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

A new trend in advertising has hit the streets, though it’s tough to say whether it’ll catch. QR codes — a digital barcode common in Japan — are meant to be decoded by smartphones, so an advertiser’s special offers, promotions, or (in the case of Calvin Klein) their NC-17 commercials can be seen.

It’s an interesting technology whose sole purpose is to engage audiences in new ways. Rather than simply being part of the background noise of the urban landscape, you’re required to act.

Barcodes are nothing new, and there are still very innovative uses of them. In NYC, it seems that most people have smartphones, though I’m not sure if that is the same for the rest of the country.

Passing fad, or new reality of advertising? Below I’ve taken a look at some of the recent trends…

QR codes are indeed popping up everywhere: magazines, subways, postcards, and billboards. Usually they act as a value-added bonus to the ad, sort of a special offer at the end that looks like an afterthought. In theory, you see it, shoot it (scan it) and are given access to something you couldn’t see before.

However, the new Calvin Klein billboard on Houston street in NYC reverses this by placing the emphasis on the QR code itself with the headline “GET IT UNCENSORED.” Not exactly subtle, yet not exactly unexpected from that advertiser either— especially at that location, where CK has been holding court as the provocateur for decades. And the payoff for actually seeing the ad? You can see it here and judge for yourself.

The field for QR innovation appears to be wide open, given that the codes leave enough room for design that does not need to be decoded first.

Here’s a quick scan (pun intended) of what’s out there:

Artist Pedro Morales Creates Handmade Art for Interactivity
His “Puras Flores” is artwork made from fabric and floral forms to create large-scale QR codes.

Japanese Company Folli Follie Uses QR Codes as Window Art

Hair Salon Uses QR Codes in Storefront as Art and Promotion for Discounts
DC’s Axis Salon has their codes link to YouTube videos of beauty icons, along with coupons for discount services.

Louis Vuitton and Artist Takashi Murakami Partner for Custom QR Code
Created by Japanese ad firm SET, the project is mostly just to promote other work the two companies have done together, and it’s the first time that the artist’s work has been interactive.

McDonald’s Uses QR Codes to Tag Food With  Nutrition Information
Again, only in Japan… for right now.

These are just some of the innovative ideas that can be done with this new technology. Need some fresh innovative ideas of what can be done for your brand? MSLK has a whole bunch of great ones we’d love to try out!

NY1, our favorite TV news source, ran a short feature on MSLK’s latest eco-art installation Take-Less, along with the Figment festival as something to check out this weekend.

Featured in the clip is are shots from our assembly, featuring Sheri Koetting, Ryan Nussbaum, Christel Fearon, and Daniela Morell. All shot by unofficial MSLK documentarian John Meehan.

Check it out!

Websites have become the most essential marketing tool for businesses. One click from a customer is a valuable opportunity that can make all the difference. If created properly, a Website should instinctively lead visitors where you want them to follow.

In spite of the known value a good website can bring, take a moment and think about just how many poor websites you encounter every day. While not every business needs its site to be a high-budget multimedia extravaganza, every site should be effective and properly targeted to a company’s audience.In a word, it’s all about a plan. Too many times people rush into putting up a quick site, thinking this will hold them over until they get around to the big launch. This is a fallacy—it is almost always far more difficult to rebrand an existing website than to start with a good one.

In many industries there seems to be a huge gap between resources devoted to “old-world” marketing strategies and newer forms of media, especially with the advent of social media.

Great websites result from an ideal combination of marketing, branding, fresh content, and matching the right technology to the right design.

The biggest—and most common—mistake we see is that people begin their redesign without clear goals for the initiative. Most sites are redesigned for purely cosmetic reasons, overlooking the more crucial content, navigational, and marketing challenges that lie underneath.

Here are nine tips that can help ensure that the site you design today will be an effective investment for years to come.

1. Start with a Plan

Just like blueprints in architecture, a properly executed wireframe shows you how the new site will function before it’s built. As you know, it is far easier to move a wall during the planning stage, as opposed to an actual wall during the construction phase.

Those same principles apply to websites. Intense focus should be placed on a site’s functionality and content before the more subjective design phase begins.

2. Don’t be seduced by technology

A website that is well thought out and easily navigable will always outperform the latest technology in the long run. Hot technology features should be integrated only if they serve the needs of the site.

Don’t feel that you need to include the latest feature du jour just because everyone else is doing it. Forget about dancing babies and dazzling light shows. In the end, it’s the clarity and overall “stickiness” of the content and ease-of-use that will make the best impressions.

3. Get buy-in from all stakeholders

Too often we see one person or division within an organization pushing for a website overhaul without seeking a buy-in from their colleagues.

Website redesigns are an enormous investment of time, and the late entry of a key decision maker almost always undermines the intentions of the group. Anyone worth getting feedback from at all should be involved during the planning stage.

4. Look backward to move forward

This is no time to go it alone, and certainly not the time to rely on gut instinct. Take a look at the statistics on your current site traffic. What pages are visited most frequently? Where are visitors becoming disengaged and exiting?

