Car commercials, beer commercials, car commercials, beer commercials, with an occasional movie or business service thrown in. How exciting. I’m a huge football fan and try to watch as much of my favorite teams as possible throughout the year. This is the normal formula for televised football games. Why should I expect anything different here? Because this is the Super Bowl and there are millions upon millions watching this game. Many of whom this will be the only football game they watch all season. Over the years we have elevated Super Bowl commercials to be the best the advertising world can give us. Because of the cost for air space during the Super Bowl you only see an ad once. It is an event. There is some excitement around making sure you did not miss the best commercial. This is usually the case because the game is a bore and it will the best thing you will watch the whole day. It gives you something to talk about the next day at the water cooler. Those days are gone.

The need to push advertising into the fantastic has left us with commercials that have no relevance to the product or service and the audience watching them. The connection points are broken. The advertisers rely on the expected ways of wooing us; reviving the entertainment past (Jerry Seinfield & Jay Leno, Ferris Bueller, Star Wars), action heroes, sexy women and men, and slap stick comedy. Most of these approaches have no real connection to the product itself. These ads are relying on their company’s brand values like excitement, innovation, self indulgence, Americana or speed to drive the story. The stories are so fantastic that in the end we don’t care what the product is. We know it is either a beer or car commercial. Does it matter which one? We enjoy the ride to some degree but are always left disappointed in the end. We forget which product is for which ad by the time the games starts up again. Mainly because these products do not relate to us anyway. How many people can afford the cars advertised? How many Budwieser commercials do we need to see? What do polar bears have to do with Coca Cola? Do these companies relate to us at all?

The glory days of Super Bowl commercials has past us. The need to push the envelope of brands beyond the product qualities and performance to stories and values has gone too far. The stories are trite and uninspiring. The connection to the company advertising is not authentic but dependent on association. I’m glad the actual game has gotten much better over the years. I don’t mind missing the commercials now.

At least this ad was inspirational and relevant to our lives today.

Back in the fall of 2011, I was honored to present at Pecha Kucha Seattle on the topic of “Design Makes Social Good”. If you are unfamiliar with Pecha Kucha you can find more about it here. Each presenter has 20 slides with 20 seconds each to talk on a particular topic. It is a challenging format. I thought I would share the slides with the talking points that I presented.

Design makes social good.  We have been here before. In fact, design and society have been connected since humanity began. More specifically I’m talking about what I do in design, which is visual communication and visual experience design.

Before we had the term graphic design or even visual communication, people have been making images and writing words to express themselves or an idea. Sometimes we call it art, sometimes craft, sometimes design. We can’t stop ourselves from doing it. It is in our DNA.
Where does design fit in? So how important are visuals to our culture and humanity? We know that imagery has not always been accepted in human history as a good thing. It has been said to devalue, misrepresent, and distort reality.
The old testament says “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.”

Plato targets the painter “a magician and imitator”.
Muhammed is said to have proclaimed “the angels will not enter a temple where there are images.”
There is fear of the power of images. That images can steal likenesses. Images allow us to actually see the familiar from another perspective. To see ourselves, for example.

Jean Baudrillard a french theorist called this “the murderous capacity of images,” Once we lose ourselves in the illusion we began to lose touch with reality. The lines become blurred.
This sounds eereily familiar to how some people view TV, the internet, video games and other digital media.
Today, we have come to accept art and design in our culture as common place. We know they have power. Does this also mean the power must be used for the betterment of our society?  Does design have a moral obligation? If so who says what it is?

Artists and designers have handled these questions in many ways throughtout history.  One of the more famous is Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Picasso painted this mural in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It is a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace
Constructivists, Rodchenko and Stepanova made advertsing for commericial enterprises as well as propaganda for nationalized commerce, education and services. The propoganda consisted of catchy slogans and bright, bold imagery that caught the eye.
In this design for Saks, Shepard Fairey is inspired by Rodchenko. In Marx’s eye this would make sense. To Marx all art is propaganda, and propaganda is simply anything that promotes a point of view. The Soviets were using their propaganda to promote nationalism; marketers are using the same concepts to promote consumerism.

In today’s age graphic designers are hired (paid money) to create the visual representations of information that shape the experience of that information. The goal is designing a specific message to a specific group of people; the success of a design is measured by how well that message is conveyed and responded to.

