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Design Army takes risks, captures rewards with Adobe® CreativeSuite® 5 sotware

When Pum and Jake Leebure take on a project, halway is not in their vocabulary.he trendsetters believe that the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward—and this

philosophy rees them to wholeheartedly explore uncharted artistic territory and

master the art o the possible. In 2003, their newly ounded design studio, Design

Army, was a orce o two: Pum and Jake, working rom their kitchen table. hey

had to build a portolio to show clients, so they treated each project as i it was the

last one they would set out to do.

oday, the husband and wie team has transormed their business skills and love o design into a

orce o nine designers working rom the irm’s own custom-built oices. he multi-disciplinary irm

has a client list that relects a balanced mix o small businesses and international giants, including GE,

Verizon, Disney, Human Rights Campaign, Marriott International Inc., Relish, Ritz-Carlton, RockportPublishers, Smithsonian Institute, and Washington Ballet. he studio’s oundation is based on a

traditional design sensibility, color that sizzles, and extensive use o the latest technologies, including

Adobe Creative Suite 5 sotware.

“In many ways, we are very old school when it comes to creativity, especially in the early stages .

Our designers ill up hundreds o sketchbooks a year exploring concepts,” says Pum. “he Design

Army way is sketch, sketch, sketch. We save about 15 rounds o edits just by ocusing on the idea

versus the execution. hen we move into Adobe Creative Suite sotware to execute the chosen idea

across print, web, and interactive media.”

Design Army

Te art o the visual

Design Army

Washington, D.C.www.designarmy.com

www.howdesign.com/adobeproject 

www.printmag.com/article/ 

adobe-project 

www.designarmy.com/wonderland 

Adobe Creative Suite Success Story

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Print to interactive, without codeDesign Army is a project-based s tudio, producing approximately 400 projects per year: 50% or

ashion- arts- and entertainment-based clients, 30% or corporate, and 20% or nonproit and other

clients. he Design Army team is known or juggling 50 jobs at any one time, and many are ull

branding campaigns.One o the projects Design Army is most proud o is Wonderland , a pro bono project or the Washington

Ballet that unolded over a period o two years , created in collaboration with photographer Cade

Martin. Originally designed or print, Wonderland is a one-o-a-kind book commemorating Septime

Webre’s 10th year as the dance company’s artist ic director. With over 50 dancers perorming in

locations throughout Washington D.C. , the book is a genuinely unique blend o art and ashion.

“It was a eat just getting the permits to shoot the project over our weekends in D.C. due to the

security requirements,” says Jake. “We were sometimes shooting in places with no electricity and

no bathrooms. A lot o people in addition to us, such as Cade, donated their time. While it wasn’t

our initial goal, we wound up raising close to $80,000 to keep children’s programs related to the

Washington Ballet alive.”

Ater the success o Wonderland , both Print and HOW magazines asked the studio to convert the

print version to a ully animated project. o do this, Design Army turned to Adobe Flash® Catalyst ® CS5

sotware. he interactive companion piece to the project equals the print version in elegance and

beauty, yet users can interactively explore it, going rom sketches to animated dancers, or example.

o start out, designers created the pages and the states needed in Adobe Illustrator® to set the stage

or the interaction design. Any images or artwork that needed retouching were brought into Adobe

Photoshop® CS5 Extended beore being placed back into Illustrator CS5. he Illustrator layout was

then exported and opened in Flash Catalyst, where designers deined rames, s tates, interaction

designs, and transitions—all without having to write code.

Challenge

•Createaninteractivecompanion

pieceforanon-protprintproject

usingin-housedesignersandwithout

writingcode

•Maximizedesignexploration

•Increaseeciencywhilemaximizing

creativepotential

•Enabledesignerstoownprojects

onceanideaischosen

Solution

•UseAdobeFlashCatalystCS5to

transformAdobeIllustratorartwork

intointeractivepiece

•Increaseproductivityandspur

creativitythroughintegrationand

consistencyofAdobeCreative  

Suite5soware

Benefts

•Explorednewavenuesandformats

bycreatinginteractivepiecebased

onprintedbook

•Raisednearly$80,000forthe

WashingtonBallet

•Enableddesignerstoaddinteractivity

toalltypesofprojectsquickly,

withoutwritingcode

•Reducedproductiontime

•Fueledcreativity

•Enabledend-to-endproject

ownership

Wonderland , a pro bono project or the Washington Ballet that unolded over a period o two years, wascreated in collaboration with photographer Cade Martin. Utilizing Adobe Creative Suite 5 soware,Wonderland is a unique blend o art and ashion that eatures over 50 dancers per orming in locationsthroughout Washington D.C.

