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Hacking the Startup That's Hacking the Publishing Industry

Thursday, May 31st, will see the Brand Hack team take on their second challenge—in a single eight-hour day we'll rebrand Zeeen, a startup based in Kendall Square's Cambridge Innovation Center. Zeeen is an all-in-one software marketing platform for authors and publishers, helping writers build readership and sell more books.

Our brave hackers are:

Dave Demerjian Writing Dave Demerjian Branding and Copywriting @davedemerjian

Geoff House Web Design and Build Hifinit Design Group

Emily Isenberg Event Strategy Isenberg Projects @msemily

Jon Lopkin Identity and Web Design amüsegrafik @amusegrafik

Joe Nigro Business Development Vsnap @heynitro

Bill Maass Production Support @yesouisibill

Ben Spear Brand Strategy and Identity Design Thinkside @thinkside

Allana Taranto Project Management and Photography Ars Magna @ars_magna

Eric Wisch Social Media Strategy Innoventures Salon @theideascout

Because we believe in the immense educational potential of condensing this process and making it radically visible, we'll be joined at the CIC by a video team:

Dan Koff Video Documentation New Relic Media, Cambridge Coworking Center

Kristen Salerno Video Editor Unrendered Films @kristensalerno

The schedule for the day is tough to predict because our decision emerge from developing strategy, but we shoot for the following:

9:00–10:00a The Hack begins with a business development interview. All attendees can observe and ask questions. 10:00–12:00 The team starts their engines, engaging in strategic planning for the life of Zeen's new brand, including marketplace research, competitive analysis, strategic positioning, brand development, identity design, copywriting audit, and web pre-build. 12:00–1:00pm The Brand Hack team presents the results of their morning, including a recap of the strategic position and the resulting identity. Dan and Kristen will have a short video ready to show CIC clients as an introduction to Zeeen and the Brand Hack. 1:00–5:00p Implementation—the team will carry out their strategic recommendations, creating, among other possible deliverables: identity guidelines, final logo files, writing, on-brand portraiture, events strategy, and a small web build. 5:00—6:00p The team is available to speak and answer questions about their experience with the day, examining successes, challenges, and opportunities. 5:00–8:00p The CIC hosts Venture Café, a social networking event over beer and wine on the 4th floor. Hackers will look forward to many beers and connecting with the community around the day's events.

Would you like to attend this Hack? Learn more? Be in touch at [email protected].

#Branding #brand hack #coworking

Using Design Strategy for Greater Impact

On Thursday, April 9th, I'll be facilitating a design strategy workshop—Head First: Using Design Strategy for Greater Impact—with Rochelle Seltzer, an amazing and very dynamic woman I met through an AIGA Independent Designers Roundtable last summer. Rochelle helped clients with a strategically-focused process at her design firm for over 25 years, and is now focused on advocating for design strategy. To hear her speak about the process of branding and design is to know that she truly understands it all.

Our day will consist of a real-life exercise in brand strategy. We'll help a client think through her business goals and, broken out in four groups, attendees will work together to solve for her future. You'll get to present your ideas and get feedback from other designers and professionals, which is the best way to absorb the industry's best practices.

If you can't make it on Thursday, Rochelle, myself and the other facilitators will be repeating the exercise at the HOW Conference here in Boston in June.

#branding #independent #AIGA

Brand, Hacked

Sunday, April 1st was the first ever Brand Hack, a project I've been working on with some friends and colleagues to explore the craziness of fully rebranding an organization in eight hours. Boston World Partnerships connected us to One Degree, which will leverage cultural and technological advancements—like user reviews, social networking, and big data—to make social services more effective.

For a list of the participating creatives, see my first blog post about the event.

Above: Karla Monterroso and Rey Faustino discuss One Degree's mission.

The morning was fascinating. Jay Sun and I spoke with One Degree's founders, Rey Faustino and Karla Monterroso, as well as their partner Phan Huynh, about the organization's origins and vision for the world. One Degree has three goals:

Secure financial investment,

Attract a devoted user base, comprised of both social service end-users and the community leaders that will use the system as a back end, and

Generate big data that leading philanthropic foundations will purchase to help guide their giving decisions.

We had to build a brand promise that spanned all of these considerations. The result, which is an internal compass and not a piece of marketing copy, gets at the core value underlying each goal:

Above: One Degree's brand promise.

