We first met with the folks at the Portland Schools Foundation five or six months ago. They told us how their work with schools and the community had evolved over the past 17 years. How, as the backbone organization leading the Cradle to Career initiative, their name no longer reflected who they are today.

Instead of going with a traditional graphic design firm, they were looking for a creative partner who could not only develop their new brand, but could also engage the community to share their insights and aspirations. (and all on a shoestring, non-profit-sized budget.)

True to the 52 model, we set out to build the right team for the assignment. We searched for a writer and designer who shared our passion for education and had the experience to boot. Jake Murray (copywriter) and Greg Parra (designer), both accomplished creatives and parents themselves, raised their hands.

In addition, we needed an instigator. Someone with a deep connection to education and the ability to provide an inspirational spark to the community engagement process. Despite a full schedule of speaking engagements around the world, Kevin Carroll was the perfect person for the job and lucky for us, he figured out a way to make it work.

We started by hosting a series of internal discovery and community workshops that eventually led the 52 team to craft a brand platform to guide the naming exploration. We started concepting and presented our shortlist of ideas. One name immediately rose to the top. And so, with the unanimous support of the board, the Portland Schools Foundation has become All Hands Raised–A name that will serve as a rallying cry, mobilizing a diverse community passionate about helping all kids achieve their full potential.

We’re proud to have been partners on this journey and hope to continue to support Dan Ryan and his team as they grow into their new skin. For more about All Hands Raised and the work they do, visit:  All Hands Raised

When the economy went south, marketing budgets were some of the first on the chopping block. So the story goes, lower sales mean less revenue equals scaling back on expenses. Fast-forward two years and we find ourselves still teetering on tough economic times. Is your company now viewing the marketing department as a mitigated expense or an investment opportunity?

Unfortunately, we all know too well that lesser budgets don’t necessarily mean fewer expectations. In fact, in trying times despite waning resources, many marketers are asked to do more with less. Play short-handed. Stretch their dollars. Continue as before but with one hand tied behind their backs. So what do you do? Rely on Twitter and Facebook to weather the storm? We feel your pain.

When business is not “as usual”, traditional marketing resources may need to be reevaluated. You may need to realign your strategy. And the full-service agency you’re currently tethered to might not be the best bang for the buck anymore. If this is the case, consider exploring 52 Limited. Whether sourcing senior freelance talent to fill a temporary void or activating one of our custom project teams to provide fresh creative horsepower, we can keep your brand moving forward without showing up on the CFO’s radar.

By Ryan Gallagher, Account Director @ 52 Limited

Around here we keep our eyes peeled and an ear to the ground for companies that really value good design and support a culture of innovation. (Those companies tend to also be the ones that value their employees and keeping them fulfilled and challenged.) The common thread seems to always be that the decision makers at the top incorporate design and creativity into every aspect of their business. Fast Company’s Alissa Walker recently wrote up a profile of the surprisingly small team running Tumblr. Despite having only a single designer on staff (for now), Tumblr has placed emphasis on good, simple design at the center of all their offerings.

How Tumblr Created A Design Culture With No Design Team

Growing up, my first computer experience was with a Mac. The original Apple Macintosh (circa 1984). A little rectangular tan box that allowed me to play a little game called Oregon Trail. All I can seem to remember was every time I’d be about to ford a river or escape a tribe of wild Indians, a fatal error message would appear ending my personal manifest destiny. Now two decades later, that little black bomb is still scorched into my brain.

In the marketing and advertising world in which I work now, the account people always had PC’s and the creative had Macs. It was the whole left-brained vs. right-brained thing I guess. You ascribe to your tribe. But in the last couple of years, that seems to have changed. Now most everyone in the Creative Class, even some on the client-side have migrated to Apple. It was probably the whole iPhone phenomenon that got people hooked. The digital gateway drug. iCrack that perpetuated the Apple addiction beyond just designers and illustrators.

Until now, I had been holding out. A stalwart PC’er who was scared of change. I had made through high school and college with Windows. And in my professional career I had dazzled clients with my PowerPoint and Excel skills over the years. I was afraid of having to start over with Keynote and Numbers. But to my surprise, my new Mac came pre-loaded with Microsoft Office, so it was just a matter of maneuvering tool bars and uncovering new short cuts. Once I got that down, it was like I had never left.

So, so far so good. I still get tripped up on the whole Command C versus Control C thing. But I’m digging the Dock. Not sure how I feel about dongles.

Outside of work I still live a conflicted life with a foot planted in both camps. I have an iPod and iTouch, but recently chose a Droid over an iPhone. I started downloading my music from Amazon instead of iTunes. I still prefer Chrome over Safari. And I’d rather watch John Hodgman on the Daily Show than anything with Justin Long.

Maybe it all comes down to simple geography. After all, Portland, Oregon is located between Gatesland (Redmond, Washington) and Jobsville (Cupertino, California), at the end of the Oregon Trail.

with Super Bowl ad’s touting farm grown veggies, and then invited customers to share photos of actual Domino’s pizzas at Showusyourpizza.com.They adopted a successful online strategy that allows a customer to track their order from oven to delivery and leave feedback. To take it one step further, they are broadcasting that feedback in Times Square. Fast Company has a great write up:

Pie In The Sky? Domino’s Flips Switch On Times Square Instant Reviews, Takes Transparency To New Level

Sure, we all know how lucky we are to work in the creative industry. We get to spend our days making things, shaping conversations, and influencing culture. We get to have those days where its hard to believe we get PAID to do all this cool stuff. Wouldn’t it be great, to every once in a while do all that cool stuff in service of a good cause impacting people’s lives instead of a company’s bottom line?