Designers create beautiful, innovating and compelling experiences. These brands have utlized the power of design to build their empires. Designers are really good at making these guys successful. They know it. They pay designers good money to make it happen. We in turn throw awards and escalades to designers who do beautiful work for these companies.
So let’s take a second to review,
Imagery is really powerful
Visual communication shapes our experience and can change the way people think and act. This has been the case through-out our history. Currently, design is being smartly utilized by people that want to sell their products or services and make good money.
This leaves us with innovative and fantastic design and imagery that is getting everyone engaged in our world of brands and materialism. We love our brands and they make us happy. Right? Yeah, sure. But whats’ missing? Oh yeah, how about everthing else.
Climage Change
Social and Economic inequity
Population growth
Health
Poverty
The list goes on and on. The world needs help. Design needs to step up to the plate.

Design has the capability to change the way we think about ourselves as individuals, communities and societies. It can be a way of connection and communication across all gaps of culture and society. It can be a rallying point for change. Designers need to design to make the world a better place.

There are many designers doing this and are making an impact out there. What is key for all of them is they fueled their passion of design through purpose. Waking up every morning and going to work is a lot easier when you are striving to make the world a better place.
Of course this is different for everyone and no one can tell you what you should be passionate about or gives you a sense of purpose. Each project has an opportunity to grow from personal interest into something greater.

When I started my own business over three years ago. I was determined to be in control of the type of work I wanted to do. The mission for my business was to make the world a better place. At the same time I needed to focus and delve deep into what that meant for me and what I would consider successful.
Currently I do work for:
Re-entry for alcohol, drugs, prison
Child Welfare, foster kids, mentorship
Health
The Arts; music, photography, theatre, folklife
Environment; climate change action, walking, technology
Local Economy

If you are interested in becoming more involved with doing social good as a designer, check out AIGA: Design for Good. AIGA is mobilizing its 22,000 members and designers everywhere to use the power of creativity and design to improve the human experience culturally, socially, environmentally and economically. You are also welcome to contact me about this. Thanks.

As a follow up to the Regulating Greenwashing post I had a year ago, I wanted to show this infographic from Marketing Degree. Thank you Jenica Rhee (Twitter: jenicarhee) for sending this my way.  A couple things really stood out to me with this graphic.

Shop at big box stores
Now this is interesting. The percentages of greenwashing in both green boutiques and big box is shameful, with big box winning out. It is a bit surprising since green boutique’s are putting their values on the line with green marketing and losing. This does not bode well for the sustainability movement and getting the right kind of messages out there. But how does this idea of “big box stores are scrutinized by the media” really play out and what are the factors with “command more of the supply chain”. I like the approach of these ideas, but isn’t this looking at business in an old fashioned way? After all we know Walmart is failing at it’s green programs. Walmart is still doing fine with the scrutiny and posting record profits.Yes, we rarely see media go after the smaller stores, but they do go after the products these stores carry. In some cases this has as much influence. A smaller store can only carry so many products. When they choose a product to carry they are putting their reputation on the line through brand association. Big box stores have greater influence, but the products they carry rarely have impact on thier strategic brand. Small stores are the round hole that needs the round peg. Big box stores are the square hole that has to fit every kind of peg into it.

Are the larger supply chain’s better for the environment to begin with? Is it not better for local products to be sold locally to cut down on carbon emissions? Of course that is a dream world where people can get everything made and produced locally. I do not know what the trade offs are for using big supply chains versus small or local ones, but this does beg some good questions.

Beware these four industries
Not much surprise here for 3 of the 4 industries. What stood out to me was the “DIY” industry. Again this is going against the grain of the sustainability movement. Much like the green boutiques. If this movement cannot get it’s head on straight with this core issue, how are we going to make the changes that need to happen.

Created by: Marketing Degree

On another note I’d like to show an example of green and innovative packaging done right. This Seventh Generation soap stands out prominently on the store shelves. It shouts I’m recyclable, useful, better for the planet and you need to buy me. The packaging has some issues and is not perfect, but these are far outweighed by the benefits. Can you imagine how different things would be if even half of competitors on this shelf were working this hard to make better and greener packaging?

Riverbed had the privilege of working with Pioneer Human Services again this year on their annual report. This is always a gratifying project that feels like you are making a difference in the world. Pioneer Human Services is one of the nation’s largest social enterprise organizations, often cited as a national model in providing a “Chance for Change” through an integrated array of services, including employment, job training, treatment, housing, counseling, and reentry services. Each year Pioneer helps more than 15,000 people on the margins of society overcome multiple hurdles – overcoming challenges with chemical dependency, mental illness, and criminal histories.

