Dynamo Blog

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

Mat MacQuarrie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:40:41 -0400

Any CV's caught your attention yet?

New comment on: Portfolio - Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

Mat MacQuarrie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:33:29 -0400

Very clever solution :)

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

Mat MacQuarrie — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:12:57 -0400

CV sent with some samples. Hope to hear back soon. Cheers Bob.

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

Bob — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:12:14 -0400

Looking forward to your work Richard. Cheers

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

Richard — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:56:09 -0400

So I read the post, I've seen the studio. I more than qualify in some parts, but fall short in others. I look forward to seeing if you think I fit the bill.

Seeking Supertalent

Bob — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:30:00 -0400

Dynamo is expanding and seeking supertalent. We are actively searching for a passionate mid-level or senior designer who lives and breathes design in the digital sphere. With a core focus on Web, but with the chops to bust out on Print, Identity and Packaging too - there is no barrier to your enthusiastic and multidisciplinary thirst for visual problem-solving.

4+ years of strong studio/agency work means you know how to take a concept from sketch to reality - and compel project stakeholders that this ideal solution delivers powerfully on both strategic and creative fronts. You are responsible and autonomous, and work well in team structures. Strong and clear communications skills - both oral and written - cannot be over-emphasized.

Here's the non-negotiables :

Have surprisingly exceptional creative talent
Have an opinion
Have a compelling, high-caliber portfolio of diverse work
Strategy guides your work, not your artistic ego
Have a clear grasp of online and offline project cycles
Have a solid understanding and experience with design of UI/UX
Live and breathe on the web
Be able to conceive the big idea and compelling visual content to support it
Be able to juggle multiple projects without a problem
Have a multidisciplinary approach and embrace challenge
Be hyper-tuned to execution detail and perfection
Be a strong presenter in front of colleagues and clients in english or french
Professional knowledge of all CS core apps

Motion apps a serious plus

If you can do all this AND write even some clean code, holy crap.

If this sounds like you, we'd love the to opportunity to learn more about you.

If you are motivated enough to meet this challenge, please send your CV & PDF portfolio to careers@godynamo.com. We will contact shortlisted candidates for interview. No calls please.

New comment on: Inspiration - RailsConf 2010 Wrap Up

Terenced — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:04:19 -0400

That Gary V talk was amazing!

Work with us

Bryan Mahoney — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:17:00 -0400

Dynamo seeks uber-talented design technologist

This person will lead our interface team with a toolbox full of client-side technologies including HTML, CSS, Flash/ActionScript and JavaScript.

We would want you to: 

Implement user interfaces with the latest and greatest tech
Actively collaborate in storycarding sessions 
Be a key member of our usability testing squad 
Be THE In-house authority on best practices for coding, standards, and emerging web 2.0 technologies 
Be an active contributor to the Dynamo Blog 
Be comfortable with regular client communication  
Participate in our overall creative process, providing insight on usability, user interfaces and implementation

Your resume would likely have the following: 

At least 3 years of interactive media experience  
The words “attention to detail”, “team player” “fast learner”, “problem solver” and “driven to innovate” 
XHTML, CSS, Web standards-based design 
Strong working knowledge of Macromedia Flash and ActionScript, JavaScript (primarily JQuery, XML, Git and SVN.  Any mention of Rails experience would be a major bonus.
A desire to work A LOT with Ruby on Rails 
Contributions to open-source projects 
Details about your experience with design and a creative process

Please send your resume to careers[at]goDynamo.com

RailsConf 2010 Wrap Up

Bryan Mahoney — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:30:00 -0400

I came back from RailsConf this year completely energized, there are just so many exciting things happening in the Rails community right now. There's simply no better time to be working with Rails! I'd been to the previous 3 RailsConfs, but this one really stood out for me. The event was punctuated by an outstanding closing keynote by the always energetic Gary Vaynerchuk!

Here are a few of my conference highlights:

Rails 3 and Ruby 1.9x

At RailsConf 2009, there was a lot of speculation that Rails3 would be released and, well, it wasn't. A year later though and it's here in a big way. The extra year of work that's gone into this milestone release is impressive. Rails3 is fast, beautifully organized and even more configurable than before. Most importantly though, it's incredibly well thought out and remains very opinionated! There's no question to me that it's production ready. We've kicked off our last two projects from the latest beta4 build and haven't come across any show stopping issues.

MongoDB

I attended 4 or 5 sessions that focused on MongoDB or NoSQL databases at this year's conference. The benefits of moving to a non-relational (and non-traditional) database platform offered by the presenters were extremely compelling. I was particular impressed with MongoDB and the excellent MongoMapper library written by John Nunemaker. We've already identified a few upcoming projects where we'll be testing out Mongo. Stay tuned for the results...

Spree!

RailsConf 2010 was a coming-out party of sorts for Spree. There was so much more interest this year and it was wonderful to be a part of. We worked hard to get the new logo released in time for the event and it was really well received. There were Spree stickers and T-shirts visible everywhere!

It was great to be able to spend the week with a good chunk of the Spree team. There's a clear roadmap now to move Spree towards Rails3 and the team is hard at work on this goal.

Gary V

A really amazing way to wrap up an amazing conference - Gary was on fire! I heard a lot of great quotes from a lot of great speakers that week, but I credit him with my favourite. Talking about his upcoming book (tentatively titled "The Thank You Economy"), he had this priceless insight:

"Consumers buy for different reasons, convenience is huge but giving a fuck is coming on strong!"

Way to go Gary and way to everyone that contributed to making this year's conference an overwhelming success.

New comment on: Portfolio - Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

Jimmy Berthelet — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:41:40 -0400

This is a great logo. It's simple, to the point, playful yet credible and solid. It's also well aligned with the spirit of the name Spree. Particularly like the typeface that really sits well with the tone and style of the logo. Good to see logos that are as efficient as this. Nice job. Jim

Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

Jenna Holcombe — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:23:00 -0400

I'm always super stoked when a logo project lands in my lap. Dreaming up the identity for a cool brand is every design nerd's dream project. Just give me a blank sketchbook and a few hours and I'll easily sum up the entire essence of your brand in one clever, inevitable icon of Nike swooshiness-caliber! Wrong. A day or two into the process we designers quickly remember that as usual, we're in for bumpy ride. A rush job (like pretty much every design job— let's be serious), the Spree logo came at us fast and we took it on head first. Today, we are proud to present our fresh-out-of-the-oven brand identity for Spree Commerce, finished just in time for the launch of their new website.

For those of you who don't already know, Spree is the cutting-edge, powerful, and flexible open-source e-commerce framework for Ruby on Rails developers. It's got everything: inventory management, checkout functionality, reporting. It's basically the shiz for anyone who wants to launch a bad-ass online store. Got it?

So, we wanted Spree's new logo to embody all of it's unique characteristics as a brand: powerful, bold, flexible, simple, and smart. With that in mind, we came up with a logo comprised of basic iconic shapes: arrow, cart, smile; and we feel it efficiently communicates what Spree does. By distilling down the concept of a “transaction” into a simple mark, we've designed a logo that actually tells the brand story—without words. As for the intrinsic look and feel, the arrow portrays a sense of action and movement which keeps these basic shapes from feeling static or flat, and the rounded shapes help give it a friendly, human touch. It took us a few weeks of sketching, designing, resketching, debating, and redesigning to get the Spree logo where we wanted; but we're finally really happy with our solution. Now have a look at a few of the ideas that didn't make the cut. (Flaming Cart Sketch: there will always be a special place in my heart for you.)

New comment on: Design Thinking - What Makes Us Different?

Sebastien — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:22:13 -0400

bullseye !

What Makes Us Different?

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:11:00 -0400

Why work with us? Because we’re good at what we do: Digital Strategy, Design and Technology. We have the success stories and awards to prove it. But we have learned that the reason people work with us is also because we are actually enjoyable to work with.

Yes, we work on computers - everyone works on computers - but we’re people who like to talk as much as we type. We connect over the net, and we connect through ideas. We’ll explain things clearly, we’ll develop the scope together, and we’ll celebrate our milestones with good wine.

There are enough assholes who do great work. To us, good relationships are just as important as good business opportunities. And when both are present, everybody wins - and the end product exceeds expectations.

ALDO's Cast of Characters

Alex — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:27:00 -0400

Around the office, I am known as the 'Sharp Dressed Man.' Now thanks to our latest project for ALDO, I officially hold that title online as well.

A few weeks ago we released the latest campaign microsite called ALDO Cast of Characters. The concept was relatively simple: allow visitors to create 'casts' of their Facebook friends, assigning them each a role from ALDO's Spring/Summer campaign. The creativity and development required to pull it off, of course, was more complicated than it sounds.

This was our first full integration of Facebook Connect into a production site, and we couldn't be happier with how it turned out. We managed to integrate Facebook Connect with some new wrinkles that we haven't spotted on any of the other FC sites on the web.

Once you log into the Cast of Characters microsite with your Facebook account, you have full access to your entire list of Facebook friends - including their profile pictures. So filling out your cast can be done with a few quick clicks, and you can see your friend's pictures fill the grid of images on the site.

Once your cast is submitted, it gets posted on your Facebook wall for all your friends to see; the ALDO Facebook page also gets filled with all the casts being created, which helps the word spread and brings people back to the microsite to create their own casts.

All in all, the Cast of Characters site is a project we're really proud of, and a great example of what can be done with Facebook Connect. On that note, I'd like to give a special thanks to Simon, Onno and the guys at We+Are Interactive for some great help on the site.

It's really just the tip of the Faceberg for us; we're working on a number of integrations with some of the new Facebook features... stay tuned for more innovative stuff. In the meantime, consider for a sec who the Preppy and the Glam Goddess are in your group and then create a cast of your own.

The new rules for a successful launch

Bryan Mahoney — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:14:00 -0400

Releasing an application into the wild is always a great feeling. The weeks, days and hours leading up to the launch can be pressure packed as the last design tweaks are made and final QA fixes are applied. Managed properly though, a launch should also bring you closer to your teammates and clients, at least it always has for me.

There's been a noticeable shift in the last couple of years about constitutes what a "successful" launch. Long gone are the days of releasing huge, mega-feature rich applications (well, you won't ever catch us releasing something like that!). In their place, we are launching leaner apps in far less time that are then iterated quickly in response to real feedback. These subsequent "mini-releases" really keep us on our toes. Simplicity and clarity will always trump complexity and bloat for us.

The days and weeks that follow a launch are all to easy to overlook - but they are arguably more important than the launch itself. Overly long development cycles can easily lead to reduced effort and motivation post-launch. Issues and bugs happen. Handle them in timely, clever and upfront manner and your users will appreciate your application even more. We've found the best way to guarantee that we can do just that is to keep our development cycles short (it's rare that we'll go more than a month between releases).

The list of available tools and services that encourage and facilitate these new "rules" is seriously impressive. Whether it's error reporting, project management, performance tuning or issue tracking, "there's an app for that". There's an almost endless list of great applications now available and here are some of our favourites:

GitHub
Basecamp
Hoptoad (great name, great app)
Redmine
New Relic

Each one of these applications share a similar philosophy when it comes to releases, with new features being introduced on a regular basis in response to user feedback. We wouldn't want to launch without them!

Doin' it Local

CPOM — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:51:00 -0400

For those times when you're sitting around trying to dream up a crazy adventure for the weekend or the day off, there are many resources to consult. From the internet to the iPhone apps to that guy with the beard and Birkenstocks, you are bound to find something to do. I, for one, have been in this situation before many a time and while the above mentioned resources are handy, I have found the one and only guide for local active leisure that I will ever need....as long as I live in or near Québec anyway.

It is the Guide de Plein Air de Québec and is available at La Cordée for around $30. Its extensive collection of information for all regions of Québec make this a must-have for anyone who likes to Do it Local. Sure you can hop over to Ontario or Vermont or Maine... but sometimes, it feels good to explore and profit from your own backyard!

Each activity and/or area is efficiently explained in one-pagers complete with URL, phone numbers and little tips and hints. The details given are just enough that you can make a seriously informed decision of which activity you want to partake in, where you want go, and how to get the detailed minutiae of your next great adventure. As you can see from the photo, my copy is still nice and shiny even though it's been at my hip for 3 solid years now. I am lovin it!

Seriously, make the leap, make a commitment to Doin' it Local and see how awesome it can be to discover your very own backyard week after week! All 4 seasons are represented, a sweet map, ideas for family outings and even places to hit with the company for those team-building activities that are proving to be crucial for success...

Poster Design for The Indie Rock Poster Book

Jenna Holcombe — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:50:00 -0400

We were super excited to be invited to contribute a poster to Yellow Bird Project's latest creative, charity-driven project headed up by the one and only Andy J. Miller. As a follow up to the Indie Rock Coloring Book, Andy and YBP have joined forces again to create The Indie Rock Poster Book which will include 30 different posters by 30 different artists, designers and illustrators. Each poster will be an interpretation of an indie rock song of the artist's choice...