Burk Jackson, a Portland based photographer sure thinks so. He founded Creative Cares to match creative professionals with organizations in need—locally, regionally and globally:

Every night, 1,500 Portland families with children go to sleep homeless. What these people need is a graphic designer. Yes, a graphic designer, or a photographer, or even a videographer, anyone to help them tell their story effectively.  And while we’re at it, they could probably use a web designer, a copywriter, a strategist, and maybe even a PR guru.

So we realize a videographer won’t exactly help put food on the table, and a web designer won’t build a roof over their heads—at least directly. But people, this is the advertising age, and the amazing souls who run the soup kitchens, staff the homeless shelters and work on the home-builds simply don’t have the time, knowledge or skills to keep up with it all. They’re a little too busy helping those in need.

But you know about all of that Photoshoppy, Facebook-y, Drupal-licious, Final Cut-erific, Twitter-tastic stuff, don’t you? You think you could help these nice folks out? They don’t need much to make a major impact: a few photos of a project, a simple blog, or a basic social media campaign. So we were thinking, since you are awesome at all this creative stuff, that it wouldn’t be that hard for you to knock a project or two out in the name of the Greater Good.

Actually, the hardest thing about any of this would be making the time to do it. But certainly you have a few hours to spare for your 1,500 fellow Portlanders who don’t have a bed to sleep on tonight. Right?

If homelessness isn’t your cup of tea, we have a whole bunch of amazing causes that need your help every day.  Organizations like the Children’s Book Bank, Donate Life Northwest, Habitat for Humanity, Friends of the Gorge – all looking for wonderful creative folks just like you.

If you do, get in touch with us at CreativeCares. We’ll connect you with do-gooders like yourself who need your skills. The combination of their philanthropic vision and your creative passion is going to be awesome. We can’t wait to see the all the good you’ll do.

Connect with Creative Cares on their site, Facebook, and Twitter

]]> http://www.52ltd.com/blog/2011/06/14/creativecares/feed/ 0 http://www.52ltd.com/blog/2011/05/23/outofthewoods/ http://www.52ltd.com/blog/2011/05/23/outofthewoods/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 21:36:17 +0000 Team 52 http://www.52ltd.com/blog/?p=858

The recession is over!! Right?  Uh…well, I guess that kinda depends.

IF you’re a highly connected designer, with a killer book/site, AND you are well versed in something digital (e.g. Mobile Apps, web development, etc.) you are probably feeling a fair upswing. However, for the new grad, the newly relocated, or those otherwise without ALL three aforementioned qualities, you are probably still wildly wielding your machete to maintain a slight view out of the woods. Well folks, this isn’t a Get-The-Answers-to-Finding-Your-Perfect-Gig-Post.  In fact if you see one of those…it’s probably loaded with a bunch of cockamamie information that doesn’t really apply to you 100%.  You see, and this is going to be profound, you may consider employing some advance jaw support in case of abrupt droppage: everyone’s situation is different.  Whoa… huh.

So, you ask, if I’m not offering the holy grail of Job-Acquiring-Advice, then what is the point?

Answer: The one thing all ye of the struggling design class do have in common, is that you do plan to eventually leave your filler job at “Cuppa Joe” or “Jiggles” (a specialty Jello mold shop, of course) to return to your design career.  So… you need to stay sharp!

One good way to keep your skills honed and your portfolio from starving a slow death from lack of new content is to pick up pro bono work.  Easier said than done, I’m aware.  But, check with non-profits, small businesses, your brother’s snow cone stand. Check out organizations like Creative Cares . If that doesn’t work out, when you’re not making iced skinny caramel macchiatos, develop a personal project. Learn letterpress, make a series of t-shirts or create spec work. (You have to be careful not to misrepresent spec work in your book though!) To keep costs down, and to avoid a skipping-record-redundancy in your work, check out sites like Bittbox.com. Bittbox offers high quality “freebies” to any designer looking.  Things like fonts, backgrounds, brushes, textures, vectors, etc.  Pretty wicked cool if you ask me. Don’t forget to post all this work where the people that do the hiring will see it: LinkedIn. Yes, we all know about Behance, and Coroflot but many hiring managers do not. So, go ahead and create a profile and throw the link to your portfolio site up there. It can only help your chances!

Don’t get discouraged.  Keep hacking away at the foliage standing between you and that design gig.  It’ll give eventually. We don’t know when… could be 50 more lattes, could be 5,000… but it will.  And when it does, you want to be ready!

Posted originally on Newsweek.com.

This article doesn’t talk directly about the creative industry but it  definitely relates.  Often times in a poor economy, employers assume that the unemployed are happy to take ANY work regardless of how well it fits their experience level or expertise.  Employers also assume that those who are out of work quit caring about what wage level they’re at.  This is no different in the creative industry.  Just because we’re on the tail end of a recession doesn’t mean employers can post a job for a designer or a PHP developer on Craigslist, plan to pay them 10 bucks an hour, and expect to receive loads of willing applicants ready to work their tails off for $40  an hour less than they’ve been making.   High levels of unemployment also does not mean that just because a company needs a project manager, designer, programmer, and a receptionist, that someone who has a skill set to tackle ALL these things will magically materialize… if that person didn’t exist before the recession, that person doesn’t exist now.

No, recession doesn’t create a new breed of super employee who just loves to work for the sake of being employed.  No, recession doesn’t create a candidate that will do the same job they just got laid off from for 80% less.  Recession creates a group of people who still have the same bills, the same amount of mouths to feed, the same hours in the day, the same experience level, and the same abilities as they did pre-recession.  It does however create SOME flexibility within the working class as long as this flexibility isn’t taken advantage of.