Recently a friend posted a simple question on her Facebook status, “Over or Under?” The comments started flying and before she knew it, she had a full-on debate. The topic was as old as the product itself: Does your toilet paper roll come undone over the top, or under the bottom? The impetus for the question comes from the new “Roll Poll” campaign by Cottonelle.

In a move that is highly effective for today’s crowd-sourced market, Cottonelle is capitalizing on the enthusiasm consumers are experiencing over social media. Everyday users on social media websites like Facebook are completing questionnaires, quizzes and polls to share with their friends everything from what celebrity they look like, to movie knowledge, trivia questions, and beyond.

Last night’s Fashion Group International panel discussion was insightful and informative, with Sheri L Koetting successfully leading the panelists through a wide range of Social Media topics. Much light was shed on innovative techniques the panel used for their clients using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to turn strangers into fans, and fans into customers with a loyal following… and turning into sales.

Much like snowflakes, no two MSLK business cards are alike. The reason for this is simple: we use recycled paper as the base, and wrap pre-printed stickers around them. It’s all part of our firm’s environmental commitment, repurposing makereadies — the waste from offset printing — to use as business cards.

It’s an approach that caught the attention of Marc Praquin, designer, author, and publisher of the 288 page, full-color book, “MyOwnBusinessCard – VolumeOne”

Back in 2008 our friend and colleague Yves Behar worked with the New York City Health Department to bring a new look and attitude towards condoms. The result was smashing success. The distribution of condoms has more than doubled since before NYC introduced their own brand.

Despite the frigid cold after a giant snowstorm, a glimpse of spring was in the air today as I walked by the Anthropologie flagship in Rockefeller Center. Their store window displays were not only spring-themed, they also have a wonderful eco-theme, too. They’re made from plastic bottles collected from their customers.



MSLK’s two eco-art installations “2663 Urban Tumbleweeds” and “Watershed” are featured in a new art compilation entitled “Urban Interventions – Personal Projects in Public Places.“

The editor, Matthias Huebner, states:
Evolving from graffiti and street art, urban interventions are the next generation of artwork to hit public space. Using any and all of the components that make up urban landscapes, these mostly spatial works bring art to the masses. They turn the street into a studio, laboratory, club, and gallery and challenge us to rediscover our environment and interact with it in new ways. This is the first book to document these very current, personal art projects in a comprehensive way. It shows the growing connections and interplay of this scene with art, architecture, performance, and installation as it turns public spaces into surprising and provoking individual experiences.

To order an advanced copy, click here.
For more information, follow the jump…

One commercial during last weekend’s Superbowl quieted our rowdy group and made me reflect upon how much Google has changed my life. The simple text-based story showed a screen grab of one young boy’s journey through adolescence into adulthood  as seen by his queries on Google. It reminded me how much of my life and what I do next is determined by those queries for everything from a dinner recipe, to show times, to travel info. This is why it is essential that part of your marketing efforts ensure that your website, promotional materials, and digital marketing plan lead your company to showing up on the queries potential customers are using most often when they go looking for firms just like yours. To do nothing means Google will be leading them to someone else.

Influenced by the economy, it seems that the eco message in the 2010 Superbowl was heavily downplayed this year. Gone were commercials of companies promoting their sustainable track records and making a difference. Instead there was very little green message at all, except this spot for the Audi A3 TDI® clean diesel. The notable message is, while other cars are stopped in traffic at an eco-check point, the Audi driver is allowed to pass on through. However, based on consumer reactions, the bigger take away seems to be, “There’s those eco-nuts again, overreacting about my garbage and getting in my business.”

This is the kind of design innovation we all should all be doing. Why can’t all our outdoor lighting be solar powered? It’s an even input to output exchange, no coal power should be expended.

From lanterns, to garland, and pathway lighting it looks like IKEA’s got you covered. Look for the items to enter stores near you this spring! If you see them let me know; I’ve got my eye on some myself.

Even though the season is behind us there’s still time for a quick recap of the best windows of 2009. Armed with a camera, a quick stroll proved that even in the middle of a recession, ’tis the season for glitz, glamor and whimsy on  5th Avenue.

The October issue of Graphic Design USA was dedicated to green design, and featured MSLK prominently:

- Page 20 turns its attention to our project Watershed, with a quote from Sheri Koetting about our eco art installation.

- Page 45 runs an agency profile about MSLK with an interview with Sheri and I speaking about the ways in which MSLK is a green design firm, and why.

