Your Friday Quote
Design should never say, "Look at me." It should say, "Look at this."
Aha Moments
Now and then I come across a product like this genteel pendant light set that makes me happy. It's the eureka moment that speaks to me, even if I don't necessarily want to rush out and buy it (although I probably would if I had a place in my house for these guys). I love the two disparate objects combined to make something different. It just works.
For me, having a great idea like this that clicks into place is enormously satisfying and what drives me to be creative in the first place. The "click" happens not when the idea is just interesting and different, but when it meets a multitude of criteria — does it say something unique? does it have longevity? will people connect with it? does it communicate the brand?
Learning to put unlike things together is key to making great ideas that work, and I believe it is learnable. In fact, honing this skill was one component of our company retreat earlier this year. And the more we use skills like this the better we get. Part of that is looking for the great ideas out there, especially those outside your everyday experience. Will knowing about lamps made out of hats lead to a smashing idea in our next ideation lab? Maybe not, but keeping our brains primed for creative thinking will.
Welcome to the Greenhouse - 2008 Results Summary
It seems like everyone has a case of the Green Fever these days. But is "going green" just a marketing scheme or a trend? I don't think so. At its core, the so called "green movement" is the latest in the steady scientific and social progress that has brought us vaccinations, democracy and pasteurization. These things are no more trends than flushable toilets.
Phinney Bischoff Design House has heard the call, and we're on board. But what can a brand/design firm do? As an an earth-conscious designer, I've wrestled with that question for years. At times I've felt like I was in exactly the wrong industry, promoting consumption and creating printed materials that inevitably will end up in a landfill. Trying to reconcile my personal values with my career has at times seemed like an exercise in futility. However, I have since learned that I am in a unique and fortunate position to affect change from within the industry, and continue to do what I love to do at the same time. Thankfully, my peers at PBDH feel the same way.
So we formed the "Green Team." A group of employees dedicated to helping the company and our clients reduce, re-use and recycle. We came up with some ground rules to guide us:
1. We're going for measurable results - energy saved, money saved, trees saved, waste reduced - in dollars, gallons, kilowatts, etc.
2. Whatever we do must be economically viable. Anyone can "go green" if they have enough of money to play with, but can we do it within existing budgets?
3. Quality and quality-of-life will not be sacrificed. Our client's printed materials will look and feel as luxurious as ever, and we're not turning the heat off.
The Green Team identified two major spheres in which we have influence as a company: Our client's print production and our own office facility. So what's cookin' over here? Here's a sampler, measurable results included:
FSC Paper:
As print production manager for many of our clients, we are able to make smart choices about printing and paper. Whenever possible, we now select paper for printing which has been approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization dedicated to managing and protecting our forest resources and reducing virgin timber consumption. We've now used 80-100% post-consumer recycled, FSC-certified paper for three large print-run printed brochure projects, which together have had the following impact (data provided by FSC):
- Fully-grown trees preserved: 50.7
- Gallons wastewater flow saved: 21,562
- Pounds solid waste not created: 2,385
- Pounds net greenhouse gases prevented: 1,990
- BTUs energy not consumed: 65.84 Million
Saving Energy:
Using less energy costs less and pollutes less. Approximately 60% of America's electric energy comes from polluting, coal-fired power plants. Here in the Northwest we are lucky to have abundant hydro-electric power, but that still comes at a cost - especially to sensitive local environments (salmon). PBDH has taken steps to reduce our office energy consumption. By replacing our 65-Watt incandescent light bulbs with efficient, 15-Watt Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs), we will eventually reduce our electricity usage by 13,716 kWh per year ($835 in savings). And, by the way, CFL light color/quality is now virtually indistinguishable from traditional light bulbs.
Conserving Resources:
We now have two full-time bike commuters and one successful carpool team keeping the planet cool. Between just the four of us we estimate that we have not driven 5,472 miles in the last year. That's 347 gallons of gas not burned, 4,420 pounds of greenhouse gases that did not go into the atmosphere and anywhere from $500 to about $900 in our pockets, depending on gas prices. We have also reduced our internal office paper consumption by simply switching to Xerox High Yield Business Paper (17.7 Lb) in our copier and printers. Compared to traditional 20 Lb copier paper, the high-yield paper:
- Uses 50% fewer trees.
