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.”

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.

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.

Brooklyn seems to tbe the epicenter of New York City’s most forward-thinking green initiatives. Whether it’s urban farms, green roofs, farm-to-plate initiatives, or green buildings themselves — it’s got it all.

MSLK is proud to be partnering with Brooklyn Ecopolis, a non-profit 501(c)3, community-based education and resource center aimed at promoting access to sustainable products, services, and innovations for healthy living.

Take-Less, the third in MSLK’s trilogy of Eco-art installations, debuted on Governors Island on June 11-13.

Like 2663 Urban Tumbleweeds and Watershed, we set out to raise awareness to the senseless over-consumption of plastics in our everyday life. We set our sights on take-out containers. We found it sad to think that the containers that the meal you had delivered to you (in 30 minutes or less) will be around for hundreds of years, especially when there are alternatives out there.

Busy. That’s one word to describe things at MSLK these days.

While we have the benefit of working on many inspiring projects for our clients, we’re also hard at work on Take-Less, the third in a trilogy of what we’ve come to call eco-art installations. In an effort to be greener, we’re using our talents to focus people on the sheer volume of plastic we all consume in our daily lives. Whether it’s plastic bags, plastic water bottles, or the durable and resilient plastic containers we use for a moment with our take-out food — this cheap plastic comes at a cost.

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.

Did you know that it’s possible to make your website completely carbon neutral and energy efficient? This is something that all of us as individuals can easily do to reduce carbon emissions caused by digital media. Increase your brand value while decreasing your contribution to global warming by getting your site green-certified with CO2 stats.

The commercial states. “If we all made a change, it could lead to some pretty amazing things… A bio-degradable bag made from plants is Sun Chips change for a better tomorrow. What will yours be?” Personally, I find this to be most inspirational and authentic commercial I’ve seen in a long time. It features men, women and children covering up take-out waste on the beach, a plastic bag in the tree, and discarded appliances and trucks. Kuddos to Sun Chips, their solar powered plant, plant based, compostable bag.

As a business owner I learned long ago that designing great projects is one thing, but leading a client towards entrusting you with their brand is an incredibly crucial —and often overlooked — part of the process.

Recently I organized a panel discussion for Spark Design Professionals and AIGA/NY to explore how during initial business conversations some of New York City’s top green designers are able to shape projects into environmentally friendly communications. I wanted to glean an inside perspective on what these successful advocates did to shift the conversation beyond simple aesthetics and dig deeper into the purpose of the promotion, the materials, and manufacturing process used.