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!

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.

The book has countless tales of Steve Jobs’s quirks, tantrums, and various eccentricities (I stopped counting the number of crying tantrums somewhere around 10…), but what it makes clear is that he knew what what he wanted and would stop at nothing to get it. He demanded the best of everyone, and showed people the impossible could be done… while always staying ahead of the curve.

Much has been said of Jobs before and since his untimely death on October 5th, 2011. I would like to take a moment and write a few thoughts about what I’ve learned from Steve Jobs:

Work with the best people
Throughout the course of his career, Jobs noted that poor performers drag the whole team down. There’s simply no point dealing with sub-par players. As an employer, surround yourself with the best… you’ll benefit, as will they. For us, this can also be applied to clients. No use spending time trying to convince the brilliance of your design if they’re incapable of appreciating it. Working with the best led Jobs to seek out legendary designer Paul Rand to design the NeXT logo.

Follow your passion
There’s no point working on things that don’t interest you. Period. This goes for designers as well as clients. There’s nothing worse for a designer than to work hard for something when you know the client doesn’t place much value on it.

Every detail matters — even the ones you can’t see.
Years ago, I remember buying a G5 Tower and adding RAM to it myself, marveling at the innards of the machine. I called over Sheri to show her the inside of a computer, and we were both transfixed. I have no idea how computers work, really, but was awestruck at the organization of the circuit boards, processors, the way that the fans could be slid in and out, and such. This turns out to be a classic Jobsian trait: everything matters. Design is not a surface affair, it’s the compete integration of inside to outside, hardware to software, etc. As designers, we understand this intrinsically from the detailed proposals we write at the outset of a job, to the care that we take in preparing files to send off to the printers and developers. Every detail counts, and the craft you put into things shows through.

Form over function.
This is actually completely counter-intuitive, especially for a maker of gizmos… why wouldn’t you simply build the best product, who cares what it looks like? Yet that’s not the way it works. The very first Macintosh — which was gorgeous to look at and intuitive to use — was woefully underpowered. Jobs knew that if something is not intriguing, it’s never going to garner the attention to pick it up in the first place. This applies to graphic design and advertising: if it’s not compelling, no one will notice you. Of course, if the content isn’t good, it won’t succeed. Jobs rarely disappointed in this regard. (The original Mac was in fact underpowered and had poor sales — a catastrophic mistake that Jobs would never make again).

Focus is the most important thing a company can have.
When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he was baffled at how engineers had run amuck with endless variations of mediocre Macs. He finally asked people, “What would I tell my mother to buy?” a question no one there could answer. Then he drew a grid on a white board with 4 quadrants: Consumer/Professional/Desktop/Portable. He forced the company to simply focus on the best product for each of these, which produced the iMac.

For us, focus is equally important. We must balance the right mix of clients to take on. We need to maintain our promotional efforts with the same vigor and enthusiasm as our client work. We set yearly goals by which we measure our progress. We know which projects are best to take on, and which to pass on. We’ve seen how colleagues try and take on the world and do it all, only to implode due to their lack of focus.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
I love this quote, and think I will use it to tell all our new hires what to expect at MSLK. We definitely embrace the notion that great work is not a far-off thing in the distance, but something that is expected.

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
This is MSLK to a “T” — we spend countless hours stripping away the superfluous in order to get to the essence of any message we’re communicating, whether visually or in creating a campaign message. Jobs understood that making things appear simple and easy takes complex and hard work.

Figment Annual Art Festival 360° Rebranding
Learn how our design solutions for this event helped increase submissions by 200% and attendance by 30% from previous years. View Case Study >>

Watershed Eco-Art Installation
Discover how our installation was instrumental in raising public awareness about plastic consumption by reaching over 1 million people in over 63 countries. View Case Study >>

As these case studies demonstrate, the effectiveness of design solutions should be measured not just by client happiness, but by seeing precisely how the intended objectives are accomplished over time. Richard Grefé, executive director of the AIGA, provides a great summary on this new responsibility designers should be taking: “Designers should absolutely be asking these questions and continuing to follow up with clients after a project is implemented. Through challenges like ‘Making the Case’ we can begin coaching designers on how to measure their success—what questions to ask, what metrics to track, and how doing all of this can help prove the effectiveness of their work to existing and prospective clients.”

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.

MSLK current design from 2008:

Challenge
Launched in 2008, the existing packaging sought to convey Wigwam as an all-American, venerable family-owned brand with offerings for everyone: from the weekend warrior to the Olympic athlete. Deriving creative strategies to support research uncovered by the famed marketing specialist G. Clotaire Rapaille, the packaging’s focus was on hand-touched graphics, native American themes, and feel-good product names designed to elicit an emotional appeal. Despite an initial success, a slew of competitors entered the market recently with hard-hitting technology messages, causing Wigwam’s packaging to no longer stand out as they had once done so well. Wigwam again chose MSLK because of our deep understanding of the product line, their challenges, and our ability to help unearth deeper core issues with the brand.