Seek feedback from your audience about what is and is not working on your existing site. Send out a questionnaire, conduct a phone interview, or form a focus group–whatever it takes. You need to hear what the people who use the site are saying, even if it’s not what you want to hear. Again, it’s far better to know this now, rather than after a costly overhaul.

5. Search and succeed

People search online for information about anything and everything under the sun. The best websites are ones that make effective use of search engine optimization practices. That’s why your site needs to be in the top 10 when people are searching for you.

The Internet has a plethora of information out there, and the higher ranking you have on a search engine, the easier it is to get noticed. Scoring higher rankings on search engines is an elusive art. However, there are standard practices that should be considered from the outset, as they can affect the site’s very content.

6. Keep it Fresh

Choose specific areas on the site to update regularly, along with designated 
areas that can be freshened up seasonally. This flexibility allows your site to evolve naturally over time without changing its fundamental structure. This should tie into larger marketing plans.

When refreshing your messaging 
to match current trends, your website 
will be able to round out campaigns and connect the dots. People want to know what’s new at your organization. These days, sites can pull feeds from blogs and tweets.

7. Be extraordinary!

Websites should give something back, rewarding the visitor with every click. 
That means turning the ordinary into 
the extraordinary. If people are looking at your site, they’re probably also looking at your competitor’s. Be better.

Good first impressions are key. You can do this through an interesting navigational element, an engaging feature that sets the tone, or simply the way the content is written with soft-sell techniques.

8. Use Social Media

It took traditional media like Television and Radio several years to reach 50 million users, but in today’s fast paced environment, social media sites such as Facebook have been adding 50 million users in a couple of months. Traditional media simply cannot compete with the speed and response times of social networking.

Facebook is a great way to reach customers in their downtime and drive traffic to your site. Put the power of peer-to-peer influencing to work for you. One person “liking” your brand automatically is sharing and promoting that knowledge to all of their contacts.

Twitter is a great way to generate an awareness and a following on your brand in the media. It is currently one of the best tools for breaking news and information and editors love its bite size leads. Promote special offers, new deals, and watch the world follow!

Blogs have become crucial elements. Whereas your website can be your storefront, blogs can reveal a more personal behind-the-scenes glimpse into the people behind the organization. Frequent content on your own personal blog and relevant industry blogs can boost your organic search engine optimization.

9. Hire a professional

Your website will likely become your most important marketing tool. So why would you hire your nephew, ask an intern to learn HTML, or in general, trust your success to anyone other than the very best?

Websites are very complex pieces of software requiring an ever-increasing level of expertise to build. That’s why you should interview qualified teams to lead this initiative. The best way to evaluate their work is to see examples of their sites, and to speak to their previous clients. Search for someone who best suits your needs and personality. The time it takes to find the right fit will pay off in the long run.

Following these steps will ensure that your investment of time and money is successful, generating income for you and interest for your audience. Your website is the greatest opportunity to engage and educate consumers about your products and services. Now, more than ever, you cannot let poor web design and navigation cost you sales.

____________

This article originally ran in iMedia Connection, and has since been picked-up by a number of other publications in print and online, including Multichannel Merchant, Melissa Data, Business Management Daily, FuelNet, Cool Life Systems, X-Cultural Marketing, Commercial Investment Real Estate, and Lead Masters USA.

It’s interesting to see how brands either are leading or following visual trends, especially as technology impacts the media that brands are showcased. The old rules about logos (i.e. must exist as a black & white version for faxing, fewer colors for ease of printing) are being completely re-written in the digital age.

MSLK’s logo — the embodiment of our brand featuring overlapping initial of its founders “MSL” and “SLK” — was borne from the concept of wanting to showcase that the company is the overlapping of two initials, and  talents. We experimented with a number of different ways to showcase this (different fonts, different sizes, etc.), and has existed intact for almost 14 years. The result still garners compliments from those who are being introduced to our brand.

I was reminded of this while looking through the latest issue of Graphic Design USA, as it featured logo trends from Logo Lounge, and it gave me a chuckle to see a trend they’ve identified as “Shift,” using examples of recent logos using a similar effect as the MSLK logo:

.

While these logos share the same visual trait of overlapping colors, none seem to have been done for any particular reason other than to add “pizazz” (my least favorite reason for anything.) Don’t get me wrong, they’re all very nice… but I’m not really sure of the significance of the overlapping “ones” in the One Journal Square logo. Is there more than one “one”? Or did it just look nice?

It also brought to mind another project we created for my high school reunion a few years ago. My good friend Mark  was our class president, and didn’t realize that it was his duty to organize our first reunion. Time had passed, and our 10-year reunion was more likely to be a 12-year reunion. Rather than sweep this issue under the rug, it seems like perfect opportunity to embrace it.

Sheri and I found the solution again using the so-called “shift” technique, which in this case was more of an overlap:

This epitomizes the unique way MSLK approaches design: boil the problem down to its smallest part, and make the unique point the star of the show. As a result, we managed to turn this 2-year oversight into a selling point, rallying more people to turn out due to this “special” reunion.

