Elixir Design’s 30th Anniversary Elixir Elixir
After years of musing about potions and elixirs, a friend introduced us to Dr. Giulietta Octavio, a somatic healer and doctor of integrative traditional Chinese medicine with a private practice in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district. In honor of Elixir Design’s 30th year, it was beyond good of her to let us label one as our own.
Mixed Emotions
In a year of mixed emotions (2021), we created the Mixed Emotions Card Set, a simple but effective way to convey any set of feelings. Going way beyond the Hallmark card, each set contains 4 sets each of 25 different emotions, with 25 vellum envelopes and blank notecards to layer together into ultra-personalized cards suited for any mixture of emotions.
NO THING Holiday Mailer
Countdown to Something
Fall 2020—in the grip of the pandemic—we wanted to give our community something to look forward to. So we created a vibrant 30-day countdown to something.
Typify App & Holiday Letters
As designers we have a soft spot for fonts and know how much personality a font can convey. We were inspired to create an app that utilized a font library to allow for personalization outside of the standard reliance on photos. We wanted to allow for an easy way to create a small mark that could stand in and represent a person—a fast and simple personal icon generator that could be useful in filling a void. We also felt there was an urgent need to harness emojis in an easy yet visually potent way. Our hope is this app will enable people to create customized icons outside of the standard photo options and work seamlessly for teams.
Bucket List
Election Mailer
In November 2016, with democracy on display, we produced a 1,383 day countdown—and a vow—until the next election.
Fingerless Gloves
The first iphone was introduced in the summer of 2007, and we had an inkling that fingerless gloves would be life-enhancing. The trouble was that we couldn’t find them anywhere so we had them made in fern green cashmere. Then we rented out the Pelican Inn for a few hours on a Monday, and wrapped them in a box, bound the box with string, and immersed the box in fresh peanuts.
Clean Start
Sometimes the inspiration starts with what the receiver might like best. And sometimes, the inspiration comes from a need of our own that we are sure others share. Such was the case for 2014’s gift. After having been to one presentation—okay maybe more than one—embarrassed by a dirty monitor, we thought, surely there must be others who have this problem. We set out to solve the problem of dirty screens and keyboards and offer the new year a “clean start” in a concrete way.
Luck Favors the Prepared
In 2011, we had the curious pleasure of sharpening over 1,000 pencils in preparation for our annual holiday mailing—an Elixir tradition dating back to 1996. This year’s inspiration was a favorite quote, “Luck favors the prepared,” which has been attributed to Louis Pasteur. We had the quote foil-stamped on custom-made boxes—to house a single Blackwing pencil, along with the shavings we made while sharpening it. We outfitted everyone on our list with a sharp pencil and a compassionate eraser as we all headed into the new year and whatever it held in store.
The serendipitous backstory: Jen has a distinct childhood memory of a seemingly magic pencil with a replaceable rectangular eraser that was used by a successful and industrious grandfather figure. Having searched for them over the years, Jen was delighted to learn that the pencil had just been brought back into production that Fall by CalCedar. (The original Eberhard-Faber Blackwing 602 was made for over 60 years, from about 1933 until 1998, when it was discontinued.) Many pencil enthusiasts will tell you it’s arguably the best pencil ever made.
Silver Linings
In 2010, silver linings seemed just the aspirational thing. Enclosed operating instructions laid things out simply:
“Cover pillow with liner. Cover liner with pillow case. Rest your head. Rest your head.”
We Glove You
By popular demand, we had fingerless gloves made in merlot.
Cookie File
If you give a client a cookie…they have one snack. If you give them a treasure box of favorite family recipes with accompanying cookies, they have sweet treats to share, and the secrets to make them again. Everyone contributed a favorite cookie recipe, and we all baked together in one marathon day. We each signed on our respective cookies’ index divider. Truly handmade with love.
Calendar Shirt
Heck, before there were calendars on smart phones attached to our hands, we thought about the convenience of putting one on shirt sleeves. We sent them out with an indelible red pen to mark important events.
Checklist
Paper has its advantages. For one, you don’t need wireless or cell coverage. For those who want to make a list and check it twice, we made a very nice unconventionally long list.
New Year’s Resolution Forms
They say if you put things in writing you are more likely to make it a reality. So, we thought these “official” forms would help to that end. The forms we created are printed in triplicate—including one copy for your mother. We all signed with a festive thumbprint.
Fruit Seed of the Month Box
Forget the fruit of the month club. Why not fruit seeds of the year? There’s a reason why you don’t see cherry pits available at the garden center. Never ever attempt to make a calendar of fruit seed packets yourself… unless you want to attract a river of fruit flies by extracting seeds. This lands in the category of the Elixir extravagant gift idea that went too far. They sure looked cute though.
Mentor Shirts
Here lives everyone we love and admire all on one shirt. The idea is timeless. The cut of the t-shirt less so. The names included our parents, friends, teachers, and heavy-hitters like Fred Rogers and Jane Goodall.
Incense Sticks
By happenstance, we stumbled upon some lovely jewel-toned incense sticks in a dimly lit health food store. We felt all of our clients, friends, and family needed a set. We had the inspiration to connect each stick color and scent to a Pantone chip, thinking we were ever so clever. Evidently, the Pantone Color Matching system was released in 1963. The oldest of us learned about Pantone in 1990 or so… although it was hardly the Proclaimer of Color of the Year that it is today.
