Encore Careers

December 2008, designed by Landor

The Encore Careers campaign helps people, at the end of their mid-life careers, to find a new job — personally fulfilling work that makes a difference in the world.  It is an idea, really, surrounded by a set of programs and services. You, too, can "join Encore.org to be part of the growing movement for work that matters in the second half of life."

This engaging initiative, of increasing importance to us all as we age with health and vigor, comes to us from a think tank called Civic Ventures, founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur and author Marc Freedman.

Recognizing that the difference between a nice idea and a social movement can be called "branding," VP Communications Stefanie Weiss put out an RFP.  Landor's proposal won the assignment.  (Landor's pro bono rates, Stephanie noted, "didn't seem like that to us"  ...which is as it should be. Pro bono means "for good;" it need not and should not mean "for free.") 

Landor explored a range of design strategies and presented four, including one inspired by this quote:   "The famous mid-life crisis is a search for punctuation, for the feeling that one is making a new start"  (anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson).

Freedman found the semicolon to be a groundbreaking idea, "just like us," and it was accepted with enthusiasm (subject, it is true, to focus group verification). The simple presentation idea "Then; Now," in the launch campaign (below, also by Landor), nails the idea. Weiss says there are signs it's entering the language; she is hearing things like "I'm in that semicolon phase."

Me, I'm somewhere between the semicolon and the period (bluntly, the British say Full Stop).  My favorite mark is the ellipsis ...

Credits:
CEO:  Marc Freedman
VP Communications: Stefanie Weiss
Design:  Landor Associates