Branding and Experiential Graphics Civic / Community / Culture

Branding & Experiential Graphics

Civic / Community / Culture

An Integrated Design Practice

From print graphics and specialty elements to wayfinding systems in the physical environment, we create authentic brand experiences that tell important stories: those of our clients. Our clients are known in multiple markets, including housing and hospitality, higher education, cultural and civic institutions, non-profit organizations, healthcare, and corporate and commercial.

The Branding & Experiential Graphic Design studio collaborates across disciplines by problem-solving with other design groups including: architecture, interior architecture, campus planning, and urban design. Our ability to draw on a wide range of capabilities and experiences provides us with the tools to deliver the best and most appropriate solution for every client. Our specialties include:

Branding and Identity

Experiential Graphics and Placemaking

Integrated Wayfinding Systems

Signage and Master Planning

Donor Recognition

Print Collateral and Messaging

Website and Digital Design

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Louisiana State University

AFFILIATIONS

American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD)

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

29 years in Industry / 01 year with Page

James Wheat, AIGA, SEGD

Lead Experiential Graphic Designer / Associate Principal Page

*Denotes project completed at another firm.

An accomplished, trusted, and versatile design leader that seeks to pave the way for brands through the built world, James utilizes Brand Management, Signage, Experiential Graphics, Retail Design, Place-making, Interior Fixtures and Finishes, and an understanding of architectural plans and layouts to lead both design direction and design teams. His creative leadership has taken him throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Aruba.

RELEVANT PROJECT EXPERIENCE

ABB Corporate Headquarters Houston, Texas

Capella Pedregal Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S. Mexico

Champion Forest Baptist Church Houston, Texas

Dell Computer Corporation Corporate Headquarters Round Rock, Texas

Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston Houston, Texas

Hilton San Francisco Multiple Projects San Francisco, California

Hotel Zaza Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas

La Toretta Lake Resort & Spa Houston, Texas

Lone Star College University Park Houston, Texas

Marriott Vacation Club Crystal Shores Marco Island, Florida

Minute Maid Park Houston, Texas

Pearl River Resort Philadelphia, Mississippi

Post Oak Boulevard Project Mixed Use

Houston, Texas

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church and School Houston, Texas

Sysco Facility Corporate Headquarters Houston, Texas

Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA Houston, Texas

The Ashton Houston, Texas

The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston Houston, Texas

Toyota Center Houston, Texas

YMCA Camp Cullen Houston, Texas

“Page’s creativity has been transforming downtown Houston for nearly two decades through unique projects, from the Rice Hotel to Discovery Green to the George R. Brown Convention Center transformation.

James’ Houston downtown expertise includes Minute Maid and Toyota Center, Hilton Americas-Houston, and Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA. Together, we continue to influence change around downtown and the greater Houston area in an exciting and positive way.”

Jeff Mechlem, Principal Managing Director / Houston, Texas Page, Inc.

JAMES WHEAT PREVIOUS WORK WITH JOE MATHIS / THE MATHIS GROUP

Selected work

We capture and articulate our clients’ vision, and deliver effective and elegant solutions that communicate a compelling story.

Branding Identity Wayfinding Placemaking Donor Recognition

Tellepsen Family YMCA

Houston, Texas

Working with The YMCA of Greater Houston and Tellepsen General Contractors, James Wheat recently developed the signage, wayfinding, LEED educational graphics, exhibit design and historic timeline for the new Downtown YMCA facility in Houston, Texas.

The Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA is the largest operating YMCA of Greater Houston, serving over 10,000 members and encompassing approximately 100,000 square feet of membership and program space. The facility includes 13,000 square feet of strength and cardio space with state of the art equipment; a suspended running track along the full length of the building; and an indoor swim center, encompassing a 25-yard, 4-lane lap pool, teaching and therapy pool, whirlpool / spa and many more ammenities. The new facility incorporates sustainable building practices and is LEED Gold Certified.

*Previous experience completed by James K. Wheat with another design firm.

Services Provided

Integrated Wayfinding Systems / Donor Recognition System Design / Signage and Experiential Graphics

JAMES WHEAT PREVIOUS WORK WITH JOE MATHIS / THE MATHIS GROUP

JAMES WHEAT PREVIOUS WORK WITH JOE MATHIS / THE MATHIS GROUP

JAMES WHEAT PREVIOUS WORK WITH JOE MATHIS / THE MATHIS GROUP

Brava

Houston, Texas

Located in the arts district of Downtown Houston, Brava stands apart from other residential towers in its shape, design, and amenities. The developer, Hines, has its headquarters across the street, so Brava had to be a showpiece with distinctive offerings. Custom thematic graphic columns are embossed with front-page headlines from the Houston Chronicle dating to 1908, harking back to Brava’s site once owned by the Houston Chronicle.

