How to Design a Bumper Sticker That Gets Noticed
Bumper stickers are a terrific marketing tool because not only does the person with the sticker printing job get to notice your message, but everyone who drives behind that person does too. The trick is to design a really cool sticker that people will want to put on their bumpers instead of throwing them in the trash.
How To Keep Your Brand Fresh
Have you ever pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge, only to find it spoiled? Do you remember how bad the spoiled milk smelled?
Letting your business’s brand presence slip is very similar to a carton of spoiled milk. It might not make you nauseous, but it will certainly cost you money. One of the most important tasks that you have as a business owner is to keep your brand fresh, in order to attract new customers and keep your existing ones.
Keeping your brand fresh is really not that complicated. You can do so by simply going over a few basic steps periodically.
Green Marketing in an Unstable Economy
Sustainability and “going green” have been on consumers for the past couple of years. Going green was the issue du jour for most of 2007 and 2008 according to GreenBiz.com. And now with people losing their jobs and issues of paying the rent are at the forefront of consumers’ minds? The green momentum started in the last couple of years is bound to slow. But many consumers are willing to buy green, if they can afford it or if they think it’s important. If you’ve got a green product or if your entire company is built around sustainable products and practices, don’t totally switch off the green marketing machine. Just give it a little tweak with these strategies.
8 Smart Notebooks Made From Recycled Goods
We all have them: sketch books, journals, notebooks. They are the trusted sidekick for many designers, artists, and free thinkers. If you’re anything like me, you have a notebook for every purpose. But what if you want more? Something unique and customized to your own creative flare? I’ve found many intriguing notebooks but the ones I’ve found most appealing are the ones that are not only unique but environmentally friendly. Below are 9 selected notebooks using recycled goods.
Starbucks Coffe Cup Sleeve Notebook
Interesting Ways To Wrap Your Presents Without Hurting Our Trees
Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products for birthdays, Christmas and other celebrations, according to The Recycler’s Handbook. And, annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons, according to the Clean Air Council.
And getting rid of the paper by burning it in the fireplace is a huge health hazard! Decorative wrapping paper is made in countries like China that have looser environmental regulations, which means the paper can contain lead, synthetic inks, plastic film and chlorine-based foils that release toxins into the air when burned.
Of course, reusing wrapping paper is one way to help the environment around the holidays. But a more popular trend is wrapping presents in decorative boxes, recycled tote bags and other unconventional materials other than paper, says the Washington Post.
With that in mind, here are 16 ways to wrap presents from Represent’s FuturePresent’s Design Challenge that will hopefully give you an idea of how to be more green the next time a birthday, holiday (Valentine’s Day) or graduation celebration comes around.
The items in FuturePresent’s Design Challenge range from dressed up Tupperware to old ice cream bags (find them at antique shops) to a seashell to give jewelry in. Here are a few snapshots from their collection. View their website for the entire set. What ideas have you come up with?
What Shade of Green Is Your Business?
Many companies are making great strides in becoming more environmentally responsible. But it’s hard to turn green all at once; most companies don’t have the money to overhaul their business model into a green one at one time. And, there’s nothing wrong with tweaking materials, light fixtures, paper sources, etc. one at a time. According to Todd O’Donald of MediaPost’s blog Marketing Daily, many brands are fearful of antagonizing eco-enthusiasts by touting their greenness before they’re completely green.
But O’Donald says there are different shades of green when it comes to customers and businesses alike, so companies should market any green changes that have taken place. (more…)
Designing for Social Causes
Designers have been applying a top down approach for years, where they impose their design onto something or someone. The idea originates with the designer, and he forces it to fit in with other people’s ideals. Instead, according to Brian Collins, president of New York-based design firm COLLINS: and mastermind of Designism, designers should be using a “bottom up” approach, with designers thinking of others (or society) first and designing for them.
Designers Are Becoming Socially Aware
Social awareness is definitely growing among designers, what with all the environmentally friendly design products and design projects that help others that are less fortunate getting more attention in the design world. Collins, for instance, designed Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection campaign “We Can Solve It.” Designer John Bielenberg runs Project M for young designers, challenging them to “bridge the gap between design for design’s sake and its ability to change lives.” Each summer, Project M students help tackle a cause, from designing a green space in Baltimore to designing a campaign to bringing awareness to an Alabama community whose residents can’t afford clean water.