Riverbed designed the 2010 report to communicate how Pioneer’s clients go through the process of recapturing their lives. We worked with Alex Steele of Ecomaven and Associates, who wrote the exceptional copy and Jed Share who photographed the beautiful portraits. Each story highlights a particular stage in the process; recovery, active guidance, reentry, trust, and purpose. In the past, Pioneer has stayed away from spotlighting specific details of clients stories. With this report, that shifted. Working in collaboration, we discovered the closer you get to the particular aspects of these stories the more you could identify with them. The cycle that clients go through at Pioneer is often not far removed from experiences everyone can relate to.

This is where design can serve the world – emphasizing the points of connection that break down our walls of understanding. The clients served by Pioneer are often the forgotten, unwanted and victimized. Society at large does not care about them or want to think about them. We shield ourselves from the addicted, the convicted, and the mentally challenged with stereotypes based on worse case scenarios. The stories in this report highlight one achievement in someone’s life. This approach breaks down the typecast of the successful addict or convict being a rarefied exception. The clients at Pioneer are not always successful and often go through the ups and downs of this cycle again and again. The detailed vignettes from a cross section of people and situations lead to larger awareness and empathy. It is harder to look away when you can identify with someone’s story. This is an example of how design can give a fresh perspective allowing you to see past stereotypes with new vision and understanding.

You can download the full report in pdf format here.

Last fall four of Riverbed’s logo designs were featured in two books.  Logolicious by Peleg Top featured Community Skate & Snow and Fremont Community School, while Design DNA by Matthew Healey featured Community Skate & Snow and Northwest Hub.

 

 

We are excited to learn this fall our work will be published again. This time it will be a Index Book’s Basic Promo. We designed a Thanksgiving promotional mailer for Leatherback Printing that will be featured in the book.

We are all waiting for spring to come here to the Northwest. It feels like we skipped spring and summer altogether and went right into fall. Here are a few photos I have taken over the last couple months. Sometimes it helps to shift our mindset about the environment around us by taking the time to look at the beauty that surrounds us.

At Riverbed Design we recently finished up a fun project for one of our clients, Ecoyards. The project was to design a postcard to help promote Ecoyards in the neighborhoods they are currently doing work in. This new postcard design was building upon a series of postcards we had created over the past couple years. The series began with the goal of introducing potential clients in their community to the services Ecoyards provides; landscape design, installation, and maintenance for residential projects in the Seattle area with an environmentally responsible approach. Andy Nichols, the owner of Ecoyards, selects residential areas that he would like to work in and targets these customers with the postcard. He is a smart client and understands the importance of branding, design and marketing. By hiring us, he received a design that communicates the caliber, service and care that Ecoyards provides. Low environmental impact was a big concern for Andy as it is for Riverbed. We provided guidance on how to print these cards to have lowest impact on the environment possible at a cost he could manage for his budget. These cards are printed using digital printing in small targeted runs on recycled paper with consumer waste content. This has proved be very successful for Ecoyards.

“The first card resulted in a $60k landscape project. The client is an art professor at Berkely. She said that the design of the card caught her eye and that was it – we were in there designing and building things. We’re now on a large full-service maintenance contract with her, and we have plans to work on a $30k landscape project for her daughter in law later this spring” Andy Nichols, owner of Ecoyards.

This time around we breathed new life and purpose into the design. Andy decided to target residents in the neighborhoods that he is currently working in. This is effective because potential customers can see for themselves the work Ecoyards is doing. Ecoyards can have a direct correlation between explaining the quality of services they offer on the postcard and proving it with an in person case study in the potential customer’s neighborhood. The challenge became, how do you let people know which house you are working on in 25 different neighborhoods with a personal touch on one postcard? Our solution was variable data on a digital press. We used the same front side design of the postcard for the whole print run. On the backside, we combined a handwritten note and 25 different handwritten addresses that changed out on the press as they were printing. By grouping the printing all together with variable data, we were able to create an affordable and quality end product. In the end, I’m sure this will have another great impact for Ecoyards in continuing to reach the kind of clients they want. It shows the power of good design and how to use it effectively for your business no matter how large or small the project is.

2010 has been a year of transition and growth for me personally and for Riverbed Design. The events and happenings around me have shaped my year through my family, business, community and friends. I find that the books I’m reading often reflect what is going on in with my life. I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes from books I have read in the past year.

“I could not see her as she existed at that moment, until I became attentive by deciding to draw her. What I held in my mind was an accumulation of all my historical encounters with her. My assumption is that we build up a reservoir of preconceived ideas about everything which becomes the basis for our lives. And then, every once in a while, perhaps through meditation or through art, we see freshly and without encumbrance of our own history. That’s what my fascination with drawing is, for one thing, but also to make connections and comparisons between creating art and the experience of meditation. To this doesn’t seem fanciful at all.” —Milton Glaser
Drawing is Thinking by Milton Glaser. A beautiful book that looks at a lifetime of drawings by Milton Glaser.

