We thought we’d do something a little different and a little more festive with this month’s newsletter. So in keeping with Christmas tradition we thought we’d take a classic and put together a 12 days of our own, including all of the things MFX Partners(TM) had to celebrate about in 2010. Happy Holidays!
1. New Staff
The year 2010 brought a lot of fresh faces and new talent to MFX Partners.
Our team welcomed:
Alison DeMuy Director of Client Partnerships, Anna Fleet Copy Writer, Lisa Grogan Account Director, Neil Lippert Designer, Robert Miniou Accountant
2. People
Our tag line is “Passionate, Creative People”, and we believe it adequately represents MFX Partners and the people that bring life and passion to this company and the work we do here everyday. That’s why we are big on celebrating the personal milestones as well as the professional. Congrats to:
-Our designer James on buying his new home
-Our Account Director, Lisa and her family on the arrival of baby Celia
-Our Accounts Payable, Ying and her family on the arrival of baby Miranda
-Our designer Lesley Drago (née Richardson) on her marriage
3. New Space @ the Tannery
MFX Partners has outgrown our space at 72 Victoria Street South in Kitchener, but we really like the neighborhood so luckily we’ve secured a space right across the street in Kitchener’s Tannery District. We are excited to be part of this new working community that will not only be great for the growth of the downtown Kitchener core, but for MFX Partners as well! We hope to be all moved in by February 1, 2011 and will update you on our contact information at that time.
4. Community Involvement
In June, MFX Partners sponsored the 2010 Art Awards, and we were joined by the community to celebrate Kitchener-Waterloo’s most distinguished and inspiring artistic talents at Kitchener’s Centre In The Square. The awards celebrated 22 years of artistic achievement in our community in 12 award categories featuring Literary, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Music, and more in the K-W Region.
In September, MFX Partners got aboard the Steel Rail Sessions to contribute some moving art and Design Thinking to this collaborative art event…on the Waterloo Central Railway train! Dine & Design featured culinary art by Nick & Nat’s Uptown 21 and a look at Design Thinking by MFX Partners with an inspirational wall of Post-it notes where passengers were encouraged to write about what would improve our community. Pretty cool huh? Woot! Woot!
5. Staff Events
Building strong connections is such an important part of the work we do at MFX Partners, so that’s why we try to get together and have fun as much as possible. Our annual Best Ball Golf Tourney brought out some healthy competition, some really interesting fashion, good laughs, and, of
course, a lot of unmentionable cursing. The winning team got bragging rights for the entire year and a free lunch that the rest of the group “conveniently” forgot about and never shelled out for. But, for the next week we expanded our minds and our flexibility with a little Yoga at Studio Energy in Waterloo, and we started another frightfully, fun tradition with a pumpkin carving contest that had the cutest judge of all!
6. Good Deeds
In May, MFX Partners created The Good 50, a game that aims to inspire new, positive ways of living as part of the DESIGN 21 Game Challenge. The Good 50 deck reacquaints players with positive behaviours by showing us that it’s easy to live cleaner; treat others (including ourselves) with more respect; and it forces us to rethink the world around us.
Movember (the month formerly known as November) was pretty hairy around the MFX Partners’ office. Our male staff fully embraced the moustache growing charity event that helps raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer.
7. Design Thinking workshops
This year MFX Partners embraced and unveiled our own Design Thinking method, a
creative problem-solving approach that helps answer real world problems and real people
needs. We introduced our method with a collection of half-day, full-day, and multi-day
hands-on workshops where we introduced Design Thinking strategy and how it can be
used to help businesses really understand their customers and make innovation easier and
truly meaningful.
8. MFX Successes
This year we landed some of our largest projects ever! One of our most fulfilling and
challenging was helping to create a Culture of Innovation at a well-known Fortune
50 Company. MFX Partners is currently working with this client, challenging them to
think in new ways to find solutions to overcome innovation barriers.
9. Growth Spurt for Design Changes
The year 2010 brought sizable growth for our studio company, Design Changes, in not-for-profit
and community-based clients from our own Waterloo Region. We are proud of our work with
the Hospice of Waterloo Region, Beyond One Eighty, City of Kitchener, and the many talented
tech companies we’ve had a chance to work with from the Accelerator Centre.
10. Interns
This past year gave us the opportunity to expose some bright, young minds to MFX Partners as
we welcomed graphic design students, Rachel, Delaney and Joan. And we worked closely with
CoreCulture’s Company intern John Z. on the rebrand of 17muscles™ and Cognition™. They
learned stuff from us; we learned stuff from them. Talk about a win-win situation!
11. 17muscles/Cognition
Our sister company, CoreCulture, has had much success with their custom, digital training
platform…so much so, they decided to spin it off into it’s own company. MFX Partners led the
rebrand of this product, and helped them introduce 17muslces, the new company name, along
with Cognition, the flagship product that helps companies build connections with people by
capturing valuable knowledge using custom, digital content.
12. Axes & Antlers
As the year nears its end and the first snow fell, some would say the creative team slowly lost
their minds and could be found roaming the woods posing as lumberjacks and deer…in way,
way too much flannel. Pure creative genius? Insanity? Who really knows! The concept might
have been a little avant-garde, but the shots we captured were sure something else. We’ll let
you decide what that something else is, but regardless it was a lot of fun and a really nice
lady made us yummy muffins.
*New Find: MFX Archives Revived!
As we began packing, in anticipation of our move to our new location at the Tannery in the
New Year, we uncovered the remnants of an old photo stuck to the underside of an antique desk
in John and Rebecca’s office. Who could these fearless adventurers be? When was this photo
taken? And what does it have to do with MFX Partners? We have a feeling the New Year holds
some answers for our staff. More to come in our next issue…
