Idea Market

I think we do good work at Idea Market; websites that are pretty to look at and do cool things. They provide real value to our clients and to our clients’ clients. Sometimes, they may even help to make people’s lives better. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but I believe that a good town website (for example) can be beneficial to its citizens in actual, real terms. But with the possible exception of a fire ban notice perhaps, it’s not exactly a matter of life and death.

Which is why we don’t just do municipal or commercial work. I believe that if you want what you do in life to have deeper meaning, you need to apply your knowledge and skills to something that has a broader significance. Something that is a matter of life and death.

Now this isn’t meant to be a “Hey, look at us! We’re so great!” sort of blog, but I want to give some examples of organizations we’ve helped with recently that has brought a bit of fulfillment to the work that we do.

1. The United Way of Central Alberta held its 2011-12 campaign kick-off last week. It was inspiring to see so many people in one place, all in support of helping people in our community. And we’re not talking about helping just a little bit; we’re talking about helping to the tune of $1,960,000. That’s a huge number. Maybe too big to even wrap your head around. But then they told some real-life stories, including one about a guy named Barry. In a nutshell, Barry had hit bottom and only through the help of programs funded in part by the United Way was he able to get back on his feet and move forward. I met Barry after the program. He’s a real person who lives (and now works!) in our own community and doesn’t hesitate to admit that he wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the help he received. Check out the United Way’s website to see how you can donate or otherwise support their work.

2. The organization on the ground that helped Barry the most?: The Central Alberta AIDS Network Society (CAANS). Don’t let the name fool you, though. While they certainly do great work within the HIV/AIDS community, they’re also a vital service to the broader “at-risk” population of Red Deer including drug users and sex trade workers. For many of their clients, the CAANS office is as close to a home as they have. Which comes as no surprise if you’ve ever spent any time inside their walls. There’s a warmth and acceptance there that is hard to find elsewhere. I personally spend several hours a week volunteering at CAANS; time that I’m pretty sure has come to mean more to me than to them. Idea Market hasn’t done a whole lot in terms of actual design for them yet… but we will be soon. Check back in a month or so when we launch their new brand and website.

3. Closely tied to CAANS is The Safe Harbour Society for Health and Housing. They quietly operate all over Red Deer, providing services including emergency shelter, housing and detox. I’ve toured their facilities and listened to their stories. Some are heartbreaking; others are highly inspirational. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending their AGM on the shores of the Red Deer River at Fort Normandeau. This was not your typical AGM; we all sat outside in a circle, ate together, laughed together and hugged a lot. At the end of meeting they unveiled the new brand, banner, brochures and website that we got to create for them. I’ll have the details in our portfolio soon, but you can learn more about what they do on their newly launched website at: www.safeharboursociety.org Make sure you watch the video to get a better feel for the heart behind what they do.

4. Finally, as I write this we are putting the final touches on the 2011 edition of Red Deer’s Vital Signs, put together by the Red Deer & District Community Foundation. Much like the United Way, the Community Foundation is an over-arching organization that helps fund many other organizations in our area. The Vital Signs document is sort of like a report card on how the City is doing on a wide range of topics, from crime to library usage and from employment rates to air quality. It’s the study that helps identify what we’re doing well at and what needs more attention. This will be the fifth one we’ve designed for them and it launches on October 4. Please take the time to read through it; it may help you get a better feel for what’s happening around you and how you can make an impact.

Idea Market’s involvement with these projects has dramatically changed how we define our corporate mission. It’s changed how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about others. It has brought new value to how we spend the bulk of our day.

Maybe you’re in the same boat. Maybe your day-to-day work doesn’t mean that much in the great scheme of things. What can you do to change that? How can you use your talents to do something to help others? Figure it out and do it. Because I guarantee that it won’t just help them; it will also bring meaning and fulfillment to your own work and life.

Last year we had the privilege of developing a new website for the Danish Canadian National Museum. This year, they came back to us for some re-branding work. Normally, the first stage in any sort of design work is getting to a deep understanding of the client, their goals, their audiences, etc. Because we were already very familiar with the Museum, we were able to jump right in… sort of.

We quickly discovered a significant challenge in branding the Museum. They had two seemingly conflicting goals/audiences:

1. A major goal of the re-branding project was to broaden their marketing appeal to a larger audience of young families and people in general with no Danish background. How do you do that? By using the most universally appealing aspect of Danish culture, of course: Vikings!
2. At the same time, though, we had to make sure we didn’t alienate their traditional user group: mostly older people of Danish descent. We had to speak to their experience and culture in an authentic and historically accurate way.

