FPAC and AIGA presented the exhibit POSTGIG — A Compilation of Music Posters, Curated by Clifford Stoltze, which complements the recent launch of his book 1000 Music Graphics. This special one week exhibit included original posters by: Modern Dog, Aesthetic Apparatus, Patent Pending, The Small Stakes, Seripop, Hammerpress, The Decoder Ring and many more. View pictures of the opening reception here.

Rockport Publishers and Stoltze Design hosted a party at Saint Nightclub in Boston's Back Bay to celebrate the release of Clifford Stoltze's newest book 1000 Music Graphics. View pictures of the celebration here.

Boston Globe Living Arts writer Christopher Muther talks with Stoltze about his new book, poster art and the past, present and future of music design. Read the article here 
View the Boston Globe gallery of selections from the book and Clif's collection, includes commentary.

STEP magazine article focuses on designers whose passion inspires us. Snapshots of the history of Clifford Stoltze's passion for music accompany his talk with Sheree Clark. View it here

Clifford Stoltze, President of Stoltze Design, a leading Boston-based design studio serving a diverse clientele, will present a survey of more than 30 years of design for music at this year's HOW Design Conference in Atlanta. Stoltze, who himself broke into the music packaging industry and has created a rich body of work in the genre, and is curating the upcoming book 1,000 Music Graphics, will feature inspiring favorites from his personal LP/CD collection. In his presentation entitled LP2CD+ Clif will offer insights and discuss the state of the sleeve in the era of digital downloads. Clif will be among many design luminaries presenting, including Steff Geissbuhler, Kit Hinrichs, Chip Kidd, and Sharon Werner at this annual creativity, business, and technology conference for graphic designers. More than 3,000 graphic designers, art directors, creative directors, illustrators and other design professionals are expected to participate in this year's Conference.

Clifford Stoltze talks with HOW Magazine about his music collection and the ever-present inspiration to his work: the packaging design behind the music. Clif shares his passion for album art and its influence on his decision to become a graphic designer. Read the interview at http://howdesign.com/dc/features/cliffordstoltze.asp

Stoltze Design, a leading Boston-based design studio serving a diverse clientele, has hired Robert Beerman as Design Director. Bob was previously Principal and Design Director at Sametz Blackstone Associates. He brings over a decade of distinguished experience developing branding and identities for a wide range of clients such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra (including Boston Pops and Tanglewood), Harvard Museum of Natural History, MIT Sloan School of Management, 90.9 WBUR and the WBUR Group (an affiliate of National Public Radio), and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. A member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Bob's work has been published internationally and has received numerous awards from Communication Arts, Print, AIGA, and the Type Director's Club of New York. He holds a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts). In addition to his successful design career, Bob also founded the critically-acclaimed instrumental rock band Pell Mell in 1980. Pell Mell has released recordings on labels including Geffen, Matador, and SST, and their music continues to be featured in films, radio, and television-most notably, HBO's Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. "Bob's design leadership and strategic branding experience will benefit our clients tremendously, who look to us for conceptual thinking and problem solving to create imaginative visual communications for interactive and print media," said Clifford Stoltze, President of Stoltze Design. "His design sensibilities combined with his musical background are a natural fit with the studio's creative culture, and dovetail nicely with our niche in entertainment."

Stoltze Design, a leading Boston-based design studio serving a diverse clientele, has a new home in the Midway Studios at 15 Channel Center Street in Boston. "After 20 years on Melcher Street, we wanted to remain in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood," said Clifford Stoltze. "We value the distinctive character and diverse community of artists, businesses, cultural institutions, and the exciting developments emerging in the Seaport area." Stoltze's new design studio features an open floor plan with exposed brick and beam. The build-out was designed in part by artist Jeff Smith, whose extraordinary carpentry and innovative use of recycled materials give the new space a truly unique look-and-feel. Stoltze plans an art opening/open house in May to celebrate the new space, where Smith's artwork will also be on display.

Clifford Stoltze and Senior Designer Roy Burns of Stoltze Design will present StereoType: A Compilation of Music Typography at TypeCon 2006, to be held in Boston from August 9-13, 2006. StereoType is a speedy survey of over 30 years of high notes in music packaging design with an emphasis on typography, and will feature inspiring favorites from Clif and Roy's own LP/CD collections, as well as a few "top fives" of notable and notorious music typography. They will also discuss some of Stoltze Design's projects for the music industry, and conclude with their thoughts on the state of music typography in the era of digital downloads. Special events at TypeCon 2006 include the Third Annual Typophile Film Festival, the big Saturday night party, the Type and Design Education Forum, a field trip to the Museum of Printing, and much more! For more information, visit http://www.typecon.com/tc2006/

