACES Gallery (San Jose, CA) identity

May 12-14 • Opening night party: Thursday, May 12, 7pm
Atomic Cowboy – 4140 Manchester in The Grove

More than 30 local artists including our own Logan Alexander, Katy Fischer, Kirsten O’Loughlin and myself will be displaying our limited-edition bike-inspired posters (available for just $30 each) at the 3rd Annual ARTCRANK STL, A Poster Party for Bike People, at the Atomic Cowboy tomorrow night.

The charitable partner for ARTCRANK STL this year is St. Louis BicycleWORKS, a nonprofit organization that helps at-risk youth improve academic, vocational, and social skills through their Earn-A-Bike Program.

Posters will be on display Thursday (7:00pm – Midnight), Friday (5:00pm to Midnight) and Saturday (3:00pm to Midnight) as part of the 2011 Tour de Grove racing series.

Not sure who to look for? She’s there at the bottom, with a portrait shot by our own Geoff Story.

More on PRINT/PULL

Click here to view the embedded video.

Every year PRINT Magazine issues its “Regional Design Annual”, with their selection of the best design in the U.S. of A., selected by region. This year there were five selections from St. Louis, and TOKY took three of them.

Even better, they were three of our quirkiest projects from last year: a letterpress poster celebrating David Sherman’s 50th birthday, the cute honey packaging we did for our friends Amos Harris and Natalie Semchyshyn, and all four of our posters for the Pulitzer’s “Prisoners at the Pulitzer” performance series. It’s great to represent St. Louis in such a highly visible national design competition!

Grab your bike and/or some non-perishable food and join us for Cranksgiving!

Sunday, November 7th, 10 A.M. at Schlafly Bottleworks

BicycleWORKS and Trailnet will host the 5th annual Cranksgiving bicycle ride to help out our friends at Food Outreach. Riders can choose from a 5-, 10- or 25-mile route where they’ll be asked to visit several local grocery stores in order to buy food to donate. Last year, this event attracted around 500 riders and collected over 3,400 food items, making it one of the leading Cranksgiving rides in the country.

The TOKY family has been a long-time supporter of BicycleWORKS and their many projects. This year, Jamie Banks-George designed the awesome poster and t-shirt!

For more information check go to stlbikeworks.com. We hope to see you there!

TOKY work has been nominated for 16 Addys in this year’s Ad Club of St. Louis “best of” review.

For us, the cool part is that we were nominated in so many different categories, for doing so many different kinds of things: web sites, print brochures, brand identity, photography, high-end invitations and holiday cards, posters and video storytelling.

Here’s a list of our nominations: