The amount of free samples and giveaways from the Natural Product Expo loaded us with lots of strange and wonderful treats. As an opportunity to challenge our Writing Team, we all took a product and found creative ways to write a product review. Have fun reading some of the interesting ways we decided to review some peculiar products. BRAD’s Veggie … Read More
An Expo of Natural Products Shows What’s Right and Wrong with How We Consume
Baltimore is known for all things crab legs, soft shell, soup, cakes and steamed. But for three days in September the “Charm City” played host to more than 1,500 other food options when the Natural Products Expo East set up shop in the city’s convention center a few hundred yards from Inner Harbor. The broad definition of the term “natural” … Read More
PUMP Brand Refresh: Elevating a Storied Brand
At Shift Collaborative, we love creating brand identities because it’s a chance for our whole team to get together and contribute to something meaningful that will be visible in our community. We were especially eager to work on a new brand identity for the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project, or PUMP as it is known to most in the Pittsburgh community. … Read More
Do Good
Most large corporations have a Community Relations or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department, which focuses on giving back to the communities where they do business, where their employees live and where their customers are. According to a Time Magazine article, in 2002 only about a dozen Fortune 500 companies issued a CSR or sustainability report. Now the majority does. Some companies … Read More
A Culture of Workplace Giving
Shift Collaborative has been in business for almost four years, and I believe that we are only at the beginning of defining our company’s culture. This process of defining is likely [we hope] to be an ongoing and evolving process as we grow, expand, and adapt in the creative industry space. One of many things that our small group sees eye to eye on, is making an impact beyond … Read More
Be Creative Every Day: Tips From the Non-Creative
Creative: Having the quality or power of creating. Resulting from originality of thought, expression. (Dictionary.com) As you can imagine, a creative agency like Shift Collaborative is full of creative professionals. I am not one of them. Not in the traditional sense. I can’t draw a stick figure. I don’t sketch or doodle during conference calls. I make lists. I’m a … Read More
From Local Attention to National Acclaim for Smallman Galley
A virtuous PR path for the country’s first restaurant incubator Since we started working with Smallman Galley just over a year ago (has it really been an entire year?!), we’ve been on an adventure to collaborate with the owners, the chefs, and the bar-program manager to bring their passions to life: four aspiring chefs in four separate kitchens — with … Read More
Making our Mark in Downtown Pittsburgh
It was an innovation-filled year for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership with new events like Picklesburgh and the launch of BetaBurgh. Learn more.
We Are Brands
Someone forged my signature three weeks ago. They stole my credit card. This is the second time in three years I’ve had a security breach. Those thieves’ forged my John Hancock, and now I have no faith in my ink mark. Think how easy it was for someone else to sign my name. Humans have been signing things since they could pick … Read More
Community Matters
We are grounded by the space that we move into and out of every day. But, what happens when that sense of place is disrupted or even ripped out from under us?
Let’s Create a Manifesto!
Maybe you’ve been told you’re not a special snowflake, but actually you are. You are a special snowflake. Each of us is special and unique. Each of our companies or organizations is unique, with a certain way we look at the world and our market and ourselves. But when the world looks at us, we rarely look unique. We all blend … Read More
How to start your awesome blog (for the absolute beginner)
A few weekends ago, I presented a couple of sessions at PodCamp Pittsburgh 9. The first was Blogging 101, a novice-level session. Here’s a video of the session, plus the written notes I prepared ahead of time.