“Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes”… David Bowie sung it best! We alluded to the manychanges on the horizon for MFX Partners (or just MFX as our friends call us) in our last newsletter. Well, finally, we can tell you a little bit more, which is good cause we’re literally bursting at the seams.

First on the list of changes … We’re moving! That’s right, MFX will be leaving our nest at 72 Victoria Street South in Kitchener and moving right across the street. Well, we like the neighborhood, so what can we say. Our new, larger, shinier digs are based on the second floor of The Tannery, at 151 Charles Street West in downtown Kitchener. And, you know what’s so great about our move? Not only will we have a larger space to contain all of our creativity; we’ll most-definitely be having an open house to celebrate in early spring so you can come and check the new space out!

Next up, we figured brand new digs called for a facelift of the MFX brand. That’s right, we are currently brewing up a name that amalgamates and honours all of the passionate creative people and stuff going on at MFX. More on that to come …

And finally, along with the new space and a new brand, a new website was a must! The launch of the new MFX website is expected at the end of this month. So please bear with us during the transition and, as the other MFX’ers would collectively recommend, “Ride the wave of change and embrace all of the delightful surprises we have in store for you!” And of course, please share your impressions freely with us as we go.

Until next time … MFX

Why Getting Sketchy Has Merit

A few weeks back, I posted on the Importance of Keeping a Journal and how documenting life’s moments can encourage creative and personal development. Well consider today’s post, inspired by graphic designer Jason Santa Maria, an extension of that idea. Dare I say one life’s moment (me running across his post) inspiring another (me posting this one).

His post, Pretty Sketchy, shares the merits of keeping a sketchbook, and like my own post on keeping a diary, solidifies that you don’t need to be an artist to keep a sketchbook; just like you don’t have to be a writer to keep a journal. Both are about being good thinkers.

Santa Maria even pledges to share his own drawings in the spirit of awareness via his Flickr page, and leaves us with this bit, which I loved: “We should revel in not caring how good or bad we are, and by knowing that we hone our creativity with each stroke of the pencil.”

So what are you waiting for! Check out his drawings, get inspired and start doing instead of just talking about it…

The Importance of Keeping a Diary

Yes, it’s Friday. TGIF everyone! I was still think about Stefan Sagmeister’s typography presentation that I posted about yesterday—about keeping my own list about the “things I have learned in my life so far.” I mean, being a writer, the thought of keeping a diary is not foreign to me. I’d actually started writing something called “morning pages” when I woke up every day. The idea is to just get your initial thoughts down on paper, with no concern for spelling, grammar, editing, or censoring your thoughts. The idea is to get these out and move past them to be more creative and productive in your day. Unfortunately, I’ve recently let my diary-keeping lag.

But today’s post elaborates on this idea of documenting your life’s moments, and it’s, again, from Sagmeister. This one minute video clip is about the importance of keeping a diary in order to support creativity and personal development and I think it’s just beautiful. It was shot in just one day in an abandoned historic Tang Dynasty park in Singapore.

Take a look, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on keeping a diary…

Design Thinking Applied to Maps Solves a Common Frustration

You might recall my post on The World in Words a few weeks back. It doesn’t strike me as odd that maps have been coming up a lot lately as an issue. I mean how many times have you struggled with a map? You either end up making yourself look helpless and touristy in strange places or you endanger yourself on the road, as you were wrestle with a city map to figure out where in the heck you are.

Well, common map frustrations have been solved when design thinking was applied to a traditional product to solve a common problem. With the map2™, a “zoomable” printed map, the unnecessary unfolding and fighting with large city maps is taken out of the equation entirely.

Take a look at this quick video demo to see how map2 lets you simply zoom in any city area by unfolding a single map portion—to reveal a smaller scale map of that area, enlarged for a more detailed view and navigation.

With Good Design, Less is More!

There has been ongoing discussion around the MFX Partners offices about the idea that “less is more”. So it was pure luck that I found this video footage from a traveling exhibition, also aptly entitled, “Less and More”, that celebrates the work of renowned industrial product designer Dieter Rams.

The video was captured during a stop at the Design Museum London, England, where the museum’s Director, Deyan Sudjic, and Public Program Director, Michael Czerwinski, both discuss what they feel makes Rams’ simple designs from the 1950s and 1960s so influential—even today! And they even speak about Ram’s 10 Principals of “good design”:

Good design:

1. is innovative

2. makes a product useful

3. is aesthetic

4. makes a product understandable

5. is unobtrusive

6. is honest

7. is long-lasting

8. is thorough down to the last detail

9. is environmentally friendly

10. is as little design as possible

…and how these fundamentals are still strictly maintained and defended by designers in 2010.

The exhibit, Less is More, has traveled to Osaka Japan, Fuchu Tokyo, London England and Frankfurt, Germany.

