DesignThinkers 2011

Last week I attended RGD Ontario’s DesignThinkers. This two-day conference is a mash up of graphic designers, printers, typographers, artists, web developers, photographers, art directors and others all inspiring and pondering under one collective umbrella. Topics ranged from sustainable printing choices, book design, corporate culture, using metaphors in design and, the most applicable to us here at kitestring, using stories to catapult your brand. RGD always enlists such a great cast of characters to speak about design trends and strategies. This year’s DT included keynotes, Eric Ryan of Method, Steve Edge of Edge Design Ltd., and Jessica Hische of Jessica Hische (totally crushin’).

If you’re a graphic designer, especially an in-house designer, it’s easy to get caught up in your day-to-day routine and forget why you wanted to get into this biz in the first place. It’s amazing what a day full of case studies and inspirational talks will do to you to give you that “Oh, yeah, this is why” moment. Here’s a great quote from Eric Ryan, of Method, who started his company when he was 27. The quote is, “have the courage to do it differently”. What a cool mantra for your company to live by. Sometimes different can also translate to memorable. For example, when Method was attempting to break into department store, Target, they teamed up with industrial designer, Karim Rashid (also a past RGDDT keynote speaker), and together created beautiful product packaging that had vibrant personality just like their company. Eric Ryan said that if he and his business partner Adam hadn’t put money into the design of their products they would have never made it on the market.

Another cool thing that I took from this year’s DesignThinkers was (the coolest, most eco-friendliest) paper company, Cascades. Their paper is Canada’s only EcoLogo certified paper manufacturer. Why is that you ask? Because, Cascades makes all of their paper from post consumer waste, in other words, they make paper from our weekly blue bin collections. Along with a host of other reasons why they are the coolest paper manufacturer, their paper mill is powered by biogas made from a near-by landfill’s methane and converted into steam that powers their equipment. WOWZA! Anyways designer friends, start saving up your nickels for RGD’s DesignThinkers now and I’ll see you there next year ready to be amazed.

Did you miss the conference? You can grab some of this year’s highlights from twitter! Just search for the hashtag, rgdDT, and follow everyone’s tweets!

Photos shown above by Spencer Xiong.

Canada’s leading environmental action organization, Environmental Defence, has partnered up with Ontario’s most inspiring environmental influencer of the year. Meet Penelope. Penelope is an eight year old girl that lives in Toronto and has been touring the province campaigning about the upcoming provincial election. Her message is what I believe most environmental organizations have been trying to communicate for years: Vote with your child’s future in mind by considering the environment. Ask yourself, “Does the party that I’m voting for care about the cleanliness of the water we drink or the soil our vegetables come from? Does it respect Ontario’s wild plants and animals?”  Penelope advises that your decision will affect generations to come whether you like it or not.

Last Wednesday, as I was preparing to commence the day at kitestring’s Art&Copy, a little bird tweeted:

kitestring’s been watching Penelope’s campaign since the day her first video hit the Twittersphere. We think Environmental Defence and Penelope are doing an awesome job! Natually, I went to City Hall to show my support of Environmental Defence and Penelope’s message. She was the most eloquent eight year old I’ve ever met and we at kitestring wish her all the best on her campaign trail.

Last week marked my one year anniversary working at kitestring. To commemorate this special occasion, I wanted to share with you some of the things I have learned while designing, laughing and bingeing on candy:

Don’t touch the camera when Chris is directing.

Meg and Chris like their coffee black.

Chris can balance unusual things on his chin.

Forest Green and Terracotta colours are rarely spotted at kitestring.

Jenn likes a good Caesar with all the fixin’s.

It’s not uncommon for at least one Dolly Parton song to get stuck in your head per week.

Chris can definitely turn that frown upside down.

Margaret and I both share a love for plaid patterns and Dinosaurs.

All the kitestring gals wear glasses.

Wendy’s preferred ringtone is Pitbull’s Hotel Room

Candy and toys are never in short supply.

There seems to be an odd love for speaking with southern drawls.