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“What’s most inspiring about Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 is seeing a static design animate and come

to lie so quickly and easily,” says Charles Calixto, print and interactive designer or Design Army.

“he ability to see your animations in real time, instead o in code, gets any visual thinker excited

because you can immediately see what is happening.”

he use o Flash Catalyst on the Wonderland project opened a new world o design possibilities or

the studio. For interactive projects, a ast-growing part o the business, designers previously created

static comps or clients to click through and get a sense o animation and pacing. Now, designers

can quickly develop user interactions and transitions in Flash Catalyst without coding.

“With Flash Catalyst, we can show clients what we have in mind much sooner in the process,” says

Calixto. “Flash Catalyst has us thinking and moving in new, exciting directions. We are looking into

adding more interactivity on our web projects, building web applications, creating pages with

user-generated content, and more.”

Pride of ownershipAdobe Flash Catalyst CS5 is the newest addition to the Design Army toolset, but the studio has been

using Adobe Creative Suite since day one. his includes adopting Adobe InDesign® CS when the

irm’s print providers were still on QuarkXPress. “At the time, we were redesigning a national magazine,

and we told our vendors they had to move to InDesign to land the job,” recalls Pum. “It was a good

decision because it’s so much easier or us using a consistent, integrated sotware toolset.”

he co-ounders say the decision to start out with an all Adobe worklow has proven beneicial or

a number o reasons. he integration among Adobe tools improves e iciency to meet the demandingdeadlines o hundreds o projects a year. “With Adobe, it’s all about cross-program portability,” says

Calixto. “Being able to copy and paste objects , layers, text, and so on rom one program into another

with no ormat changes really helps cut down on production time.”

Adobe tools also have an even more undamental appeal—they support a worklow that gives

designers ownership o projects rom start to inish. hey can complete print projects using Adobe

Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign sotware or web and interactive projects using Photoshop,

Flash Catalyst, and Adobe Flash Proessional.

“Te Design Army way 

is sketch, sketch,

 sketch…Ten we

move into Adobe

Creative Suite

 soware to execute

the chosen idea

across print, web,

and interactive media.” 

Pum Lefebure

Co-founder and creativedirector, Design Army

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 is the newest addition to the Design Army toolset, but the studio has been usingAdobe Creative Suite since day one. Te integration among Adobe tools improves efciency to meet thedemanding deadlines o hundreds o projects a year.

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Adobe Systems Incorporated345 Park AvenueSan Jose, CA 95110-2704USAwww.adobe.com

© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Suite, Flash, Fl ash Catalyst, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks o AdobeSystems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property o their respective owners.

91044835 2/11

“With Adobe Creative Suite, our designers don’t have to hand o projects to a creative director or a

production person,” says Jake. “hey enjoy being able to take their projects ull circle once an idea

is selected. It’s the end o the studio assembly line.”

Time for playWhile the studio has a growing client base and a hectic work schedule, the Design Army team still

inds time or un—and or eeding the creative muse. hey create wrapping papers and Design

Army products. hey also have an ongoing project on their Facebook page called Color Consumption,

where the world can see Design Army’s avorite color combinations, oten inspired by Pum’s mood,

and each identiied with a meaningul moniker.

“Just like the way Jake and I live our lives, we encourage all o our designers to try something risky

rather than something sae,” says Pum. “he wealth o cool projects we get to work on here is

endless and it stems rom collaboration and enthusiasm, as well as adoption o the latest tools.”

WONDERLAND Creative and Art Direction by Design Army, www.designarmy.com . Photography by 

Cade Martin, www.cademartin.com. Client: he Washington Ballet, www.washingtonballet.org.

“With Adobe Creative Suite, our designers don’t have to hand 

of projects to a creative director or a production person.

Tey enjoy being able to take their projects ull circle once

an idea is selected.” 

 Jake LefebureCo-founder and CEO,

Design Army

Designers at Design Army have creative reedom. Tey are encouraged to experiment—andonce their ideas are accepted, they can realize them in Adobe Creative Suite 5 soware.

For more inormation 

www.adobe.com/products/ 

creativesuite

Toolkit

AdobeCreativeSuite5.Components

usedinclude:

•AdobeFlashCatalystCS5

•AdobeFlashProfessionalCS5

•AdobeIllustratorCS5

•AdobeInDesignCS5

•AdobePhotoshopCS5Extended