Designing Posters for Change

Designers, artists, architects, song writers, singers, actors - creatives of all types have the power to weave truths in a powerful way. Here's a poster project that I can get behind and promote with all my hype-hype-heart and gusto. Wonderful messages, wonderfully designed, communicating to the masses in a way that works. These are my kind of designers -I'll have to get involved with this one!

My only question to Green Patriot Posters : Where can we order these wonderful prints? I have wallspace and these are just about perfect for my office.

Design that Matters : The Green Party of Canada Animation

I've been busy busy designing and creative thinking. (Ahem, hence the 2011 lag in posts.) We recently created a design piece that disallowed me to neglect my "Green Graphic Design" blog.

Here's a YouTube clip of the Green Party of Canada animation that we sent their way last week. It was such a satisfying experience to be designing communications for something that I feel so passionately about. It was the most feel-good work I've done all year! You can see it on the national campaign site at Green Party Canada.

It reaffirmed my decision to go solo and to look for GOOD clients, working on POSITIVE projects that matter. Sometimes I lament my jump from the road-to-riches to the road-to-goodwill, but this week I am nothing but smiles.

Green Business Cards by Moo !

A small selection of ready-made designs by the fabulous artists who sell on MOO  /  Credit: Moo Print

If you haven't seen MOO before, then you are missing out on one of the best collections of cute and trendy graphics anywhere. period. 

This is the perfect stop for anyone who wants amazing, but doesn't have the budget for custom branding or embossed and die-cut. At MOO, you can pick out one design per business card, and make a huge statement with variety and a noteworthy collection. (Yes!) If you order 50 cards all 50 can be unique, and the price for printing doesn't change. It's a great way to try out a few different ideas or techniques on your cards for an amazing price.

It turns out that MOO has a wonderful business card option called MOO GREEN, I am not sure how I missed this addition to their collection, but I did. The last time I visited their site this wasn't an option, and now that it is I will be frequenting their site on a regular basis.

Their cards are totally chlorine free and 100% recycled with  Post Consumer Waste paper. Tell your friends, this is an amazing day. (I hadn't been to the MOO site in a few years, so I know I am on the caboose end of this news.) I'm just so excited about it, because it means I can shop at MOO again. Their print quality is amazing, the cards are quirky, and the off-sizes are great conversation starters. I am smiling all over.

Credit: Moo Print

Clear Path Chiropractic's Green Graphic Design

Last week we finished off a series of projects for Clear Path Chiropractic Health Centre in Guelph, ON.

The project was one of those great ones, that only comes around once every few years.
Mark Kubert and Julie Gill (the doctors in charge) were totally on board to go with 100% post-consumer-waste recycled business cards. We designed their cards so that they are 70% of the regular height (skinny cards!), so that means not only are they printed on recycled papers, but they also save recycled material resources because of their size.

The inks are soy and vegetable based as opposed to petroleum, so we are delighted with the overall materials choices of the Clear Path gang !

The cherry on top was their website. We have their site hosted on HostPapa's green servers.
 (HostPapa buys solar and wind energy credits to replace all of the energy that they pull off of the regular energy grid.)

I love it when we are given the green light to design in a way that inspires us !
Thanks guys for being good and green and just plain awesome !

10 things I learned at HubSpot's Advanced Twitter "Webinar"

We all know that social media is greener than the paper and ink versions of promotion. It is also an entirely different entity and has a life of its own that is less controlled than a traditional print broadcast campaign. Today, I participated in a fantastic HubSpot Webinar on The Science of Twitter.

The main take-away ideas of the seminar were great reminders that online social media promotion is highly effective, when you follow a few rules. Besides writing good content, HubSpot offered some data-based suggestions to tweet more harmoniously and more in-tune with your sales goals.





10 steps to better Twittering
(from HubSpot's "webinar" on Twitter)

1. To find new clients online: identify keywords that are appropriate to your business and then follow the conversations that are happening when those keywords show up.  Start to follow those that use your keywords, and add interesting content to the conversation.  Use a monitoring tool like Google Alerts to find new and relevant content.