Clifford Stoltze was honored last night by the AIGA and the Boston design community as the recipient of the 2005 AIGA Boston Fellow Award. The prestigious biannual award is given by regional chapters to a member who has made an outstanding contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct in the design profession. The opening reception and exhibition of Stoltze's work was held at The Art Institute of Boston followed by an awards ceremony. "Stoltze Design thrives on working with a diverse, wonderful group of clients, many of whom we have served for a long time, said Clif Stoltze upon receiving the award. "This exhibit celebrates these partnerships with a cross section of the work produced collaboratively by many exceptionally talented members of Stoltze Design, past and present, with the help of significant contributions by writers, photographers, illustrators, printers, programmers, and project managers. Heartfelt thanks to all who contributed to these and the many other projects that have added to our success and helped make us the thriving studio that we are today."

Stoltze Design was featured on the Alternative Pick's website in 2003. Click here to go to article.

The MIT Chemical Engineering Website web.mit.edu/cheme/ wins one of two silver UCDA awards. Other UCDA award winning pieces include Boston University's alumni magazine,Impressions, and the Massachusetts College of Art annual report.

OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music 3 cd compilation was selected as a winner in I.D. Magazine's Annual Design Review. Look for it in the July/August issue.

Stoltze Design picked up three Best of Show awards and a total of 7 pieces included in the 4th Annual Best of New England Award Show held at the Massachusetts College of Art on June 7th. With less than 5% of the entrants going home with a Bone award, it was a special night for the studio, who won Best of Show awards for their designs for the Charlene Single LP, Lunch TV logo and Dos Passos USA Trilogy book cover series.

Clif Stoltze comments, "The BoNE show is a great event because it brings the Boston design community closer, spotlights new, upcoming talent and recognizes some of the best work out there. Seeing this wonderfully-designed exhibit of great work makes me feel proud to be part of this community."

There were over 800 entries received this year, 117 of those were selected for the exhibition­from that number, only 39 were granted BoNE awards.

During the 5th annual Webby Awards gala held on July 18th in San Francisco, the Fact Monster web site, www.factmonster.com designed by Stoltze Design, won top honors under the 'Kids' category. The award was one out of twenty-seven handed out to recognize exceptional achievement in the digital arts community for technology and creativity.

The honored site, Fact Monster, is a children's educational site conceptualized by The Learning Network. Through its easy to navigate interface, the site offers fun, facts and resources from the Information Please Almanac series. The site is geared towards children aged 9 - 14.

The Webby Awards, www.thewebbyawards.com, are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and strive to capture the dynamic qualities of the online community both through those that are honored and the award show itself. The nominees are chosen to demonstrate the kinds of sites that Internet users visit daily for information and entertainment. The award show was conceptual in nature and tied-in closely to the nature of the digital arts through its fast pace and strong visual presentation.

This is the second award that factmonster.com has garnered this year. The first was a NEWD (New England Web Design) awarded in February 2001.

During the 2nd annual New England Web Design Awards gala held in February, Stoltze Design was honored with Best E-zine/Content Site for its work, www.factmonster.com. The award was one out of the eleven total that were handed out that evening. The winners were chosen from a field of over 750 entries that were submitted from designers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Categories ranged from Best E-commerce Experience to Best Flash Site.

The honored site, www.factmonster.com , is a children's educational site conceptualized by The Learning Network. Through its easy to navigate interface, the site offers fun, facts and resources from the Information Please Almanac series. The site is geared towards children aged 9 - 14.

To better brand the Factmonster name, and to create a friendly 'tourguide' for the site, Stoltze Design proposed creating a fact monster character. In collaboration with illustrator Mark Fisher, the Gargowl -half gargoyle, half owl - was born. The slightly eerie custom logo type was created in the same style, rounding out the corporate identity. To further appeal to children, bright colors in unexpected hues and simple graphic shapes were used throughout the site.

"Children today are bombarded with communication-they spend hours online, watch tv, play video games, and have developed a level of savvy that can't be ignored. Our challenge was to design something whimsical and fanciful without being too elementary or immature in the execution." commented Clifford Stoltze, of Stoltze Design and the art director on the project. Cindy Patten of Stoltze Design was the project designer.

The New England Web Design (NEWD) Awards (www.newd.org) are sponsored by Aquent and are two years old. The finalists and winners are chosen by the impressions of the 10 judges and the NEWD committee members.

Stoltze Design will also be featured in an 8 page spread in Hot Graphics U.S.A. published by Madison Square Press.

Annette Farrington was presented the DIY Album Art Of The Year award, based on the outstanding design for "Azure Wonder & Lust," at the DIY Music Festival in L.A., California on February 9th. The album was also awarded honorable mention for DIY Album of the Year.