Press For the Agency

smashLAB Goes Deep for New Vancouver Aquarium Site

VANCOUVER—A west coast digital agency went below the surface to come up with a new website for the city's public aquarium.

Making Christmastime in the Office Merry

Who really works around Christmastime? Not many of us. Yet we still have to show up and pretend to be doing something. Here are a couple of suggestions to make the best use of your time when nothing gets done anyway.

What Lies Beneath the Surface

SmashLAB helps the Vancouver Aquarium connect people to the natural world through a revamped web presence. 
The Vancouver Aquarium has been Canada’s largest aquarium for more than 55 years. Since opening in 1956, its staff has grown from seven to nearly 400 employees, while...

The Key to Finding your Size "Sweet Spot" is Personal

Recently, one of my small companies joined several other small service businesses to put forward a bid to a very large operation that was preparing to shift its focus and take on a new role in its industry.

The Playlist

This week, smashLAB Creative Director and Partner Eric Karjaluoto dishes up a Playlist: a mix with an old-school A- and B-side. (Who knew that could feel so fresh?) Turn up your speakers for a listen to the tunes that pump through his Vancouver office. (And if the office looks a bit familiar...

How Do Customers Find Your Online Presence?

What do your customers expect from your online offerings? Eric Karjaluoto joins Jim Blasingame to discuss why you should think like a customer when designing any online resource...

A Closer Look

I’ve been following smashlab Founder Eric Karjaluoto (Karj) on twitter for a year or so now. He’s one of the wittiest and most savvy marketing guys around. The author of Speak Human, Eric talks about how to out-market the big guys. And he has many... 

Eric Karjaluoto Praises and Skewers Recent Agency Creative on New underln Site

Eric Karjaluoto, creative director at smashLAB, is "happy playing the part of the asshole" with the new incarnation of his site undrln, where he writes brief, honest and often snarky critiques of recent agency campaigns...

Much Ado About Nothing: (Or: Contemplating Gapgate)

I'll start by getting it out of the way immediately: I'm not a fan of what was the redesigned Gap logo. There, I said it… alongside about a gazillion others.

Inform: Speaking Human

The time has come for small to shine, says Eric Karjaluoto, author of Speak Human. In the Turbulent Teens, small companies are in a prime position to engage with consumers seeking the intimate, the personable and the approachable. Often community - focused, they are also well placed to serve...

Read: Inform: Speaking Human

Authenticity is the
Secret Weapon

Most small businesses feel impotent in their efforts to win, and keep, customers because they don't have the marketing power of corporations. After all, big advertising budgets have been the mainstay of marketing for decades.

Read: Authenticity is the Secret Weapon

Who is Eric Karjaluoto?

Vancouver-based designer Eric Karjaluoto – "Karj" for those not fluent in the Finnish tongue – is the cofounder and creative director of digital design firm smashLAB. As a frequent blogger and Tweeter – he has 2,200 followers – this social media junkie...

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Adventures in User Experience

Over the past eight years, our studio has built many websites for many different clients. But the lessons we’ve learned building our own community have reminded us that we still have a lot to master.

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smashLAB Appeals To Discovery Channel To
“Suck Less”

Here’s an innovative approach to defending a trademark. Vancouver, Canada based SmashLAB is an online design and marketing firm that launched in 2000. Everything was going fine, they say, until Discovery Channel launched a television show with the same name.

Read: smashLAB Appeals to Discovery Channel

The Viral Path Less Travelled

In December, the Vancouver interactive marketing agency smashLAB got hits in the press press and a few in the minor press for its social networking site, makefive.com, in which people can list 5 things they’re passionate about as a way to start conversations.

Read: The Viral Path Less Travelled

Marketing as Easy as Counting to Five

We all know about David Letterman's Top 10 list, right? Well, a Vancouver-based interactive design firm is betting big on its own Top Five list. Called MakeFive, the website idea by smashLAB is based on the simple notion that there's a Top Five list for just about anything.

Read: Marketing as Easy as Counting to Five

Rock Your Website

"For an example of an online portfolio done right, look no further than Vancouver-based strategic interactive agency smashLAB. The case studies showcased in the portfolio show a variety...

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Beat the Creative Block

A blank sheet of paper can incite creative paralysis. So how do you bust out and gain control? Eric Karjaluoto, of strategic interactive agency smashLAB, shares his thoughts...

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Social Networks: Where Advertisers Fear to Tread

"You have to look at social networks as a kind of plumbing," says Eric Karjaluoto of smashLAB, which has created the social network MakeFive. "It's not rocket science."

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Eric Karjaluoto on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer

"Eric Karjaluoto is an award winning Canadian designer and Emily Carr graduate with a slightly green tinge. He wants his graphic design cohorts to unite, green up and address climate change in ..."

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Weather Network Feature on Design Can Change

"Eric Karjaluoto is a graphic designer who's helping his profession design change when it comes to its impact on the environment. Design can change is an effort to bring designers together to both ..."

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Green by Design

As part of the publishing industry, we here at Desktop are ever conscious of the detrimental impact caused to the environment by the graphic design process. From the destruction of forests...

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Smash Climate Change

An online green initiative has helped Vancouver-
based interactive design firm smashLAB gain the type of international exposure many companies can only dream of. "There's not a lot of work so far...

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Smashing Global Warming With Greener Design

The goal of graphic design is to make things look good. Really good. So good that we want to buy these things, even if we don't need them. That can be a problem - or perhaps an opportunity...

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The Design 100

Launched by Canadian studio smashLAB, this website is a network of graphic designers focused on creating products with the lowest possible carbon footprint. The goal is to positively address...

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Need a Primer on Social Media? Read on...

Interactive agency smashLAB has created a white paper on social media designed as a primer for those who want to learn more about it. Below are excerpts from two sections: opportunities in...

Read: Need a Primer on Social Media?

The Little Lab That Could

This small firm of five people is doing some big things from their hip office in Gastown, Vancouver. The company, founded in 2000 is the result of a unique partnership of design and technology that...

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Warm Regards

As I write this in October, there are strong reasons to think that we have arrived at the tipping point of global awareness about climate change and the need to act as a matter of urgency. A recent BBC...

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The Heart of the Matter

Introducing a new party to an existing design process can present serious challenges. A case in point: Two years ago, I was caught off-guard. Our firm had been working with a start-up company...

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Intelligent Design

Last June, the designers at Vancouver company smashLAB were thinking a lot about climate change. And they were also considering how their industry affects the environment. “We felt really...

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Best of the Web 2007

Though it smarts to say it, designers are a wasteful bunch. "We had been talking about how our studio could do less damage to the environment," says smashLAB creative director Eric Karjaluoto. "It felt...

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Time to Start Planning

You may be thinking that it's the beginning of the year, Easter is the next big holiday and that we shouldn't even give Christmas another thought. But it may be worth giving it a moment of your time...

Read: Time to Start Planning