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Jean and Peter Buttecali of Woodpile Studios have designed the Grammy Awards logo as well as the 'Haute Damn' clothing line that will be given away in Grammy gift bags. Jean Buttecali grew up in Spotsylvania County. |
Jean Buttecali is getting the Valentine's gift of a lifetime.
Buttecali, who grew up Jean Perkins in Spotsylvania County, will be attending the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Buttecali graduated from Courtland High School. She and her husband, Peter, own Woodpile Studios, a graphic design business in Vienna.
Woodpile Studios designed the logo for this year's Grammy Awards.
The logo encompasses a couple of different themes, Peter Buttecali said.
"We were looking for something that conveyed the pageantry of the day, and we had to get in the verbiage and the Grammy gramophone icon," he said.
The background is a night sky.
"The excitement, the heat all explodes upward into the night sky," he said.
The stars symbolize recording stars, and the circle image of the design recalls a record or CD shape.
The logo is available already on T-shirts for sale at the Grammy Awards Web site (grammy.com), and will be prominent throughout the CBS broadcast of the ceremony on Feb. 13.
Woodpile Studios was the only candidate for the design job this year, Peter Buttecali said.
Creative directors and agencies visit sites where graphic artists post their work, such as black book.com and portfolios.com.
"It used to be in book form, but it's now done online," Jean Buttecali said. "Creative directors had been looking at Pete's work for a while, but the timing was always wrong."
Until this year.
"They said, 'Are you interested in submitting work for the Grammys?'" Peter Buttecali said. "Who cares what else you have going on, you can't say no to that."
In a press release, Grammy organizers explained why they chose Woodpile Studios to do the work.
"Peter creates deceptively simple yet elegant and recognizable marks," said Recording Academy Senior Director of Creative Services David Konjoyan. "He was very receptive to our suggestions and responsive to our deadlines. From the first-round concepts to the final logo, we felt Peter was in sync with our ideas every step of the way."
Jean Buttecali has a marketing degree from Radford, but she and her husband always knew they'd be in business together some day. They've been married 13 years and have two children, Nicholas, 5, and Sammi, 3.
"None of my jobs was ever career-oriented for me," she said. "I knew Pete would have his own thing and that I would be connected with it in some way."
Peter Buttecali started his own firm in 1994, and Jean Buttecali kept an outside job until 1997. At that point, the business had grown so much that they decided to incorporate and hire employees. Woodpile Studios was born in February 1998.
Peter Buttecali and his staff do the artwork. Jean Buttecali is the chief financial officer.
They have clients of all sizes and budgets around the country.
Peter Buttecali said he hopes the opportunity with the Grammys leads to others.
"It's all part of my master plan to someday be involved in the movie industry," he said. "I would absolutely love to work with music promotions. We're all big music fans here."
The entire Woodpile Designs staff will be staying at the Biltmore Hotel, where the Grammys after-party is. They have tickets to the awards ceremony and the after-party.
Peter Buttecali said he wouldn't mind meeting Neko Case, but the anti-establishment indie rocker isn't the type to show up for the Grammys.
"I wouldn't mind bumming a cigarette off Tom Petty, though," he said.
Jean Buttecali said she's picked out a black gown for the event. She thinks it might be a bit too dressy, but she's not worried about it.
She said she'd like to meet members of the band Aerosmith or Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.
In addition to their graphics work for the event, Peter Buttecali and Janna Posey, the Woodpile Studios marketing manager, are launching a clothing line at the Grammys. They've paid to have Haute Damn apparel put in all the Grammy gift baskets.
The Buttecalis said they can't wait to get to L.A. and see their company's work on display.
"There's going to be 25, 28 million people watching and seeing that logo," Peter Buttecali said. "It's going to be surreal. A real Cinderella moment."
ON THE NET: grammy.com woodpilestudios.com hautedamn.com
To reach LAURA L. HUTCHISON: 540/374-5485 lhutchison@freelancestar.com
