TeleSign

TeleSign introduces a new category name as well as messaging to describe how it connects, protects and defends companies, customers and the digital interactions between them.

with Contrast Design Works, Los Altos and San Francisco

The Henry Ford

A new permanent exhibition at The Henry Ford alludes to the stories and thrills of auto racing in its name.

Poem-a-Day

The best gift to myself all year: a poem delivered to my in-box each morning, adding up over the course of the past year to a host of voices living (most of them) and dead sharing a realm of experiences in fresh and unexpected ways. A quick, easy and delightful way to keep fresh ways of seeing, sharing and expressing close by.

Visit: Poem-a-Day

CourseKey

Virtual learning has opened the door to the expansion of online marketplaces for learning brands. Companies such as Coursera and Emeritus, which offer students their choice of learning options from esteemed universities and other sources, now seem firmly rooted. In the Vocational Education space,  our client, CourseKey, is building awareness, accessibility and perceived value for career education providers. These and other developments suggest that relative cost of a good education will continue to fall; the assurance that you are, in fact, receiving a good education, will continue to rise; the perceived value of “the trades” relative to “a four-year university education” will increase; and “accreditation” will be increasingly community-driven.

Valley

While it’s as near as the other side of the mountain, a trip to Sonoma always promises new inspiration. This year, Valley delivers—with a spot-on update to our idea of quintessential Northern California cooking: personal, unfussy yet somehow also attentive to details, and never letting diners get too complacent about what to expect from “local.”

Visit: Valley

NOK Orchestra

Composer Tunde Jegede creates a diverting music that is steeped in the West African classical music tradition with nuanced additions from other places. The kora pulls at the heartstrings. For more kora mastery to transport you, check out Korolén, Toumani Diabatés 2021 collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra. A great backdrop for hours at the keyboard.

Visit: NOK Orchestra

The Henry Ford inHub

The Henry Ford advances innovation education through two in-depth new web sites that build on visual systems and messaging platforms we helped to develop. inHub is a community for educators leveraging primary sources from The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation®. Invention Convention Worldwide is where young inventors and entrepreneurs acquire invention skills for life.

Visit: InHub
Visit: Invention Convention

The Sweet Sound of Equity

Over the past year, we’ve retooled and refined a number of voice guidelines. What prompted the changes? On the part of our clients: a greater humility and a greater predisposition to listen. For us, these efforts drove home the understanding that we simply can’t know true extent of the words and ideas that might alienate (or inspire) others based on their lived experience. These efforts clarified something else: Voice guidelines need to be updated routinely—annually, we’d suggest, if not on an ongoing basis. The language of inclusion is a continually shifting terrain.

Special thanks to clients: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Lutheran Services in America, Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, Phoenix Labs and Smith Group

CFSM

The Community Foundation clarifies who they are and what they do with a new brand communications foundation, setting the stage for a higher profile in Michigan and among their peers nationally.

with Lovio George, Detroit

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Brand-building gets real with storytelling tools and insights to help you grow and succeed, whether you’re an entrepreneur or a seasoned brand marketer.

Visit: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

TeleSign

The day when we actually know who we’re interacting with, a cornerstone of trust, might finally be getting closer. Recent developments from two of our clients give us cause for optimism. TeleSign has developed identity verification technology building on over two thousand attributes associated with each of the world’s billions of mobile phone numbers. With its Continuous Trust platform, organizations can dramatically reduce the incidence of fraud and establish more secure customer relationships. Microsoft is part of a global consortium working on a concept called Decentralized Identity (DID), premised on the idea that everyone has the right to a digital identity they own and control. Not unlike blockchain, DID builds increasing levels of trust over time with each new validated interaction.

Ready for Web3?

Regen1

A program produced by The Lexicon, a US-based NGO focused on building movements to tackle our food system’s greatest challenges, with support from Food at Google, is on a mission to rapidly scale regenerative agriculture. We supported it with a story and messaging toolkit for its consumer-facing Place of Origin initiative—and a copy boost for its web site.

Visit: Regen 1

Forest Futures

The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation launches a campaign to ensure healthy forests today, tomorrow and forever backed by a powerful story and messaging.

with Marc Friedland Couture Communications, Los Angeles

Lily on Clement

Vietnamese cuisine as a jumping-off point for bold and distinctive dishes such as the jackfruit pizza we cut with scissors, to say nothing of the inspired cocktails, make dinner at the bar at Lily a hoped-for detour anytime we’re cruising down Park Presidio en route to or from SFO.

Visit: Lily on Clement

Accurate

With a change in top leadership, the background check leader evolves its vision, mission and values to foster a focused and healthy organization geared to continued growth. To understand how well it’s actually living and fostering its values, Accurate follows up with an in-depth companywide survey.

Alójica

A real estate investment management company focused on lodging real estate opportunities in Mexico adopts a name that’s a portmanteau of the Spanish language words for “lodging” and “logic.”

with Darien Group, Los Angeles

Consilience

We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”

E. O. Wilson (1929-2021), Consilience

Coffee in Petaluma

A semolina lemon cookie and perfectly pulled americano prove an irresistible draw nearly every day this pitch-perfect cafe is open. Bully to good friends Christian Caiazzo and Katrina Fried for the warm welcome they’ve created so close to home.

Cynthia Murnane, Auracle Brands, Los Angeles

Lutheran Services in America

One of the nation’s largest networks of health and human services organizations—and a staunch advocate for equity—sharpens its positioning, messaging and brand voice.

not quite nothing
but nearly so
reminds the wind

June 2, 2022

Appstory

“Literature metabolizes history constantly but slowly.”

Christian Lorentzen, “Literature After Trump,”

Harper’s, February 2021.

Visit: @appstory

#wordwatch

news deserts— a term used by academics and researchers to refer to areas where coverage of the community by local news outlets is minimal or nonexistent.

Otter

This past year, the addition of live transcription of meetings as a feature of Zoom and Teams calls has been a huge boon to us. Excited to go further, we’ve downloaded Otter (which provides the capability for Zoom) onto our phones. Now all the thoughts recorded on early morning walks, informal conversations or impromptu epiphanies are readily accessible. Wonderful.

Visit: Otter

No Rules Rules

Truly thought-provoking and counterintuitive—and at times rather brutal-sounding—insights into management from Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings. One of our clients swore by it and seems to be thriving by applying it. As people who must adapt to all manner of business cultures, we felt intrigued—as well as obligated—to understand how to orient ourselves around this new rara avis.

Visit: No Rules Rules

Motus

Motus updates its brand foundation to support its growth beyond fleet management and relocation solutions to become the champion of the Anywhere Work Force.

with Hamagami Carroll, Inc., Los Angeles

Coffee in Dearborn

Dearborn doesn’t lack for decent coffeehouses but Qahwah House wins for the inspiration it takes—and delivers—from the second-to-none coffee culture of the founders’ native Yemen. Packed most evenings, it’s usually quiet at opening, when I stop by for sweet, fragrant Adeni tea and a basbousa.

Visit: Qahwah House