Why Sketching Is So Important To The Design Process

Amy Lamp, Design Director at Forty wrote a great post about why sketching is such an important aspect of design that I’d like to share with you. Check out Amy’s rationale (note I’ve paraphrased here and made it relevant to the folks here at MFX Partners):

Your first idea is probably not your best

You know that feeling you get when you first begin any new project. Come on, you know the one that screams, “I’m so freaking brilliant! What till they get a load of me!” Well it’s probably not your best work until you sketch it out, think about it some more and refine it.

Sketching is fast and doesn’t waste time

It’s a quick, rough and dirty way to express ideas visually—which is great if you’re working in groups. If you take a few seconds to sketch and idea out, more ideas will come to you during the process and you’ll probably make that first great idea a super-fantastic one—without wasting a few hours in Illustrator. Sketching also saves a lot of time with clients. Again, it’s quicker than using Photoshop or Illustrator to draw up initial, rough concepts when they’re not sure exactly what they’re looking for.

Anyone can sketch

I can’t see you, but I know some of you are shaking your heads in disagreement. Let me tell you, I am no artist, but I can draw using basic shapes (circles, squares, rectangles, lines and arrows) and yes, stick people to get my ideas across to others so they understand. If you still don’t believe me, check out “The Back of the Napkin” by Dan Roam.

Sketching puts you at ease

It’s fun and it cuts tension and when you stop worrying, that’s when ideas start to emerge and evolve.

5 Engaging Little Ideas to Help your Business

During these uncertain times business owners are scrambling for new ways and new ideas to improve business success. Well, Little Retail made this helpful and fun “little” video to showcase some fundamental concepts that businesses can implement immediately to make a difference. And better yet, they fit nicely into our Design Thinking methodology because the changes are focused primarily on engagement—with employees, and most importantly, customers!

So in the style of David Letterman…here are five engaging ideas for retail that you can implement tomorrow:

5. Feature products your employees love and products they believe in.

4. Merchandise with your brand in mind—promoting your brand ethos

3. Simplify your marketing message.

2. Use color in bold ways = high impact at a low cost and get noticed.

…and drum roll please…

1. It’s all about the customer. Allow them to relax and explore, let them create their own experience, and give them reason to stay and come back (creating brand loyalty).

Research Design: The Power of Parting Thoughts

There is a special moment after I conduct an interview with a customer or employee, when I have covered all the questions I prepared in advance, and when I shut off my digital recorder and start to pack up my bag.

I casually ask the interviewee, “So, of all the stuff we talked about, what do you feel was most important?”.

I don’t know whether it’s the actual question, the rapport that has been built up over the previous hour, or the fact that the recorder is off, but interesting ideas always seem to surface in a very short window of time.

I’ve come to think of this time as sacred time because it often results in crisp truths that open up a new vein of information. Sometimes I spend another 10 minutes casually conversing and then I frantically capture the ideas after I have left the room.

If you’re conducting interviews, take note of the casual, but often revealing tidbits that float out as you’re packing up your bags and heading to the door.

Carving a Space for Non-Designers in Design Thinking

I’m not a designer, I’m a writer, editor and SEO by profession. So I identified quite a lot with Patsy’s Design Thinking for Non-Designers article on the Front Studio blog.

You see Patsy is a project manager that oftentimes feels like an imposter among the group of graphic designers that she works with. But, she recently learned from Marty Neurmeier, the author of the Liquid Brand Exchange blog as well as The Design Company that it’s critical for people like her and I to think like designers—even though we aren’t.

It’s true, in a world where the title “Designer” often seems like an exclusive club where über-creative types are only permitted entry, Marty shares with us this Herbert Simon quote, “A designer is anyone who devises ways of changing existing situations into preferred ones”.

So like Design Thinking, this definition is wide reaching, non-exclusive, non-judgmental and non-specific to skill or profession. And to break it down, according to this definition, if I’m not thinking like a designer then I am not an effective writer! You see being a designer is not only within my human capabilities, it’s my duty. The same goes for Patsy and the rest of us…

Connecting Interactive Design with People

Check out this super cool video from T2 + Back Alley Films on a new interactive design concept called Emergence. This new and very “hot” experiential design concept is defined as the by-product of an audience’s interactivity with something that isn’t directly incorporated into the design itself. Experiential design, then, creates the closest connection between digital, interactive media and people.

To see what I’m getting at, watch the video of the interactive installation; by the way it’s called Squid Soup. As you watch you’ll see how adults and children are encouraged to interact and even control the bug’s environment. They block them off, create obstacles and places for them to hide, and even kill the creepy crawlers without mercy.

As you watch, keep in mind that it’s not the bugs and the sand installation that make up the finished art piece on their own—no, it’s what the people that interact with the piece (the Emergence) leave behind. It’s all part of the finished product.

Ah ha! This concept of Emergence ties very nicely into our Design Thinking methodology here at MFX Partners, because it encourages groups involved in problem-solving processes to leave behind a history (or rather an energy) of both success and failure.

So now that you’ve seen the video, what are your perceptions? I mean, we already know as marketers that what your audience takes away from an experience you put out into the world is incredibly important. However, have you ever considered that what they can contribute back is equally vital?

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