We’ve re-run the interview after the jump…

Today is the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. For the next 11 days representatives from 170 countries accompanied by non-governmental organizations, journalists, business representatives, and personal enthusiast totaling an estimated 8,000 people are gathering to advocate reform to prevent global warming and climate changes. We met some of these advocates back in September during the UN’s Climate Week when they were beginning their rally cry.

One of the efforts to raise awareness and support for this global effort is grass roots effort called “Hopenhagen”. The people behind Hopenhagen are volunteers  from the International Advertising Association, advertising, marketing and communications industries who have donated their time and resources to do what they do best, create an awareness campaign. Through this campaign, they hope to, “Connect every person, every city, and every nation to Copenhagen. To give everyone hope, and a platform from which to act. To create a grassroots movement that’s powerful enough to influence change.”

Need a great holiday card to give to friends & family? Colleagues & clients? Christians & Jews, Hindus & Muslims alike?

Looking to make a difference and give back to the New York community?

You can do all of these things when you purchase MSLK’s “2010″ holiday card. The non-profit organization, Robin Hood Foundation, invited us to create a limited-edition, non-denominational holiday card, and it’s now available for purchase on their site.

The holiday season is just around corner, and its time to start thinking about gift-giving.

To some, holiday shopping can be an overwhelming task with all of the consumer clutter out there. Fear not, our studio has compiled a comprehensive list of our favorite tips and places for gift-giving with panache.

From the design geek to the philathropist, we’ve got you covered for virtually everyone on your list. Click below to see!

If a picture tells a thousand words, then a movie shot at 24 frames per second surely has even more to say. Months ago when we set out to tell compelling stories of MSLK’s process, our environmental commitment, and the people behind MSLK, we found that words and pictures alone were simply not compelling enough.

Thus begun a long process of creating short movies.

MSLK’s AIGA award arrived last week in a most unusual form: as a stool.

A shallow USPS Flat Rate Box containing confetti, five pieces of particle board, and a sheet containing brief 3-step instructions was all there was. This was a bit of a head scratcher at first, yet the instructions explained the following:

“Tasked with designing and manufacturing 26 awards for the 2009 AIGA (Re)Design Awards, cypher13 teamed up with Rocket-fly to create a sustainably-minded and eco-friendly award. Desiring to design an award that would prove useful, be fun to interact with, and that could not be deemed a waste of time, materials, and energy, cypher13 and Rocket-fly settled on the notion of a stool. With Their only real design limitation being size due to the awards having to ship in flat rate USPS boxes(12″ x 12″ x 5.5″), a flatpack design was chosen.”

MSLK was recently honored with Second place in the Sustainable Design category of the 2009 AIGA (Re)designAwards. The winning pieces include identity, print collateral, web, video, package design, wayfinding, and exhibit design from designers, student designers and agencies across North America.

Receiving recognition from the AIGA is quite an honor as the competition is always steep. The fact that we were recognized for our sustainable design work was especially humbling.

Click more to see some photo montages of our latest installations of Watershed!

I can’t say exactly when, but there came a time when the old MSLK website no longer suited our needs as a company. After nearly ten years of gradual evolution, the site seemed fine to most casual visitors. However, as our range of services expanded, we were finding the need to tell increasingly complex stories about our work. On top of that, we were fielding calls from new prospects asking us about our capabilities… things we thought we had been clearly stated online, yet clearly were not.

Looking back, there were clear signs that we were adding patches to the site to try and show more than just the end-result of the work. And these signs all pointed to us being the proverbial shoemaker’s children: branding experts who excelled in creating innovative online experiences for others (just don’t look at our site). In December 09 we started to think about what was needed for us to lead by example. We knew it would be an immense endeavor, and require a sustained commitment of nearly everyone in our studio.

And it did.

Last night SVA honored Advertising and Graphic Design Department Chair, Richard Wilde for 40 years of excellence in design education. MSLK was invited to cover the event on Reactions in order to bring the inspiration of his philosophies to you.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our webinar on Social Media, with marketing expert, Sheri Koetting and social media consultant, Shannon Nelson.We hope you gained some new insights into the power and potential that platforms like Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter hold. As we discussed they not allow you to reach millions of users, but give unprecedented access to data about your fans and their daily lives.

We’ve had several requests for the presentation from those of you who couldn’t join us and those of you who were riveted and need to watch it again. A recording of the presentation is posted here for your convenience.