Above is the design file for our final poster, inspired by Your Ex-Lover is Dead— by Stars. The song is one of my all time faves. It's the kind of song that stays with you, the one you tend to replay over and over and never get sick of. After lots of listening, thinking and sketching... we finally all agreed on the above concept and design. see original sketch tacked to my cube--->

Below is our brief interpretation of the song and design rationale. Go download the song, have a listen and let us know if you think our poster does the job. (And as soon as the book is available for purchase, we'll let you know!)

For four minutes and eighteen seconds during Your Ex-Lover is Dead, the listener is inside the heads and hearts of two ex-lovers as they sit in silence. The song shifts from awkwardness to ease, from reality to the imaginary, from regret to satisfaction, all with zero words exchanged. These juxtaposing thoughts and emotions fire randomly, simultaneously, infinitely... and the infinite brain/heart illustration represents this subtle, internal chaos. The washed-out blue is in line with the melancholy tone of the song, while the style of illustration reflects the glimmers of forgiveness and optimism that penetrate the confusion. One truth we can all bring away from this haunting, thoughtful song is that admit it or don’t; no relationship is ever truly over.

Got a light?

Boris — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:21:00 -0400

Last weekend during the Portes Ouvertes Design Montréal, Dynamo presented a private collection of matchbook artwork from the 1930s through 1950s, titled "Avez-vous du feu?", or, "Got a light?". Our faithful intern-turned-junior-project-manager-from-Paris : Guillaume Bourousse participated in curating the exhibition, and was an invaluable help in organizing, scanning and installing the exhibition. On display were large-format blowups of around 200 of the microdesigns, selected from the more than 1500 originals, each on display in their original format as well. If you'd like to brush up on your French, please read Guillaume's post about the expo here.

Protect the oceans & look good doing it

Alex — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:42:00 -0400

Yellow Bird Project's latest release is a slick new Summer t-shirt designed by Dynamo for the band Whispertown 2000. All profits from the shirt benefit "Start in Streets", a charity created by Sophie Tweed Simmons and Tatiana Rogers that serves to prevent the litter of the streets from reaching nature’s underwater playground.

The treatment of the red fish against the sunshine base demonstrates (through color) the “disappearing” act that is happening to this fish due to the overfishing and pollution that’s affecting its waters. We learned that the Halibut is in fact on the endangered list and all but guaranteed to disappear by the end of this century. Also, the small technical callouts are using scientific terminology specific to genetic deformity, so those help accentuate the double message, and why the third eye is present on Mr Fish.

Check it out here.

New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo & YBP
How's International Design Annual

Mat MacQuarrie — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:42:04 -0400

Congrats again guys! That YBP site sure is getting some attention.

Milan Salone 2010 - Interactions

Bob — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:44:00 -0400

There is a large mix of multimedia on display here - some of it displaying new product, some of it used as spaces for people to play in and discover, and some of it just as ambient kinetic art like some of the laser projections on buildings at night. Here's a short video tour of a few of the interactive pieces that I've seen so far. The first segment is a new Philips light product that reacts to objects placed near it by turning itself off, creating a kinetic pattern of light squares. Next, some small LED panels create an interesting text wall. Then an interactive piece with different graphics assigned to mobile forms that change when moved. And in the dutch design forum, a pretty unique interactive piece, where human bodies are used as conductors - the user must touch two different portions of exposed skin and when this connection is made, a sound is generated. Following is a Sony installation where the entire room is transformed into a sound-contained space, and sound triggers objects animated on screen. Different screens in the space treat sound as visuals in different ways, each expressing the sound through animation... More to come.

Milan Salone 2010 - 2

Bob — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:44:00 -0400

Day 2 of the Salone and we're off into the wild of Milan. As mentioned, there isn't much of the city that isn't participating in the event, and Interni magazine and many others have maps of all the offsite events tagged on them - some so dense that street names arent even visible! Today we saw a lot of new products and got a look at the way a lot of companies present their collections - brochures, wall graphics, postcards, photography, installations...

Some highlights were the netherlands designers group that illustrated typical scenes from Holland on the walls with tape - a medium I havent really seen used for illustration before.

I'm also currently trying to figure out how to get the inflatable jacuzzi from Blofield into my suitcase (it actually would fit).

A typographic highlight was the work of Character, who are taking down old backlit store frontage signs and turning the individual characters into unique typographic lamps. I saw these on Designboom not long ago, but hadn't seen them up close. They're really great, and the identity & packaging is fun too.

The big highlight of today for me was going to the Zucchi permanent museum of textile printing, where thousands of textile printing blocks (the largest collection in the world) were on display. The graphic patterns and intricate designs (from 1700's through the 1930s) were just mind blowing. We got to print some samples from original woodblocks as part of a Salone vernissage using the tools and techniques from the early 18th century. Like my previous post, the entire day's images can be found on my Facebook photo gallery. Feel free to have a look, grab what you want and please let me know if you liked something by thumbing it or making a comment.

Milan Salone 2010 - 1

Bob — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:00:00 -0400

As promised, I'll be posting from here in Milan at the Design Fair. If you haven't been to the Salone Del Mobile, it is a design experience that is like no other, and inspiration seeps from every corner and alleyway in the city. While the "Salone" actually takes place at the convention center just a short metro ride away from the city center, there is a massive amount of design activity throughout the entire city. Just about every local gallery and empty apartment space in the entire city radius is rented, with product launches, exhibitions, live creations, grafitti art and design ephemera assaulting your senses constantly. It's heaven ;)

In contrast to other more commercial design shows, there is also a lot of design "happening" here that is unattached to commerce - design just for design's sake. This type of spontaneous and rampant creativity is a breath of fresh air, and it's great to see so much energy dedicated to the promotion of design as an activity both commercially and philosophically instead of a typical tradeshow style event. There's plenty of that at the Salone center, but the rest of the city is just breathing design.

So with the promise of feeding inspiring imagery comes the challenge of sorting the imagery and communicating the best of the best from a distance. Instead of writing lengthy posts here on our blog, I will post photo galleries to my Facebook page, and make them viewable for everyone (even those that I am not yet friended to). I hope this will allow people to take what they want from them, instead of me filtering it too heavily. I encourage anyone to comment on an image if they would like more info, or thumb it just to say they liked it.

What is great about the design fair is that it is a mix of all things design - furniture, architecture, object, graphic, streetart, interactive - much like the Montreal Portes Ouvertes event coming up on May 1 & May 2 (Dynamo is participating BTW - come and see what WE'VE got going on Saturday May 1) So you'll get a lot of everything here, and hopefully it will inspire from a distance. Take a look and let me know what you like!

#design #inspiration #salonedelmobile #milan2010 #designmontreal

Dynamo design open house!

Bob — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:01:00 -0400

Dynamo is participating in Design Montréal's Open House 2010. Montréal designers, architects and fashion creators will be opening their doors to the public on May 1 & 2, from noon to 5pm.

Dynamo will be exposing our digital work on several workstations for visitors to browse and explore, and branding and other print and packaging projects will also be exposed.

In our gallery space downstairs, we'll be presenting a temporary exhibition of matchbook artwork collected in New York city during the 1930s through 1950s, entitled "Got a light?". Design, Advertisment, Art, Illustration and Commerce played a central role in these micro-posters that once were the communications vehicle of choice.

Also, visitors are invited to pull up a Fatboy beanbag and view the HD feature-length documentary design film "Helvetica", from director Gary Hustwit, in our main conference room. The film will be playing on a loop all throughout the event, with approximate start times at 12:30, 2 and 3:30.

And for young creatives, we'll have a button-making workstation going where kids (of all ages) can create custom buttons from scratch and leave with their creations.

Create your studio visit parcourse online now - we are #17.

www.portesouvertesdesignmontreal.com/

Dynamo will be a free WiFi hotspot throughout the entire event. We hope to see you here!

Dynamo & YBP
How's International Design Annual

Bob — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:33:00 -0400

Although we were notified a few months ago, today we received our lavish certificate of merit and a copy of the international design annual we're in. Stay tuned for more YBP updates, as we're designing for a new book project with Andy Miller, and the T-Shirt we designed for Sophie Tweed Simmons' L.A. band Whispertown 2000 is hot off the silkscreen presses and will be available at the ybp store soon!

New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo Interviewed on CJAD

Bob — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:49:40 -0400

@ Tony - Thanks for the edited mp3 version! You rock! http://bit.ly/9QiiSM

Dynamo Interviewed on CJAD

Bob — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:31:00 -0400

Take an in-depth listen to our past, present and future as Bryan and Alex represent for Dynamo in this hour-long in-depth interview with our faithful founders on CJAD/FullerLandau's entrepreneurial business show "What keeps you up at night?". The full interview can be listened to here in m4a format (100MB) : http://bit.ly/8Z7odq or here in MP3 format (40MB) : http://bit.ly/9QiiSM

cheers, dynamo!

Thanks to Tony @ Reitmans for the edited MP3!

New comment on: Inspiration - The Design Behind the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Medals.

Mat MacQuarrie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:56:35 -0400

I thought these medals were so gorgeous. I had no idea that they were all a small piece of a main design. Such a great idea.

Hugh & Crye's new spree-powered online store

Bryan Mahoney — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:51:00 -0500

This is becoming a familiar formula for us. Two great guys with a great product looking for an ecommerce solution with soul. Welcome to HughandCrye.com. A cleverly designed online store for men's shirts with truly innovative approach to fit. Like Yellowbird and our own store, HughandCrye.com is powered by Spree, our choice for open-source ecommerce.

We love Spree because it has everything that good "enterprisey" ecommerce application should have, but none of the inevitable bloat that's commonly associated with other platforms. We get the features that we care the most about - features like:

Search engine friendly pages
Powerful analytics
Extensible design that's both designer and programmer friendly
Extremely intuitive product, inventory and order management
A fully RESTful design and API

That's just to name a few. Even more importantly, Spree is being actively developed by a wonderful core team and has the support of a growing group of Rails developers - working together to keep up to date with the latest developments in the Rails community.

Since the launch of the site, shirt sales have been brisk! The site is currently open to members only, but here's a hint, mention Dynamo during the signup process and they might just let you in!

Alex's talk at Grafika 'Web Design' day

Alex — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:15:00 -0500

I presented the Yellow Bird Project case study ("Le (re)naissance d'une marque sur le web") at last week's Grafika Day on Web Design. In it, I shed some light on what it's like to create a web-focused brand from the ground up, and what challenges we faced during the conception and development of the YBP website. You can download the presentation here (French-only, a 10mb PDF), and visit www.yellowbirdproject.com to see, in effect, the end result of the presentation. There's some meat missing given the absence of audio/video, but it's still a good overview of the process.

State of the Internet

CPOM — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:02:00 -0500

As you read this, you should feel special. Currently you represent a whopping .0000000579% of all worldwide internet users. Wow... makes you feel kinda small eh?

I don't know about you, but whenever I see numbers like this about anything, I start to feel uneasy about the future. Just like the World Clock numbers at http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf make me want to jump up and shout "STOP!", these internet numbers make me want to jump up and shout CTRL-ALT-DELETE!

How much bigger can this all get? Is it ever-expanding like the universe with no end in sight? When will enough be enough? I suppose the answer is in the above video... she's gonna keep growing & growing & growing. I wonder if this thirst for knowledge will become a part of human evolution just like our need for bacon, rollerskates & the companionship of a dog. I guess only time will tell, but it does seem this way.

Is this a good thing? Should we continue to visit the information health club exercising our brains on a daily basis to the extent that we do? With 81% of all emails sent being spam, are we quick & smart enough to only eat up the important information? Or are we actually feeding our brains with informational McDonalds and eating less & less healthy info (the cabbage of the internet so to say)? For you to ponder, decide, discuss as you so choose.

Check out the following link for some highlights and comments on the above video...

http://www.fubiz.net/2010/02/26/aiga-baltimore-lecture/

Alex talks Yellow Bird Project at tomorrow's Grafika Conference

Bryan Mahoney — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:45:00 -0500

Inforpresse/Grafika have lined up a great list of presenters for tomorrow's conference on web design.

Alex will be discussing our creative process as well as the technical challenges we faced bringing this brand to life online.

There are still tickets available online here.

Thinking of going or already have your ticket? Leave a comment here and we'll be sure to look out for you in the crowd.

The Design Behind the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Medals.

Jenna Holcombe — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:39:00 -0500

I know the Olympics are old news but I thought it appropriate to pay tribute to the unsung hero of the 2010 Winter Olympics: the medals themselves. With all of the filler spots, commercials, interviews and replays, I didn't see one single spot that explained the meaning or making-of the actual medals themselves. I suppose I found this surprising because before the Winter Olympics even began, I happened upon this video via Motherboard that featured the design process behind the Olympic medals, and I was fascinated. Consequently, during the last two weeks as athletes from around the world received, held, kissed and bit their hard-won medals, my eyes were completely glued to the precious objects.

