Agency of the year

For the third time—and second year in a row—, Signi was distinguished as one of the top agencies of the year in the Vision Awards, hosted by the League of American Communication Professionals (LACP). This year's competition drew more than 5000 entries from two-dozen countries.

Annual reports submitted by Signi achieved an average of 96.17 points out of 100, making it eligible for the GOLD AWARD for the Americas region (US/ Canada/ Latin America), being the only design agency from Mexico among the winners.

This honor reinforces our commitment with quality, creativity, and service to our clients and encourages us to keep working to be in the vanguard of annual report design.

We extend this recognition to our clients, because is thanks to their trust that we achieved this award. We thank them for choosing Signi as their agency and hope we can keep working together in the near future.

> More information at www.lacp.com/2010vision/top-agency.htm



Signi in the media

Recently, several books and magazines feature the work and path of our agency.

The Mexican design magazine a! diseño published in their 101 issue an article on the 30th anniversary of Signi. Featuring 8 pages, it highlights the path of the agency during this period and presents an interview with founders Daniel Castelao and René Galindo, along with images of some of their most relevant projects.

> View article as pdf (available only in Spanish).


Issue Nº 6 of Diseño es Negocio (Design is business) magazine features the case study of the design and production of the Media Kit for the soccer team Cruz Azul by Signi; a practical and easy-to-use guide that communicates the passion and tenacity of the team.

The book Diseño Gráfico en México – 100 Años (Graphic Design in Mexico – 100 years) showcases in one of its chapters samples of the work of Signi and identify it as one of the exponents in the design field in the country.

Likewise, the book Historia del Diseño Gráfico en México (1910-2010) (History of Graphic Design in Mexico [1910-2010]) by Luz del Carmen Vilchis, and published by INBA-Conaculta, includes several projects by Signi and features the work done by the agency for CEMEX in one full page.


Alliance for sustainability projects gives its first fruits

May 2010 – In response to the growing interest of companies in corporate responsibility, in 2009 Signi formed an alliance with experts in sustainable development to offer its clients an integral service in this area.

This alliance proved its value during the production of the Mexichem sustainability report. As this was the first report of this kind to be published, the company didn’t have the infrastructure and know-how to prepare it properly, that was where Signi´s offer to provide an integral solution with the participation of a team of experts in design, communication, and sustainability was the perfect fit.

Produced in record time and starting almost form zero, Signi, in conjunction with its allies, put together the information, consolidated its presentation, and structure it in a coherent way; developed the document content, edited, and translated in; and obviously, designed and coordinated the production of the report. The GRI granted a level B score, which is outstanding for the first report of any company.

> See the interactive pdf of the Mexichem sustainability report

Creativity 40 Judging

May 2010 – As a recognition of Signi’s trajectory and quality of its work, the organizers of the renowned Creativity contest selected René Galindo as one of the members of the judging panel that will be evaluating the projects participating in its 40th edition for the print, illustration, typography, and photography categories.

Established in 1970, Creativity International Awards is based in Louisville, KY and is one of the longest running independent international advertising and graphic design competitions in the world. A print, web, advertising and media design competition, each year the judges choose the best from all over the world to be reproduced in the 400-page Creativity Awards Annual Book.

"Each year the judging panel gets better and better - they are coming from all over the globe," says Kathleen Ritchie, Marketing Director for the awards. "We receive so much interest every year it is really difficult to pare it down to 10-12 individuals."

Throughout the years, Signi has been a constant winner in the various editions of Creativity, the most recent stands out with a Platinum Award for the Media Kit produced for Expansión—one of Mexico’s
top editorial groups—as the best in its category.

>See Creativity press release

>See Creativity 40 judging panel

Another successful annual report season

June 2010 – The arrival of summer marks the end of the 2009 annual report season, and once again Signi met, and in many cases exceeded, its clients expectations.

In addition to keeping the projects from those companies that have worked with the studio for a long time, this year Signi produced reports for new clients, including Liverpool and Fundación Femsa; returned to work for old timers, such as Grupo Herdez; and expanded its services with sustainability and social responsibility reports for companies like Mexichem, Grupo Herdez, and Pasa, among others.

The annual reports from this season proved once again the constant evolution of this key corporate marketing tool, which keeps adapting to the new environment and expanding its reach–in a significant manner–to electronic media. In a similar way, the projects developed by Signi show that the studio is evolving head-to-head with the annuals, and that is why it’s still at the forefront of this specialty.

Signi turns 30

In this 2010, when Mexico is commemorating the Independence Bicentennial and the Revolution Centennial, we at Signi have also a lot to celebrate, we are reaching 30 years since we open the
door of our studio. It was 1980, when Daniel Castelao founded Signi, the studio then consisted of three young designers, René Galindo among them, working together on big drawing boards, long before computers made their appearance for design projects.

Since then and to date, we’ve worked for many of the most relevant companies in Mexico, we have designed and produced more than 300 annual reports, more than 100 identity and branding
projects, printed pieces of all kind, from brochures and catalogues to books and collateral
pieces; and we have also engaged in design for electronic media.

Our work have been honored to receive more than 250 national and international awards, but the
best of all recognitions is working for most of our clients for a long time, some of them for more
than a decade, and in the case of Cemex for more than 20 years.

We are confident that this is just the beginning; we hope you’ll come along with us, as you’ve being doing it so far.



We have a new logo

As part of our 30th. anniversary celebrations, we have updated our visual identity. Our new logo
is a reinterpretation of the original, keeping its character and typographic style, but with a more
up-to-date appearance and minimalist look.

The new logo is a testament of Signi’s constant evolution keeping us at the cutting edge, always ahead of our clients’ needs, it also reflects our commitment with innovation and service.

Based on Trade Gothic Medium typeface, a sans-serif font originally designed by Jackson Burke
in 1948, it was modified to provide it with a character of its own and to achieve a resemblance to
our former logo. We kept red as our corporate color due to its attractiveness; it represents the
passion for our work, communicates strength, emotion, leadership and courage.



Signi establishes a strategic alliance for sustainable development projects

There is no doubt that social corporate responsibility is becoming more and more relevant to all companies, no matter their size or industry they belong to. To respond to the needs of our clients
in these fields, as well as to support them in the compliance of GRI and Global Compact indicators, Signi formed a strategic alliance with high-skilled professionals in the areas of sustainability and communications to provide a comprehensive service to our clients, that aims not only to establish
a direct and effective link with their stakeholders, but to transform information into a valuable tool for planning and higher efficiency.

Signi puts together its vast experience developing social responsibility and sustainability projects
to the capacity of Mario Huerta, a biochemical engineer with an MD in Environmental Sciences
and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology, and more than 20-year experience in the fields of social
and environmental sustainability. And to the skills of Bertha Ruiz de la Concha, who has worked for more than 20 years developing contents, writing, editing and translating books, annual reports and brochures on sustainable development.