Jenn and Chris are definitely Hamilton’s brand experts.

Brandon has a high tolerance for technology. (“You only have one job printer! Just print!”)

Office items come in many colours.

If you can’t find a ruler to measure, use pixie stix.

Only the gals at kitestring use the printer. Weird huh?

Don’t be afraid to paint on the walls.

kitestring is a cat-free zone.

Welcome to Hamilton! Home to some of the coolest green festivals, projects, businesses and peeps. After reading this Spectator article it’s no wonder that something like this is happening in our city. This Wednesday, April 13, is the kick-off of Hamilton’s 4th Annual EcoScene Film & Arts Festival. This festival raises awareness of environmental issues through critically acclaimed films, as well as bringing together local photographers, visual artists and environmental experts. This “first-of-its-kind” eco-arts festival aims to educate people on global environmental concerns and inspire people to become actively involved in the solutions. Purchase your tickets to the screening of David Suzuki’s FORCE of NATURE here. So excited! See you on Wednesday!

This past Saturday evening was the 5th annual World Wildlife Fund event, Earth Hour. The largest voluntary action of energy conservation with more than 120 countries participating. This is wonderful news! But, this doesn’t mean that everyone participated. Obviously, there were many that just claimed, “I forgot about it”, “I didn’t see it advertised”  or (even worse) “It’s too much of an inconvenience”. These people (we all know them) will probably be the ones that turn every light and appliance in the house on without thinking globally of their actions. Here’s my problem with this Earth Hour thing. It’s always on a Saturday evening. Think about it. In general, people are going to be out of their homes during this time. They’ll be in places where they have no control over the energy being used (ex. a restaurant or movie theatre).  If Earth Hour really wants to make an impact and make some news do it on a busy week night. I can hear it now, “But, wait, I have to run my dishwasher, reply to emails and put my laundry in the dryer”.  The point is that yes, Earth Hour is an inconvenience if you live a lifestyle that is dictated by electricity. But think about the greater inconvenience if we lived in a community with no electricity, no modern appliances and no computers! Just imagine if Earth Hour wasn’t a voluntary action. Imagine if it was mandatory. So what did I do for Earth Hour? I invited some friends over that I haven’t seen in a long time. We had such a great time catching up that we lost track of time and our lights stayed off well past the hour.

Thanks to everyone who attended the first session of our weBusiness Workshop – Creating your Online Brand Picnic! We had a great time with you gathering ingredients in order to start the foundation for your online brand experience!

While discussing the basics, we imagined Frankie`s Cupcakes – we identified where Frankie would open up shop, who her target audience was and came up with her main competitors. We baked up the basics. Along the way, we answered questions – what are Frankie`s Cupcakes’ core values? Where do they stand in the marketplace? Etc. etc.

Now it’s your turn to answer these questions for your OWN business! You took home the weBusiness worksheet. While working through this, remember what we discussed with Frankie’s Cupcakes and apply some of that to your business. If you have further questions from us, just ask on this blogity blog!

As you fill in the questions for yourselves, we’ll take what you’ve given us in our Gathering the Ingredients session and start preparing for the next steps – In the Kitchen.

We’re looking forward to meeting again next week on Wednesday, February 16th. Bye, bye!

The Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) and kitestring are offering up a smorgasbord of branding expertise in three delicious picnic sessions. These three sessions run on February 9, February 16 and February 23 from 5:00 to 8:00pm. The first session, “Gathering Ingredients”, will help you understand how to properly assemble your own brand and learn a fresh philosophy about how to communicate through social media. Second you’ll need to get “In the Kitchen” and define your brand online using the ingredients you’ve gathered. And lastly, your brand will go “To Market, To Market” by collectively developing a fully integrated campaign platform that engages your brand’s target audience through social media. Join in on the (educational) fun by pre-registering with the SBEC by calling 905.540.6400 or send them an email at mail@hamiltonsmallbusiness.ca.

