reactions

Brands such as Gucci, Converse and Ikea are leading the pack in elevating the e-commerce experience by offering alternative and exciting ways to browse their product lines. They are fighting traditional notions of e-commerce— cluttered menus, heavy-handed ads, and dense product grids with web applications that allow for less linear, more memorable ways to shop online. The result is that users are spending more time on these sites, leading to greater brand recognition and increased sales.
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Established artist agency Friend + Johnson is currently running an exciting MSLK designed campaign—the “Out to Lunch” Napkin Sketch Sweepstakes. What do you doodle when you daydream? Take one or more of your musings and put it on a napkin using whatever tools you wish–draw, paint, collage, fold; anything goes! Five randomly drawn winners will receive a free lunch valued at $100 at a restaurant of their choice! Visit the the F+J blog for instructions, official rules, and inspiration.
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Can retailers generate more sales by utilizing mobile devices and social media? In a recent interview with Footwear Insight I was asked my opinion of how footwear retailers can and should be putting these tools to work. The truth is many  brands see e-commerce and social media tools as a way of growing their business online. However, we see it as more than that. As the article states customers are surfing the internet on their mobile devices more than ever. Optimizing your website and social tools to capture users who are on mobile devices can also draw more customers into your brick and mortar locations as well.

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We are happy honored, and humbled to receive word that MSLK won two out of the nine awards in the AIGA’s Making The Case competition! More than “just another beauty pageant” this competition emphasizes substance over style.

In their own words:

You know from experience that good design is effective design. But how do you prove it? Through case studies, this competition provides an opportunity for design firms to show not just what they make, but how they think. “Making the Case” recognizes narratives that demonstrate the value of design in a clear, compelling and accessible way. A discerning and qualified jury will identify submissions that serve as an effective tool to explain design thinking to clients, students, peers and the public in general. The case studies selected will be published on AIGA.org

Our two winning projects are our eco-art installation Watershed, as well as the 360° branding we created for the Figment Art Festival. It’s truly an honor to be recognized for the thinking that went into these two projects. This is often the most important — and overlooked — part for brands to leverage when seeking a design partner.

By popular request from clients, colleagues and friends…

On December 10, 2010, MSLK Principals and Co-Founders Marc S Levitt & Sheri L Koetting welcomed Maxwell Grey Levitt (“Grey” as he likes to be called”) — a beautiful, healthy boy into the world. For the past seven months, Baby Grey has been “beta tested” thoroughly, exceeding the rigorous testing of all MSLK projects. By now, he’s  been to more design critiques than most design school seniors, and — just like his parents — has shown a strong preference for sans serif typefaces.

Recently, Julie Gang (unquestionably the world’s most talented children’s photographer), took some incredibly cute portraits of Grey which we wanted to share with everyone.
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NYC is thriving despite this crazy heat. MSLK has rounded up another fab list of things to do this summer.
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At MSLK, we’re constantly working to improve our own social media presence while helping you improve yours. We’re big fans of practicing what we preach, and social media is no exception. We want to make sure that whenever we recommend something, that we have thoroughly researched it, tried it out ourselves and have seen results. Read more to learn about the ways we’ve applied the social media strategies that we’ve been talking about and how they’ve affected our own social media stats.
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Yesterday afternoon, MSLK broadcasted our third webinar for marketing professionals, Customer-Centric Social Media for Fashion + Beauty. If you’re struggling to create relevant content for social media platforms and are wondering how to connect with your customers while increasing your brand reach and equity, this is the webinar for you. In case you missed the presentation or wanted to return to a specific portion, the recording is presented here for your convenience.

You might have a company Facebook page, Twitter profile, Linked-in profile, YouTube channel, and/or Flickr page with a fairly decent following. Or you might just be getting started. Whatever the case, when thinking about creating content for these platforms, there are three questions you should ask yourself:

How will I increase my fan-base?
How will I keep my current fans interested?
What’s in it for everyone?
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The “like” button is everywhere these days, but you’d be surprised how difficult it is to entice people to like your Facebook page. A Facebook fan gate is one very effective way to provide people with a call to action to like your page. It acts as a welcome screen for a Facebook page that encourages non-fans to like the page in order to access exclusive content.
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