Designers’ Responsibilities
Palo-Alto-based design firm IDEO (eye-dee-oh) is the biggest firm designing for humanitarian causes. IDEO’s staff of 550 designers work on complex issues like illiteracy, water distribution and childhood obesity. “The role and responsibility of designers is changing,” explains Jessica Hastings, an IDEO designer specializing in social impact and organizational transformation. “It used to be enough to gracefully respond to identified customer needs for a moment in time. But now it is both a privilege and a responsibility to consider a wider array of system elements, including social and environmental ecosystems and a timeline that considers the entire lifecycle of objects and infrastructures.”
IDEO isn’t the only design firm working for the future of our environment and society; many other firms including World Studio, Empax and COLLINS: are starting to work with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on humanitarian causes. Other design firms are also working on social causes, but fail miserably. As developer Krista Donaldson wrote in Ambidextrous Magazine, too many designers walk in to a situation, thinking they have the perfect solution, but fail to create products that work properly or connect with users. Some are successful in the design but then fail to find distribution. Donaldson writes, “If the goal is to sustainably improve the livelihood of people who do not have their basic needs met,” she writes, “then we need to talk more than the product.”
That means designers need to really look and study how people act and behave in an unbiased way. Essentially, designers need to be quasi psychologists, understanding what people want in life and in design.
IDEO
IDEO’s team of designers helped revamp St. Louis’ DePaul Health Center in 2005 by staying in the hospital for weeks at a time to understand the patient’s experience so that they could come up with design solutions that would make the hospital more efficient while enhancing patient experience. IDEO’s other projects have included a cockpit design for Eclipse Aviation, more comfortable train cabins and revolutionary hospital equipment.
And more businesses need more socially conscious designers as social issues become business issues. For example, obesity is a social/business issue due to the 100-calorie pack snacks that are so popular and that the fact that the airline industry has to raise prices to accommodate fewer passengers who weigh the same as a higher number of passengers did years ago.
Many people want to make the world a better place, not just designers. But designers are often the communication vehicle on which others rely to get their message out. Without socially conscious designers, society wouldn’t know what the issues are.
Design Students and Pro Designers: Live Sustainably
Sustainability is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.”
What I want to touch on is the hard lives of design students and professional designers. It’s always go, go, go, design at all times. Design school is rough, with deadlines and teachers breathing down your neck. Not to mention a little friendly competition from other design students. And then you graduate to a world where the same competition is coming at you, but now your livelihood is at stake. It’s hard to take care of yourself in this profession.
Design schools (including architecture schools) are some of the most grueling, unsustainable environments in school. Even med schools are realizing they can’t push students to work 80 hour weeks, but yet design students are expected to be in the lab, creating from dawn until dusk.
Here are some tips for design students and pros alike on how to sustain a healthy lifestyle while designing.
1. Organize your time. It’s so easy to get caught up in the creative moment and let it keep going and going. Eventually, you realize that your creative moment ended hours ago, but yet you’re still trying to crank something out. Procrastination is also a big contribution to all-nighters. Get yourself a day planner and write down important deadlines, then work back from there. Try to put in more hours in the beginning of a project so that at deadline you’ll just be polishing, not creating.
2. Take a break. No one’s mind is able to think continuously for 12 hours at a time. Do something else totally mindless, like taking a walk. The outdoors holds lots of design ideas and fresh air can give you a boost of creativity as well. Go see a movie or take a jog down an unfamiliar (but safe) street. Look at the design of the trees, the houses, apartment buildings, etc. Don’t neglect your friends – at least have lunch with them to recharge your batteries and use a different part of your brain.
3. Unclutter your workspace. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re distracted. Remove all but essential items from your desk or work area. Get an ergonomic chair or find a high table or desk where you can stand and work at times. This will help keep your body and mind from stiffening up.
