I came across such a brand during a search for eyeglasses. After numerous visits to online stores and brick & morters, I found the whole process to be draining: too many choices, and a nagging sense that things were more expensive than they should be. Then I remembered an article I had read some time ago about a startup making vintage-inspired frames with prescription lenses for only $95.00. I began my Google search using the keywords “New York Times vintage eyewear website” which lead me right to the article.

Now I’m the proud owner of a wonderful pair of stylish, vintage-inspired frames from Warby Parker. I only paid $95.00, and found the whole experience to be, well… fun, which is a far cry from my previous experiences. Here’s why:

Great website
The site is an exercise in simplicity. Focused content, clear layout, pitch-perfect photography, clever writing, and just the right amount of technology. By technology, I’m referring to an cool tool which allows you to use your webcam to snap a picture of your face, and then map several designs onto your face. I was very skeptical of this, yet it worked seamlessly and was actually quite helpful.

The website did a really great job of establishing that the company had a clear aesthetic from their products through to their demographic. I knew right away upon my arrival that I wanted to stay here. We tell our clients all the time that your website is your virtual storefront to the world, and it’s great to see a company truly grasping, creating an experience about you, not them.

Innovative Concept
They have two main methods of connecting you to the perfect frame. The first is the “Virtual Try-On” described above, and the other is a “Try It Before You Buy It” program where you can test out up to five pairs at home. Again, they made the process easy to understand and execute with one method pushing the envelope of technology, the other is an offline method giving you the comfort of trying things on in your own home.

Making it Easy
The “Try It Before You Buy It” method comes with a well-packaged box of frames and a witty card describing the simple steps to take. They also include a return address label to make it even easier to send everything back.

Passion
For every pair of glasses sold, they donate a pair to someone in need via a program called VisionSpring. MSLK  encourages all of our clients to find causes they support or partner with, and this is a perfect example of a well-matched one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ox2L05rTC0

Extras Make All the Difference
I received an email last week saying “It’s Here. The 2011 Annual Report: 100% Full of Statistics, Facts, Figures, Maps and More!” It took me to a microsite of incredibly well-designed, clever, and informative statistics from the company’s past year.

Targeted Marketing
This last point is one that I have mixed feelings about personally, yet is undeniably effective. Immediately after first visiting Warby Parker’s site, I started seeing ads for them on just about every blog and news site I visited. I soon realized that this was no mere coincidence, it is part of a highly-targeted advertising service called TellApart which tracks your web visits and presents ads from those sites to you on other sites. Weeks later I am still seeing Warby Parker ads everywhere, even though I’ve already made the purchase. We think this approach is going to be essential to any online e-tailing strategy.

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 anytime. 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.

Image-driven brands will find this platform perfect for their social media outreach. No need to feel pressure to have a lot of content, beautiful images are once again worth a 1,000 words. Pinterest users are searching for inspiration for their hair, for their homes, for their lives. Users are encouraged to pick-up inspiration from people they follow and “re-pin” it. Creative groups like MSLK can even create shared boards that allow multiple users to post to the same board. We are currently using Pinterest to gather inspiration for an upcoming project.

If you maintain a personal Facebook profile you can login to Pinterest with your Facebook account. (Note, you’ll have to request an invitation to join as Pinterest is currently operating with a waiting list for new members.) The benefit of using the Facebook connect is that your “Pins” will automatically feed to your Facebook profile, and although this feature currently needs a bit more development, the future potential looks promising.

Speaking of future potential, Pinterest currently works best when you are pinning images already uploaded/hosted online. For brands, this is a great way to drive traffic back to your own website or blog where the images are already hosted, however, we found this a bit annoying for individuals looking to upload new content. You can upload photos from your computer, but the interface is cumbersome and slow. For those with iPhones there is currently a Pinterest mobile App which makes shooting and uploading a bit easier.

Happy Pinning! Follow us at pinterest.com/sherikoetting and pinterest.com/marclevitt.

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:

• The real win comes when virtual tactics are integrated into traditional face-to-face programs.
• For most industries, promotions on Twitter and Facebook are a safe bet; add in LinkedIn if you have an authoritative spokesperson or a key speaker at the event.
• Make sure to use hash tags for all promotions around your events.
• At larger events, tweet at the event’s hash tag and expand your reach.
• Tweet during events to involve contacts and press those who can’t be there live.
• Accept questions at events via Twitter; answer them live and virtually.
• Listen to your followers before and after an event to truly understand what topics are relevant to them.
• Make sure to promote your attendance at larger events in advance. Let people know you are interested in meeting up!
• Make sure you have a content plan to continue to engage new contacts after the event.

An integrated marketing strategy is crucial for keeping in touch with customers in today’s fast-paced world. Virtual communication is still no substitute for face-to-face interaction. However, these virtual efforts will help you ensure that no face-to-face opportunity is missed. In addition, these virtual tools will foster a consistent and continued relationship throughout the year.

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!

We just paused for a moment in between a number of large and exciting presentations to realize that it’s December 19th. Did you realize it’s December 19th?

Just wanted to let you know, dear readers, that MSLK is here, we’ve just been very busy. We simply wanted to say a quick hello and wish you all very happy holidays. We promise there will be plenty of fresh content in the new year!

Love,
MSLK

New Yorkers can purchase a set at Teich in the West Village. Mention MSLK and receive a 15% discount!