The problem is, a lot of the imagery that dealt with #1 most clearly wasn’t true to #2. You know those Viking helmets with the horns? Yeah, they didn’t use those except for special ceremonies. The Danish helmets were plainer and thus not as strong as an icon. We ran into a similar problem with the Viking ships with the dragons on the front. So we had to dig a little deeper…

Eventually we saw what was sitting right in front of us the whole time: the Freydis Joanna, one of the highlights of the Museum (pictured). The Freydis Joanna is an accurate reconstruction of an 1100-year-old Viking ship, built by master shipwrights in Denmark and transported to Canada. It was perfect: it spoke to both the Viking connections and also the fact that most Danish immigrants to Canada arrived by ship. Most importantly, it was authentic, both historically and to what the Museum actually has to offer today.

The next step was deciding how to represent the ship visually. After exploring different aspects and angles of the Freydis, we landed on a front-on view of the prow. The resulting shape also communicates a sense of movement and – in a more abstract way – a graphical representation of immigration. Finally, it conveys a sense of progress and growth, which we’re confident is exactly what will happen with the Museum itself as they push their marketing efforts forward.

The Leadership Centre of Central Alberta celebrated their 10th anniversary with a fancy little party last night that I was lucky enough to be invited to. And by lucky, I mean that they were trying to recruit people for next year’s program and they were wooing me with asparagus pastries and mashed potatoes in martini glasses. I’m not sure that was all really necessary, as the alumni of the program really speaks for itself: impressive people go through this program!

As part of the event, the Leadership Centre also unveiled their new brand, completely coincidentally designed by Idea Market! Credit to Louise Helder, Steve Fisher and Graeme Duckett, who each hand their hands all over this project. And thanks to the folks at the Leadership Centre (Linda, Kristine, Beth and Ryan) for being fun and easy to work with! Below is the old logo, the new one and a brief explanation of the thinking behind it all.

Shapes
The three circles and their placement in relation to each other hold considerable meaning. They are designed to portray progressive movement, travelling from the smallest/lowest (farthest) circle to the largest/highest (closest) one. Think of it as a pathway that takes people and the communities around them forward and upward. Leadership is about growth.

The fact that there are three circles in the logo is meant to pay homage to the three priority areas that the Leadership Centre was founded around (community, sports and youth). Today they can represent the private, public, and not-for-profit fields that form the Centre’s studentship.

Finally, the overlap of the shapes signifies the interconnectedness and interaction between those groups. The program is about bringing people together and learning from each other; it’s about partnership and community.

Colours
The colours of the logo are based on the three primary colours of blue, red and yellow. In colour theory, these are the colours that are used to create every other colour. On the colour wheel, they are as far apart from each other as possible. So while they’re very diverse, when brought together they can create anything; an obvious parallel to the students.

The shades of each colour, meanwhile, were chosen to reflect the vibrant and dynamic nature of the program and its students. These are not colours (or people) that sit in the background.

I know some of you have the attention span of small children in an art museum, so let me get right to the point:

We’re all packing up and heading to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Texas from March 10th-16th. That’s right, no Idea Market for a week! Whatever will you do? Answer: I have no idea, but we’re going to be having a lot of fun in a much warmer place than you! Oh, and we’re going to learn stuff relevant to our jobs, too. Honest. So, yeah – if something is an emergency go ahead and email us, but most everything else will have to wait until we get back.

For those of you who didn’t go chasing a gum wrapper down the hall yet, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who made it to what became known as The Bacon Party last month. It was a great time with our favourite people in the world, eating our favourite food in the world. You can read all about it on our blog.

Unrelated diversion #1: it was 28 degrees in Austin yesterday. Just thought you might want to know that.

Now we’re not really that excitable by design awards, but a couple months ago we decided to nominate one of our clients for the Canadian E-Tourism Awards. Then we forgot to tell the client about it. Oops. Anyway, it turns out they won! Vivien from the Danish Canadian National Museum is in Toronto at the awards show at this very moment to accept the Best User-Generated Content award. Congrats to everyone at the museum on their awesome website!

Diversion #2: I’m going to hang out with Mike Tyson this Sunday! Maybe we’ll get face tattoos together.

Another website that we’re kind of proud of is the newly re-design site for Central Alberta Theatre. As you may have heard, they’re getting ready to move their operations to downtown Red Deer, so they wanted to get the excitement brewing with a new online presence. You can check it out for yourself (and maybe find a show to go to) at: centralalbertatheatre.ca.

Diversion #3: A trip to Texas wouldn’t be complete without a roller derby bout. Unfortunately, we’ll just be going as spectators, not participants. This time.