2. Use words like you, us (inclusive language) instead of words like me, my, our.

3. Unless you're in a business in which sensitive information should be protected, there is really no need to use separate twitter accounts for business and personal. That's what social media is all about - being a real person that people can feel connected to.

4. There is a "best pratices" ratio of followers:following in business. During the webinar it was suggested that even though as an individual it may look better to have more people following you than you follow, as a business that isn't always the case. A smaller business could appear uninterested in their followers (potential clients) if they have a very high number of followers without following many people. A 1:1 ratio would suggest that the information you are tweeting is relevant and interesting, and at the same time  communicates openness and involvement of the business tweeter.

5. Be picky about who you follow, but don't worry about who follows you.

6. Spend at least 10 minutes a day on your twitter promotions.

7.  Increase promotion by: setting up a full profile including your bio, adding a pic, and chosing a word like "owner, official, master, guru, founder, speaker, etc." to position yourself as an expert in your field.

8. Refrain from negative commentary. "Nobody likes a negative Nancy." Twitter is social (think...fun), if people want to hear about life's negative clippets, they can turn on the news.

9. Ask for a ReTweet, and you will probably get it. Social psychology suggests that we are more likely to do something if we are asked, and on that note, if you add the word "please" then people will be more inclined to oblige your request. (Use this technique conservatively, and only once in a while for the best results.)


10. Add interesting hyperlinks. More ReTweets include links to great content.

Tweet

Maam Project's Carpet Bags

Here's the fun design of the day -
Maam Project out of Spain are making these nice looking handbags out of repurposed carpet.
One woman's junk is another woman's treasure ?


via Dezeen

Green Business Cards

Our secret mission as Green Designers is to convince clients to do something unique and green for their business cards. There are so many fantastic card designs out there, and I love to find green design inspiration. Here are a few eco-friendly business cards that are a little bit different than the standard. They are either repurposed, and make use of what would be waste; or that are printed on recycled papers with soy inks.

Here's a cool card from AIGA Knoxville - an old pantone colour chip repurposed
into a business card. A wonderful idea - and a fun way to reuse those pantone chips !
Via All Graphic Design

And what do you do when you have a store that is chalk full of recycled

wonders for resale ? You create a unique, 100% re-used card made of left
over fabric and bits of old... um... things. I would never throw it away if it
made it into my wallet, and it's worth showing people as a conversation piece.
Via All Graphic Design 

Simple and effective design on cardboard by Michela Chiucini.  

Irma's option includes converting in a heart shaped desk ornament. 

This card designed by Jamie Wiek actually sprouts. Amazingly creative.

Via Inhabitat

The Half-Sized Business Card

The foods we eat, the places we shop, the mantras we subscribe to - living the good green life has had an effect on the way that we do everyday things. The way we do every-day-business is also feeling the pressure to succumb to the eco-will of the masses.

The half-card trend is one that clearly speaks to this trend. Not only are people using recycled papers, but many designers have decided that precious white space takes back seat to precious raw resources. Here are a few fantastic examples of what can be done with half the paper.

via The Sky Was Pink

Cards From Card Observer

Hip Recycled Business Card

How do you create a paper business card for an environmental consultant ?
What kind of card would pass the eco-scrutiny that a person in this position would be subject to ?

You don't design a card at all, but rather, a stamp - a stamp that can happily punch out the details of contact information on every scrap piece of paper in any colour that the consultant desires.
What an amazing way to make an impression...  I can envision the exchange that takes place when Andrea Romani's future clients ask for her phone number...

"Oh ! Your an environmental consultant. Do you have a card ?"
"One sec,"(She grabs a scrap of napkin from the table and pushes ink onto it) "Here you go. "

What a strong eco-impression like no other.  Amazing !



via Cherry Flava 

I love when designers use their talents to speak their minds

The website My Logo My Way  is running a contest for a bp logo redesign. We all know they will need an image revamp after the disastrous mess they have created... and the designing minds around the world have come up with some good solutions.  

See the full set of entries at My Logo My Way