Numerous hierarchy exercises were employed to determine the most essential information:

Strategy
MSLK developed several fast-paced exercises for the team, designed to help them focus on the most important aspects of their brand. These exercises were then translated into a creative brief that clearly communicated how we would solve the main issues during the design process. Our findings led us to four key insights:

1) Wigwam’s new packaging should play-up performance
2)  Graphics should be modern and asymmetrical to communicate movement
3) Activities and benefits should become the most important information
4) The triangle/teepee is Wigwam’s true brand essence

A glimpse of some of the numerous design options explored internally:

Design
We developed dozens of design prototypes, with a few rising to the surface that met all our strategic objectives. Two were eventually refined into versions suitable for thorough quantitative and qualitative consumer testing, with one emerging as the clear winner. The new design features a sleeve with angled edges, visually reinforcing speed and performance. Each product face contains a large teepee graphic comprised of activity-focused words in bright colors. Only the most essential information appears on the face, helping consumers easily distinguish between styles. The package backs were revamped as well, eschewing information that does not instantly communicate the performance benefits and Wigwam’s patented technologies. A QR code takes smartphone-enabled consumers directly to a web-page with more product information.

Success
Before even hitting the shelves, our design won a 2012 American Package Design Award. It’s also performing well among athletes during market testing. At a recent international sales meeting, the unveiling was met with a standing ovation, as these changes were described as being exactly what was needed to compete. At an outdoor retailer show, the brand experienced an unprecedented buzz among all attendees. Wigwam has already incorporated the new branding into many of their promotional efforts, including their sales catalog, retail stands, signs and collateral at races and trade shows, and their traveling van. Look for the new packaging this spring at REI, Paragon, Dicks and other high-end performance stores!

Great holiday retail windows embody the entire romance of the shopping season. When I was young, the trend was dioramas of animatronic characters set amid a snowy scene. These days retailers and window designers are encouraged to think a bit more outside the box, and the more they let their imagination wander, the better. In fact, the out-of-the-ordinary is more apt to capture peoples’ attention.

Here are some windows that struck me on a recent trip down 5th Avenue.

Bergdorf Goodman’s
Bergdorf’s is really in a class all their own. Year ’round they stand head and shoulders above other retail windows because of their artistic concepts and rich attention to detail. This elongated mannequin and giraffe aren’t even part of  the main attraction this year, but they fit perfectly in a narrow side window and create this feeling that everything in the window is slightly stretched.

In another side window I was impressed by the play on perspective as the wall turns into the floor.

This little character helps create the illusion. Are we looking in or down? Either way, note how he is created from beautiful tapestry and blends in the backdrop.

The main event is the five windows all styled under the theme “Carnival of the Animals.” Each window has its own material theme, color and concept. And each of them is amazing in its own right. The mosaic tile encrusted window, “Testing the Waters” at the top of this post, took 10 months to build.

This window entitled “Teachers Pet” is styled entirely out of paper! I was initially drawn in by the monochromatic feeling and the delicate nature of the colors, then as my eyes adjusted I began to notice little details. The delicately cut border, the wispy plumes on the peacock’s feathers, how was that happening? Paper. Three hundred types of paper to be exact.

Just to give you a sense of the overall scale of this extravaganza, this zebra is life-size. There are also a life-size ostrich, panda bear, aardvark, and white peacock among other animals all within this one window.

Fundamentally it’s the layered concept that make this window sing. Bees presented on a honeycombed book hive.

Two delicately cut primate faces presented side by side on contrasting book pages.

A hamster habitrail cut/carved out of the inside of a book.

It is a fantasy wonderland, the kind that doesn’t need to animate or be made out of snow.

Tiffany & Co.
Inspired by the carousel in Central Park, Tiffany’s 2011 holiday windows continue to impress. Proving that good things come in small packages, Tiffany’s first challenge is to draw viewers into their tiny windows. Their solution: build up, out, and on top of their existing frames. The rounded form creates the illusion that the carousel is bursting out from the store within.

Like a box, within a bag, under a bow, the real magic is set within six tiny circular windows. As you peer into these windows, scenes of Central Park and the carousel come to life. The narrative is based upon the book “The Winter Carousel” by David Melling.

As always, I really enjoyed Tiffany’s play on perspective.  This scene shows an overhead of Manhattan, with Central Park in the center as the carousel horse lifts into the sky like Santa’s sleigh.