Remember when I used to try to keep these newsletters short? Ha!

In our last newsletter we talked about the various non-profits and charities we work with. We’re proud to add another to the list: Safe Harbour Society. I’d tell you to go to their website to learn all about the great things they do in Red Deer, but the site really doesn’t say much. Which is why they called us, I guess. We’ll also be re-branding the organization, putting together stationary, designing a brochure and display banner, and whatever else they ask of us. Watch for all that soon!

Diversion #4: Did I mention the temperature? Yes? OK, how about the fact that as a group we will collectively gain 35 pounds in barbecued ribs alone? Believe dat.

This is the point where I give you a little teaser to keep you on the edge of your seat until the next newsletter. OK, so you know how we’re supposed to be focusing on web and not doing so much branding work? Well things don’t always go the way we plan. We’re in the process of re-branding both the Town of Innisfail and the City of Wetaskiwin – coming soon to a giant highway sign near you! Oh, and a centennial logo for the Town of Sylvan Lake. And re-brands for The Leadership Centre and True North Realty. That’s a whole lot of logos for a web company! Watch for at least some of those to be revealed in our next newsletter…

Until then, enjoy a little chocolate-dipped bacon in our honour and remember… we love you.

First off, if that title doesn’t make sense to you, you need to do two things:

1. Read Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow
2. Not miss the next big Idea Market event.

Let me explain. On February 9th, we held our client appreciation Christmas party. Say whaaat? Here’s the thing: if we had held our Christmas party in December like sensible people, it would be just another Christmas party in a string of Christmas parties at a time when the last thing you want to do is go to another Christmas party. So hey! – let’s have ours in February!

That’s the first “purple cow” of our story. For those that don’t know, a purple cow is something that stands out from the crowd; something that makes your head snap back and say “what was that?!” It’s also something that you remember and want to tell your friends about after.

Paeton Cameron - live!

Now if we had served wine and cheese and had iTunes running in the background, the party would still have been largely forgettable, even in February. So instead, we shook it up a bit. As our guests approached our office, they were greeted with a finely-dressed 9-year-old who gave them a blue carnation corsage and their choice of custom-made Idea Market buttons. Once inside, they were enveloped by live music (thanks, Paeton Cameron!) and the sweet smell of bacon. Lots of bacon. Nothing but bacon, in fact: maple bacon, applewood smoked bacon, turkey bacon, bacon dip, bacon chips, bacon & chicken skewers, bacon-wrapped scallops and… chocolate-dipped bacon. That’s right: chocolate-dipped bacon. Trust me on that one; it was a real hit. Finally, we gave a parting gift of a home-made mix CD to each guest with four options to choose from, compiled by each of the four Idea Market team members. (My CD was most popular, but only because I was the only one to include Bette Midler.)

Mike vs. choco-bacon

The result? That evening, both Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with comments about the party, especially the chocolate bacon. Two days after the fact, people are still talking about it with their poor friends that weren’t there. We successfully created a purple cow event: one that was different, memorable and word-of-mouth-worthy.

Was it any harder to put together than a more “standard” party? Not at all. It just took a little creative thinking and the willingness to be a bit on the unorthodox side. Were the results different? Dramatically. Can you apply this same thinking to your own business’s marketing? Certainly. Look at what your competitors are doing. How can you differentiate and truly stand out from the crowd? How can you zig when they zag? How can you ensure that what you’re doing will be both remembered and talked about? Be bold; go where no man (or woman) has gone before. And reap the rewards.

Happy New Year!

Ish. (Give me a break – I wrote five blog articles this year already! Writing this kind of brilliance takes time! But seriously, can I be serious for a minute? (5-7 minutes for you slower readers.)

First, let me just say that I won’t bore you with a review of 2010 here. No! Instead, I’ll bore you with it here: http://www.ideamarket.ca/2011/01/idea-markets-2010-in-review/

Bored? A little sleepy? BAM! Let’s kick it up a notch! Let’s talk about 2011! We have so many changes to talk about! And by “so many”, I mean “two”:

1. We’re going to focus clearly on the web this year. That’s not to say that we’re abandoning branding or print completely. Two of our first projects of the year are branding projects for the Town of Innisfail and the City of Wetaskiwin and we just finished a 324,000-piece print run for realtor Richard Pochylko. So what’s the point? We’re already pretty good at web. This allows us to focus more and get even better at it. We’re also broadening our scope of online services to include mobile, writing for the web, social media etc. Check our services page for more details on that stuff.