During the 30 minutes we had to sketch, we experimented with a wide variety of mathematical configurations, mostly using the number 1 in conjunction with the degree symbol. We also explored the 1º angle (even though it's very small). None of these seemed to get at One Degree's unique offering of people helping people and an easy, human way to interact with social services. We decided against any math, choosing instead to write the name out in full. This demystifies the experience, and removes the emphasis from technology. Then we decided to write the name in all lowercase letters, literally removing the barrier (uppercase "O") to entry.

From left to right: Bill Maass, Jon Lopkin and myself sketching the logo.

Our second big choice was to use a script—this gives the identity a sense of child-like simplicity, and conjures One Degree's principal use-case setting: schools. We knew we needed playful, bouncing loops and a uniform stroke weight, to anonymize the hand and communicate that this system is for everyone. Garrett Boge's Wendy Bold LP was the perfect choice.

Above: One Degree's black-and-white logo, set in Wendy Bold LP.

We presented the identity and the client was ecstatic. Once we had approval on the basic mark, around 1:30p, we moved on to color—focusing on a soothing but strong blue to further reinforce the system's ease-of-use with a cream ground to further humanize things.

Above: One Degree's color logos.

Next came an abridged brand bible.

Above: One Degree's brand bible. View the full PDF.

We then started applying the identity to their stated list of high-priority deliverables: a PDF brochure, printed brochure, business cards, brochure website (they have a developer working on the larger system), and HTML email template. While we had been sketching, Allana and Zach worked with their existing copy, giving it a consistent voice in line with their vision.

By 6:00p, the print pieces had been designed (and will go into production later this month), the HTML email was finished, and the website, now launched, was underway.

The Brand Hack challenged us to think quickly, collaborate deeply, and operate with a bias towards decision-making. The day allowed us to view the branding and collateral development process in a new light by condensing the steps and shedding light on the interoperability of the various participants.

We're currently looking for a partnering organization for the next hack on Friday, June 1st. If you'd like to suggest someone, send us an email. You can also follow us at @TheBrandHack.

#brand hack #coworking #Branding

The Brand Hack is branding on steroids. In the morning, One Degree was a complicated idea. By the evening, this team breathed life into it, and then put it in a three-piece suit.

Phan Huynh, One Degree

#branding #brand hack #coworking

AIGA Boston Independent Designers' Roundtable

Last night's roundtable was awesome. Some really great folks attended, and our conversation reminded me how much we have to teach other. Working for yourself, especially in design, is a remarkable challenge that pushes people to understand the true meaning of value in the face of rapid cultural shifts and constantly evolving markets.

The conversation centered around community—what does community mean for the independent designer, and why is it important? How do we create it? What can it do for us? Attendees ranged from an undergraduate senior to a seasoned professional just entering the field after fifteen years working in-house in the corporate sector, and the gems of wisdom were everywhere. Oficio, where I work, was kind enough to accommodate us.

Our topic for next time: Triumph and Tragedy. Each designer will arrive with one story about unbridled success, and one story about dismal failure. I'm so looking forward to it! Check back here, follow @Thinkside on Twitter, or stayed tuned to the Boston chapter of the AIGA for more information.

#independent #AIGA

The Brand Hack

On Sunday, April 1st, I'll be participating in the first ever Brand Hack. Thinkside joins a team of independent creatives to take on a full-scale rebranding project in a single day. Our participant is One Degree, whose mission it is to "build the connective tissue between schools and the community to transform high poverty schools from the ground level, rather than from the top-down".

Over the course of a single eight-hour day, we will assess their strategic model, determine their brand position, design an identity, and fully develop that identity for presence online.

The idea grew out of the time Allana Taranto and I spent at the Ad Hoc co-working space in Jamaica Plain, through collaborations with our partners there, Quilted and Rough Mountain Film & Media. The project team represents the membership of the EnCandle co-working space:

Jay Sun, CFO at Fluent Concepts, owner of EnCandle Business Development, Strategy

Allana Taranto, Principal of Ars Magna Visual Thinking, Professional Portraiture, Project Management

Ben Spear, Principal of Thinkside (me) Brand Development, Identity Design

Jon Lopkin, Principal of amusegrafik Brand Development, Web Design

Marc Held, Darion Miller and Dave Widger of Fluent Concepts Web Development

Zach Eisenstat Copywriting

Bill Maas Design, Administrative

The hack will take place at EnCandle, 332 Newbury Street, 2nd Floor. Would you like to participate? Sit back and watch the action? Do you know an organization that would benefit from this exercise? Contact me for more details and ways to get involved, and check back here next week to see how it all went down.