There are many little baubles to be discovered. Check out the miniature Tiffany’s with miniature versions of the holiday windows.

And a beautiful jeweled present waits at the door.

Saks
A few years ago, Saks raised the holiday window “bar” by covering the entire building facade with snowflakes. However, the snowflakes came with a lot of armature and hardware that marred the clean aesthetic of the building during the day.

This year, Saks has cleaned up their design by using projection which requires no hardware on their building at all. (Just a giant generator, set up on Rock Center’s roof.

Although I found the lumen of the projection to be a little dim amid the other bright city lights, the quality of the animation was an upgrade. Designed to tie in with the windows below, giant pipes pump out bubbles, which turn into snowflakes and dance along the windows and molding.

It’s truly a fun spectacle, set to music, and the designers at Pentagram throw in a few of the other Tromp d’Oeille tricks, such as moving parts of the building and unlocking vaults, common among projection installations these days.

The windows below are also based on a story,”Who Makes the Snow,” written for the occasion and for sale at Saks. I actually really enjoyed reading the words on windows which were lyrical in nature.

Visually the windows weren’t as compelling, but I found this window on the side street to be striking.

Here’s hoping you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

In a market flooded with so many brands, today’s consumer is presented with an ever-changing array of options along with an increased sense of discernment about what and where to spend their resources.  To be successful, a brand must find ways to distinguish itself and stand out amongst the clutter.

The process begins with a business strategy and marketing plan.  It has a clear point of view and maps out a direction for future activities.  This written plan describes the business, outlines goals and defines a sustainable competitive advantage.  It is a document that will grow and evolve.  A strong plan is an essential foundation documenting specific strategies and tactics to guarantee objectives are met.  Furthermore, it helps businesses make decisions quickly and manages capital and promotional opportunities effectively throughout the year; allowing for the right investments in the right places always with an eye towards the “big picture.”

Businesses who operate without a marketing plan often find themselves evaluating each marketing and business opportunity on a case-by-case basis and spend much time reacting to market conditions and at worst, “fighting fires.”  This method often produces “feast or famine” marketing.  Entire marketing budgets can be spent on one or two promotional tools, leaving a lack of funding to support any further efforts, including critical follow-up.  Worse yet, companies lose sight of why each project should be included in the business and promotional cycle in the first place and how it relates to the greater purpose.  With a marketing plan in place, businesses can then execute with a consistent focus on their overall goals.  Included will be a definition of the target customers for each program and the specific calls-to-action being deployed at each stage in the sales cycle.

For smaller brands seeking new or additional distribution, a marketing plan and its effective execution is an essential tool to igniting confidence and securing key retailer partnerships.  Retailers want to know that you have specific plans in place to inform consumers of your offering and ultimately create the desire that drives them into their stores.  As one set of eyes and ears to your consumer, they can be critical partners in this process and a vital help in revisiting your plan and evaluating its performance to determine future actions.

Research and knowledge of consumer behavior indicates that fashion and beauty purchases are often made because of certain intangible and emotional aspects of the experience.  It is those brands that show a profound understanding of this special relationship with their consumer and knowledge of how to tap into certain triggers that prove to have the most longevity and impact.  Every customer wants to be associated with a brand they can relate to, that makes them feel good and delivers on a particular promise.  The way that we go about communicating that message is through a combination of methods that targets all senses.  This is where the marketing vision and creative expression of the brand intersect.  The clarity of this vision identifies how the brand is different than its competitors and establishes a certain intrigue and romance.  Ultimately, this vision will result in the delivery of a consistent message through all the brand’s touch points.  Brands need marketing to be seen, to be found and to create that interaction that will lead to the desired goal of any enterprise– making money.

Often we will see amazing ideas spring out of the marketing planning process.  The key is that it be successfully executed with the resources available.  The answer lies in making an appropriate assessment of those resources to determine what is actually realistic then setting appropriate targets and expectations.  The success of this process will be in the ability to combine the pragmatic with the creative.  Ideally, this entails a highly collaborative process between all stakeholders, driven primarily by the marketing and creative teams.  Marketing charts the course and design creates the vehicles that bring it to life.  This strong alliance is essential to communicating the clear and distinctive message defined by your marketing plan and helps differentiate the brand so it rises above the competition.
We all recognize the value of great creative but it will lack meaning if it does not connect to the brand’s overall positioning.  We suggest that the design team be part of some of the initial ideation meetings to ensure their buy-in.  The results can be incredibly powerful.