Made from recycled electronic waste, these eco-friendly Olympic medals are one of a kind, literally. Each medal bears a unique cropping of a larger work of art created by Corinne Hunt, a First Nations designer from the Raven Gwa’waina clan, of the Kwakwaka’wakw village on Vancouver Island. The original artwork depicts the native orca, and the result on each individual medal is an abstract design of organic lines and shapes, combined with the tactility of an undulating surface which references the landscape of British Columbia. I imagine it's an object that's hard to put down. They are also very un-wimpy, weighing in at about 580g. I would totally rocket myself down ice or snow at some disgusting mile an hour for a chance at one of those sweet medals.

New comment on: Below the fold - Bixi.com - not quite ready for prime time!

Steve — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:57:08 -0500

You're right about the Bixi Key + Bixou iPhone App (formerly iBixi) combination. It's the ultimate. I had similar problems dropping off my bike, for example if I came home past 3 am, after everyone in my neighbourhood had already filled up the stations nearest my house. But the app eliminates the guesswork. And you can tell the developpers are locals and are using Bixi, because each new version is an improvement on the last. Spring can't come soon enough!

New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo Shop is LIVE !

Bob — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:12:17 -0500

Thanks Mat! Cheers

New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo Shop is LIVE !

Mat MacQuarrie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:28:07 -0500

gorgeous layout guys. the colours drew me in from the blog right away. Peace guys & gals

Getting psyched for the Olympics!

CPOM — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:59:00 -0500

So I have been getting pretty pumped for the Olympics taking place in Vancouver in a little less than a month. The commercials on TV have been OK, maybe a little dry, but we do get a closer look at some of our national athletes, which is pretty cool. Other than the hockey players and some of the bigger names in skiing, curling, etc, I don't have a mental rolodex of these superstars so it's fun to put a face to the name.

All that being said.... this animation spot done for BBC's coverage of the Olympics puts CTV's to shame. Studio AKA has created a visual slap in the emotional pit of any sports fan.... seriously riling me up!

Have a look: designrelated.com/inspiration/view/editor/entry/3744/studio-aka-animation-for-bbc-winter-olympics-2010

New comment on: Portfolio - Unisson Structures Website

Jean — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:23:51 -0500

Simple, beautiful execution!

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Jenna Holcombe — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:10:45 -0500

Deigan is all like "Get outma bed, groan."

Unisson Structures Website

Bob — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Late last fall, we collaborated with strategic partner Jimmy Berthelet and STAND to create a phase 1 website for Unisson Structures, a company that designs, crafts and delivers world-class stage systems for the entertainment industry as well as architectural structures for high end building projects, for clients like the Cirque du Soleil, Loto Quebec and the Hôtel des Gouverneurs - just to name a few.

The structural aspects of the stage are rarely an element of focus during a show, but the creativity involved in bringing thematic show concepts to life through the stage design involves a lot of concepting, engineering, architecture, proprietary processes, out-of-the-box thinking and expertise that Unisson has built a great reputation on. That, and a lot of aluminum.

Our design is a bold and moody representation of the world Unisson lives and breathes - the backstage workings and behind the curtain life of the entertainment industry and sophistication of high end architectural design projects. The graphic identity and content created by STAND provided all the elements we needed to bring the online presence to life - a design-centric logotype, some great writing, solid photography, sculpted brand typography and a heavy dose of modular forms, rules and patterns to play with.Some earlier designs played on the lighter contrast of the minimalist corporate palette of black and white, but our final darker colorway brings a feel that couples well with the sophistication that the original graphic identity conveys. It doesn't hurt that it also helps that this added contrast drives your eye right to the site's imagery and text content naturally.The site features an overview video in a custom player on the homepage as well as a detailed project image gallery with several recent projects being showcased, as well as all the corporate backgrounders you'd expect. The upcoming phase 2 will incorporate a robust CMS with an entirely searchable product catalog (of the hundreds of custom-designed components they've created themselves) and detailed product spec sheets generated on the fly. Maybe even a stage building app. We're very excited about it.

What do you think of the site? Please let us know!

Bob

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Michael — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:40:04 -0500

mort de rire! see u soon in Dom. Rep...

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Alex — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:30:32 -0500

Pretty sure both features are making it in since both of these guys are relentless.

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Kate — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:23:07 -0500

Go Dewey!!

Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Bryan Mahoney — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:59:00 -0500

Video clips on product rollover or enabling user commenting? What feature to add next? We let the dogs decide.

Wanna guess who won?

Even more agile for 2010

Bryan Mahoney — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:32:00 -0500

One of our 2010 goals is to become more agile in our approach to design and development. We've been applying agile principles for roughly 2 years now (with great results), but their application has generally been limited to internal, Dynamo-specific projects like our new online store.

The Agile Manifesto reads as follows:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

These principles, when properly applied, have yielded powerful results for us. It's simply a more human way to work. What's allowed us to be agile with our internal projects? We launched with less. Our store project had a fixed timeline a fixed budget and, most importantly, a flexible scope. These types of projects lend themselves wonderfully to agile principles. The flexible scope and fuzzy project plan allowed us to respond quickly to change and to make intelligent choices during the design and development process. The final product launched on time and we had a feature set that just made sense (versus launching late with a bunch of obscure, useless features that might have been part of a conventional, elaborate project plan).

We've struggled to universally applying agile principles however, as we're commonly faced with fixed price, fixed scope projects. Our clients have generally been afraid to stray from the perceived "safety net" offered by fixing a budget and scope at the outset of the project (our friend Sean recently blogged about this - it's worth a read).

Fixed scope and fixed budget projects will always require a crystal clear set of features and requirements. This reality can result in weeks of negotiating, delaying the start of project. Worse than that though, they can also (in many cases) result in a final product that includes features that just don't make sense. Agile encourages working with a "fuzzy" set of requirements, making sensible choices and embracing change right up until launch. Change happens, we all know it. Instead of stopping the work to evaluate overages, scope creep, etc, why not just work with a process that more accurately reflects reality?

For your next project, big or small, ask us how agile can work for you. We know you'll love the results.

Facebook / Twitter vs. your site's News

Alex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:24:00 -0500

In a meeting this week to kick off a new web project, our clients asked us when and how they should be using Facebook and Twitter to complement the news feed on their site. Though they are presently using a Facebook and Twitter account to get some information "out there", they aren't sure how to take advantage of these spaces. Though we discussed some things briefly in the meeting, I thought I'd post a few more thoughts since I'm sure other marketers, clients and otherwise, are wondering the same thing.

Before even considering taking full advantage, the most important step is to put someone on it. You need to dedicate the resources to social networking, even the basic stuff, if you are to reap the benefits.

Your site is great for disseminating information. And a core set of tools are required to make this useful, to make this information portable. For instance, News is useless without RSS. Remember that Facebook and Twitter are dissemination tools, not just for your brand, but for your brand's champions. You need to provide portable elements on your website so people who find you online can spread the word about you in other places online.

But on Facebook and Twitter, you can't just release the same information as on your site - limiting your tweets to plugging your news item or blog post doesn't increase the value for your fans - they might be happy to stay passive followers but won't grow your reach online. These channels can each will serve you well if you're willing to put the time into them.

Facebook and Twitter are, by their very nature, forums for exchanging information. So the opportunity to build your brand's 'bigger picture' lies with these tools - you are in a space where your target audience is already actively exchanging. As part of constructing your brand's personality, you can take advantage of these forums by being part of that exchange. You should be mining information:

Who are your brand's biggest champions in on Facebook? (hint: they deserve some PR! from you!)
What are people Tweeting about you? What can you retweet?
Who can you follow? Build your credibility online by linking up to relevant, related posters (but don't just blanket the twittersphere, stay relevant to your audience.)
And, don't wait... what can you learn RIGHT NOW? Using Twitter as an instant polling mechanism is a great way to collect instant feedback.

Now, this is just a basic overview, but we're finding more and more often that brands need most help with the basics. This, of course, represents a great opportunity, because after designing a great experience on a brand's site, we can focus on making the most of the social tools available.

For a more complete picture of the possibilities, it never hurts to examine what other great brands are doing. Though there are many examples of brands using Twitter well, here are four of my favourites to get you started - they engage users with questions, link to related content, and complement their blog/news postings with additional material:

JetBlue offers Twitter-based customer service, responding publicly to tweets from other users:
http://twitter.com/jetblue

Starbucks, a leader in online communication, asks questions, creates discussions, and openly requests (and responds to!) Direct Messages through Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Starbucks

Whole Foods has a master Twitter account for it's global HQ, and several others for each city and major store - great targeted approach:
http://twitter.com/wholefoods

Method tweets about all kinds of eco-friendly endeavours that complement the brand's mission:
http://twitter.com/methodtweet

Thanks for reading - and, of course, don't hesitate to follow Dynamo for more insight into our work and culture at www.twitter.com/dynamomtl :)

Alex

A moment to reflect on 2009

Alex — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:26:00 -0500

The new year at Dynamo has already gotten off to a great start. We’ve got some great projects in the pipeline (you’ll be finding out about those soon), we’re making strides on our work-in-progress, and we’re busy planning our annual team retreat in February. With this planning comes a chance to reflect on what we have accomplished in 2009 as well as what opportunities lie ahead. Since we had a number of significant milestones in 2009, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite with you.

We launched the Dynamo blog. We had been searching for a better way to let visitors to our site “inside” the studio - and for our team to be able to have a proper voice online. Launching the blog has allowed us to capture and post information as it happens, in a less formal manner then a typical site. Creating our own blog also allowed us to fully develop our custom blogging engine, which has allowed us to enrich our interactive offering and toolset.

We got into e-commerce in a big way. Though we had executed online donation forms and integrated third-party solutions before, 2009 marked the year that Dynamo launched our first fully integrated, feature-rich e-commerce solution. The best part about it was that we were able to hold true to our design-centric mentality and not sacrifice creative for functionality. The first example of this, Yellow Bird Project, has already led to major online recognition and a number of other e-commerce projects now on the go (and coming down the pipe).

We embraced open-source development. Most of our web work this year was built in Ruby on Rails, and our e-commerce work on the ‘Spree’ framework. We’ve been able to reap the benefits of open source related to cost and community, and we’ve given back with a number of extensions and plugins that have helped other developers around the world.

We hired some amazing people. We created a real emphasis on customer service and industry knowledge with the creation of our first senior Account Director position, and we found just the right person to fill it: Fréderique Lefebvre. Fred brings with her years of experience in online marketing and relationship management, and we couldn’t be happier about Dynamo’s progress in this regard. We also created a new Senior Designer position, and after interviewing a full slate of great people, we were overjoyed to welcome the incredibly talented Jenna Holcombe (direct from Philly!) to our team. We also had our most successful stage experience yet, deciding to pluck Guillaume Bourousse (‘Boris’ to most of you) from the bowels of Project Management interndom and make him a full-fledged Dynamonian. All of the new team members have made major contributions to Dynamo’s success (and the success of our clients) all year long.

LOOKING AHEAD...

In terms of work, we’re already knee-deep in a number of great projects ranging from interactive strategy for a large non-profit to some exciting e-commerce work across the border. As part of our commitment to innovation, we’ll be releasing a number of iPhone apps over the year (some for clients, some as part of in-house development), and we’ll continue complement our web initiatives with full-spectrum, online and offline communications tools - from interactive strategy, social media campaigns, brand identity, packaging, printed collateral and advertising.

In 2010, we’ll be marking Dynamo’s official ten-year anniversary. We’re still in discussions about what kind of event will be most appropriate (and most fun), so stay tuned to the blog to find out more.

With a wonderful year in the rear-view mirror, we couldn’t be more energized about what lies ahead. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Dynamo Shop is LIVE !

Bob — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:49:00 -0500

After a short and intense push just before the holidays, we flipped the switch to our online shop beta and are now happily processing orders for a variety of Dynamo-designed products. The shop has launched with 5 products to date, including our new self-published book on social media status messaging, Status, Vol. I hot off the press.

For the shop's guts, we employed the powerful and full-featured open-source Spree e-commerce engine, after having successfully deployed it on the Yellowbird Project website we did this past fall. We really love this e-commerce platform and are already incorporating it into a few e-comm sites that we'll launch in the spring and summer.

The clean and fresh design really makes information easy to access and keeps the products front and center and the page hierarchy in check. Each product page has an image gallery showing off several action shots of each product for close-up investigation. And while the shop already features account creation, links to our blog (including a live blog feed right on the shop's homepage), Twitter feed and Facebook pages, email order and shipment notification, shipment calculation, order tracking, industry-standard credit card processing, and a host of great backend mgmt and reporting tools, we have several enhancements already underway to make it even better.

