What's in Store

The demise of the BlackBerry® brand is worth studying for any company and there are many lessons to be learned. As the company is struggling to remain relevant in the market, we thought it would be a good time to look into some of the mishaps and misfortunes that have led the company not only to the edge of the cliff, but as many investors already see over the edge and in free fall. Here are 4 lessons that we see as being a big part of their demise.  1. Don't be too confident: Not too many years ago, BlackBerry was synonymous with Smartphones. Corporations around the world relied on its secure network for their mobile email systems and consumers were addicted to their “Crackberries”. Then suddenly Apple® stepped into the game with the introduction of the iPhone®. Suddenly there was the idea of an all touch screen that can adapt to anything that is on the display. It seems so easy now to say that it was a natural evolution of the Smartphone user interface just as...

I recently received an interesting mailer for a restaurant close to my home. Measuring 6" x 11" there didn't appear anything too out of the ordinary with this printed piece, but opening it revealed that there was more to it than meets the eye. After removing the 3 circular stickers that kept it shut (as if 4 would've been overkill), you're invited to open a gatefold held shut with the same rubbery adhesive used to adhere credit cards to paper. Once opened, you are greeted by two pup-up images — one a Margarita, and the other an appetizer platter. Flanking these gems are a couple card stock gift cards for free food, and also a QR code that needs to be scanned in order to activate the gift cards before coming in. But wait — there's more! What was covering the pop-up graphics once opened? That's right, a GIANT 11" x 14" letter with lengthy explanation about the restaurant and why after 2 years of business they decided to extend...

We're excited to announce that two of our projects—Nice Package, Nice Rack promo and the web site for SYNQY—have won the gold and silver 2013 Davey Awards, respectively. The Davey Awards is an international creative award focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide. The 2013 Davey Awards received nearly 4,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms and public relations firms.

So we have all done it. Had something go to print and there is an error. When the client calls, your heart sinks and and your stomach tightens. In hindsight, the errors can be quite funny but in the moment your whole world comes crashing down. One of our more serious errors happened on a launch kit to Toshiba Telecom dealers. The word "Reliability" was misspelled in a headline. It was spelled "Realiability". Break that into two words and you get: REAL LIABILITY No there weren't two "Ls" but the client called and said it reads "real liability". Frantically we went back to check our printouts. The final signed off printout was spelled correctly. There, plain as day on the signed proof, by us and the client, was the error REALIABILITY staring us in the face. How could this have happened? The printer fessed up. A pre-press person had to retype the headline before proofing and they made the misspelling and we all missed it. Quickly we stopp...

It's true that as a design firm we're inundated with our fair share of unsolicited direct mail pieces and emails from photographers. Most of the time they go straight into the trash (actual and digital). A recent mailing we received from Ethan Pines Photography , however, not only managed to stay out of the trash, it's lingering on our desks. The cover immediately grabbed out attention: the shot of a ragged old-timey sailor with the headline "Argh! Another mailer!" That's pretty much exactly what we say when we get one of these things, so that elicited some chuckles. One we started leafing through, we saw that Ethan Pines was an accomplished photographer of people, with a really great sense of humor. We loved the dude with the pipe and the spread of the old guy dancing around. Even though most of our projects wouldn't call for photographs in Ethan's style, he's definitely made a good impression on us and we hope that this post might get his work ...

As soon as we got our first few followers, our first mention, and our first re-tweet, all I could think of is the scene from The Jerk when Steve Martin's character, Navin  R. Johnson, discovered his name in the phone book and he said: things are going to start happening to me now..." http://youtu.be/ahuPW6_t-z0 We came to the social media game a little late for ourselves. We helped our clients brand and build content but we didn't jump into the social media pool with gusto until a few months ago. Sure we had the occasional blog, we posted interesting content to our Facebook page, and we pinned in Pinterest, but we didn't follow our own advice---until now. We needed to make a true commitment to this marketing strategy for it to make a difference and we have enlisted the help of the entire office. Our first step was to define the type of content we wanted to cultivate and who we wanted to follow. Our purpose: Gain awareness and position ourselves as thought ...

This Book is Dedicated to Sound. These words above are printed on the dedication page of this great book. So how do you create impact without words? Cochlear knows how – and they've done so in stunning fashion with this promotional book about Cochlear implants. We recently received this limited first edition, printed by Lithographix based in Hawthorne, California. This large book comes in a slim box with a visual of crashing waves on the front of the package and the subtle headline "Let There Be Sound". Aside from an intro page and a few pages of copy in the back detailing the different Cochlear implant systems, this book uses very little words and is primarily eye candy — and it's brilliant. Thumbing through each page presents a different "sound" depicted with a photograph. From the simple bubble wrap pattern on the inside front cover, to a shot of popcorn popping, people laughing, or rain drops on a puddle, you can "hear" and even ...