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Recently, the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on Literacy asked us to help with a challenging project - to design print materials to advertise a new literacy program: Move Up! The program helps welfare recipients improve reading, writing and math skills and also helps those with limited English proficiency. To date, over 1100 students have been taught by 14 city-wide agencies as part of this important project. 
The American Institute of Graphic Artists Philadelphia presents its continuing "New to You" lecture series showcasing local designers and design innovators.
Where DID Ben go?
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Routes (continued)
The beauty and balance of nature continues to be an unparalleled wonder - we just can't recreate anything nearly as majestic as Glacier National Park or the plains of Montana. But, we can learn from the power of beauty. The visual landscape of this country, its different animals, and the reflection of light in different ways made me pause. It made me reflect on what is most important to me. And, it helps me remember long after my trip has ended how much I enjoyed it. This is the power that I hope we can capture in design for our clients - from the quick flyer to the full logo Identity system. I was also amazed in different ways by the complexity and success of a train system. Taking a train is like no other form of travel. It requires more awareness than car travel - more dedication to being at a certain place at a certain time, but also a level of "letting go" and allowing others to take you where you need to go. It is more defined than air travel (and a lot more civilized!) - there may only be ONE TRAIN A DAY in Devil's Lake, North Dakota. But, what is most impressive is the behind the scenes work that goes into making trains run all over this country. I was reminded of one of our tenets: "We Can Make It Happen." It can be exciting to juggle the life of different projects and keep them all running smoothly, converging when they need to and running on different tracks to their own destinations. Finally, I was re-energized about the power of stories by being on the train. Train travelers are thrown together in close quarters. We eat together, we socialize, we pass the time in between window gazes. I found myself telling my story over and over to lots of different people - I had time to hear it through my own ears and understand how it connects to others. I heard a lot of stories too. People who take the train long distances tend to love to talk about trains, but they also tell you about their lives. I was reminded that there are many people in this country leading interesting and dedicated lives. We don't all have to be on the same political, religious or aesthetic page to learn from each other's stories. I'm glad I spent 4 days each direction to take the train. It is rare to have the time to breathe, to think and to match up an activity with where you are in your life. This trip fit in well with the launch of our 10 year retrospective here at DfSI. Maybe I didn't get to my destination as fast as those who took a plane... then again, maybe I did. Ennis Carter Founder & Director Return to Top |
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The Final Outcome (continued)
There are 2 things that make our client's work stand out from the daily onslaught of print material - One is exciting and accessible design. Two is excellent printing. At DfSI, we are able to ensure great work because we are dedicated to helping our clients tell their stories through fantastic design, and because we partner with the best printers in the industry. Whether it's a small family owned business, a large print house, or a union shop, our printers always treat each job as important and unique. Whether it is a small run of business cards or a large batch of flyers for a political campaign, Print Production is important to us. We always want to find the best way to make the end result worth the effort of design and the expense of the printing. Here are some interesting approaches to planning and printing a project: For one client, we did a small run of their custom-designed annual report to see how the finished piece would be received by audiences. This small run allowed our client to put their work in front of the board and potential investors. When revisions came in and the design was revised for one final print run, we all knew that it would be a successful piece. Because the print run was significantly larger the second time, and because investors helped bring the print budget up, the per-piece price was much lower, even though the paper stock was switched to a high-quality coated recycled sheet to accommodate audience desires. Another way to save money and paper (a win-win situation) is to be flexible with your design specifications. Most of the work we do is printed on large sheets, which come in various sizes depending on the type of press that the printer is using for your job. In some cases, the printer ends up trimming away a lot of excess paper. Sometimes, if we make a slight change to one of the dimensions of your piece, you can fit more of your pieces per sheet, thus using up less paper. This costs you less and creates less waste. We can take even more advantage of space by designing smaller companion pieces to go with your larger pieces. Last year, we recognized that there was some extra space on our sheets of business cards. So, we added a "Word of Mouth" card. Like a business card in size, it is a small piece that is easy to hand out. We give these to friends, family, interns - anyone who would want to share the story of DfSI with someone else. These are just a few of the creative ideas that show you how we can get the most out of your printing project. There are many more. If you came to Design for Social Impact, you are probably trying to get your message out, to move people to action, and to create positive social change. A good printing strategy is an integral part of that process - it is the culmination of a great investment of time and resources and needs careful attention to bring it to fruition. At Design for Social Impact, we know printers for every kind of job. I look forward to opportunities to help find the right ones to create the right results for all of our clients - and the audiences that need to hear their stories. Return to Top |
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Shop With Compassion (continued)
Through an exciting project to develop an animated message, DfSI and AAVS encouraged consumers to "Shop with Compassion" during the week of April 23-30. AAVS is a non-profit animal advocacy and educational organization that opposes and works to end experiments on animal. They also oppose all forms of cruelty to animals. AAVS saw our animated holiday message from last year and decided that they wanted to send out something that was engaging and fun to their audience. The message needed to be positive and encouraging and they hoped for a piece that would be lighthearted enough to get people forwarding to all their friends and family. Design for Social Impact had a great opportunity to not only tackle that challenge, but to create a piece in a new medium as well. Recently, folks at DfSI have been expanding the ability to create messages through an interactive and multi-media approach. We helped AAVS from the very beginning of the process by writing the script and creating the visual design. Original music enhanced the experience for the audience and the technical know how to program and get on the web made it a reality. DfSI also assisted AAVS in their e-strategy by developing a mini-campaign to get the word out through e-mail alerts and press releases to traditional and online outlets. To view the movie click here. Find out more about AAVS. If you'd like to have Design for Social Impact help you create a multi-media message for your audience, please let us know. Return to Top |