Since the launch, we've processed several hundred orders to a variety of countries including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, France and Russia!

We'd love to know what you think of it so please have a look. In the comments below, let us know – what features would you like to see on our shop?

New comment on: The Making Of - Launching tomorrow - our very own online store!

CPOM — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:19:30 -0500

featured at NOTCOT! - http://www.notcot.org/

Where Will Dynamo Be This Holiday Season?

Jenna Holcombe — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:04:00 -0500

The holiday Dyna-tree is standing tall, we've got Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" on repeat, and baby it's freaking cold outside. That's right, the holidays are upon us and we're as busy as ever, furiously crossing off our studio to-do's along with our holiday gift-lists in anticipation of the feasts, fests, and funs to come. The above graph demonstrates just exactly where we at Dynamo will be having our happy holidays once the studio stops a-buzzing.

And if you don't mind us asking, where are the holidays taking you this season?

Launching tomorrow - our very own online store!

Bryan Mahoney — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:49:00 -0500

Here's a quick first look. Stayed tuned, tomorrow is launch day!

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

Mat MacQuarrie — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:16:26 -0500

well, i enjoyed a whole new mind. i'll give this one a try too :)

Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

Bryan Mahoney — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:12:00 -0500

At last year's RailsConf, one of the keynote speakers was Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4-hour Workweek. While I really didn't enjoy Tim as a keynote speaker, I was intrigued enough to pick up his book and I'm happy I did. While I'm not enjoying 4-hour work weeks just yet (nor do I aspire to), there were a lot of useful lessons in the book that I've been able to put into practical use.

Let me start off by saying I'm not looking to fully automate or outsource my career in the hopes of working 4 hours a week - I really like what I do and the people that I work with. That being said, I did appreciate many of the lessons with respect to efficiency that the author preaches.

I now find myself trying to automate or outsource more of my routine tasks, things I plainly don't like to do and that I'm not uniquely talented at, and that affords me me more time to concentrate on the things that I like doing and that I'm particularly good at. It sounds simple, but it's a hard lesson to actually learn. Perhaps the most relevant lesson I took from the book though revolves around e-mail and the frequency in which I'm now checking it.

Tim Ferriss checks his email once a week and for only one hour - what an absolute dream come true! When I read that, I occurred to me how much time I spent each day checking, or waiting for the next "critical" email to come in. My average daily email volume ranges between 100 and 150 non-junk emails. Of those 100 or so emails, less than 10% really need my attention. The rest tend to be emails that I'm simply copied on or made aware of. My problem is that I cannot stand inbox clutter - so I'd regularly check my email (3-4 times per hour) to weed out the emails that really didn't concern me. Sure, I was keeping my inbox clutter free, but I was constantly interrupting my actual work! This was making it impossible for me to actually focus on the what I like to do (checking email isn't what I actually like doing)! I use to get my best work done early in the morning and late and night, when I wasn't being distracted by email. What I finally realized was that it wasn't the email distracting me, but rather it was me allowing myself to be distracted by email.

Thankfully, I have a new approach to managing my email life. I now check email two times(ok, ok, sometimes I cheat and check more often!) during my work day - and I give myself 30 minutes each time to do so. I keep my email program closed now so that I don't hear the new email notification noise that had me previously trained to immediately stop what I was doing to clear out the clutter. I might not be able to send the immediate, instant reply that people have come to expect from me, but I haven't noticed any push back on this. I'm now getting more and more quality, focused work done during the typical work day - and to me that's far more valuable than an instant email reply.

So, should you buy this book? Maybe. Should you be checking your email less frequently? Definitely! Try it out, I'm convinced you'll find yourself getting more done in less time - leaving more time for the mini-retirements Timothy Ferriss so often talks about!

12k hits 100k (update: with support from the Habs!)

Bryan Mahoney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:24:00 -0500

UPDATE: Pierre Boivin, president of the Montreal Canadiens, lends his support to Ryan's 12000km.org campaign. The video below, put together by Ryan's friends Jack Lee and Meghan Leaver, features a slideshow of images from Ryan's trip as well as a note from Mr. Boivin at the end. Congrats Ryan!

Ryan has now pedalled over 9000 kilometres - and we've just reached the $100,000 mark in donations.

He's got 3000 more to go though and we still need your support. Check out his blog, become a fan on Facebook and help us get the word out as he moves into the final stages of his journey.

Every little bit helps!

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Brian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:33:01 -0500

Great post! Two things: It was noted in Esquire Magazine last month that a man carrying a Moleskin was considered to a be "tool." I think the person that wrote that probably has one, if not many. They're great books. And..If you're a geeky engineer with a cool side, you carry an Ampad Computation Book, which still has hand stamped page numbers and cigarette stain yellow grid paper. The paper is also extra heavy so when the wind blows while you're frantically jotting notes on concrete consistency, the page sits and stays. Most of the time.

New comment on: Below the fold - Copywriting done right

Casey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:45:21 -0500

Nice! This to me is copywriting done right: http://bitsontheside.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/murderburger.jpg

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

Mat MacQuarrie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:10:25 -0400

I went scurrying for my favourite quote and found it this morning on my way to the office. "Spiritual (or immaterial) inequity is now as great a problem as material inequity, perhaps greater. people have enough to live, but nothing to live for; they have the means, but no meaning."

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

Mat MacQuarrie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:47:53 -0400

I read this posting last month and decided to pick it up. Great suggestion! it has really gotten me excited to be a designer on the brink of the conceptual age. thanks alex.

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Danica — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:55:04 -0400

I never joined the Moleskin tribe so that makes me extra cool. (I think... maybe.)

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Jenna Holcombe — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:08:00 -0400

The Onion totally read my post. http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/privileged_little_artiste?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Jill — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:27:41 -0400

I love the sliced bread notebooks. Alas, I am not creative except for halloween costumes.

Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Jenna Holcombe — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:43:49 -0400

I am a designer. And not the geeky kind, the really cool kind. Like most effortlessly cool creatives, I carry a Moleskine notebook as a rule. My thoughts and doodles are that important. If you're a designer, writer, or artist of any kind then you most likely have a few Moleskine's lying around as well. You're part of the Moleskine community and as in any community, when you spot a fellow Moleskine owner, it's like you share a secret handshake. You can safely assume they've got good taste, just like you.

But to all of my fellow Moleskiners, I ask this simple question: Has the Moleskine notebook suddenly become mainstream? Are we toting a hard-covered, pocket-sized cliché?

Let's briefly entertain this possibility...

Moleskine used to equal: black, palm-sized, blank bible for the creative. Now? Moleskine offers countless possible combos where one can choose from a variety of sizes and designs to suit a multitude of possible functions. From city guides complete with maps and stickers, to portfolios with nothing but a bunch of pockets? And for the record, what the hell is a Van Gogh Inspired Silk Shantung Museum Moleskine Sketchbook? Exactly. There are Moleskine Exhibits around the world, Limited Edition Moleskines, and Moleskine collaborations with the world's leading companies, cultural institutions, universities, and social and entrepreneurial initiatives. Feel dirty yet?

Let's reminisce about the day you got your first Moleskine and you read the Moleskine "legend" that's discreetly tucked inside which goes a little something like this:

"Moleskine is the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin."

Um, lies. The Moleskine was created in 1998 by a Milan-based company called Modo & Modo, well after all these talented dudes had kicked the bucket. There are accounts that Chatwin did, infact, use a similar book in his travels, but Modo et Modo's clever marketing of the book as the notebook of creative gods is just that; marketing.

Customizing your Moleskine used to mean adding an old sticker or strategic paint smear to differentiate yours from everyone else's in Art 202. Those days are gone. Now Moleskine offers ways for you to customize your Moleskine digitially and download your Moleskine pdf in seconds. Fantastic.

So now there's a Moleskine for everyone and anyone. The problem is, you're not just anyone, dammit. You knew about Moleskines before they were cool, like Ffffound.com and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

So is the secret rite of owning a Moleskine a thing of the past? Are Moleskines doomed to an obnoxiously universal existance like the iPhone or Twitter? Is the Moleskine's reign of cult coolness coming to and end? I'll leave that up to you to decide. But after all this talk about Moleskines, here's a list of 5 Moleskine alternatives to help wash it all down...

1.Myndology notebooks and notecards. Created in 2005, recently redesigned by Duffy & Partners. Nice green initiative and inspiring emphasis on using only locally produced materials (in Brussels, Wisconsin).

2. Archie Grand Notebooks. Quite specific.

3. Field Notes. Brought to you by Coudal Partners + Draplin Design Company. Inspired by vintage farmers’ planting books.

4. Sliced Bread Notebook. A dozen delicious notebooks, one for each month.

5. Zync Notebooks. (click "store") Inverted Moleskine. Comes in 7 different colors.

Frédérique Lefebvre — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:53:00 -0400

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Frédérique Lefebvre — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:08:50 -0400

You know, even Account Directors use that type of book to make sure not to forget anything that needs to be done or followed up on. And sometimes they try drawing too and be creative in their own way... But I have to say being an artist is a gift that we didn't all receive. Do you know that song: Les Blues du business men - Claude Dubois ? The main lyric says "J'aurais voulu être un artiste!". This how I feel when I read a fantastic post from you my dear creative colleague!

Your chance to take action... on Blog Action Day!

Alex — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Today is Blog Action Day, a change.org initiative designed to "unite the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance".

This year's issue is Climate Change.

With everything already written about the subject, and with all of the posts being added today, it's certainly easy to find information and insight about climate change - but deciding what to do with that information isn't as simple. We can bike around the city, refill our water bottles, replace our light bulbs - and yet still be left wondering what tangible impact our everyday actions have, and who we can throw our support behind to really increase our personal power in the fight for awareness and big-picture impact.

And so, in this spirit, we friendly folks here at Dynamo would like to direct your attention to an endeavour very close to our hearts (and, yes, a project of ours): 12000km.org.

Many of you may know by now that Ryan Stotland is on a mission to ride 12000 kilometres through South America on his bike, raising money for Climate Change awareness (through the David Suzuki Foundation) and Skin Cancer research (through the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital). But with only 8 weeks left in Ryan's ride - in which he's recovered from a tough accident, climbed incredibly difficult terrain, battled the freezing cold, and replaced multiple bike parts - we're making a big push to spread the word and ultimately raise more money. Ryan has raised almost at $80,000 so far - a respectable sum to be sure, but far from where we want to be by the end of the journey.

So this is a chance to throw your support behind Ryan and the David Suzuki Foundation - knowing that your donation (regardless of whether it is ten dollars or ten thousand dollars) is going directly towards Climate Change awareness programs and Skin Cancer research on a national level.

You can learn all about where the money will go here, and you can follow Ryan's blog throughout his journey here (there are already some great posts there - particularly this one about Einstein on a Bike).

Oh, and you can check out many more great Blog Action Day posts here - we'll be making the rounds and tagging our favourite ones, too.

Thanks for reading on Blog Action Day. Now - go take action!

A new Point of View - Narrow Escape & Lesson Learned

CPOM — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:47:00 -0400

After we're done workin our work here at Dynamo, we all have our personal tastes when it comes to filling the void that is left within us whilst we wait for another work day to start. Some of us enjoy a wine-tasting extravaganza, some prefer the quiet sounds of Michael Bolton and a bubble bath, while others enjoy learning how to weave baskets underwater.

I enjoy a myriad of things (i.e. all of the above), but at the top of my list is skiing. My favourite spot is Jay Peak in north east Vermont. The mountain is relatively untouched by mass developers and you simply cannot beat the amount of snow they get!

Well, I also enjoy travelling to ski as well and have been in a few spots where avalanche gear has been recommended. Not that I'm an ego-head, but I have yet to find the absolute need for gear - I ski well within my limits. However, after seeing this video... well, that has all changed. I will be wearing avalanche gear in the metro, at home and while camping in July even.

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Lucía — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:53:17 -0400

In David´s arms... wherever he is

Copywriting done right

Bryan Mahoney — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:01:00 -0400

I really enjoyed this post by the guys at 37Signals. An excellent example of some creative copywriting.

It's certainly worth checking out!

A better approach to pitching

Bryan Mahoney — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:54:00 -0400

Ballparking and pitches have been an unnecessary evil in our industry for to long and we're working hard to change that with our clients and potential clients.

Ballparking can be just plain nuts. We get plenty of calls and emails looking for a "ballpark" price with one sentence project descriptions. "Hi, how much would it cost to design and build my e-commerce site". Really, what can you honestly do with that? There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution, at least not with us. Let's work together to define your needs and goals for the project (hmmm, sounds like a great test project - more on this below), as well as establish a preliminary strategy or potential feature set. Once the project has some real definition, evaluating (or ballparking) it is a much more exact science.

