This final post for this series applies our design expertise to inform how to create and collaborate over distance. We are students of good meetings and the creative process. Most design work begins with empathy for people and understanding their experience and circumstances.
Physical Distancing: Show Compassion
Everything is different. Many products are more relevant in a crisis and when people are social distancing/physical distancing. Even if you can continue to conduct business as usual, you must adjust your marketing strategy and your message while others’ lives are in turmoil.
Physical Distancing: Stay Safe
In a more normal state of affairs, businesses work hard to communicate core values to employees and customers. In this state of emergency, those values are simply being revealed and people are paying attention. Among the best things you can do is to show that your organization values the health and safety of employees and the needs of their families.
Why We Celebrate International Women’s Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020, we wanted to take inspiration from the uplifting ladies at Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh and articulate what IWD means to each of us. These are the reasons why we celebrate.
What We’re Reading in 2020
As a small brand design agency with a multi-talented staff, we’re big fans of self-educating. Whether that means mastering a new digital advertising tool, embracing a new approach to creative thinking, or gaining a greater understanding of the world in which our work exists, we love when we find what we need in a book. Here are a few of the books we’ve each been meaning to read for a little while – perhaps you can add them to your reading list and learn alongside us.
How much impact can one straw have? The Straw Forward Project
How do you persuade people to rethink something that is deeply embedded in their lives — so embedded that daily life would be radically different without it? With the Straw Forward project, we encouraged conversation about a nuanced issue.
Thanks and Joy
As we approach the holiday season, the Shift team is taking a little time to share what brings us joy and makes us feel thankful — so many things, big and small. Sara Coffey I am thankful for my community in Pittsburgh, and the way they inspire and support me. Specifically the women around me who are constant source of inspiration. … Read More
Natural Product Expo: Product Reviews
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
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
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.
“Find your niche”: Thoughts from the Pittsburgh Women Bloggers panel
Back in June, I spoke on a panel of Pittsburgh-based women bloggers put together by NAWBO of Greater Pittsburgh (National Association of Women Business Owners). The panel included a great mix of savvy women: R’Chelle Mullins of Creatively Yours by Ro Media and fashion stylist Suzanne Mauro Mercedes Howze, the Movie Scene Queen Heather Hopson of Diary of a First … Read More