Letterheads & Envelope Sets

Client: Universal Tax Service
Creative Firm: Gee + Chung Design - San Francisco, CA, USA
Creative Team: Earl Gee - Creative Director/Designer/Illustrator

Accounting is serious business, and Universal Tax Service in San Francisco wanted to convey their no-nonsense approach through its stationery. " Whenever [the client] sat down with us to do our taxes, we were always amazed at how facile she was with her adding machine," says Gee + Chung Design, also in San Francisco. "We felt the adding machine printout would be an ideal solution to effectively convey the firm's dedication to organization, precision and accuracy. Our biggest challenge was to not over-design, but to allow the simplicity of the typography and layout to come forward."

Gee + Chung used the adding machine conceit to make Universal's letterhead and envelope sets; the stationery's typography, flush right layout and three-panel business card design, indeed, suggest an adding machine printout, complete with familiar arithmetic symbols. Additionally, "throughout each stationery component, the address, telephone and fax numbers, Web site, title and e-mail fields are highlighted in red, creating a typographic system in which each group of information is defined by a sum total." The client recognized the inspiration right away. "She immediately got it, and we hoped her clients would have the same reaction," says the agency. It did-Universal Tax Service says that the stationery's clear, concise and conceptual design helped attract a significant number of new clients. Gee + Chung couldn't be happier: "Our goal was to 'make it count,' and it appears we were successful."