Pitches can be even more treacherous. A "good" pitch usually represents an incredible investment in time and creative energy on the agency's part (to say nothing of the time investment on the client side to properly assemble a creative brief, sit through presentations, etc.), but rarely result in the best creative product. This is especially true for new relationships when we immerse ourselves in the client, their product and/or service in an effort to learn all that we can. This is typically done in an incredibly short period of time and in a virtual vacuum. With so little client interaction and creative collaboration before the actual pitch is delivered, there's really no way to ensure that the research and concepts are on target.

That's why we have stopped formally pitching. There's a better way to work together. A one or two hour meeting and brainstorming session is what we now rely on. It's an efficient way to see if there's a spark or the right chemistry for a creative and strategic partnership. If the fit is there, we move quickly to get a test (or smaller) project going to put the new relationship to the test! We've found that with both parties invested in the relationship from the get-go, the end result speaks for itself.

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Evita — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:47:36 -0400

thank you for showcasing the beauty all around us!Success with this showing!

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Sandy Comstock — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:41:40 -0400

Love this art! I am a jewelry artist for many years, using words and meaningful phrases, and am now in Boquete, Panama taking a long trip and learning different cultures. I would love to visit Zwart in Costa Rica and have coffee too! My two most favorites things, art and coffee! Love your blog, just discovered it. ~Sandy Comstock www.TobyandMax.com www.TobyandMaxJewelry.blogspot.com www.SandyBeginsHerAdventures.blogspot.com (my travel blog while in Central America)

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Margaret Jolink — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:58:52 -0400

Amazing Margriet. You are so talented. Would love to see the show up close. Gree and Pel

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Joke Postma — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:48:36 -0400

Dear Margriet, Very nice to see your work ! It even makes me proud ! Love your friend Joke from Holland.

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Ollie & Alien — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:28:53 -0400

Dear Margriet, I'm very proud to see your work. Absolutly zwArt!

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Keith Holcombe — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:11:43 -0400

Very cool, primativley eclectic and fun. I imagine Ms Zwart is a lot of fun to hang out with... Surf's Up !!! Dad.

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Jill — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:34:17 -0400

So amazing. I love the drawn details on the window to showcase her art!

Berthelet Website HD Video Shoot

Bob — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:28:00 -0400

Last month Dynamo directed an HD video shoot for the upcoming Berthelet website that we're hard at work producing as I write this. Integrating large, full motion video into web experiences is becoming standard practice these days, and I really love the immersive communications opportunity it offers. Youtube has paved some serious ground for rekindling this medium as a default for engaging users online, and we're firm believers in it's potential. Our decision to put video front and center on the Berthelet site was in fact born directly in a communications strategy targeting reconnection with end users, and this medium allows us to engage in our audience captively.

As part of the creative approach, we shot with 2 cameras, and left the scripting to a minimum core set of topics so we were able to capture some compelling (sometimes really funny) interview footage with key members of the company's founding family and senior management team. The content outline was purposely left minimal in order to add a more humanistic and natural (or real) delivery, so as to avoid stuffy corporate blah blah typical of reading off cue cards – and to ease the stress levels of individuals not normally in front of multiple lenses, set lighting and a crew.

Two weeks later, several days of editing in Final Cut Pro and After Effects, the videos are coming to life on our development servers with our in-house custom Flash Video player FLVme, and we're getting excited for the full launch. When the first phase of the site launches just a few short weeks from now, we'll let you know so you can come check it out (the entire site will be great, with a boatload of custom functionality). Look for the blooper reels in both english and french that we left in to generate some viral buzz among Berthelet's clientele.

Big thanks to Jimmy @ Stand for his strategic collaboration and for driving the shoot content, Marc Montplaisir (DOP) and to the entire crew for keeping us on track all day long, and to DNA restaurant (Derek & Alex) for the use of their beautiful kitchen.

Stay tuned! :)

Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

Jenna Holcombe — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:45:00 -0400

Usually, the only thing we have on display in our giant, street level studio windows are the Dynamo designers lucky(?) enough to have snagged a window seat. But starting this summer that's all changed, as you may have noticed by our previous Dynawindows project. This month we're featuring ten pieces from Costa Rica based artist Margriet Zwart, originally hailing from Ontario.

I discovered Zwart two summers ago in the tiny surf town of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and I immediately fell in love with her gritty, playful, and eco-friendly style. When I went back this summer I asked her on a whim to be the first featured artist in our Dynamo Artist Series. She agreed, we stuffed two duffel bags full of her beachwood masterpieces, and now the Dynamo studio windows have come alive with her wild rendition of jungle, surf, and colorful creatures...

Zwart paints the way she speaks. Fast, jumbled, chaotic at times and planted with gems of wisdom and humor that draw you in the more you listen, the more you look. Her hip coffee shop Baraka Cafe; plonked in the middle of a Costa Rican surfing paradise called Santa Teresa has been turned into a gritty yet whimsical gallery. The rawness and the beauty of life in the beach/jungle town ooze from her paintings.Random chunks of driftwood and found objects beaten by the waves, are the building blocks of her art. Zwart captures both the simplicity and chaos of living in paradise using paint, surfboard epoxy and resin in her paintings. Her art reflects the world in which she lives but with her own unique take. This series of work is a medley of favorite themes. The body, the bird, poems, words, and dreams. All seemingly random yet they tell a story…

If you're in the Montréal area, come by the Dynamo studio and check out Zwart's work in person. All pieces are for sale by the artist. If you’re interested in purchasing a piece of art you see here, please contact the artist directly at margozwart@gmail.com

To inquire about becoming our next featured artist email us: hello@godynamo.com

Webdesigner Depot recognizes Yellowbird

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:26:00 -0400

In a recent post on their blog, Webdesignerdepot.com has listed Yellow Bird among a group of 25 sites they feel exemplify traditional design rules coming together with "Web 2.0" standards.

Here's what they said:

At first glance this site might appear a bit disheveled or scattered, but the more I look at it, and the more I browse through its pages, the more I’ve noticed the strength of its organization. Better yet, the Indie-inspired design really starts to appeal the longer the stay, and the scattered look of the site actually fits the theme.

If you check out the Photo Gallery, you’ll see a slew of amateur photos that once again add to the Indie look, while showcasing the product.

This sort of underground approach, which was made popular by sites like threadless.com, immediately attaches the viewer to the product.

They want to be a part of the crowd and don’t feel as though someone is just trying to sell them something. If that isn’t a Web 2.0 philosophy, I’m not sure what is.

Traditional Aspects:

Crafty logo really establishes the feel, which is carried out throughout the entire site.
Though it feels scattered or loose at first, one realizes that this “put together” look is exactly what the designers were going for. They pull off the look while still making the site easy to navigate.
Consistent, non-traditional approach.

Web 2.0 Enhancements:

It’s more about the philosophy with this one. While the social aspect of Web 2.0 is in full effect, this site is also made strong because of its viral marketing approach and great underlying philanthropy.
Builds a community!
Great photos and easy navigation don’t hurt either.

We really didn't set out to design or build a "Web 2.0" site with Yellow Bird, but we're honored by the mention. There are some really great sites on the list. Check out the full post here.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Jay — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:36:05 -0400

I would like to wake up in a country I've never been where they speak a language I can't speak, with no map and only a swiss army knife to find my way home.

Out with old, in with the new

Bryan Mahoney — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:12:00 -0400

I was doing a bit of hard drive clean up this morning and I came across this video we quickly put together for a company retreat last year. It was a collection of images and video clips from our move into our new space last summer. For anyone that missed our old office or haven't had a chance to see our new one, this will give you a fun little preview.

This video also gave me the chance to test out our automatic video encoder with the latest H264 codec. I also moved the videos from Amazon's simple S3 storage to their new CloudFront content delivery service. That should speed up the delivery of some of these larger videos and, if it we see a big difference, we'll roll this change into some of our client projects.

New comment on: The Making Of - E-Commerce done right - The Yellowbird Project has launched!

Chris Advansun — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:35:34 -0400

Bravo, people of Dynamo and the folks at Project Yellow Bird. This is highly innovative project and a gorgeous site.

New comment on: The Making Of - E-Commerce done right - The Yellowbird Project has launched!

tstein — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:38:35 -0400

well done you make the charity work stand out even more... great stuff

New comment on: Portfolio - Fun With Stop-Animation + A Website Refresh for Jewish General Hospital

Casey — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:49:07 -0400

Love it!

Video converions with H264: before and after

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:39:00 -0400

It's rare these days that a day goes by where we don't find ourselves working video into one of our online projects. Flash video (FLV) is our format of choice for embedded (it is really the ubiquitous choice thanks to the good folks at YouTube) and we built our own online conversion engine (affectionately named "FLVme.com") about 2 years ago. We recently upgraded FLVme to use the H264 codec to encode videos and the results have been amazing....

We use FLVme.com to automatically convert any type of video (Quicktime, Windows Media, etc..) into Flash Video. It essentially works like YouTube, but we have full control over the content and the conversion recipe we use (a luxury you don't get with YouTube or the like). It comes in really handy in any of our applications that require video conversion (blogs, extranets, etc..). We can brand the video player as well, something our clients really appreciate.

Until now, FLVme has been encoding videos using H263 and we had been reasonably pleased with the results. A new project that we're working on for Cineflix has allowed us to tweak the FLVme engine and the results have been really encouraging. We are developing an online screening room for Cineflix that will allow their existing and potential clients to login and few full length episodes. Cineflix produces some really amazing shows and we wanted to showcase that in the screening room using the highest possible quality videos - but not at the expense of download time. Enter H264.

Here is a quick before and after. The first image shows a video compressed with the old FLVme recipe using H263 (with mono audio), while the second is our new and improved recipe that uses the H264 codec (with stereo sound).

We were blown away with the results. There was a dramatic difference in image and sound quality (easily 2-3 times better) with virtually no penalty in terms of file size (~90MB with H263 and ~100MB with H264).

Drawbacks? There are two.

1. It now takes FLVme about 2.5 times longer to encode videos.
2. H264 encoded FLVs are only supported with Flash Player 9 and higher (installed on 98.8% of browsers though, according to Adobe)

We'll gladly accept those trade-offs for the major boost in image and sound quality!

Fun With Stop-Animation + A Website Refresh for Jewish General Hospital

Jenna Holcombe — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:07:00 -0400

When the Jewish General Hospital asked us to make their online donations experience more user-friendly we decided to go the extra mile and refresh the look of the entire website as well, starting with our first foray into the world of stop-animation. Bob and I, armed with some scissors, construction paper, and alot of patience, got to feel like kids again for the day as we shaped and maneuvered our cut-paper design into a dancing, quirky call to action... Chop, chop, chop.Hard at play...We got really good at forming the JGH logo without our cheat sheet...

Visit the new and improved JGH Foundation site, and donate while you're at it!

New comment on: Below the fold - Bixi.com - not quite ready for prime time!

Greg Comstock — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:01:19 -0400

Hi Dynamo! I'm a graphic designer that's visiting Montreal from the States and couldn't help but notice your great window display while touring Old Montreal. We tried using the Bixi service and came into the same dilemma. At the beginning of the day we were singing praises of the concept, but when we tried to dock our last bikes for the evening we have to visit 4 or 5 stations to find a home for both our bikes. At least I can say I enjoyed a good jog in Montreal as well! Cheers, Greg

E-Commerce done right - The Yellowbird Project has launched!

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:08:00 -0400

As described in a previous post, the new YBP site was built on top of the Spree framework. Spree is, in our opinion, the very best e-commerce option for any serious Ruby on Rails developer.

We had established some lofty goals at the outset of the project. We wanted an enterprise caliber e-commerce site that felt anything but "enterprisey". We wanted something that just plain worked, was completely scalable and, most importantly, looked absolutely fantastic to customers and potential customers. To that end, we spent as much time designing the interface and user experiences we did writing all the code that actually powers the site - and we wrote a lot of code...

We love that Spree is open-source, and we're committed to continuing that tradition with our work on Yellowbird. In the coming weeks, we'll be releasing most of the custom pieces of functionality (or "extensions" in Spree talk) back to the Spree community - giving back to those that gave so much to us. We're excited to see what the community does with them.

We're really proud of our work here. Please check out the new site and let us know what you think (or better yet, get yourself one of the killer shirts!).

12000km.org: one inspiring ride for two worthy causes

Frédérique Lefebvre — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:31:00 -0400

The Dynamo team has worked hard to put together a unique website that speaks to people of all generations in an effort to inspire them to support this amazing initiative by donating online. On the site, you can find all the details about his trip, learn more about the causes, Ryan and his motivation, watch an inspiring message from David Suzuki himself, and, most importantly, donate online in a secure environment. The site also contains a blog where Ryan will post messages to keep us all aware of his latest adventures during his journey. Real time updates will also be available via Twitter and Facebook.