“Metaphysics in philosophy is supposed to characterize what is real – literally real. The irony is that such a conception of the real depends upon unconscious metaphors.” —Lakoff and Johnson
Philosophy of the Flesh by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. You will change the way you look at our world and the stories we tell after opening this book.

“A better innovation approach is to switch attention from science dominated futures to social fictions in which imagined new contexts enrich an otherwise familiar world. Design scenarios are powerful innovation tools because they make a possible future familiar and enable participation of potential users in conceiving and shaping what they want.” —John Thackara
In the Bubble by John Thackara. A fascinating read that identifies and categorizes our current societal and environmental problems through the lens of design.

“We are funny creatures. We don’t see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire.” —Saul Bellow
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. This is prose.

“Scientific ideas become a whole climate of opinion when they can provide a set of metaphors for people who aren’t doing science.” —Adam Gopnik
Angels and Ages by Adam Gopnik. Did you know Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day? I sure didn’t. This book explores the parallels of these two great men.

“We built a inefficient society in a very efficient way.” —Thomas Friedman
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. Friedman presents a roadmap for getting the US on the road to a profitable green economy.

“All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity. The planning and patterning of any act towards a desired, foreseeable end constitutes the design process. Any attempt to separate design, to make it a thing-by-itself, works counter to the inherent value of design as the primary underlying matrix of life. Design is composing an epic poem, executing a mural, painting a masterpiece, writing a concerto. But design is also cleaning and reorganizing a desk drawer, pulling an impacted tooth, baking an apple pie, choosing sides for a back-lot baseball game, and educating a child. Design is the conscious effort to impose meaningful order.”—Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek. This amazing book was written in 1972. Why are we still perpetuating the same mistakes?

“We will know them as we know other men,” he declared, “by the fruits they bear.”—Susanna Clarke
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. An intriguing and fun combination of history with fantasy.

“The old definition of “good” design simply fails to satisfy the needs of our times. Real goodness goes beyond the aesthetics of the designed artifact, the content that delivers it and the impact it has on society.” —Brian Dougherty
Green Graphic Design by Brian Dougherty. Hands down the best book on sustainable graphic design. It covers the practical, nuts and bolts process for sustainable design as well as give inspiration to practice it.

“Deep, user-centered understanding, using the techniques of the ethnographer is an essential tool of the design thinker. Shallow understanding that is oriented to confirming and perpetuating the current model causes knowledge to ossify rather than move forward.” —Roger Martin
The Design of Business by Roger Martin. Currently, this is one of the many design thinking books out there. What is nice about this book, is it explains how the design thinking process works. See an earlier post about design thinking.

“A painting is not a picture window, it is a painting.”—George Nelson
How to See by George Nelson. I cannot believe I have not read this book before now. It is a must read for any artist or designer.

“There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace – these qualities you find always in that the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush of the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and in our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move towards death.” —Muad’Dib
Dune by Frank Herbert. This is from one of my all time favorite books. I reread it this year along with Dune Messiah and Children of Dune (probably the best of the three).

Design and communication firms should be aware of the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations affecting products communicating their “green” aspects called the Green Guides. Don Carli, Executive Vice President and a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Sustainable Communication, does a phenomenal job of describing what is at stake for the FTC regulations here at The Living Principals.

These new regulations could benefit companies that are creating progressive and low impact products in a sustainable way, (ie renewable energy or RECs, recycled materials, low carbon footprint, etc). The regulations could potentially impact companies using greenwashing as a way to position their products. If 20% of an audience is confused by the terms being communicated, this leads to questionable use. The offender can then be reported to the Better Business Bureau’s NAD process, who reports cases to the FTC. The Green Guides are not law, but guidance for enforcement. The enforcement is already in place with the Lanham Act (false or misleading advertising) and will lead to penalties in the form of fines and pulling of the advertising. Design and communications firms can be held at fault with these regulations. Firms are required not to publish unsubstantiated claims. This is independent of their client’s word. If a firm is held liable, they will be required to substantiate the claim at the time of the challenge not after the fact. Meaning, you better have your ducks in a row and know what you are getting into before the FTC comes calling.

People are getting tired of companies using terms like “green, natural, renewable”, and not being able to trust what they mean. Using these terms on products that do not certify their claims creates a valueless proposition. Instead of helping to promote the use of sustainable practices by companies and increasing the market, they are driving consumers away. This is not good for anyone. It pushes people away from companies that are creating positive, low impact products. These same consumers are then pushed further into the idea that “sustainability” is a green fad not likely to last. Here is an informative statistic from TerraChoice quoted by Don Carli.

