The Medium is the Message

The butcher's shop theme is echoed by rugged meat-locker doors that seal manufacturing off from office space at Syndesis headquarters. Through them pass clients, invited to examine and critique work in process. Inside the manufacturing area, where Syndecrete is being made, visitors are immersed in monochrome, as if they're in a movie that's suddenly turned black-and-white. Everything in view -- walls, forklifts, stepladders, company-supplied uniforms for employees -- has been unstintingly rendered gray. Hertz calls it his "battleship aesthetic," and, of course, it serves a function. "Some companies have well-designed interiors, but the design stops on the manufacturing floor; we put a lot of money into making sure the workplace is not only safe but also attractive for customers." Consciously or not, the workers respond to the orderliness of it all by not leaving tools lying around, returning them instead to their appointed places in the storeroom.

Nor does Hertz's notion that everything matters stop there. On the street, Syndesis trucks have logos stenciled on by an expensive procedure that makes them look as though they've been chiseled into the doors. Even the tool kits Syndecrete installers take to the field have been neatly dressed with Syndesis logos. The message: if we take this much trouble for us, think what we'll do for our customers.

Stuffed with information, the cardboard binder, arriving inside one of the ubiquitous corrugated sleeves, is engineered to end up on clients' shelves. "In architects' offices," Hertz says, "if you give them a two-dimensional container, they'll place it in a file drawer, where it's never seen again. But they can't file a three-ring binder, so it goes to the general library for everyone to use as a reference." Not only that, but when Syndesis does follow-up mailings, the binder is the obvious place for recipients to stow the materials.

Not every element was deemed unfailing by the design-award judges, however. One downgrade was earned by the logo. "The product is brilliant, and the use of the corrugated material makes you stop and read about it," says Woody Pirtle, and his fellow judges agree. "Unfortunately, the identity -- the logotype -- suffers from what's happening in the design industry today with regard to typography." Specifically, Pirtle regretted that the typeface of Syndecrete had been "squeezed beyond recognition" of its classic Futura origins. Hertz, though, favors the choice on three grounds: (1) its individuality asserts that the product "isn't an imitation of anything"; (2) an instantly recognizable logo hastens brand-name identification; (3) its pronounced ruggedness "gives the idea of building blocks, like a Stonehenge."

Hertz loves photocopy machines, but more for graphic than economic ends. Rather than directly submitting a photograph to a client, Hertz may scan it through a laser printer, then photocopy the output into a high-contrast third generation. "A photocopy has an immediacy, as if it's just been imprinted," he says, "whereas a glossy photo can look too finished." And, of course, like everyone else's.

As a variation, Hertz has created a concrete countenance on stationery surfaces by reenlarging one blank sheet of copy paper through several color-photocopy runs. On that background is overprinted -- by in-house Macintoshes and laser printers -- marketing-support information. All internal transmittals, such as work-flow schedules, requests for vacation, expense vouchers, and shipping, receiving, and invoice forms are laser-printed or photocopied only as needed.

Among the stickers affixed to shipments of promotional materials is one that at first glance appears to be cheaply rendered in only two colors; on a closer look, it can be seen that Hertz had these stickers printed in four colors (which, incidentally, costs plenty). The reason: that's the label he uses to send unsolicited promotions to architects and interior designers, a discriminating audience that'll appreciate the subtle difference. "I had a hard time justifying their cost," Hertz admits, "but I feel it's worthwhile. First impressions are everything. When they get it, they automatically say, 'Wow, that company has a design aesthetic; there's a thoroughness, an identity, from the first label all the way through.' "

At Syndesis's offices, no document meets an ignominious end in a waste bucket. After it's been recirculated for printing on the other side, it goes to the shredder, there to be joined by magazines, flyers, and anything else lying around unread. "We get this interesting texture, kind of like confetti," says Hertz admiringly, who forwards the slivers to shipping for reuse as protective packing.

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