Come see MSLK’s eco-art installation, Take-Less, at Brooklyn’s Dumbo Arts Festival on September 24th – 26th!

We’re pleased to be a part of this amazingly creative event once again, building on the success of last year’s event. Our project can be seen on Washington Street, the center of all the action for DUMBO’s annual art festival.

The event itself is described by the event planners as a showcase for: “touchable, accessible, and interactive art, on a scale that makes it the nation’s largest urban forum for experimental art.”Take Less is MSLK’s 3rd project in a series of eco-art installations focusing on society’s thoughtless consumption of plastic. The number depicted, 2629, stands 8-feet high and represents the quantity of takeout meals consumed each second in the US. Within these meals are countless plastic components designed to be used once and thrown away. To illustrate this, plastic containers of every imaginable type are mounted to the number’s surface. Additionally, informational signage containing facts and solutions are mounted to the piece.

The purpose of the installation is to help people visualize the immense waste we produce, all in an effort to inform viewers that they can be apart of the solution. How? By requesting recyclable components, saying no to plastic utensils, containers, etc.

For more information about the festival, click here.

What does it take to launch a fashion line these days? During New York’s Fashion Week, Nolcha’s Beyond the Runway competition has emerged as a solid platform and a reputable outlet for launching top-tier designers from around the globe

As MSLK digs deeper into the world of social media campaigns, it seems that time and time again we are discovering our clients have the same challenges. Small companies see social media as an exciting opportunity, yet  quickly become overwhelmed by the variety of media platforms out there. It may seem like a bottomless pit of time commitment needed to enter the arena. On the other hand, larger companies who have ample resources to maintain these platforms,  struggle to let go of their carefully crafted brand image and open themselves up to the more relaxed format. Larger companies need to learn how to have a casual voice and invite in as much (if not more) conversation as they put out information.

In both cases, the majority of our clients are already convinced that need a social media platform and marketing arm. They see the benefits, they’ve been worn down by the hype, but they are still struggling with the what, where, and how?

To some degree, their concerns are valid. In social media, content is king. It’s one thing to set up these platforms, but the true cost and commitment is in maintaining them. There are two levels to this effort, the active daily maintenance and the overall strategic planning for this content to that ensure your efforts remain on track. MSLK helps our clients do both.

In creating a comprehensive social media program, we look hand-in-hand at the features that need to be included into your social media platforms to achieve your goals as well as the content that will populate it.

For features, this may include things such as polling software, platforms for fans to upload personal photos, or mailing list captures. We then ensure you have content strategies to activate those. What kinds of polls will you run through out the year? What photos will fans be uploading? Perhaps we create a contest like the recent Matrix Mannequin Mania to encourage uploading. These are the tactics that engage fans and that engagement builds virally to their friends and contacts as well.

We’ll also look at the types of articles, tidbits about your brand, and special offers you post through out the year. What aggregate message will be established? What are you training your customers to think of and associate with your brand?

Because blogs, and now Facebook and Twitter feeds are index-able, this messaging becomes equally important from a search engine optimization stand point. Especially if you are a small company, these regular bits of content you are posting and control become important tools to establishing threads for how you can be found online.

As your company grows we also listen. What key phrases are consumers using most often when they talk about your brand? These phrases should be incorporated into your strategies as well, online and off.

In my upcoming panel discussion at the HBA Global Expo this September 28th at 2:30 pm, I will be exploring this topic of  social media marketing plans further. My presentation,“Social Media: Marketing For the 21st Century,” will focus on the unique challenges and opportunities within this process that small and large companies face. I’ll then explore five strategies each can use to kick start their own social media presence.

If you’d like to join me please register here and use priortity code: GPSZ  to save 30% off any HBA Conference Pass plus and/or a FREE Exhibits Pass to HBA Global Expo and the Spa & Resort/Medical Aesthetics Expo. If you register by end of day today you can still catch the early bird rates!

For over 55 years, the I.D. Annual Design Review has recognized the best in graphic, environmental, product and furniture design. We are very proud that MSLK’s own Sheri L Koetting has taken her place among a jury of the field’s leading practitioners. Her voice and sensibility played a large role in the winners chosen this year in the graphics category. Viewing everything through a lens of sustainability, Sheri not only examined the purpose and aesthetics of each piece, she questioned its material usage and life expectancy.

You can see all of the winning pieces on view now until September 10^th at the AIGA National Design Center. Read more to view some of the winners and what Sheri had to say about each of the pieces.