*Previous experience completed by James K. Wheat with another design firm.

Services Provided Experiential Graphics

JAMES WHEAT PREVIOUS

Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital HEAL

Donor Wall

The Woodlands, Texas

Located within the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital, Health Education and Learning (HEAL) offers the best in class clinical resources to patients and families that are experiencing various health challenges. Houston Methodist believes that the emotional, physical, social, and spiritual well being of an individual play a big role in the journey to wellness and recovery. The HEAL center is a place to educate them on how to embark on a more holistic healing journey.

This 8,000-square-foot space includes a commercial grade teaching kitchen for cooking lessons, a multi-purpose room for support groups and well-being classes, a group meeting room and private consultation rooms. Tucked at the end of a hallway for privacy, the Salon is an intimate space for wig and scarf fittings for cancer patients to help them build their self-confidence. Visitors and patients are welcomed into the center by a hospitality lounge and café set within a calm and refreshing palette evoking nature and a desert like ambiance of soft beige and blush tones and pops of greens, as well as bespoke interior features as vertical wood screens, delicate pendant lights and a fireplace. The artwork consisting of pieces by various local artists completes the interior environment.

Services Provided

Donor Recognition Wall

The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design updated its official name in 2019 in conjunction with an unprecedented donation from Stuart Weitzman. The school updated its name to honor Mr. Weitzman, and engaged the Branding & Experiential Graphics team to develop a brand identity and related print and digital assets for the school.

Our team has also worked with The Ian L. McHarg Center at The University of Pennsylvania School of Design. The Center aims to find ways to manage climate changes’ effects. Their mission includes bringing “environmental and social scientists together with planners, designers, policymakers, and communities to develop practical, innovative ways of improving the quality of life in the places most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.”

We have worked on many projects with the Center, first developing the new Center’s brand identity, and then extending that into multiple elements including printed pieces and a website. We have also designed exhibit identities and associated branded printed, digital, and environmental touchpoints.

Services Provided

Brand Identity / Print and Collateral Design / Signage and Experiential Graphics / Website Design

University of Maryland The A. James Clark School of Engineering Idea Factory

College Park, Maryland

The E. A. Fernandez IDEA Factory is a state-of-the-art facility that fosters innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship across disciplines. Located at the heart of the University of Maryland campus, the IDEA Factory is home to cutting-edge research and education in engineering, science, arts, and business.

Dubbed the IDEA Factory, the overall thematic was inspired by “The Andy Warhol Factory” that existed in New York City during 1960s. It was a hub of experimental studio art and performance art. Like The Factory, the University of Maryland IDEA Factory, serves to encourage students to create and experiment in areas of engineering and cutting-edge technology.

To extend the atmosphere of creativity and a hub for experimentation, the Page Experiential Graphic Design team integrated unique wayfinding and a “non-traditional” graphic approach. Conventional signage is replaced with super-size graphics. Bright colors and pop-art forms were layered into the environment for level identification with a punchy injection of pop-art personality.

Services Provided

Experiential Graphics and Placemaking / Integrated Wayfinding Systems / Donor Recognition

Frost Tower

San Antonio, Texas

Located in a booming part of downtown San Antonio and situated along the San Pedro Creek Park, it is a heavily trafficked area with continuously growing pedestrian activity. The attached parking garage features seven levels of parking, with two entrances along different street frontages. The project required an extensive wayfinding system with pedestrian and vehicular touchpoints, tenant identification, and coderequired room identification. In addition to providing a seamless arrival experience, the wayfinding and signage system needed to act as an extension of the building character and greet guests upon arrival. Our design solution took cues from the iconic faceted tower design, with care not to replicate the design above. All sign bodies were designed with faceted elements that reveal contrasting finishes and sparkle under changing light. High-visibility touchpoints were designed with three-dimensional facets that span across different planes and give the signage a gem-like quality.

The wayfinding signage features custom-designed numerals that were machined out of solid aluminum for the interior. The parking garage features handpainted numerals and wayfinding elements on the raw concrete.