We are really thankful to the Jewish General Hospital and the David Suzuki foundations for having put their trust in our team to work on such a meaningful project. We hope that you will also take part of this great initiative by giving any amount that you are comfortable with. These are causes that really concerns us all. And Ryan, we are inspired by your continued commitment to raise money for such worthy causes. We know that you are up to the challenge and hope that you will have the time of your life (and the wind at your back)!

The Dynamo team invites all friends to support Ryan - any amount is welcomed!

www.12000km.org

New comment on: Below the fold - Bixi.com - not quite ready for prime time!

CPOM — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:11:51 -0400

Just a note that, as I was driving home from my game last night and discussing the pros and cons of Bixiland, one of my teammates told me he couldn't find anywhere to dock his once, called Bixi and was told to bring it home and eventually a magical Bixi truck would come to collect. It was in his stairwell for a couple of days, but finally a truck did come... so you've got another option as well... however this only really works if yer on yer way home :)

New comment on: Below the fold - Bixi.com - not quite ready for prime time!

Mat MacQuarrie — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:49:27 -0400

Very interesting read Bryan :) I work in the Old Port as well and see countless people riding these bixi-machines cruising around on my marches to-and-from the metro. Thank you for answering the one question that was always on my mind.... what do you do if the dock is full? Now I know. I guess the simplest solution is usually the right one, "find another dock, guy." After reading your headache, I think I'll stick to walking to work. PS window looks nice guys. I'd like to wake up somewhere nostalgic. peace Bryan, Go DYNAMO! Mat MacQuarrie

Bixi.com - not quite ready for prime time!

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:50:00 -0400

I took the Bixi plunge last night and my experience wasn't quite was I hoping for. Overall, I think the Bixi concept is awesome, a city-wide, public bike system. Walking around Old Montreal, I see stations and bikes everywhere and so I logically assumed that there would be plenty of stations the further west I ventured....

My "logical" assumption and first Bixi adventure, unfortunately, went something like this:

1. Running late for a dinner date about 15 blocks away (a bit too far to walk but close enough to feel guilty taking a cab).

2. See a Bixi station on the first corner I pass - PERFECT!

3. Whip out credit card and try and rent a bike. Wow, touch screen on the Bixi stations needs some work. I finally luck my way through the steps and I select my bike.

4. Smooth sailing....

5. Pass two other Bixi stations shortly after picking up my bike, surely there will be an empty slot when I reach my destination....

6. Arrive on time for my date! Hooray for Bixi!

7. Look for Bixi "docking" station. Hmmm, not where I thought it might be. Not a problem though, iPhone to the rescue...

8. Load up the "optimized for your mobile browser" station map on my phone and wait forever for it to load. Try and move the map around to find the nearest station. Wait another few minutes for the map to load. Become late for my date. Finally realize that there really isn't a station nearby. Argh!

9. Decide to double back and leave the Bixi at one of the stations I passed along the way. Arrive at the first station - which now has no empty slots. On to the next...

10. Full as well. On to the next....

11. Back at my original location, but now really, really late.

12. Dock the Bixi and hop into a cab...

All in all, it was actually a pretty amusing situation. The bikes are really comfortable and are a great alternative to get around the city. I'll just be sure to do my station research before my next departure! It really is a shame that the powers that be at Bixi decided to play hardball with the team that wrote a free iPhone Bixi app. A station locator app that would leverage the built-in location services in the iPhone to display the nearest Bixi station would be a really boost to the program. That and a touch screen on the station that actually works!

In the end it comes down to details (doesn't it always). I wonder how many customer service calls they are fielding right now, I can only guess that it's A LOT. A printed map on the stations and more intuitive, reactive touch screen would go a long way in rounding out the experience.

I'd love to hear about your first Bixi experience, be it positive or negative.

[UPDATE]

I tried out the new iBixi iPhone app and it worked great. I was able to quickly locate the nearest Bixi station. It even gave me turn-by-turn directions to get there. A version 2 of the app is pending Apple's approval and should be released soon. I also received my Bixi-KEY in the mail and I no longer have to deal with the hit or miss touch screens (some work great, others simply refuse to acknowledge inputs). The Bixi-KEY + iBixi combination now have me pretty much hooked on the service!

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Eric — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:17:03 -0400

the place where Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, San Francisco, Portland, and Hawaii overlap.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Marco Kaye — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:57:51 -0400

In the arms of Julianne Moore. Only I am an infant and she is my mom.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Brad — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:53:27 -0400

Disney World

New comment on: Studio Culture - Summer Hours

Darren Ortiz — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:39:35 -0400

Year-round! I regret I ever left. Bonne-idée les boys. Now if only you'd institute the siesta idea I tried implementing a few years back, you'd be bigger than Google.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

karan — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:56:41 -0400

I'd like to wake up in a 20-year old body with my 55-year old brain intact!

Paint With Ben: Benjamin Moore Micro Site

Jenna Holcombe — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:24:00 -0400

What is the color of sound? With Benjamin Moore's new microsite, Paint With Ben, you get to choose. Their agency of record AKQA created this slick, clever site to seduce young, design-savvy homeowners into trying a new, premium line of paints, "Ben". Just pick your word and your color, then write up a run down of what your color/word combo means to you...

And to further promote the product, they will mail you paint samples on the cheap to try before you buy. Perfect for all you fear-of-commitment types.

I'm not sure this site gives me the itch to order paint samples, but it's definitely a fun distraction and a memorable experience. It's well designed and easy to use, but what's really impressive from a communication standpoint is the link they've drawn from a seemingly ordinary product like house paint to a deeper, more abstract concept: the idea that color inherently triggers memories, emotions and stories in all of us. It's a basic truth that everyone can identify with and no one can evade. And it may even compel you to ponder the depths of meaning behind the hues you choose next time you paint, finish, varnish or tint..

Summer Hours

Bryan Mahoney — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:35:00 -0400

It's getting to that time of the year when many companies institute a "summer hours" policy, encouraging their staff to enjoy the weather and longer days. Summer hours are typically great for overall morale and can be useful in retaining and attracting talent.

We've had a "summer hours" program at Dynamo for sometime. It started off as a typical "start a bit earlier each day in exchange for leaving at noon on Friday" kind of arrangement. That system worked pretty well for us for a few years, but we thought we could do better. We were particularly inspired by a post describing a 4 day work week by the team at 37Signals and we thought we'd give that a try. About 2 years ago, we changed our summer hours program so that everyone on our team has every other Friday off. That system allows each member of the Dynamo team to have two 3-day weekends per month and it also means we always have a half team around on Friday for customer service/support and to handle any emergency requests that might pop up.

Has it worked for us? You bet! We've found that just about the same amount of work is possible to achieve when it's your turn for a 4-day week. Most importantly though, as creatives, the extra day off every other week allows us to come in to the studio each week fresh, inspired and ready to go. In fact, the idea has worked so well for us we made "summer hours" a year-round part of the culture here at Dynamo.

What kind of summer hours program are you looking forward to this summer?

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Chris — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:27:29 -0400

I would like to wake up in a nice cottage in Tremblant, by the lake with my wife and good friends; coffee brewing and my track car ready to go and my bicycle waiting for me when i get back....happiness.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Howard N — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:59:54 -0400

In an Italian villa on a farm near Orvieto with my wife,my three kids and all of their kids,a chef,a nanny and two cars.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Brian — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:10:55 -0400

On a boat with no land in sight..(but with a motor)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Danica — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:20:34 -0400

On a sailboat among picture postcard tropical islands.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Jake — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:41:44 -0400

Somewhere I've never been.

Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Jenna Holcombe — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:45:00 -0400

For the latest window photos, check out Dynamo's 'Answers' photoset on flickr

For the last two weeks, we've been mastering our backwards typography skills, working toward the common goal of putting our twelve, street level windows on Rue St. Pierre to good use. Inspired by the Fifty People, One Question Project, we decided to pose a question via our windows, in hopes of collecting some interesting answers from passers-by. As people email us their answers, we draw them on the windows in real time.

So go ahead and ask yourself: Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?

Comment on this post and we'll draw your answer in, too. Here's a photo of the beginning stages, before the arm cramps set in.

Then we decided to fill in all of the letters in to increase readability, and because we just loved that fresh marker smell.

Here's a close up. Say hi to Andy!

As for the answers, here are a few favorites so far.

And below is the video that started it all. I happened upon these Fifty People One Question videos a few months ago and I'm hooked. The directors Benjamin Reece and Tung Ly have so far completed these question-themed, short films in 5 cities: New Orleans, New York, London, Mexico City, and Perugia. My favorite one is below. Thanks Ben for letting us borrow your question! Your pics are on the way as promised.

Fifty People, One Question: London from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for more photos as our collection of answers grows. And don't forget to comment here to get your answer up on the windows.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Bob — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:37:44 -0400

The day the aliens finally arrive.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Josh — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:34:01 -0400

Right next to Lee Harvey Oswald on December 22, 1963, with an angry pitbull.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Lauren — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:31:34 -0400

Surrounded by boxes in my brand new loft!

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Bryan Mahoney — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:18:55 -0400

It worked! I woke up this morning in New York :-)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Philippe — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:45:14 -0400

In Costa Rica, at disfrutalo resort, with my girlfriend in my arms

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Jessie — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:22:38 -0400

Alaska! Marco is there shooting for 2 weeks and I miss him already. Xx!

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Rachael — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:55:31 -0400

Thanks, Nate. :)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

nate.3.0 — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:38:18 -0400

Okay, Rachael has the best answer ever.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Rachael — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:23:22 -0400

In Memphis on the morning of May 29, 1997 with Jeff Buckley.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Ben — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:09:24 -0400

Debt free. Does that count as a "place" or just a state?

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Nick — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:51:16 -0400

I would like to wake up in a Jamaica dancehall circa 1962! (can you make that happen?)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Matt — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:47:37 -0400

Up North

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

nate.3.0 — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:12:15 -0400

In Paris. (The city in France, or the Celebutaunte. Take your pick.)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Sultan — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:02:21 -0400

Buenos Aires ... Argentina

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

angela — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:50:00 -0400

a king sized bed in Venice with a cool breeze blowing in through the window.

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Dave — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:42:50 -0400

Bethany Beach

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Bryan Mahoney — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:02:23 -0400

The big apple!

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Kate — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:00:15 -0400

I'd like to wake up on the beach tomorrow. Perhaps on St. John's, USVI. (Where it's sunny and warm, and not rainy like it is here in Philly)

New comment on: Design Thinking - Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Jill — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:59:21 -0400

Montreal!

Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

Alex — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:00:00 -0400

Creatives, take solace. Your math skills may sometimes let you down, or your powers of memorization may be worthless. But you – along with your approach, your way of dealing with information and your ideas – are the most valuable type of employee, leader and partner. Or, at least according to Daniel H. Pink, you will be soon.

I read Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind” a few months ago. Since the hype machine is now in full swing (he was on Oprah recently) I figured that sharing my thoughts on the book might benefit those of you who are considering picking it up.

Pink covers a lot of material in the book – not in a lot of depth necessarily, but there’s enough reference to back up his thinking. If you’re looking for bulletproof analysis about the dawn of a new age, look elsewhere. His rationale is still well-thought-out, and I suspect those who stand to benefit (even if only emotionally) from reading the book will agree intuitively with its premise. As I do.

In the first part of the “A Whole New Mind”, Pink submits that we are entering a new era in the world of business called “The Conceptual Era”. In this new age, he says, business value is being shifted away from traditional left-brain tasks like computing, programming and number crunching, and towards right-brain tasks like designing, storytelling and big picture thinking. Because the left-brained stuff can be handled either by other people or by machines for much less money (Pink refers to ‘Asia’ and ‘Automation’ as two of the factors in this shift), creativity is becoming the real valuable currency.

The second part of the book is where it really gets good. Pink introduces six ‘senses’ of the right-brain, going into some detail about how each one has become important in the world of goods & services. He covers DESIGN, STORY, SYMPHONY, EMPATHY, PLAY and MEANING. He dedicates one chapter to each sense, and each one left me feeling motivated to develop the particular aptitude further. And, for the icing on the cake, Pink follows each chapter up with a “Portfolio” full of ways to explore the given sense. In my brief experience, the portfolios make for fun, fulfilling reference lists that can really get me working and thinking in new ways. I especially enjoy the little challenges he introduces (keep a metaphor log!) and his emphasis on development through play. The activities are refreshing and introspective at the same time.

All in all, “A Whole New Mind” was a great read. Regardless if you are naturally a right-brainer, or what Pink calls “R-Directed”, reading the book provides a wonderful impetus to approach problems holistically, reframe your skillset and value your conceptual thinking properly. I certainly came away excited to further explore my six right-brain senses, to focus on my ideas as much as my tangible (or viewable) deliverables, and to look at the big picture. The future belongs to Dynamo!

Wayne Gretzky Estates :
Packaging Medals above
and below the border!