“According to a recent survey by the marketing firm TerraChoice, the number of products claiming to be green increased 73% since 2009, and more than 95% of consumer products marketed as “green,” make misleading or inaccurate claims—a practice TerraChoice calls “greenwashing.” In addition to potentially being illegal, all too often these misleading claims violate several AIGA standards of professional practice.”

These new regulations will give a backbone to use of these terms. Hopefully this provides a channel for verification and certification of sustainable practices and processes that everyone will learn to trust. This by no means will keep the slick marketers from finding loopholes and promoting disingenuous products. If people want to make money tricking people into buying things, they will. To find out more and review general questions designers had about the Green Guides, check out this recap of a tweet chat with Don Carli.

I recently moved my home and office to Bainbridge Island from West Seattle. Normally moving from an urban neighborhood to the small town life of an island would be a well planned long term strategy. This was not a case for me and my family. We were not searching for a better way of life but the right school for our children (although one could argue these are one in the same). After months of searching, school tours and interviews we found that perfect school on Bainbridge Island. We were lucky to find this school. Instinctively, we knew right away we were making the right choice for our family, but that was only part of the equation. For our kids to go to this school we were going to have to move to Bainbridge Island. What did this mean for us as a family and our businesses? We had never considered moving out of Seattle until the point of committing to the school. When the reality of the situation started to come to the surface there were many challenges and logistics to think though. As the boxes started to be packed, our choice of change began to sink in and take on a larger acceptance. The visions of our new island life came into focus.

Vision
We have been on Bainbridge Island for two months now and it feels like coming home. This is a weird thing to say because I never thought I was away from home. The “coming home” feeling is of harmony, balance and a sense of belonging. Again, I did not know these things were missing from my life until I experienced them with the move. I believe strongly in intention and vision. Having an understanding of what you want and how you want to go about your life is important to me and it can manifest itself in amazing ways. For me, many of the things I have wanted and have considered in my home life have manifested here on Bainbridge. When I stepped into (what would become) our new home for the first time, it immediately connected to me. The house sits in the middle of an acre of land surrounded by gardens and woods. The part that amazed me, were the details. There are things that I wanted to have in a home, like nice outdoor sitting areas and a chimenea. This home has all of those things and more. There have been other things outside of the house that have felt the same way for me. For years, I have been working towards using our car as little as possible due to its environmental impact. Now that I’m on the island I hardly use the car at all. The ferry has made public transportation easier to use and made the car more expensive to drive in Seattle. I have always wanted my house to be near the ocean. I did not know until after we started living in our new place that I could walk to the ocean in ten minutes. That feeling of coming home became reality as I experienced new things on the island that were exactly what I wanted but presented themselves unexpectedly.

Nature & City
I never envisioned myself as living in the country. A rustic lifestyle was not on my dream list. This is mainly because as a designer I could not grasp being a successful professional without living in a city. I greatly enjoy the outdoors and I’m passionate about nature. Before kids, I spent all my free time in natrure. Snowboarding, hiking, camping, mountain biking and rock climbing were my hobbies and recreational activities. I thought I had the ultimate harmony in Seattle. I could access nature easily and still live in the city. Moving away from the city was a hard thing to let go. I was not searching for an alternative to how I interact with nature and city. My home and work life balance was what I was working on. I thought I was doing an okay job of it. My family is a priority in my life. By owning my own business it allows me the flexibility and control to make sure I keep it that way. It is interesting how life can open your eyes to things you are missing. The island has forced me to see my true approach of nature as a recreation and the city as a means of living. This is not what I thought nor what I wanted right now in my life. I was combining the wrong elements together. By living closer to nature with my family and commuting to the city for work, I’m bringing together the parts of my life that make sense. The island makes me slow down, relax and enjoy my surroundings. This is what my family needs from me and what I need from my family. My whole self is engaged, going at a slower pace and enjoying whatever activities we are up to. My work needs me to be a focused, multi-tasker, effecient and fast. The city naturally makes you speed up and juggle the barrage of media and environmental aspects coming at you. By matching up the congruent elements of my lifestyle together there is more flow and less friction and frustration.

My family and I went down this path to Bainbridge Island by the unexpected but not unintentionally. We created parameters for the type of school that we wanted for our children that ended up expanding to include where we were living and our lifestyle. It reminds me that balance and harmony does not happen from an open ended structure, but by defining the boundaries. Balance is not something that “just happens” to you. You have to envision it, create it and recognize when it happens. I’m thankful for what life is bringing me now. It feels like I have been building it for a lifetime.