National Geographic has created a map that replaces place names with translations of their indigenous names. I never knew that “Minnesota” means “slightly clouded river.” Nice use of typography, hovers and language.

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Springwise posted about a company in Australia, StickyTwits.com,  that will print stickers with one’s Twitter URL on them. This is my new favorite guerrilla marketing technique. I want some so I can just stick them on all my friends’ iPhones. Or on all invoices. Or any other paper products. StickyTwits are strangely annoying yet enticing, just like Twitter. 

Image courtesy of StickyTwits.com

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Go East recently repurposed and recycled the make-readies from a poster project we created. I asked everyone to take the make-readies and do something creative with them as our most recent Design Response. The results were stunning. 

What is a design response? 

For the past year, we have been holding an extra-ordinary, extracurricular creative exploration, called “Design Response.” Too often design work can become a rote execution of a brochure, a banner ad, a package or a sell sheet. To keep our creative minds and muscles stretched and strengthened, we started Design Response, a short-term creativity commission that poses a problem, project, or possibility to the entire company. Everyone is invited to participate. All responses are welcome. The intention is to encourage creative thinking, problem-solving and using design as a response to any situation that may arise in any venue, at any time. 

The results have been extraordinary. 

Despite demanding workloads, family commitments, and the myriad tasks everyone has, Go East colleagues have consistently brought exciting, surprising responses to each challenge. Each participation has encouraged us in our client work and in our lives. Each person presents their piece in an internal review and all have a opportunity to comment and collaborate.

Some highlights:

• The fourth most popular yard sign in the Walker Art Gallery’s “My Yard Our Message” commission was designed in our first Design Response. 
• Design Response : High Gas Prices elicited a stunning range of solutions from gourmet gas, iPhone apps, a lunch-run planning site, and guerilla activist stickers
• Pose a problem and a solution showed what individuals were wrestling with and how they might respond. From a treadmill workstation to color-coded medicine organizers for elderly parent care, we were impressed with the range of options. We had designs for a mass transit system in Minnesota that predated the current stimulus projects. One designer created a map of Twin Cities locations mentioned in the lyrics of a local band, which he is now photographing for a personal project
• Red Letter Day: favorite letter form, in red, and why
• Poster Campaign Make Ready Recycling: take the make-readies from a project and transform them into something else. 

Design Response has become one of the most inspiring parts of Go East. It encourages everyone to think creatively about life and work and opens our eyes to how differently each of us may respond to the world around us. And the world could use some creative, well-designed responses to a wide range of problems now.

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