DesignThinkers: Design Army

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Pum and Jake Lefebure

Jake and Pum Lefebure are the husband and wife duo leading Design Army, a successful firm located in Washington, DC. The presentation was divided a bit like "his" and "hers". He takes care of business development, but it seems that she is in charge of the creative vision. A behind-the-scenes video showed the pair at a photoshoot, with Pum communicating the vision and attending to details and Jake with a coffee in hand, sometimes napping. It seems that they play this dynamic up for effect and judging from the caliber of their work, there are no slackers in the Design Army. Their style is a combination of highly art-directed stylized photography with boutique custom typography.

Pum Lefebure with Design Army's work for Neenah Paper.

Washington Ballet

Washington Bride and Groom magazine spread.

Design Army is active in promoting their firm and their partnership (mainly through styled photographs of themselves) published in DC lifestyle magazines and design journals. They are also advocates of entering their work in design annuals and claim to get a lot of new business through the exposure. They believe that if you exert the effort and cover the cost of producing great imagery for use by the media, it will pay off in free publicity because many publications are looking for quality images under time and budget constraints. As a publisher, I would agree with this statement—though the glamorous, styled image that Design Army projects isn't the UPPERCASE aesthetic, I do look for high quality images. 

    If you'd like to be featured in UPPERCASE, here is what I look for when reviewing submissions:

    • Clear, succinct, informative writing 

    • Object photos are well-lit on a simple backdrop (white is nice) or shown in-situ

    • Illustration previews as good scans or as jpg files

    • Intriguing workspaces that show the creative process

    • Photos of the artist or artisan either against a simple backdrop or shown in his/her studio

    • High resolution image files easily available through a provided link (i.e. don't send or email high res images without asking!)

    • All relevant (working!) links and contact information

    Please also follow the submission guidelines here. >>>