Best of Category – X Exhibition Space
“I appreciate the innovative use of light and type, as well as the way luminosity engages viewers throughout the project—from the exhibit’s interior to posters and lights mounted on outdoor fences.”

Design Distinction – Ballerina Who Loves B-Boyz
“I really love the die cuts that expose the walls and graffiti beneath. It’s a poster that engages with its environment”

Design Distinction – BOOKtiga 2009
“To me, the message and the medium are in perfect harmony. As designers, we’re so compelled to trash what we did last year and start over. Here they’re incorporating last year’s materials into this year’s campaign by literally painting over last year’s poster.”

Design Distinction – Dinamo
“Designers often want to use special effects, but for a company that focuses on harnessing solar energy, glow in the dark ink acts as a communication tool rather than a gimmick.”

Design Distinction – Expansion in all Dimensions
“This tiny set of 5″ x 7″ booklets made me smile—the bright colors, the cover. I was expecting it to be a bunch of zines, so when it turned out to be a corporate report, I loved that juxtaposition.”

Design Distinction – Human Rights Watch 2009 Annual Report
“The handling of the information is incredibly compelling and drew me in. They’re using lots of information graphic to really advocate quite successfully.

Design Distinction – Ring Roads of the World
“They’ve taken something people might not even think about—urban sprawl—and turned it into a design that’s beautiful and meaningful. Each layer of color here represents the relative size and shape of the ring road around American cities.

Our website, www.mslk.com, is cited in the current issue of How Magazine in an article entitled, “The Marketing-Smart Website” written by Ilise Benun. The article gives examples of what to do — and what not to do — for designers setting out to redesign their site. Our site’s innovative and sorting features were given the following compliment:

“There are 90 examples of work in the portfolio section of MSLK.com, but it’s not overwhelming because visitors can sort by medium or industry category to find what they’re looking for. Mouse over any thumbnail and it automatically enlarges and identifies the image.”

We’re so pleased that we’re being recognized for this feature. After all, it was the main concept that our whole site was built around: giving the user a wide sampling of our work, and the ability to sort and refine.

That feature, combined with our site’s videos, continues to receive compliments from clients, potential clients, designers, and colleagues alike.

If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably thrown around those ubiquitous terms, push and pull marketing. The marketplace has seen a major paradigm shift from pushing products onto consumers, to pulling them in, inviting them to engage with the brand in novel and unique ways. At MSLK, we think this is especially important to consider when creating sophisticated branding campaigns in the beauty industry. How can you stop consumers dead in their tracks, invite an interaction or ignite a conversation? Burt’s Bees skincare installations do just that. In a series of three installations that have traveled to public spaces across Canada, the pieces educate women about the harmful effects of most allegedly natural skincare products on the market.

In one piece, a clear torso is filled with pink lotion, representing the amount of body lotion absorbed in your system in a lifetime. In the next, a nine-pound cube of lipstick illustrates the amount of lipstick a woman eats in her lifetime.

In another, baby soap, lotion and shampoo form a giant baby bottle to show that what you put on your baby’s skin actually goes into your baby’s system.

The message is clear—these statistics are unavoidable realities, and with Burt’s Bee’s products, you can trust that at least what you are ingesting is completely natural and not harmful.

The visualization of surprising statistics as art objects is a unique concept that MSLK responds to and is quite familiar with, as that is what we have done with our eco-art installations 2669 Urban Tumbleweeds, Watershed and Take-Less. Although Burt’s Bee’s might call these pieces installations, I prefer to think of them as artifacts within a mini-exhibition. The unique combination of messaging, art, and information design creates a dynamic brand and learning experience that is truly memorable.

~Ryan Nussbaum

Proctor and Gamble unveiled last week a renewable sugarcane based alternative to plastic that will be implemented on their Pantene Pro-V, CoverGirl, and international Max Factor product lines over the next 2 years. This is truly groundbreaking news and frankly has me more excited about the future of mass production than I have been in a long time. Here’s why:

Obviously when a major industry player like this makes a shift, the impact and influence on the industry is huge. In today’s costly beauty development market only really large companies like P&G have the research and development budgets to create such breakthroughs. Their interest in this development allows material manufacturer, Braskem SA, to be able to grow their knowledge, businesses, and ultimately offer this product to other companies large and small. In addition, this kind of change at a large company who produces billions of plastic packages a year has a tremendous impact on the environment.

