Inspiration – Page 3 – Design 6 Degrees

Going Green

Do The Green Thing and The World Wildlife Fund are encouraging people to turn their lights off for Earth Hour on March 29th with a series of clever posters. The campaign is to inspire people to think and act differently in order to save the environment and live more sustainably.

Not My Season by Matthew Elliott

Share by Marion Deuchars

Little Devil by Paula Scher

Naresh Ramchandani, co-founder of Do The Green Thing and partner at Pentagram, stated in a press release: “Do The Green Thing has always looked to be a public service for the planet, working with world class creative talent to make brilliant inspiration, and feeding that inspiration to as many people as possible across the world to encourage them to be more sustainable in their everyday lives. … the 29 Posters are beautiful, playful, romantic, mischievous and provocative, and I hope they will inspire as many people as possible to be part of Earth Hour 2014.”

New posters are added daily until the 29th. You can see them all at dothegreenthing.tumblr.com

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:01+00:00 March 17th, 2014|Big Thinking, Design, Inspiration|Comments Off

A Message from The False Advertising Industry

Only Organic, the people behind the USDA Certified Organic label, came out with a series of funny, but sad videos about the misleading tactics of the food industry and the usage of the term natural, which many people equate to organic. Sadly it is far from the truth, since products labeled as natural can include hormones, GMOs, and toxic pesticides.

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:01+00:00 February 20th, 2014|Inspiration, Videos|Comments Off

Pantone Color of the Year – Radiant Orchid

Pantone Color of the Year - Radiant Orchid

Pantone’s color of 2014 – Radiant Orchid (PANTONE 18-3224) blends both cool and warm tones and makes for distinctive combinations.

“An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.”
– Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute®

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 February 10th, 2014|Design, Inspiration|Comments Off

Happy Groundhog Day!

“Today is tomorrow! It happened!”
Groundhog Day 1993

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 February 2nd, 2014|Inspiration, Quotes|Comments Off

National Handwriting Day

January 23rd is National Handwriting Day

January 23 is a day to celebrated the birth of John Hancock. National Handwriting Day was chosen as he was the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence with a flourish!

I have to admit, I have a passion for all types of papers especially handcrafted paper. A freshly sharpened No. 2 pencil beats writing on a keyboard any day. I even carry a sketch pad around with me at all times to jot down or doodle those inspired ideas when I’m suddenly struck.

A love letter or letter of appreciation is not quite the same when sent from an email address, now is it? So why don’t you celebrate this handwriting day with a written note to someone special.

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 January 23rd, 2014|Inspiration|Comments Off

Nesting

Nest, the company founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, made some big waves last week when news surfaced that the Palo Alto, California based manufacturer of new smart technology was bought by search giant Google for 3.2 billion dollars.

Then again it should not have been surprising at all. Since its launch in 2010 Nest has reinvented the thermostat and just recently debuted an ultra smart smoke & carbon-monoxite detector. Those are fairly boring pieces of technology, but Nest took them, made them smarter and had some fun along the way.

Back in November when the company launched the new smoke & carbon-monoxide detector they purchased an old fire engine from Craig’s list, pimped it all out and went around California promoting their latest product – pretty genius marketing on top of great product innovation.

In a blog entry from January 13, 2014 Tony Fadell, Nest’s founder and CEO states: “Nest will continue to be Nest, with its own distinct brand identity. We will continue to reimagine and reinvent the unloved products that proliferate in our homes, just as we have since we started. We are simply going to get our products into the hands of people around the world – faster.”

We have both products in our house and my technology-loving husband couldn’t wait to get his hands on them. The Thermostat has been saving us a bunch of “leaves” since we got it almost two years ago, but our smoke-/carbon-monoxide detector went off a few days ago for the first time, while I was making some toast, which got just a bit too crispy – aka burnt. I had left the room for a minute and not only did I get alerted by the other devices talking to each other across the house, that there was smoke in the kitchen, my husband got an in-app alert on his smart phone, complete with suggestions what to do in case of a fire.

After waving at the smoke alarm, like it instructed us to do in case of a false alarm, the device went off. Once the smoke settled we were informed once again via an in-app message, that the smoke was clearing. Pretty cool stuff.

All images via nest.com

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 January 21st, 2014|Big Thinking, In The News, Inspiration|Comments Off

Get Back to Work

The holidays are over, the new year is getting into the swing of things and now that the kids have gone back to school it’s time to get back to work.

Atlassian, the company which claims to help teams of all sizes track and share everything, work smarter, and create better software together, created a fun info graphic depicting the time wasted at the office going through emails, scheduling and rescheduling meetings or just plain switching tasks.

In case you have to be retrained or need a break from the daily grind already, check out the site for your self: atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic

But beware, the site keeps tabs on how much time you are wasting…

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 January 6th, 2014|Inspiration|Comments Off

SIX TOP TIPS

There's no place like home for the holidays

1 Give Thanks
People will remember your kindness. Thank anyone who refers business to you with a personalized thank you card.

2 Make it Simple
If your product or service saves time or makes life easier, that may be more important to some customers than saving money.

3 Spread Holiday Cheer
Holidays are the perfect time to launch a lighthearted seasonal campaign to reward and connect with your current customers.

4 Deck the Halls
Change your website to reflect the season and decorate your site just like you would decorate your own storefront.

5 Bring’ em back for more
People return to sites for new information, bring back visitors and motivate them to spread the word with new content. If there are no new products lined up, provide industry updates, trends and forecasts.

6˚ Get Creative
To be appreciated and maybe even remembered, your holiday card must stand out in some way from the dozens of other generic and oh-so-forgettable cards.

Give your customers more than they expected. Good service generally goes unnoticed and may not receive comment — exceptional service does. What small thing can you do that will surprise customers without additional cost to the company?

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 November 13th, 2013|Big Thinking, Inspiration|Comments Off

Carving out a Nitch

Halloween is a frighteningly successful holiday – second only to Christmas in consumer spending. Americans spend in excess of $7 billion each year to celebrate this spirited day.

Halloween has undergone a social change from traditional family trick-or-treating to a full blown event for adults, nearly 70 percent of adults plan to celebrate Halloween. It’s a time where marketers are truly expected to go outside the box with something surprising and different. When a brand introduces a playful spooky marketing campaign of their product or service, it can be a real treat for retailers.

In the spirit of things, we thought it would be nice to resurrect this Dirt Devil commercial from 2011 with over 3.3 million views – one of our all-time favorites:

And check out the ads below from across the interweb for some eye candy (pun intended):

Any other cool Halloween themed ads or commercials we should know about? Let us know in the comments.

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 October 11th, 2013|Design, Inspiration, Videos|1 Comment

Fall Gallery Walk

This Friday I will be exhibiting my creative “itch” as a first time participant in The Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce’s Fall Gallery Walk.

Over the years I have discovered that the need to express myself creatively means stepping away from the computer from time to time to create something totally hands on.

Having designed print materials for such a long time, I have a passion for paper in it’s many decorative forms. A few years ago I came across a collection of recycled handmade papers and was immediately driven to explore creating something unique. My technique entails the traditional decoupage process of cutting and pasting papers, including newspapers, books, maps, and even paper bark from a birch tree, in combination with paint.

Crow

GALLERY WALK | Friday, October 4
Please stop by and say Hello.˚ My exhibit will be from 5pm – 9pm at the Fox Chase Bank on the corner of High and Chestnut Streets.

admin 2017-05-22T13:17:02+00:00 September 30th, 2013|Inspiration, Local, Shows|Comments Off