- Turns wood into pulp via mechanical grinding vs. chemical means.
- Requires fewer chemicals and less bleaching.
- Reduces fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 75%.
Besides these bigger projects, we've begun a number of smaller initiatives around the office to encourage the use of re-usable grocery bags, coffee cups and water bottles. Seattle Waste Management has provided us a Yard Waste bin which is now diverting our food scraps, lunch boxes, paper towels and other compostables from the landfill to a garden mulch facility.
This is just the beginning of a long growth process for us as a company and as individuals. We are re-thinking some everyday tasks and changing habits one at a time. In many cases just stopping to ask "what if..." will yield all the answers you need - and Google is there for the rest of them. Now imagine if all 300 Million of us Americans got on board. What would those numbers look like?
First practical application of StepTwo idea
WOW. That was fast. John Platt, owner and executive chef of St. Clouds Restaurant in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle, and participant in last night's ideation lab about Step Two, has just created the first event enacting the Step Two theme of finding common ground for all citizens to communicate with each other. Here's the details from his email:
Greetings Friends,
A very exciting Inauguration coming up on Tuesday - a cause for celebration and cause for a genuine national conversation about our country's direction and future. We'd like to host both at St. Clouds on Tuesday night, January 20, 2009. We'd like to help build community through shared celebration and through shared dialogue. We have found ourselves in troubling times, but as Barack Obama has said time and again, in order to find our way out of these tough times, "We have to do this together - we are one nation."
We'll have tables pushed together to encourage conversation.
We'll have a big screen tv in the bar showing both clips of the speech and live coverage of the evening's celebration.
We'll have cocktails, beer, and wine to lubricate the celebrating and the dialogue.
We'll have dinner and snacks available and encourage gathering together around food.
And, seriously, if you come with a member of the opposite political party from yours, we'll buy you both a drink for coming together and believeing, "Yes, we can!" Alternatively, if you find yourself in discussion during the evening with someone who leans in a different political direction than you, and you two find a way to talk about the issues not as competing parties but as fellow Americans trying to solve a problem, we'll buy you one tasty drink to share together. Really.
It's time for us all to find some common ground and enjoy sharing that sacred ground together. Reservations welcome, and bear in mind we'll be seating everyone at group tables. Should be quite a night, following quite a day, the start of our shared future. Maybe we'll do this once a month... Yours in hope, John and Pablo
John Platt and Paul Butler, Owners
St. Clouds Restaurant and Catering
www.stclouds.com
The first Step Two Session
Last night, Wednesday January 14th, we had our first Ideation Lab around the Step Two idea. We had a full house and was very inspiring. We will be getting the notes together in the next couple days and publish the results here on steptwo.org. A special thanks to Ryan Scherler here at Phinney Bischoff Design House for putting this site together and enabling the blog.
The one theme that kept recurring last night was the need to find common ground for all Americans to dialog and understand each other. It can't be about Liberals/Conservatives, Democrats/Republicans, Right/Left. It has to be about the problems we face and coming up with appropriate solutions. Actionable solutions. Many ideas were generated to help this happen. President Obama has asked us all repeated to do this, so here we go. More to follow.
Please comment with thoughts and/or ideas towards this effort.
Addys in Columbus, OH
Just got back from judging the Addys for the AdFed in Columbus, OH. There were over 500 entries. That's pretty impressive since it's the same amount as last year and 2008 was a recession year. I was pleased to see a lot of innovative work. Usually during a recession companies pull back and get a bit conservative. It appears that this time companies want to take the opportunity to move ahead of the competition that is holding back. Smart move. 
I can't show my Judges Pick or the Best of Show as no announcement has been made yet. Suffice it to say we all agreed that the winners needed to exhibit the best marriage of concept and execution. The winners did that.
Kudos to the team at the Columbus OH AdFed for organizing and volunteering to make things run smoothly. 
author// Karl Bischoff on Jan 13, 2009
Your Friday Quote
The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end.
Our new housemate
PBDH welcomes our newest, cutest and most cuddly housemate yet, Scout Phinney-Bischoff (not sure if that's hyphenated or not). Congrats to big brother Woody (who is equally as cute and cuddly) and proud parents, Leslie and Karl. Bring on the chew toys and puppy breath!