It’s not about following what’s “hot” or the latest visual effect.

What your brand’s unique selling point? Are you exploiting it as well as you can?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwEBIC0a4RY

New Rule: If you’re going to redesign your highest denomination, then hire a designer! This is an abomination which appears to have been driven by no aesthetic principles. Just a bunch of engineers who tried to cram everything into our nation’s most valued denomination.

I am aware that we live in extraordinary times with ne’er-do-wellers have ever-more sophisticated tools to create phonies, but really… I am sure this could have been done with a bit more reverence.

For example, have a look at some other countries who indeed have some beautiful currency:

Hong Kong:

Comoros:

Switzerland:

The Maldives:

Iceland:

We love it when people think outside of the box, literally! The Sportlifestyle company Puma has been working together with the branding firm Fuseproject to create a whole new take on the shoebox. Their final product turned out not to be a new box at all, but a “clever little bag”. This redesign uses 65% less cardboard than a regular shoebox and the recyclable bag will replace standard retail bags. We hope that other companies get inspired by this eco-friendly attitude. Great initiative and great design, Puma!

/ Christel Fearon

I’ll be giving a talk next week about the key things companies should watch out for before embarking on a website redesign (hint: it’s never as easy as you think it’ll be).

Last year I wrote a widely published article “Nine Steps to a Successful Site Redesign” which I will be basing the majority of my talk on.

MSLK has a lot of experience here, having helped a variety of companies develop their own sites over the years for clients as varied as the established Wall Street Journal and Wigwam Mills to the more out-there M Studio and James Porto. We recently had the opportunity turn the tables on ourselves last year by launching our own redesigned site.

Websites have become the most essential marketing tool for businesses. Unfortunately, many websites are developed without any plans for the content — much less a process for developing such a complex project.

I hope to ease frustrations surrounding web development by outlining nine steps to ensure that the sites you (or MSLK…) design today will be an effective investment for years to come. I’ll be covering topics such as obtaining a full team buy-in, how to evaluate technology, planning fresh content, search engine optimization, and driving traffic to your completed project.

DIRECTION by Indigo
International Exhibition of Creative Textile Design
Wednesday April 14, 2010
3:30 PM

Altman Building
135 West 18th Street
New York 10011

Free Admission / Trade Only
Register here.

Two direct mail promotions ended up in our mailbox. One a poster whose message revealed itself when opened, the other a had its concept on the outside. Both appeared similar at first glance, yet a closer look revealed two different techniques.

However, one seemed to be more effective.

Art Directors Club Paper Expo Poster
This is a paper promotion using paper to promote a trade show showing (you guessed it…) paper. I have always look forward to receiving these promotions, as every designer who steps up to the plate has usually has a fascinating solution to such a seemingly simple challenge.

This year was no exception, with a very large vertical format using beautifully ornate, filigreed typography that looked like it was hand-cut out of a single piece of paper. Upon closer inspection, it seemed unlikely to be the case — I figure this to be a computer-based illustration, using a drop-shadow effect to give this more visual depth.

- – -

Pratt Show 2010 Promotional Mailer
Arriving a day later was a literal version of the ADC poster. Using the same sort of style of über-fancy frilly fonts, the design for this promotion exists to showcase the delicate handwork involved. The end result is a photograph of the designer’s handwork on a cutting board, replete with the X-Acto knife off the the side, along with the negative forms in a carefully assembled, tidy pile.

So which one is the winner here? Well, for one, there’s no need to, really, to determine a winner. They’re two different solutions to two different design problems. Hats off to both designers, I really haven’t a bad thing to say in either case.

Yet, I’m still drawn more to the Pratt promotion. While incredibly self-conscious in its execution, I like that it’s showing of the design process itself — a fitting theme for student work.

Yet I continued to wonder…

Would the ADC poster have been better if it had been hand cut?

Does the extra effort involved in cutting something out count for more than simply using the computer?

Is the the Pratt promotion really a better design, or am I letting the effort I assume to be involved influence my idea of design?

I then continued to think more about the Pratt piece:

What if the designer didn’t cut this out themselves?

Perhaps I would think less of them as a result.

And if they’d used a modern technology like laser-cutting… would that have been better or worse?

Yes, I am indeed a design-freak. Mind you, nothing passes through the studio here without the same sort of scrutiny. My point here is that design can — and needs to — be thought about from many angles. It’s never about things that only you find interesting, rather it’s the things that others will be intrigued by, and making sure the concept clarifies the message.

Regardless of all my pondering, I would encourage everyone to check both out events:

Art Directors Club
Tuesday April 13, 2010
5:30-8:30 pm
@ ADC Gallery
106 West 29th Street, NYC

ADC Members Free with RSVP
APC, SPD, TDC Members $5.00
Non-Members $10.00

Pratt Show 2010
May 11 – May 14
Manhattan Center
311 West 34th Street
New York, New York
Reception for Industry Professionals,
6-9pm, May 11th