Green Printer Blog

Design Goes Green – The first of a series of articles by Green Printer on the cross-section between the environment, business and the creative communications industry.

Interview with Studio 7 Designs‘ Aran Down

By Olga Orda

You are an award-winning, environmentally friendly design firm. Tell us what your clients come to your company for and what makes Studio 7 Designs different from other ‘green’ design firms.

We started out about five years ago by providing non-profit groups with free consultation and web design. Originally, we focused on helping out local companies ─ it was our way of giving back to the community. After about two years of helping about 50 non-profit organizations, including many universities and UN chapters, we were getting offers for corporate branding through our contacts. At that time, Studio 7 Designs was run by me and some part-time designers, so it was a natural evolution to move towards being a full-time design and development company. Our roots are based in real ethics. Our site doesn’t have a green theme; we wanted to try to capture the beauty of the natural world and use artistic creativity to show who we are as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »

Scott Ballum at Interesting New York from David Nottoli on Vimeo.

Design Goes Green – The popular series of articles by Green Printer on the cross-section between the environment, business and the creative communications industry in Green Printer’s Blog is back again. Wild, isn’t it?

By Contributing Writer Nate Burgos of Design Feast and the Design Feaster blog.

In March 2008, Scott Ballum, a designer, began a quest to locate and meet the people responsible for some of the products in his life. For example, curious about the making of New Balance athletic footwear, Ballum traveled from his home base in Brooklyn, New York, to the New Balance shoe manufacturing plant in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Printer dispatch.

NOTE: Thank you to Lisa Campbell and Steven Campbell for the following correction. Green Smith was the public relations company contracted to collaborate on, not create, the plantatree™ campaign, and the product was actually developed by Lifford Wine Agency. More details about the wine product and it’s creation are at plantatreewine.com.

What does design have to do with my organization? It’s a question business owners, non-profit leaders and institutions often ask. And, the answer is: lots.

A senior colleague once told me, “Form is just as important as content, Olga and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

And yes, it’s been drilled into our heads: “you can have a great product, but if you don’t [insert verbs like ‘market’, ‘brand’, ‘package’ here], you won’t succeed, etc.”. And it true. But design is more than just a means to an end to sell more of your widgets. It also plays a role in the improvement and development of your offerings and sometimes, your organization. Read the rest of this entry »

A www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

The verdict is in from the top social media honchos: social media isn’t just a fringe benefit to add as a complementary side dish to your regular marketing plan – it is your main marketing plan for 2009.

Case in point. Etsy.com, branded by the New York Times as a cross between Amazon.com, eBay and “your grandmother’s basement” has over 100,000 sellers worldwide and had online buyers spend $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items in November 2007.

What is interesting is that Etsy has intentionally avoided big glossy ads in magazines in favour of seller-created street teams and video content to pull off the best, tried-and-true marketing strategy of all: word of mouth (WOM). Read the rest of this entry »