reactions

Image-based brands such as fashion, beauty, photographers, and artists will love Pinterest, a new social sharing platform dedicated to “connecting everyone in the world through shared tastes and the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Users create image boards on topics ranging from home, to travel, food, fitness, beauty, etc. They then find, follow, and share with friends who have similar interests.

Think of Pinterest as your virtual tack board. Remember the cork board you used to have over your desk? Instead of clipping and tacking physical inspiration, Pinterest allows you to keep track of all those virtual bits of inspiration you come across online everyday. Pinterest comes complete with a browser extension that makes pinning a snap. Simply click on the “Pin It” tool when viewing any standard web page and every image or video on that page can be added to your profile with two clicks. Users are encouraged to add a note to the image, and anyone can add a comment to it at any time. More importantly, the image is saved with a link to the URL of the original source. Goodbye long, scrolling lists of “Bookmarked” pages you can’t remember why you saved in the first place, Hello, Pinterest.
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We are thrilled to officially announce that our new packaging for Wigwam just won an American Packaging Design Award!

According to the letter of congratulations:

“For nearly five decades, Graphic Design USA has sponsored national design competitions that spotlight areas of excellence and opportunity for creative professionals. Of these, the American Package Design Awards is the fast growing. The reason is simple but profound: marketers are challenged as never before to convey their message. Package design — along with the related disciplines of POP and instore graphics — are increasingly the difference-makers in the consumer’s purchasing decision. This competition celebrates well-designed graphics, of course, but also the power of design to advance the brand promise and forge an emotional connection with the buyer at the moment of truth.”

Making this even better is that we were able to top ourselves… having won the same award for our soon-to-be-the-old packaging in 2008. Lightning has definitely struck twice, and it feels even better than it did the first time! Congrats to all at MSLK and Wigwam who helped make this as great as it could be.

Look for the new packaging as it arrives in stores this spring!

MSLK believes transferring relationships fostered on social media to in-person encounters is a recipe for success. Companies are able to reach a wider audience through all of today’s online channels and utilizing social media to augment face-to-face encounters such as trade shows, events, and in-store promotions has proven to enhance results.

I was one of a group of six social media experts who were interviewed by Rob Murphy and GCI magazine at the end of last year to hear our thoughts on “Using Social Media to Enhance Face-to-Face Encounters.” Here are a few insights:
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Steve Jobs was not a designer, at least not in the traditional sense. In fact, there was little he did do that was traditional, in any sense of the word. Having just finished his biography, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, I have a new-found respect for the man who transformed not only the world of computers, consumer  electronics, music, movies, etc… but also had a profound effect of the lives of creative professionals — graphic designers in particular.
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MSLK is honored and humbled to have received two of the nine AIGA Making the Case Awards for our projects, Watershed and Figment 360° Branding. Beyond the mere beauty pageant that is the average design competition, “Making the Case” selects case studies that “demonstrate the value of design in a clear, compelling and accessible way” to clients and society. Given recent economic trends, now more than ever it is important for non-designers to understand how great design leads to business growth and/or positive societal change.
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MSLK has recently been busy working on completely new packaging and overall branding for Wigwam Mills, and it’s getting ready to hit the shelves this spring.

This was one of MSLK’s toughest challenges to date, for no other reason than we needed to improve on their previous design… also created by us. Though the challenges were different, we followed the same process as always, leading Wigwam toward reevaluating their core messaging, and revamping that look to stay true to their brand’s DNA. This new packaging is the first step toward helping them secure their place as a leader in the performance sock market.
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