Over nearly a decade in business, we’ve seen our share of patterns and trends. One of the most consistent ones relates to imitation. Small companies often want to look like the larger players in the market. So they start copying what others are doing and miss out on a whole bunch of opportunities that could make a colossal difference.

For nearly a year, we researched, made notes, debated and discussed, and edited like madmen. The result is smashLAB’s first book: Speak Human. It’s largely a starting point for any marketer who wants to look at how to build a brand in the digital age. The first readers have been enthusiastic about what they’ve found, and we’re hoping that you’ll feel the same way.

>> Continue reading: “Do you Speak Human?”

We don’t showcase our identity-related work very much, but it’s still a big part of what we do at smashLAB. The fact is, a lot of the organizations need help in defining their brand strategies. Once we’ve helped them do so, we’re often brought-in to work on a more long-term basis.

Left: Original wordmark, Right: New wordmark

Our process with illumivision was in respects “carriage before the horse”. They came to us looking for a website redesign (case study here). As a result of its success, they come back to us for the creation of a new identity system, wordmark, and various assets. We’re now working with them on their online marketing efforts.

>> Continue reading: “Makeover: Redefining the illumivision brand”

The past few months have been quite busy, as we near the release of our first book Speak Human: Out-Market the Big Guys by Getting Personal. Today, I thought I’d share a few notes on what it’s about, the release date, and a few other details.

The cover for our upcoming release: Speak Human

>> Continue reading: “Some notes regarding our upcoming book”

It’s Oscar’s birthday today–he’s now three! This left me reminiscing about the packages I made to celebrate his arrival. The cards are playful and (virtually) allowed the recipient to take-part in the birthing experience.

Each element was themed around a circle, which tied into everything from the accompanying letter to the envelope lining. This motif was also linked through Amea’s curls, the roundness of Oz’s head, and that whole “circle of life” notion. Outputting the cards proved a technical nightmare, requiring a bit of trial and error to work around the printing limitations, and allow it to slide in-and-out smoothly. Approximately 75 of them were painstakingly trimmed and assembled by hand. (We will never do that again.)

Oscar’s younger brother Ari didn’t fare as well when it came to his introduction. Amea and I were so tired that we just sent an email to friends and family. Sorry Ari–your parents certainly owe you one here!

* The cards are being featured in Index Book’s new release: Just for You

The card announcing Oscar's arrival (closed).

>> Continue reading: “Experience child-birth first-hand… and pain-free!”

Note: This is the first in a series of “behind the scenes” posts about some projects we’ve worked on. In these we plan to share some of the more technical challenges, as well as a snapshot of what our process involved. We’re working to be as candid as possible, in order to illustrate where hiccups can occur, and highlight some of the pleasant surprises that occasionally arise.

Our work on the SinkIt logo seems to keep making the rounds. We often find it in online studies and it has collected a few awards along the way as well. In fact, it will be included in David Airey’s upcoming book: Logo Design Love. What often is missed with this logo, however, is that it is just one part of a full identity package that was informed by deliberate observation, and carefully crafted to fit with a larger strategy.

The SinkIt logo and tagline

>> Continue reading: “Backstage: The SinkIt logo in process”

Over the past few days, we’ve been updating our news section a little. In part we’d like to bring you closer to what we do here; additionally, we’ve worked on a lot of projects but there’s only so much space in our case studies section. The changes here will afford us a place to highlight these.

Today we’re sharing some of the ads we created for the Lakes District a few years back. The concept played with how much some crave the wilderness when stuck at a desk. The photos were all shot on site, and we also assisted the group with the creation of an associated icon and wordmark.

Lakes District Advertisement: Canoeing

>> Continue reading: “Spotlight: Wish you were there?”

Eric spoke at the GDC’s “Practivism” event last November, alongside Brian Dougherty and Mark Alt. In his talk he discusses smashLAB’s Design Can Change, the challenges in being more sustainable, and our culture of consumption. (Along the way he swears a little.)

http://www.vimeo.com/2827789

The fun folks at Plaid popped into smashLAB on the Vancouver leg of their North American tour. The PlaidNation Tour “is a rolling celebration of creativity and a demonstration of social media in action”, whereby the Plaid gang get in their plaid van and drive through the country meeting creative, marketing, brand and internet workers, and sharing Plaid love. We exchanged swag, ate donuts, and took a moment to share some of our own smashLAB love on camera for them to broadcast on their tour website.

http://www.vimeo.com/1387252

A frantic few weeks of travel and talk finally wound-up with Eric’s keynote at the 101 More Things Designers Can Do to Save the Earth sustainable design workshop. The event is a presented by the School of Visual Concepts and the AIGA.

Eric Karjaluoto speaking at Y13 in San Diego (Photo: Kirby Yau)

>> Continue reading: “Spreading the word on sustainability”

smashLAB was lucky enough to receive recognition amongst all the competition for New Media BC’s PopVox Awards. First of all, Design Can Change was awarded the Best Do-Gooder site, which recognizes social change initiatives. We accepted the award, babbled incoherently for a moment, and quickly left the stage.

Receiving awards at PopVox '08 (Photo: Phillip Jeffrey)

>> Continue reading: “Double-wins at PopVox 2008”