Bianchi received her BFA in 1991 from The
University of The Arts in Philadelphia. A free spirit, she worked freelance
in New York City trying her hand at everything from packaging design to
publishing. In 1999, when the Carbone Smolan Agency was transforming the
‘Children’s Television Workshop’ into Sesame
Workshop, Design Director Justin Peters asked her to come on as
lead designer on the new identity system.
After a successful Sesame Workshop launch, which included a trade show booth and 100+ page brand standards manual, the Carbone Smolan Agency asked Christa to stay on and head up more branding projects. Eventually. the firm recognized a need for an interactive director who was as comfortable in the print world as online. They chose Christa for that critical role.
Subsequent projects included the Deloitte & Touche Women’s Initiative Annual report in 2000 &mdash an e-brochure using then controversial and pioneering technologies for which Christa was quoted in Graphic Design USA as saying “Change and accessibility were the themes that drove the creative process”.
Recognizing the firm’s need for an online portfolio, Christa headed up the initiative to re–design carbonesmolan.com. The project was challenging, as the firm already had a web site, the performance of web browsers had not been standardized, and the penetration of broadband was questionable. Because Carbone Smolan’s strengths lie in the quality of their creative, Christa advocated a Flash portfolio. Those choices proved to make an effective portfolio site for the agency, which they still use today.
At the same time, Christa was studying web design and development; earning certificates in both, alongside some of the most award-winning pioneers of interactive design of the time. At The New School and Parsons in New York City she took classes with inspired interactive NYC professionals including the late Keith Alexander, (then of BBDO), Jacob Dobkin (then IBM’s interactive director, now publisher of Gothamist), Matthew Richmond, (of the award-winning Chopping Block) and the world – renowned Josh Davis (originally at praystation.com).
had a vision of interactive design playing a vital role in
creative strategy and branding. She recognized a need to bring the refinement of print
work to the dynamics of online, and vice versa. The cross-pollination of
conventional design processes are emerging as greater than the sum of their
parts. She launched and incorporated BIANCHI in 2003 with this vision in mind. Since then, BIANCHI
is a thriving network of creative professionals with the capabilities to deliver the
best that print and web media have to offer.
BIANCHI continues to deliver winning strategy and design with this unique perspective. The approach is founded on a few simple ideas:
- Define the project goals, well.
- Design everything for the project goals.
- Depict the brand as a simple, unified whole.
- Position the brand so that it stands out.
- Design for the audiences’ point-of-view.
- Produce print pieces with a high level of press quality.
- Produce interactive pieces utilizing the best technology suited to the project goals.
- Don’t recommend anything the client doesn’t need.
- Make each design beautiful and unique to the client.