Interior room identification plaques were designed with three different finish levels to provide form and material options for the varied surfaces in which signs had to be installed. High-visibility plaques—such as those used in the building lobby—were machined out of aluminum bodies. Back-of-house spaces feature simple and more cost-effective acrylic signage with the same faceted vocabulary that is achieved with a painted and glossed application.

Overall, this project represents the ideal partnership between EGD designers, architecture teams, fabricators, general contractors, and client stakeholders. Together, the design team was able to achieve a high-quality system that is memorable and functional—all within budget.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, Georgia

Page has a long-standing relationship with Georgia Tech and has designed campus-wide signage including Tech’s signature entrance pylons as well as establishing the University’s signage standards for both exterior and interior signage.

The exterior signage system is a unique design—a kit of parts with a color-coded system to provide clear differentiation to a color blind person and help distinguish between districts. Our team has experience developing graphics for many of the Tech’s sports training facilities as well as unique campus interpretive signage to support health and wellness.

The modular and flexible interior sign system has been rolled out to all campus buildings. This system offers opportunities to customize the signage to aid in wayfinding and coordinate with the interior design in the building.

As part of the review and approval process for these projects, we’ve held work sessions and gained approval from several Georgia Tech stakeholders including Capital Planning & Space Management, Facilities Design & Construction and individual Colleges.

Georgia Institute of Technology’s Commons expresses the trend toward that accommodate today’s more experience. How students access our wayfinding approach reflects like airports and transit stations where delivered for quick choice, directional plan of each floor is in the mode

Clough Undergraduate Learning toward open, flexible classroom spaces interactive, less linear educational access information is similarly changing, and that. Borrowing from environments where destination information must be directional signage is located high, and the of a universally-understood transit map.

In applying the metaphor of a subway transit map to the building, each level has been simplified into three zones: the East Line, the West Line, and the Loop Line. Directional, directory, and identification signs on each floor reinforce these zones.

Services Provided

Campus Signage and Wayfinding Standards / Integrated Wayfinding Systems / Experiential Graphics and Placemaking

Ruby Hotel

Round Rock, Texas

Located on the banks of Brushy Creek, the Ruby Hotel revives an existing mid-century house and sets two new buildings on the creek-side site. The renovated house includes a full-service cocktail bar, a conference area and ample gathering spaces that spill out onto a new deck equal to the size of the house. The outdoor spaces overlook the pool, grounds and the creek, providing a beautiful view of the Central Texas landscape and creek, nestled beneath the branches of the native live oak trees.

The two new, two-story buildings contain 39 rooms, whose art and objects personalize each space and read as pieces from Ruby’s extensive collection. The new buildings are connected by a breezeway, protecting guests from the elements while keeping the grounds open and accessible. The interior finishes are done in jewel tones inspired by the mid-century era, creating a feeling of elegance and timelessness in each carefully cultivated space. The original house finishes spill over into the reception area, drawing guests into the era of Ruby from the moment they enter the hotel.

Services Provided

The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School

Austin, Texas

The University of Texas at Austin is the first tier-one public university in the United States to build a new medical school in almost 50 years. The vision of the Dell Medical School is to develop new approaches for teaching, patient care, and research—all with the greater goal to transform medical education and healthcare delivery.

With the intent to capture this ambitious spirit, we were charged with developing an identity for the new school that communicates innovation and energy, and that could support efforts to recruit faculty and students and develop groundbreaking curricula and partnerships.

Looking at everything with fresh eyes and a new start is at the heart of the school’s mission and led to the creation of the “Rethink Everything” identity and campaign.

The campaign became an effective tool for promoting the school and its greater vision of transforming healthcare. Community leaders embraced the campaign and its slogan as a way of talking about the medical school and its impact on the community and well-being of Austin.

As a new medical school that anchors a growing health district, Dell Med wanted to make sure it would be easy for the students, visiting faculty, physicians and others to arrive and get to their destinations easily. Our team designed a comprehensive signage and wayfinding program for the new district, as well as specialty graphics and interior storytelling elements for the Health Learning Building.

The wayfinding program included the design and development of a custom wayfinding micro-site that utilizes MapWell technology. Leslie Wolke and Page/Branding & Graphics collaborated on this aspect of the project.

Services Provided

Brand Identity / Identity Guidelines / Print and Marketing Design / Signage and Experiential Graphics

The Westcott

Houston, Texas

The goal of The Westcott was connect with a feeling of home in a park setting, embrace Memorial Park, and integrate luxury, elegance and comfort into the bustling edge of Crestwood.