FYI Homies,

February 17th is WWF-CANADA’s National Sweater Day! Turn down your thermostat down by 3 degrees and wear your best sweater. You know, the one granny knit you…if it still fits.

So, you wanna save the planet do ya? And, while you’re at it save your favourite oceanic creature, the rainforest and then the rest of humanity? Well, first things first. Get the word save out of your Earthy vocabulary. Saving can come after we do one important thing, and that is adapting. Now, before I fill you in on some ways to adapt (which you’ll have in the coming weeks), I wanted to share with you one of the easiest things you can do if you’re needin’ an instant gratification fixin’. So what’s the answer? Donating of course! It has never been easier to help an organization – whether it’s an international one with a big following or a small grass-roots one down the street. When I say donating I’m not saying to give away a big lump of cash per say. There are other ways you can help an organization like, being a representative at an event, donating your skills to aid a specific project, attend monthly meetings and share your ideas or become a member of an organization and help them grow. Don’t get overwhelmed here, set yourself some do-able goals. Donating to an organization that aligns with your personal values just feels good. To give you an example, this year my friends received an adoption of a Canadian animal species from WWF-Canada and a protected woodland plot from Ontario Nature’s Trees in Trust program. Last month, I ditched the act of giving a material, meaningless gift and instead chose to support charities and invest in the future of our planet on behalf of a recipient. The best part was that it was all done online!

Here are some of my personal favourites:
http://www.fsccanada.org/default.htm – Making sure that trees are harvested responsibily
http://www.treesontario.ca/ – Planting 10 million trees a year across Ontario year by 2015
http://www.ontarionature.org/ – Protecting Ontario’s wild species and spaces through conservation, education and public engagement
http://www.350.org/en – Raising awareness and educating the world about climate change
http://www.environmenthamilton.org/ – Providing Hamiltonians skills needed to protect our green spaces
http://www.peta.org/ – Educating the world about the safe, responsible treatment of animals
http://www.niagaraescarpment.org/ – Protecting Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment
http://greenventure.ca/ – Community-based workshops to lead to a sustainable lifestyle
http://rbg.ca/ – Promoting public understanding of the relationship between plants and us
http://wwf.ca/ – Conserving Canada’s wild spaces and Canadian species

I bet if I walk into your office and open your cleaning cabinet I will see a pollution party of toxins leaching out who knows what into the air you’re breathing. It’s easy for us to justify this collection of chemicals because these products have been around for decades, so we think we can trust them (or so we think).

Now that caring for the environment is a cool thing to do, every company wants to get on board, but the key to becoming truly green is education. This may seem like a lot to ask but think about how much educating you do for yourself already. You educate yourself when purchasing a new computer, you educate yourself when purchasing an appliance for your house, you even educate yourself when choosing a new pet. Learning is what we do – we’re humans!

Companies know that we have busy lives and don’t necessarily have the extra time to learn about the better choices available. There are so many different products that claim to be green just because they have a pretty blue sky on the label, come in a recycled plastic bottle or (the worst) have the word, biodegradable, bolded in big letters on the package. Yep, this is green washing alright, tricking us into believing that we’re actually bettering our environment by purchasing this product. It’s not fair to lie to us and that is why I personally don’t support the companies that make these products.

Thankfully, there are a number of stores (Goodness Me! Natural Food Market, Grassroots Environmental Products), websites (Earth Day Canada, David Suzuki Foundation, The Story of Stuff Project, PETA, Green Living) and resource centres (RBG Nature Interpretive Centre, GreenVenture EcoHouse) that are helping us understand the ingredients that we have been spraying, scrubbing and soaking in the spaces we spend our days and nights. The key to green cleaning is to limit the products you’re using. You’ll be amazed at how much you can clean with baking soda, vinegar, lemons, essential oils and castile soap. The great thing about these everyday products is that they are reasonably priced and they are commonly available.

You wouldn’t announce to the world how wealthy you are or how built your body is. This is something that other people can sense without saying it. So, don’t just talk about how green you are, actually BE GREEN and set a positive example for others.