4. Get into an eating, exercising and sleeping routine. Your mind and body work so much better when properly fueled and rested. Exercising helps blood travel through your body and it keeps you alert. Keep healthy snacks at your work space so you aren’t tempted to chow down on candy bars all day, which will just make your blood sugar drop and drain your energy. Sleep even when you have a deadline – you’ll wake up with a clear head and those ideas bouncing around in your head will be clearer in the morning (or after a cat nap).
5. Stand up for yourself and say “no.” Don’t take on projects you don’t have time for. A balanced life is a satisfying life. You don’t need to design 60 or 70 hours a week. If teachers pressure you, try talking to them about all the other pressures in your life and how design fits in. Sometimes, teachers don’t realize how much work you have from other classes or how much pressure you have from part-time work (if you have time to work, that is). You can’t say no to a required assignment, but don’t take on extra credit or a project just to please the teacher if you don’t have the time or desire.
You’ll end up burned out and hating design if you don’t live your own sustainable life. Remember what sustainability means: not depleting or permanently damaging resources. Your mind and your life are the most important resources you’ve got; take care of them.
8 Ways To Green Your Office
There are plenty of reasons why a business should go green: to help save the environment; to save our future generations; and to save the Earth’s wildlife is among the top reasons. There’s always that one reason that isn’t stated, but implied: for a greener (read: better, more favorable) company image. Face it – if going green made a company look bad, most wouldn’t do it. Yes, this sounds selfish, but when it comes down to it, companies that go green are helping the environment, no matter what their original motivation.
And it’s not hard to do. Implementing little changes here and there can make a big difference. Here are 8 such ways companies can go green without overhauling their business model.
1. Turn the lights off when you leave the office. It’s pretty simple, and it’s something you can do at home as well. Many office buildings leave all or most lights on all night, and for what? To light a burglar’s way? If you have a security system, forego the lights when you leave the office. And, when you go to a meeting during the day, turn off the lights in your office then. If everyone turned off their lights when they weren’t in use, the impact on the electric bill and energy use would be great.
2. Turn off computers, printers, fax machines, etc. when not in use. By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode when you go home for the night, you could save about 40 watts of electricity per day. That’s about 5 cents per day, or $18 a year saved just for your computer. Now imagine if everyone in the office did that!
I realize people have server updates to worry about, but just schedule those for a few times a week and let employees know to keep their computers on those nights. You can still save a lot of electricity and money by shutting down two to three nights a week.
3. Buy products with the Energy Star logo. Products with this logo, like printers, scanners and fax machines, have the U.S. Department of Energy’s stamp of approval for being energy-efficient. According to the Energy Star site, an Energy Star-compliant scanner may use as much as 50 percent less energy than a noncompliant one.
4. Don’t print memos, emails and other nonessentials. Usually, you only need one small piece of info from an email, like a name or time and date of a meeting. Jot this info down in a notebook (recycled paper notebook!) instead of printing it out. Keep a folder in your email or on your hard drive for emails and PDFs that you want to keep. Only print out the ones you need.
5. Use recycled copy paper. Hammermill’s Great White Recycled Copy Paper is just as bright as virgin copy paper, but is made of 30 percent post-consumer content. You can find it at Restockit.com for $45 for 10 reams (5,000 sheets). Staples has 100 percent recycled copy paper that’s FSC-certified for $52 for 5,000 sheets. Non-recycled copy paper costs only a dollar or two less than recycled (and some recycled papers are even cheaper than non-recycled!), so you have no reason to not go recycled.
6. Let your keyboard or phone do the flying. Instead of flying to corporate headquarters every month or quarter for a meeting, do it over the phone or over the computer. With web cams and phone conferencing, your company can save a lot of money and carbon dioxide by limiting travel.
7. Recycle. Recycle bottles, paper, old equipment, shipping boxes … everything! Contact your local recycling center and they can hook you up with bins and boxes for your recyclables. Most computer stores will recycle your old equipment for free, which keeps lead and other harmful toxins out of our soil.
8. Print marketing materials, sales materials, quarterly reports, etc., with a green printing company. These types of printed material are generally handed out to hundreds, if not thousands of people. And how many people keep them? Not many, unfortunately, so it makes sense to print any bulk items with a green printing company that uses vegetable-based inks and prints on recycled paper. This way, two companies are now lowering their carbon footprints.
