Barbara Brecher’s Brecher Design Group has been inspiring Alexandria residents with its advertising designs since she set up shop in the city in 1988. Much of Brecher’s pro bono work is well-known, having designed Alexandria’s First Night posters since 2000 and done low-cost work like the Alexandria Symphony brochure. Last month, the group received an award from the AlexandriaCommission for the Arts’ for innovative partnerships between business and the arts.
How do you develop your designs?
I get a lot of energy from my clients. I always try to come up with something that will totally surprise them. My favorite thing is when they ask, ‘How did you think of that?’ I’m usually not sure. But it’s fun. That’s the whole point, and that makes for a better end product.
How do your advertisements differ from other companies’?
Everyone has their own way of approaching things. We try to listen to clients and read the information they provide. We have different ways of looking at things. We want it to be a fun and pleasurable experience for our clients. The bottom line is that we want to be successful for the end user. Sometime we have to convince clients that they’re not the end user, it’s the people they’re trying to reach who are the end user. We always ask the question, ‘why should the person you’re trying to reach use this service or partake in this activity?’
Why did you chose to move to Alexandria from Rochester, N.Y.?
My husband had lived in Alexandria before and he loved it, and I grew up in Boston, and as soon as I saw Old Town and how it looked similar to Boston, I loved it, too. He is a photojournalist and knew he could make a better living here than in Rochester.
How does doing design in Alexandria differ from design in Rochester?
Rochester was so long ago, it’s hard to compare. The differences are more related to technology changes. In the last seven years the design world here has exploded. There are many more designers now. The technology allowed that to happen, and that’s good and bad. When I started doing design here 20 years ago, it was still kind of magic.