Bob — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:48:00 -0400

Dynamo is honored by the award of a silver medal to our label design for Wayne Gretzky Estates 2005 No99 Vidal Ice Wine at the prestigious 2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits competition, where judges noted "use of type and color to carry the design, clean, simple, striking" is much appreciated praise. More than 4,000 wines were submitted to the competition from around the globe!

A bronze medal came to us for the same package design from home vineyard territory at the recent Ontario Wine Awards, and was received by Winemakers Rob Power and Craig Macdonald along with the nights top honor - Winemakers of the Year!! Congratulations guys!!!

These awards, in conjunction with the Grafika package design award we received for the Wayne Gretzky Estates No99 limited edition double-magnum, fuel our true passion for wine and beverage packaging.

A more in-depth look at the full Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines No99 packaging suite can be found here in our blog. Be on the lookout for an upcoming video post of a conference I gave on the project at Montreal's Excentris theatre as part of the annual Grafika packaging design conference this past February. The conference was given in French, but will be subtitled in English with lots of visuals!

MJCO Identity Redesign

Bob — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:16:00 -0400

Late in '08, one of our favorite collaborative partners came to us to discuss a full identity and business papers redesign. MJCO is one of Montréal's premiere independent print production manager-brokers, owned by Marie-Josée Legault (the MJ in MJCO). MJCO works with design studios and corporate clients - bringing together the best designers, printers and finishers in Montréal to produce consistently stunning printed work.

When we embark on an identity project (we love doing identity work), we set clear communication objectives - defining and synthesizing the unique characteristics or USP of the brand, and then studying and transforming those notions into unique, clever, compelling visual statements through texture, color, image and typography. The sensorial experience of a business papers suite communicates as much as what is written all over it.

Our needs assessment session with MJ brought an important communications platform quickly to light that wasn't being leveraged : MJ herself! As an independent business owner, the perception of the company is in fact the perception her clients hold of her personally - she is their only contact - her unique brand of client service, her attention to detail, etc - it's all about her. At first it seemed almost cliché, but the more we pursued it the more it continued to make sense.

There's great storytelling power in delivering a visual experience that resonates with the brand experience (or personality in this case), it is crucial. It creates the loyalty and longevity that transcends trends and branding for branding's sake, and it's an approach that we strive to bring to the forefront on all assignments.

All our decision making was focussed on matching MJ's personality with the toolset mentioned above -paper selection, color, typography, special printing processes (add a dab of illustration). Her bold and refined personality was translated onto the system using a dark charcoal metallicized ink - tempered just right on uncoated paper to add a subtle sheen and irridescence to it.

This lead-by-example thinking played heavily in our design studies - her own identity obviously also being a great vehicle to showcase a number of different high end print techniques and to convey the notion of attention to detail that she is known for and the creative design market that she serves.

We treated the lockup of MJCO with 2 processes - a complimentary duality that puts MJ front and center. Firstly, MJ is printed with a double-hit of a blazingly bright orange (a custom ink mix - more on that in a moment), and then the thin type is embossed from the back, creating a subtle and tactile effect. The CO portion is then foil stamped with a pearlescent clear foil like frosted glass, but with no printing, making it pick up the color from the metallic ink underneath and playing a secondary more sophisticated role.

Here's a detail of the two treatments : the hairline type "MJ" again is embossed in register with the print so it is raised off the card while the foil stamp is pressed into the card. Sexy!

Like all good designers, we took the assignment of the principal identity's main orange color to the extreme - making several draw-down ink tests in order to achieve perfection. We found it for this project in Pantone Orange 021 - two back to back hits of it for rich color saturation (this color is unachievable with a single pass of any Pantone). Crazy detail? Yeah. But it looks hot! Especially on the inside of the envelopes and the back of the letterhead.

Here's some of the initial color test fun. Thankfully the printer was a friend of MJ's and was patient with our exhaustive study.

We applied this duality concept to a complete suite of business papers, including business cards, letterhead (2 alternate designs using different color treatments), #10 envelope, a large format mailing envelope, a pocket-folder for presentation materials, mailing labels, and a really fun large format high-end paper job bag for delivery of proofs or print samples hot off the press.

Here's a few pics of the special JOB BAG :

Finally, her trademark phrase - "Pas de Souci" (translated means "no worries") - was then leveraged by integrating it in unique places throughout the identity materials - each designed to create a notion of surprise and demonstrate that her attention to detail permeates the entire MJCO experience. Inside the #10 and mailing envelopes; inside her presentation folders; broadcast on the side of her job bags, and in her web URL itself.

Check out the system :

We're very happy with the results, but would love to hear what you think. Please comment on it!

Dynamoga

CPOM — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:21:00 -0400

Whilst many a man and woman is whistling away their precious lunch time with long walks on short roads or choosing their favourite tie for the upcoming Dodge Decal Design awards, we here at Dynamo can be found in our stark-raving white studio space practicing the beautiful art of ANUSARA YOGA.

Today, our 30th-ish class, we all became hand-stand experts. Our hero, Alex Nemeroff, was, at one point referred to as being as rock solid as a piece of "dead-wood", while our fabulous intern, Boris (or Guillaume, if you prefer), was akin to a topsy-turvy spider, climbing the walls backwards and upside down...wow. Some serious talent over here....

Our teacher is, as some of you may know, the wonderful Tracey Peever, world-class Yoga instructor, noted vegetarian and Class "A" Tee-Ball batting champion for the town of Nepean.

ANUSARA YOGA is a modern hatha yoga system that pairs elegant Universal Principles of Alignment with the philosophy of tantra — a philosophy that upholds a worldview that all of life is One. This elegant system combines precise therapeutic biomechanics with a heartful vision of playfulness, beauty, creativity, persistence and kindness. Teachers of this method are among the most highly trained in the world after completing one of the most rigorous Certification processes in areas including anatomy, therapeutics, philosophy, pedagogy, scriptures, hatha yoga postures and articulation.... or so I'm told.

Stay tuned for more Dynamoga stories to come! Either from the studio or from the hospital (depends on how many back bends Tracey makes us do)!

Dynamo's Shopping Spree

Bryan Mahoney — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:07:00 -0400

Welcome to my first in a series of posts about a project that we're all super excited about at Dynamo - the ground-up design and development of an online store for the Yellow Bird Project.

I'll be focusing my attention on the development side of the project and, notably, our decision to use the Spree E-commerce platform.

We spent a few weeks evaluating our options before settling on Spree. Here's a quick list of reasons (in no particular order) we chose Spree:

It's open source and based on Ruby on Rails (our preferred development framework).
It's in active development and we're looking forward adding our contribution to the betterment of the project!
It is not an "out of the box" solution. Spree is designed to be very extensible and includes several key, production-ready data models and supports all of the major payment gateways via the popular Active Merchant plugin.

When we started our search for potential platforms for the project, we were leaning heavily towards building everything from scratch. We needed to ensure that we could give users the best-of-breed shopping experience we have planned for Yellow Bird and a template based system just wasn't going to cut it, no matter how "customizable" it claims to be.

That's the real beauty of Spree in our eyes - the fact that it isn't plug and play. We have total control and freedom when it comes to the presentation layer, a non-negotiable point for us. We truly appreciate the hard work off all the Spree contributors who have pushed the platform to where it is today. We can't wait to share many of the advancements with the community that we have planned for Yellow Bird!

Stay tuned....

Combining Cool + Causes:
Yellow Bird Project

Alex — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:43:00 -0400

We’re extremely excited to welcome the newest member of Dynamo’s client roster: Yellow Bird Project. YBP collaborates with independent musicians and artists to produce t-shirts and other goods to benefit charities and socially-conscious organizations. The shirts are designed by the bands themselves, and the profits generated are turned over to the bands’ charity of choice. The musical talent taking part in the Yellow Bird Project is as inspiring as the concept itself. Some of our personal favourites include Bon Iver, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, New Pornographers, The Shins, Broken Social Scene and Hayden.

Dynamo’s relationship with YBP goes back a few years to when we worked hand-in-hand with the Jewish General Hospital to bring the “8000km” project to life, generating a moving campaign designed to raise money for Skin Cancer research and treatment. One of Yellow Bird Project’s founders, Matt Stotland, was deeply involved in the JGH campaign; now we’re joining forces again to do some powerful work for other great causes. Matt and co-founder Casey Cohen have entrusted Dynamo with work on YBP’s identity, website re-conception and a full slate of user-focused development duties. Stay tuned for more insight as the project progresses – we’re very proud to be working together.

Frédérique Lefebvre — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:33:00 -0400

New comment on: Press Releases! - Prix Grafika :
Gretzky Wine Packaging Award

elizabeth adams — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:59:11 -0400

hey bob! congrats on this! i had no idea... i remember seeing the first storms of the original 99 label campaign at diana's place in van like...2 years ago??? anyway, loving the blog! came to find your address so's i can bill ya :P and am now hooked! great impetus to get mine in gear...(blushing madly)e

Connect the dots with ALDO

Alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:43:00 -0400

Update: the ALDO microsite won an FWA!

We're excited to announce the latest brand-building, interactive experience brought to you by Dynamo and ALDO: Connect the Dots. As part of the brand’s “Connect the Dots” Summer campaign being broadcast throughout North American and the UK, Dynamo has launched a microsite enabling visitors to turn their photos into connect-the-dots puzzles and then send them to friends to solve online.

It's simple, really: just upload your favourite photo, click to add the dots and then fire it off to your friends - all they will have to do to reveal the photo is connect the dots. Consider it a modern throwback to those childhood days spent with coloured pencils and activity books.

The ALDO Connect the Dots microsite leverages the playful side of the ALDO brand – and reinforces Dynamo’s commitment to designing innovative online experiences. Working with Douglas Bensadoun, ALDO’s Creative Director, and Jennifer Maks, ALDO’s Director of Multi-Channel Marketing, has made for a great combination of creativity, open-mindedness and inspiration.

Think you've got talent? Head on over to the site and make your own creation at www.aldoshoes.com/connectthedots!

Tweenbots: Kacie Kinzer, New York

Jenna Holcombe — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:14:00 -0400

It's encouraging to see people's willingness to stop and help, especially when the being in distress isn't even living/breathing. It's particularly interesting from a design standpoint because as visual communicators, we know how difficult it is to get consumers to stop what they're doing, absorb your message, and react. The cynic in all of us are would never guess that strangers stopped to help the above Tweenbot every 1.5 minutes. Who needs a blog? We should just build Dynabots and set them loose around the globe.

A sketch is worth a thousand revisions

Alex — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:18:00 -0400

Most of our larger projects begin only after we spend time outlining the scope of work and the different deliverables. Even though outlining the strategy is the first major component of all of our work, a portion of it will inevitably be accomplished before the project even begins - we need to figure out what we're creating and how long it will take in order to propose something. This time spent up front is a given, obviously - a studio spends much of its life figuring what work to do before actually doing it.

For smaller projects, though - the kind borne out of random "aha moments" or spontaneous brainstorming - we've learned to cut down the inefficiency inherent in proposals and scope definition by sketching out our ideas and sharing them with clients right away. This has not only become the quickest way of getting ideas across, but it has given us the best chance at having good ideas greenlit as soon as possible. And if we're dealing with a web project, it gives us a headstart on defining the user experience before the project even starts. Letting our clients in on our preliminary thinking has helped us flesh out our ideas as well, so estimating the work involved is straightforward. In fact, five minutes with a pencil saves us hours spent reworking a proposal. Simple, maybe, but a nice little eye opener. We're always looking to strike that balance between structured process and organic flow, so it's nice to know that the pencil is sometimes the most efficient tool we have.

Genius Time

Bryan Mahoney — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:35:00 -0400

I’ve just wrapped up another productive session of my personal “genius time”. I was working on a particularly tricky task at the tail end of my day yesterday and I wasn’t making very good progress - I kept making a series of small mistakes that were setting me back. I decided to shut down my computer and re-visit the same chunks of code this morning, during my “genius time”. Turns out it was the right thing to do. I ended up figuring out a far more elegant solution to my problem, a solution I just couldn’t see the day before.

The concept of genius time is something I worked on with my business coach about a year ago and its quickly become a part of my daily routine (personally and professionally). It’s a simple concept that’s often overlooked in today’s ridiculously fast paced, iphone and blackberry dominated workplace. In a nutshell, I have 2-3 hours every day where I’m at my thinking best. My mind is fresh, I’m focused and creative. This is my genius time. It happens for me between 7am and 9am.

To properly take advantage of this genius time, I try and tackle more challenging tasks, tasks that require uninterrupted thought. I keep my email closed and my iphone in another room. It’s really worked for me.

I believe we each have a daily window of genius time. The trick is figuring yours out and shifting your schedule accordingly.