A multifamily residence, infused with the gracious charm mid-century inspired club house, it incorporates timeless, subtle materials the backdrop for shapely and inviting vintage inspired furnishings and art.

The Westcott is a multifamily project with 315 units and 18,000 square feet of amenity spaces including a ground floor lounge for co-working, receiving guests, or waiting for a ride share service; a mezzanine lounge; a co-work space with exterior terrace; a full clubroom with media and game lounges; pool courtyard with cabana lounges; fitness with separate on demand and yoga rooms; and a sky lounge that shares the expansive views of the beautiful neighborhood immediately adjacent and the Houston skyline beyond.

Page also designed the unit finishes, millwork, and lighting fixtures; guest suites; and all amenity and model furnishings, art, and accessories. Services

The Holdsworth Center

Houston, Texas

The Holdsworth Center is a non-profit organization with the objective to improve public education in Texas by building leadership capacity. The organization, founded by Charles Butt in 2017, partners with public school districts over a unique five-year training program that focuses on leadership development with tailored approaches based on individual district needs and goals.

The Campus on Lake Austin is a state-of-the-art campus that includes indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, event spaces, guest and hotel lodging, a fitness center, social hub, and learning dock—all seamlessly integrated within the native landscape and overlooking the Colorado River.

Our team created a brand, visual identity and message platform for the organization. We applied the brand to specialty graphics, wayfinding and placemaking for the campus as well as all the marketing and messaging touchpoints for use in web and print collateral.

The experiential graphics and wayfinding were designed with the architectural palette and the landscape of this sensitive site on Lake Austin. Our big-picture objective was for the graphics program to be an extension of the promise and vision of The Holdsworth Center and to provide unique moments that encourage growth, reflection and a drive for excellence.

Services Provided

Services Provided

Signage / Wayfinding / Donor Recognition Design / Experiential Graphic Design

The University of Texas at Austin College of Communication Belo Center for New Media

Austin, Texas

The Belo Center for New Media was built in 2012 for the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication. The Dyal team was engaged by project architect Lawrence Group to design environmental graphics, wayfinding and donor recognition elements for the five-story, 100,000-square-foot building.

The Belo Corporation, the building’s namesake, is a storied Texas institution that started as a newspaper company in 1842 and founded the state’s oldest newspaper. Our designs feature elements that pay tribute to the Belos and their legacy and impact on journalism, by employing classic newspaper vocabularies.

Building identification and donor pieces recall “hot metal” composition racks and type. The honorific installation recognizing third generation Belo Corporation leaders Joe M. Dealy, H. Ben Decher and James M. Moroney Jr. features a vintage photograph reproduced as a large newspaper-style metal plate photo.

Services Provided

Brand Identity / Communications Strategy / Messaging Strategy and Development / Graphic Design / Print Design / Web Design / Donor Recognition / Signage and Experiential Graphics

People’s Community Clinic Donor Recognition

Austin, Texas

People’s Community Clinic is an Austin, Texas institution. Founded in 1970 by a group of volunteers, People’s is one of the oldest, continually-running independent clinics for primary care in the nation.

Its mission is to improve the health of medically under-served and uninsured Central Texans by providing high-quality, affordable healthcare with dignity and respect. The clinic began as a free clinic, and was aptly named People’s Free Clinic. The name changed when the organization went from being volunteer run and began receiving funding from government sources. Over the years, the size of the client base and the number of services provided has grown significantly, but the mission and the personality has not wavered. With over 10,000 patients being served in their current facilities, they have recently undertaken an expansion program and we were asked to get involved in their branding and identity. In 2014, the clinic announced that it would be building a new facility— a 59,000-square-foot clinic for which it would be raising $19 million.

It was clear that their graphic identity, which had been updated once in its history, was in need of a refresh that would reflect the level of professional and innovative care that is provided. Their supporter base, and the general landscape in the healthcare world has grown to be much more sophisticated in recent years.

In addition to developing the logo and overall look and feel of the identity, we created a device whereby the word “community” could be switched out with a message, in either English or Spanish. This device offers an almost endless array of opportunities for simple, direct, mission-enforcing messaging.

The identity development kicked off in October 2014 and received approval by the Board at year’s end. The identity system has been applied to several design components, including a development piece, annual luncheon materials, and People’s website.

Let’s work together

Branding and Identity

Experiential Graphics and Placemaking

Integrated Wayfinding Systems

Signage and Master Planning

Donor Recognition

Print Collateral and Messaging

Website and Digital Design

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