The break through comes from P&G, not a brand who is receiving a lot of recognition these days for their green efforts so it’s a big effort from a dark horse. When thinking of large mass market consumer brands going green it seems that Johnson & Johnson has been stealing all the attention. Certainly J&J’s efforts are noteworthy however, they haven’t been able to fully address the issue of plastics with something as sustainable as this. The products J&J are offering with post consumer recycled content are only 30% PCR where as brands like Aveda are already able to achieve products that are 80% – 95% PCR.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the packaging is renewable, and recyclable. The material is made from sustainably-grown Brazilian sugar cane verses traditional plastics which come from non-renewable petroleum. Better yet this plastic when cured will have the same properties as high-density polyethylene (HDPE). In fact, it will carry HDPE’s #2 resin code and will be accepted by recycling programs and recyclable.

This is a significant breakthrough because currently most plastic alternatives such as corn and sugarcane based PLA, are biodegradable but not recyclable. These products often look like normal plastic packaging and confused consumers who put them in recycling bins. Through our work with the NYC Department of Recycling, we have learned that when a PLA product ends up in recycling centers undetected it can actually spoil an entire batch of recycling.

According to P&G the demand for this new packaging was entirely consumer driven, which is encouraging for beauty and mass brands alike. ”As we talk with women around the world, they tell us that they want to make themselves more beautiful without making their environment less beautiful,” said Gina Drosos, Group President, Global P&G Beauty.” With this new packaging innovation, women can have confidence that their favorite brands are helping to make a difference.”

The new packaging is set to roll out over the next 2 years. Look for the first products to hit the shelves in 2011.

Today the posters are still as bright and adventurous as they once were (at least in my opinion). So, if you are a lover of travel, transportation and/or mid twentieth century nostalgia, it is a must see if you are in town. If you can’t, don’t worry, the library allows you to browse their entire poster collection online at Flickr! Read more to view some more of my favorites.

/Ryan Nussbaum

With the debut of our new eco-art installation, Take-Less, I among the rest of my MSLK colleagues have been more mindful than ever about minimizing our plastic consumption when it comes to take-out.  However, sometimes it isn’t so easy. Consider the following scenario: You stop by to grab ice cream or fro-yo at your favorite place. You aren’t “taking-out” and cannot eat with your fingers, so you are forced to use the plastic utensils and packaging given to you. Unfortunately, this is a situation where consumer behavior cannot be changed, but the change needs to happen on the company/seller level. Enter Sweet Green, the DC frozen yogurt & salad chain that has a remedy.

Very much like the Brooklyn Ecopolis Cafe, (the next venue for Take-Less) all of Sweet Green’s packaging and utensils are biodegradable.  The bowls and utensils feel like plastic, but are actually made from a corn-based polymer. Clear, informational signage guides customers towards proper disposable of these items, which get composted shortly after. Sweet Green has certainly set the bar high with their commitment to sustainability, and hopefully the trend will catch on.

-Ryan Nussbaum

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE4lqYzS2m0

In today’s multi-media extravaganza, it’s hard to get anyone exited about one of the world’s oldest mediums, paper. However we at MSLK don’t think that paper has lost it’s place just yet, in fact, we believe that the true presence and importance of paper as a tactical impression you can touch, engage with and hold onto is even more important in this new world of virtual gratification.

Of course the costs and permanence of something paper based makes it even more of a commitment when putting ink to paper, but that type of thinking isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a more eco-friendly behavior than the careless printing of years past.

We are encouraging our clients to think twice about printing and print either only essential elements, driving customers online for more info and/or printing wonderful keepsake items that can serve as long term brand advocates for the experience of your brand.

So what creates an experience in print? It’s a gut reaction you have the minute that piece touches your hands. From the feel of the paper, to the messaging you are greeted with, to the experience of unfolding and unfurling the contents. Like holding a child for the first time, it is a beautiful gift and fête accompli.

To get inspired on the wide possibilities and wonderful experience paper has to offer we suggest catching a glimpse at “Between the Folds,” a new documentary chronicling the stories of ten fine artists and theoretical scientists who have carved out for themselves unconventional lives as modern–day paper folders.

Their paths to paper folding converge on the ancient art of origami. The film follows them as they demonstrate both the science and the art of transforming a 2D medium into new and fascinating 3D art forms and experiences. They even ponder, what can the permutations for paper teach us about science at large?

I for one look forward to being inspired by the possibilities.