Gloria Luna is an independent marketing consultant who has recently partnered with MSLK

Recently MSLK was asked to do some retail analysis for an apparel brand looking to grow their business. The assignment, create a line extension for the brand that would capture more fashionable, impulse purchases made by consumers — primarily women. As we reviewed the product offerings in each store, we focused on the merchandise at check out counters, cash wraps, and end-caps, primarily on the first floor.  These locations tend to receive the most traffic and often lead to impulse purchases. Besides the anticipated insights that fun, travel sized, and conveniently priced items often occupy this prime impulse real estate, I was struck by the immense presence cause marketing, primarily for Breast Cancer Awareness, was receiving.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and it seems everyone has jumped on the band wagon. Today’s budget conscious woman is thinking twice before making any impulse purchase and the added emotional benefit of supporting a good cause is just the incentive she needs to push a mere want into an “okay why not!”

Even more exciting, brands have elevated the designs of their Breast Cancer promotions, creating attractive products that women actually desire! It helps that hot pink is  a very popular trend color right now. During my retail visits I saw entire displays awash in vibrant shades of pink. Candles, watches, fragrance, golf gloves, lotions, lipsticks, tennis balls, sunglasses, sports bras, sparkly shoes, and socks. It seems everything is more fun in pink!

Retailers from Bloomingdales to Target are recognizing the benefits of supporting cause marketing and the benefits of supporting brands offering timely promotions. Bloomingdales published an entire catalog dedicated to their “Pink” campaign which recognized all the pink/Breast Cancer promotions they had in store for the month of October. In addition, as we saw first hand, retailers are allocating prime floor space to brands which offer an attractive promotion.

Giving back and cause marketing has long since been a wonderful way for brands to elevate the emotional connection they make with consumers. What we are seeing now is that it is also a great way to catapult from the every day aisles and inner racks out into the limelight. This is especially exciting for smaller brands and brands with typically less trendy offerings, such as sports bras, to get in on the impulse purchase action.

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.

As web design experts, we have identified three distinct user profiles on e-commerce sites:

1. Users who like to click on large images.

2. Users who explore the menus because they aren’t sure what they are looking for.

3. Users who know exactly what they want.

Adding more interactivity to your site will mostly target the big image clickers, and menu explorers, so it is still important to offer a more traditional navigation system as well. However, by having the more experiential system up front, it will be an inviting change, especially to new customers who need inspiration and aren’t yet familiar with your brand.

Let’s take a look at the navigational strategies the previously mentioned brands are using on their sites.

Gucci: Large Horizontal Scrolling Stage

Gucci’s site has a single big idea that makes the experience elegant and memorable. All of the products occur within a horizontal stage in the center, with backgrounds changing per section. Major categories such as “handbags” contain larger featured projects that occur in between grids of smaller products. Upon clicking on a product, you get an overlay with simple controls to add the product to your cart, see other views, share on social media platforms and print. The horizontal structure of the site also makes for a great swiping experience on smart devices.

Ikea: Virtual Showroom

I’m not suggesting that the overall design of this site is anything extraordinary. However, the interactive modules that are within the “Ideas & Inspiration” tab of each of the major sections are so enjoyable to browse that I just had to include it. The module expands to full screen and mimics the experience of the showroom in the store. Don’t we all love showrooms? Each room has a number of hotspots that allow you to zoom into the area and click to find out what products are being featured in the space. You can easily save the product to your list, see related products, and seamlessly return to browsing the rooms. If you have products that are meant to be arranged together, consider employing a similar strategy. Show the products in the context they are meant to be seen and inspire your followers.

Converse: Innovative Customized Experience

The converse site offers streamlined navigation, cool animation/transitional effects, and numerous ways to customize their product line, making each visit to the site a unique exploration.  I love the homepage experience, which is an interesting take on traditional marketing sliders. A combination of products and brand building content- a variety of ads, posters, and videos, are highly reactive to mouse movement and arrange themselves into interesting collages. One of the most prominent filters on the homepage is the interactive color wheel, which brings up products, brand events and promotions that relate to the chosen color.

The top-level menu structure is extremely smart and minimal—users only have two choices, you can either “shop” or “create.” Under the shop menu option, you get a somewhat traditional method of navigating the products with a limited amount of filters. Under the “create” option, there is a rich internet application that allows you to customize the shoes. Clicking on a particular region of the shoe pulls up a contextual menu with options for colors, text etc. You can easily save your creations, add them to your cart and share on social media platforms.

This campaign is part of a larger MSLK strategy to reinvigorate the Friend + Johnson brand, helping them connect with a new generation of art directors. The strategy included the creation of a blog, content strategy, and SEO plan, which would all integrate with social media platforms to increase their online presence. The napkin sketch sweepstakes coincides with launch of their blog and has a direct mail component that was sent to art directors across the country. (see photos below) Now the sweepstakes is open to everyone, so if you’re a creative, get in on the action!

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.