#coworking #branding

If the U.S. is moving towards a gig economy that favors creativity, what can be learned from independent designers?

#independent

Independent Design Defined

The Boston chapter of the AIGA has asked me to chair the Independent Design department there, and I couldn't be more excited. My ten years of experience as a solo design practitioner have given me a lot to talk about.

One of the first things I'd like to do is define the term "independent designer"; it's somewhat of a misnomer. While at their essence independent designers are solo, we move in a world of community. Because we design outside of agencies and firms, we are constantly searching for and collaborating with other creatives as well as non-creative partners. Thus, somewhat counter-intuitively, independent designers tend to be the most communal folks in the discipline, a characteristic which, I believe, uniquely positions them to inherit the field.

This blog will be the outlet for my work with the AIGA, as well as a clearing house for events, articles, and related ephemera. If you are an independent designer and have suggestions or comments, please email me or leave comments.

#independent #aiga

“If travel is searching and home what’s been found, I’m not stopping.”

Björk

Starting at Oficio

Today is my first day at Oficio, a relatively new space on Newbury Street by the park. The interior is ideal for my sensibility: sparse but warm, tasteful, and well lit. The floor is broken up into a variety of seating, with open desks, solo desks, desks overlooking Newbury (pictured), and reclined soft seating.

I'm excited for the change of scenery, and to continue my itinerancy post-San Francisco. Look for regular posts about Oficio and its members.

#coworking #boston #mobility

The coworking space I've been with for the past few months has launched their website, and it looks great. Photographs by Ars Magna Studio, design by amüsegrafik, and adaptive build by Fluent Concepts, all EnCandle members.

Just an FYI to all my mobile brethren—I switched from an early-2010 15" MacBook Pro to a 13" Air last month and have noticed no discernible loss of performance. In fact, because the Air features a solid state drive, the enhanced read/write rate has me moving a bit faster. I can quit InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator in under a second each. And I like that.

#mobility

Allana and Jon Head to The Design Office in Providence

Today's post is guest-written by Allana Taranto of Ars Magna Studio and Jon Lopkin of amüsegrafik. Both are close friends and fellow coworkers at EnCandle back in Boston.

Jon and I drove down to Providence after work on Tuesday to meet the folks at The Design Office. Design Office alumna Lindsay Kinkade was in town sharing some of her works in progress and talking about her transition from working in Providence to working in Phoenix.

Beyond the classic office door we entered what I can only describe as an ideal studio space: elegantly high ceilings, hardwood floors, enormous windows, white walls to pin up work, shelves of reference books and a big beautiful conference table complete with bottle of champagne waiting for us. Four designers are currently in residence at the three-room Design Office, with the largest room set up with a shared desk space to host them. We both loved the space and the welcoming and airy atmosphere. Jon was heady with type talk by the end of the night.

Lindsay is passionate about transforming her environment, and the work she shared resonated with that passion. Lindsay, a graphic designer, partnered with San Francisco based landscape architect, Arianne Gelardin, to form Assembly Required, a design collaborative that makes public art projects, engaging community with design and type integrated into the landscape. Rather than dealing with the way things are, they are designing projects to engage thier communities. Lindsay in particular is primed with some east coast energy to activate her new desert hometown. Her solutions showed the importance of designer's roles in the world.

On the ride home, Jon and I talked about the potential of such highly visible collaborations and the idea of expanding beyond a singular discipline. We can create meaningful solutions without ever touching Photoshop! This is part of the magical alchemy of coworking. We are now determined to do our own studio sharing of works in process, anticipating that both the process of curating what to share and actually sharing it is going to be quite instructive.

Also, we wish Ben were here.

Thanks guys! Can't wait to come back and share our adventures!

#boston #coworking #futureofwork

Sara Horowitz, founder of Freelancers Union, launched the #Rethink series on January 10, 2012, with an open discussion on how independent people will build the next fair economy.

To watch the Q&A from this talk, click here. #Rethink is a free monthly speaker series hosted by Grind that features those who celebrate and create change, shatter conventions, rock an industry or change the world.

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