Welcome to our Blog

Alex — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:48:00 -0400

Here, you’ll find none of the glorified, perfect and stagnant portfolio trimmings you’d normally expect to see on a design studio website. Instead, here you are part of our journey – experiencing our challenges, successes, deep thinking and of course, the design output. This is what life at Dynamo is like. Work. Play. And everything in between. Take what you can from it and let us know what you think.

On Modernity

Bob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:10:00 -0400

To be modern is to find ourselves in an environement that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world — and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.

Marshall Berman
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

Prix Grafika :
Gretzky Wine Packaging Award

Bob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:48:00 -0400

Dynamo garnered a packaging design award in the recent Quebec-wide Grafika competition for its design work on the Wayne Gretzky Estates project. The Family Reserve Merlot - a commemorative 3-Liter (Double Magnum) special launch bottling - was created as part of the arsenal of branding and packaging materials Dynamo designed for the launch of the brand in 2007. An edition of only 99 of the double mags were produced, number one and number 99 going to Wayne at the launch ceremony.

The Wayne Gretzky Estates brand and packaging project can be viewed in detail here on our blog.

Wayne Gretzky Estates :
Packaging the Great One

Bob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:47:00 -0400

Wayne Gretzky returns to his roots with the launch of Wayne Gretzky Estates, an Ontario winery initiative just a few hockey stick-lengths away from his hometown of Brampton, Ontario. WGE’s primary mission is philanthropic in nature : to aid the Wayne Gretzky Foundation (all sales proceeds go to the foundation, whose mission is to give “less-fortunate youths the opportunity to participate in playing, watching and learning from the world’s best game” -WG). However, his goal to help others discover great Canadian winemaking and offer them to world markets is also a core goal.

Mr. Gretzky and his winemaking partners approached strategic partner studio Resonance in Vancouver to collaborate on the creation of the brand. Dynamo was brought in to collaborate on the brand identity, and drove the CMS–driven winery website, as well as all wine packaging and merchandising for the new brand through to the launch.

The strategic challenges bringing this brand to life were multiple, but primarily: How to impart the notions of quality, authenticity and refinement traditionally associated with winemaking to a celebrity in a sports industry with a culture as rough and beer-driven as ice hockey.

Our primary solution was not to leverageany hockey iconography at all, focussing instead on Wayne’s natural ability to impart the notion of finesse and style upon the product, as these are his personal trademarks. Very clean, simple and elegant typography combine with traditional elements such as sophisticated industry standard cream colored stocks and regal, heritage foil stamps to produce a design that is a mix of modern and traditional wine design vocabularies.

Secondly, we chose to assign each varietal with the “No.99” prefix, allowing us to capitalize on his infamous number, while simultaneously retaining a communications read of new world wine associations such as those found in Australian products containing bin or barrel numbers, helping the wine remain very approachable with mass market appeal.

The designs have won acclaim and have been recognized by the Ontario Wine Awards as one of the best packaging designs of the year with a bronze medal. Also, sales have catapulted past expectations – and that’s saying a lot backed by the Gretzky name. Within the first two months of it’s release, Gretzky’s merlot was the top selling VQA wine at the LCBO. Production this year is expected to hit 55,000 cases (initially forecast at 15,000 for year one – a typical VQA launch target) and soar to up to 80,000 next year.

Gretzky said he has learned about the business of wine in the last year and the power of the No. 99 label. “First and foremost, people are curious about the wine; the label really jumps out at people,” the four-time Stanley Cup winner said.

“We’ve had nothing but praise for the label design – well done!” Co-Founder & Winery President, Peter Jensen, Wayne Gretzky Estates.

Penson Financial's
New Campaign Platform

Bob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:47:00 -0400

Penson is a recognized national B2B financial services provider offering clearing (trading execution) to banks and independents in the financial industry. Penson called upon Dynamo to design a new strategic offensive to increase market share and expand clientele. Upon reviewing the competitive landscape and narrow demographic, we decided a strong media push (print campaign) in conjunction with a call to action driving viewers to a complimentary microsite would serve them best.

Our strategy was also dependent on the employment of a non-traditional asset in this traditionally straightforward business market – that of sophisticated and colourful abstract art.

Here's some samples of the tabloid format print ads that ran in industry publication Investment Executive.

And here's the supporting microsite we built.

Very dynamic and graphic art is used to represent the idea of the complex challenges that financial institutions face when selecting a clearing partner. This was clearly a marked change of pace for this industry and helped our campaign gain immediate visibility.

The development of the core messaging “Penson. Clearly.” was combined in stark bright white contrast over this complex and visually chaotic stage. The contrast instantly communicates the sharp distinction and clarity between the 2 polarities – Penson’s approach of simplicity, professionalism and attention to detail.

We further enhanced the campaign by custom-coding and designing a flash “artwork generator”. The artwork tool that Dynamo created in collaboration with Darren Ortiz for use in the site generates background art dynamically – each time the user loads the site, or simply changes sections, the artwork is regenerated from scratch – ensuring a unique piece of art and unique visual experience every time. Furthermore, while online, the artwork reacts interactively to all mouse movement, creating a truly engaging visual experience and enhancing the idea of overlying clarity.

Visit the live project here. (It's way better animated!)

2M2 : Talent Agency Webfolio
and branded image bank

Bob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:46:00 -0400

2M2 is a high-caliber creative talent agency and event productions company representing premiere international photographic and visual effects artists. Dynamo designed the 2M2 website exclusively as a sophisticated online showcase and repository for 2M2’s talent roster folios.

Every effort was made to enhance the viewing experience in order to allow users a detailed and immersive visit. After the minimalist language splashpage, users arrive at the main navigation and are immediately displayed a randomly-sampled rotation of portfolio imagery. The talent name listings in each of the talent subcategories display a dynamic full window preview to entice users to make a selection for further investigation. Portfolio image windows are presented in LCD monitor-friendly widescreen format and large format thumbnail images are readily accessible for quick perusal upon simple rollover on the right of the main image window.

An Image Bank recently added to the original mandate now allows 2M2 to leverage the stock and non-commercial imagery its artists create on a regular basis, making them available for leasing and purchase when a directed photoshoot is not possible or when more general subject matter is appropriate. Here are some screens of the easy to browse Image Bank gallery and detail pages, the latter containing high res samples that are automatically watermarked with 2M2's logotype through our backend tool :

The web is the primary tool for which 2M2 develops and maintains clients across North America & Europe. With talent constantly roaming the globe on project assignments, a focus on building a robust custom web-based CMS to compliment the understated and sophisticated front-end design skin was integral to our strategic approach. 2M2’s talent has individual control of the addition, editing, naming and deletion of their own section folios and descriptors – and are able to upload new folios within minutes of the creation of these assets from a web browser anywhere on the globe.

Here's a sample screen showing the simple and efficient backend that empowers all 2M2 talent to manage, update and create new galleries and upload image bank assets as they are created.

If you followed us all the way here without clicking one of the external links in the text - Bravo! Here's the live site.

What a difference
a few years makes

Bryan Mahoney — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:13:00 -0400

In a previous post I mentioned how the latest ad campaign Apple is running for the new MacBook pro really influenced my decision to upgrade. I love the ad and think it's extremely well executed. I do, however, find Apple's "Green" play interesting. For a company reknowned for setting trends, they seem to be jumping on the environmental bandwagon a bit later than I would have expected.

In any case, it's a great ad and a great product - check it out!

Dynamo Mission/Vision

Bob — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:48:00 -0400

Dynamo is a creative communications design studio populated with visual storytellers and design thinkers.

We create and produce engaging design, communications, branding and content tools for business and culture, with a primary focus on customized interactive web solutions and robust, project-tailored content management systems (web apps) with great depth and functionality. Our ability and experience in supporting and complimenting online initiatives with offline deliverables such as full branding suites including identity, print collateral, packaging and other strategic vehicles allows us to service clientele in a full spectrum. We are an integrated agency.

Our solutions are deeply rooted in collaborative strategy, employing a mix of only the best vehicles for communication needs as determined by critical review of the client’s needs, the competitive landscape and strategic foresight, bringing added value and relevance to every initiative.

An in-depth, content-driven web presence for a national institution. A viral YouTube video produced specifically for a luxury real-estate project. An innovative package design for sports equipment. A hand-crafted print identity and business papers suite for a local artisan. Or a complete branding campaign integrating many forms of media.

We endeavor to soak each project with creativity, strategic insight and innovation.

Apple Ads - How Far They've Come

Bryan Mahoney — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:19:00 -0400

The new MacBook Pro ads had a lot to do with my decision to upgrade (and I couldn't be happier with my decision). Who wouldn't want a 17" screen and 8hrs of battery life!

I decided it would be interesting to dig around and see what the ads were like for my MacBook's ancestors - here's what I found.

In my opinon, their adverstising has come a long way.....

New Dual Websites for Cineflix

Bob — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:20:00 -0400

Cineflix is a growing Canadian television production company with a focus on factual entertainment and documentary programming. They approached Dynamo with a dire need to update their online catalog offering with a site that reflects their mandate to play the edges of their industry with fresh and engaging reality programming.

The site is divided into two distinct areas from a common splash page (www.cineflix.com):
Cineflix International (www.cineflix.com) and Cineflix Productions (www.cineflixproductions.com).

The International site targets buyers and decision-makers at the broadcast level with a simpler look and feel. The Productions site targets their current show audience, potential viewers, and potential production talent, so more liberty was taken with a richly-designed interface. Both sites are fully managed by the client, enabling them to upload shows, show videos, images, logos, job postings and static content.

The Cineflix Productions site is a particularly engaging experience, enabling the user to browse shows by list, by thumbnail or by dropdown in the left menu, while remaining lean-and-mean on load time, as multiple images, video and logos are loaded. The site makes use of Flash in strategic locations to display testimonials, internal ads and image galleries, while video is integrated seamlessly into show pages and corporate sections for a media-rich experience. Users can browse through thumbnails galleries of each show and show host so that the Cineflix product offering is as visually full as possible, without being overwhelming.

National Film Board of Canada
Holiday DVD Campaign

Bob — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:19:00 -0400

The National Film Board of Canada called upon Dynamo to blanket Montréal and Toronto (as well as the internet) with a compelling holiday message, driving film aficianados to the webstore where a treasure trove of national content has become newly available to the public.

Here's a detail of the clear varnish pattern of DVDs that we printed bleed on both sides.

Dynamo Blog

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

New comment on: Portfolio - Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

New comment on: Press Releases! - Seeking Supertalent

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New comment on: Inspiration - RailsConf 2010 Wrap Up

Work with us

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Rails 3 and Ruby 1.9x

MongoDB

Spree!

Gary V

New comment on: Portfolio - Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

Designing a Logo for Spree Commerce

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What Makes Us Different?

ALDO's Cast of Characters

The new rules for a successful launch

Doin' it Local

Poster Design for The Indie Rock Poster Book

Got a light?

Protect the oceans & look good doing it

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Milan Salone 2010 - Interactions

Milan Salone 2010 - 2

Milan Salone 2010 - 1

Dynamo design open house!

Dynamo & YBPHow's International Design Annual

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Dynamo Interviewed on CJAD

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Hugh & Crye's new spree-powered online store

Alex's talk at Grafika 'Web Design' day

State of the Internet

Alex talks Yellow Bird Project at tomorrow's Grafika Conference

The Design Behind the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Medals.

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New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo Shop is LIVE !

Getting psyched for the Olympics!

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Unisson Structures Website

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Dewey and Deigan "discuss" the next feature to add to the Dynamo Shop

Even more agile for 2010

Facebook / Twitter vs. your site's News

A moment to reflect on 2009

Dynamo Shop is LIVE !

New comment on: The Making Of - Launching tomorrow - our very own online store!

Where Will Dynamo Be This Holiday Season?

Launching tomorrow - our very own online store!

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

12k hits 100k (update: with support from the Habs!)

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New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: A Whole New Mind (or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

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New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

New comment on: Inspiration - Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

Moleskine Notebook's Are Still Cool... Right?

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Your chance to take action... on Blog Action Day!

A new Point of View - Narrow Escape & Lesson Learned

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A better approach to pitching

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New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Studio Culture - Dynamo Artist Series; Margriet Zwart

New comment on: Press Releases! - Dynamo & YBP
How's International Design Annual

Dynamo & YBP
How's International Design Annual

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

New comment on: Inspiration - Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

Book Review: A Whole New Mind
(or Why Dynamo will Rule the Future)

Wayne Gretzky Estates :
Packaging Medals above
and below the border!

Combining Cool + Causes:
Yellow Bird Project

New comment on: Press Releases! - Prix Grafika :
Gretzky Wine Packaging Award

Prix Grafika :
Gretzky Wine Packaging Award

Wayne Gretzky Estates :
Packaging the Great One

Penson Financial's
New Campaign Platform

2M2 : Talent Agency Webfolio
and branded image bank

What a difference
a few years makes

National Film Board of Canada
Holiday DVD Campaign