2. In the past, we have been guilty of having an attitude of wanting to do things “great” or not doing them at all. If a client didn’t have the budget for “great”, we often turned them away. So what happens then? Do they go elsewhere with lower standards? Go without completely? It felt like we were doing them a disservice. So we’re dropping the elitist mentality. We still strive to do great work, but we understand that not everyone is ready for the moon. It’s not about lowering our standards, but rather offering people more options. Maybe you don’t need a completely new website; maybe we can help spruce up what you already have. Or maybe you’re happy with your design and just need a CMS put in behind it. Maybe all you need is an hour of advice. We’re here to help. Call us. (I’m making that hand gesture with my thumb in my ear to emphasize the point. You know what I’m talking about.)

What’s not changing in 2011? For the love of numbers, man! A grand total of two things:

1. We’re still going to be really social. In fact, just the other day we visited Patrick Galesloot of Century 21 fame to drop off a birthday card and present. (Want your own present? Email us back and tell us your birthday and we’ll hook you up! Don’t be shy…) We’re also having regular open houses and workshops, so keep an eye on our website for that. Hint: be sure to keep February 9 open…

2. Working with charities and social groups. We love working with the Red Deer & District Community Foundation, the Red Deer Kinsmen and the United Way (check out the site we did for them at http://www.caunitedway.ca/). We’re also adding one more to the mix in the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society. We both volunteer with them as well as help with design work. (Watch for their annual report soon!) Let us know if you’d like to help out in any way with any of these great organizations and we’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

In conclusion:

1. I grew a moustache in November. If you didn’t see it in person, you really didn’t miss much.

2. Idea Market still loves you. Don’t ever forget that.

One of our clients – Medicine River Wildlife Centre – recently made an interesting move. They bucked a major trend and moved from an e-newsletter back to a print version. Why? in their own words:

“An interesting thing has happened since we began sending out email newsletters; we have seen a dramatic decrease in donations, membership renewals and gifts from our wish list. When you receive a hard copy it gets left out for you to read over and over, show a friend and remember to stay involved in Medicine River, but an email can get read, deleted and we are forgotten. We have come to the conclusion that the extra cost and time of preparing a hard copy newsletter is probably worth the effort and is more personal so for now we will be returning to a mailed hard copy.”

Perhaps this is just a small example of the purple cow concept: when everyone else is doing one thing, the best way to stand out is doing something different. Even if that thing is the thing that everyone else used to do. It’s a strange world.

We don’t need a psychic friend to figure out the direction Idea Market is heading in 2011. As mentioned in yesterday’s blog reviewing 2010, print jobs really started to be replaced by web projects in 2010. Add to that the fact that we’re all really passionate about internet stuff and it seems like an obvious choice: we’re going to focus clearly on the web this year.

That’s not to say that we’re abandoning branding or print completely. Two of our first projects of the year are branding projects for the Town of Innisfail and the City of Wetaskiwin and we just finished a 324,000-piece print run for realtor Richard Pochylko. We still like doing the occasional non-web thing; we’ll just be a little pickier about which ones we do. And if things get too busy, we’ve already made arrangements to call in help from strategic partners like Focus Design Group as needed.

So where’s the good news? We’re already pretty good at web. This move allows us to focus more and get even better at it. We’re also broadening our scope of online services to include mobile, writing for the web, social media etc. Check our services page for more details on the specifics.

So here’s to 2011, to playing to our strengths and to doing what we love. Cheers!

2010 was in interesting year for Idea Market, filled with challenge and change. Here’s the super-fast, bullet point breakdown for the easily bored:

• adapted the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), where we told staff that they could work whenever and wherever they wanted, as long as work got done. Nicole took this philosophy to Edmonton; Graeme set up his home office in Calgary. It seems to work well and it’s a great work environment.
• closed up shop for a week and took the team down to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, TX. We learned a lot and Graeme got sick.
• sold our office/house in Lacombe and moved into a studio apartment-style office in downtown Red Deer. This gets us closer to more of our clients and has introduced regular “open houses” to allow us to get to know both them and our fellow designers better.
• added Louise and Mike to the team to expand our capabilities in web design and development, respectively.
• participated in the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada 24-Hour Design-a-Thon where we (plus non-IMer’s Kayla and Vincienne) did what felt like a year’s worth of work for the Red Deer & District Community Foundation in one day. For free.
• as clients reduced or eliminated paper and moved online, we saw print projects go from about a third of our workload to less than 10%. Sadly, at the end of the year we had to let Nicole (our primary print designer) go.
• and in the midst of all that, we also manage to do quite a bit of work!

So what’s next? We’re going to take what we’ve learned in the past year and put it to work for us in 2011. More about that in tomorrow’s blog!