Are you on our mailing list? Please add your information below and we will send you our seven-card set of the 2010 Miles Design Holiday Cards. Look for them to arrive in your mailbox in early December.
If the form isn’t visible below, click here to submit your info.
Project Burndown is a SaaS based web application designed and developed by Expected Behavior to help manage your company’s projects, profitability, and work flow. Its unique in the project management world because it integrates with many of the other SaaS programs you’re likely already using for time tracking, billing, and task management–providing one, comprehensive tool for managing your work flow and profitability. You can manage your projects from quote to deliverable, but the real rock star is the real-time work-load graph that helps you forecast days, weeks, or months in advance. It’s awesome!
(more…)
I was honored to lead a breakout session at SMPS Heartland last week on website design best practices. Building upon our previous entry entitled Website Emergency, we pulled out the top ten website design issues we see in the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry.
We discussed web design best practices, reviewed writing for the web, explored the basics of SEO (search engine optimization), and much more. Our attendees all received a free website emergency checklist. If you’d like your very own, let us know.
We broke the emergencies down into three categories: content, design and SEO:
When was the last time you visited a site to read their mission statement?
1. It’s all about us.
Does your site inspire visitors with compelling messages and fantastic photography? Does it offer them what they’re looking for, or does it focus on your firm’s history and go on about your mission statement? Yawn.
Our second annual Miles Design adopt-a-family was a success, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to participate again this year. We learned quite a bit about the process and strategy from our experiences last year, and this year went off without a hitch–it was truly a team effort from start to finish.
This year, we adopted a family of five. Besides mom, there were two girls (one and fifteen) and two boys (nine and seventeen). After talking with them, we learned that they lost their home to a fire last year at Christmas, and they’ve been working to rebuild their lives over the last year. Their lists had everything from pots and pans, dinnerware, and clothing to a basketball, games, and movie passes.
With lists in hand, the entire team took over Walmart on Friday morning, Dec. 4–dividing and conquering. Josh, Eric, Brian, and Cookie shopped for the boys’ gifts and toys while April, Lauren, Meg, and I worked on the household items and girls’ gifts. It was a great time, and I was impressed with our efficiency–although I’m positive we could have spent all morning putting together cute outfits and shopping for toys! When it was all said and done, we managed to get everything on our list in one stop, and we came out on budget!
Here are some photos from our shopping adventure:
The afternoon of Dec. 10th was dedicated to wrapping all of the gifts (and Eric’s cell phone). The finished stack of presents was an awesome sight and took up most of the conference room table–very impressive!
Now, what to do with all that leftover paper? Any ideas? Hmm…
The entire office made the trip to deliver the gifts, and the family was very kind (and probably overwhelmed) as we all piled in their living room! It was such a rewarding experience to participate in this program during the holidays. It can be such an overwhelming season, and it feels really good knowing that we were able to ease the burden of providing for a family of five at Christmas. And, most importantly, we worked together and had fun doing it!
We all know that the holidays can be a particularly stressful time of year–especially when the pressure to provide everyday necessities can be overwhelming or even impossible. Miles Design has been blessed with a year of growth, and our focus this holiday season is on sharing and giving back. And, we have a hunch that many of you, our clients and friends, will want to join us in our efforts.
“How?” you ask.
Miles Design will be supporting The Shepherd Community Center and their Annual Christmas Gift Drive. The Shepherd Community Center has been serving children and families on the Near East Side of Indianapolis for twenty-five years, and their Christmas Shop is a great opportunity for area parents and children alike to select both gifts and essentials for their loved ones. The shop relies on donations–toys, gift items, clothing and money–and we’re confident that, with your help, we can fill it with a lot of great things.
Click here for a Needs List. All items should be new and unwrapped.
We’ll gladly accept any donations at our office through December 14th, so if a) you’ll be in the area, b) we have a meeting planned, or c) you just want to stop for a visit, we hope you will consider contributing to this worthwhile cause!
Happy Holidays, and thank you all for a great year!
Note: If it’s more convenient, you can certainly drop off directly at the Shepherd Community. Click here for more information.
Good things are happening for the Indianapolis design community and Miles Design! PRIME–the first annual AIGA Indy Design Awards Show–is opening to the public this Friday, and we’re excited to share that four of our entries were chosen to be included in the show.
For those of you not familiar with PRIME, or AIGA Indy for that matter, here’s a quick background on both. AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest professional design organization consisting of more than 22,000 members and 64 local chapters across the country. Our local Indianapolis chapter represents design students, professionals, and educators all across Indiana–providing a mix of events, initiatives, outreach programs, and more.
This is the first year for PRIME, and it’s been a long time coming! The pieces honored this year were selected for their visual excellence and demonstration of strong design processes and real-world, measurable results for the client. The judges, no doubt, had some very tough decisions to make, and I don’t envy them one bit! Accepted work will be on display until Thanksgiving at Dean Johnson Gallery in downtown Indianapolis. After that, a book showcasing the work will be created and distributed both locally and to AIGA chapters across the country.
Miles Design is honored to be recognized among our peers, and we’re even more excited that we can be a part of a show that celebrates the great design happening in and around Indy. There’s a lot of talent here, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it! If you’re free Friday, November 6th, we hope you’ll have a chance to mix and mingle with us at the show opening. And, if you find yourself downtown before Thanksgiving, take some time to stop by the gallery. We promise you won’t be disappointed!
PRIME – First Friday Opening
Friday, November 6
5:00-9:00 pm
Dean Johnson Gallery – 646 Massachusetts Avenue
Accepted entries from Miles Design include:
1. Knozone – www.knozone.com
2. Miles Design – 2009 New Year’s Card
3. Kevin Kennedy Associates – Identity System
4. BRAND PHOTODESIGN – Identity System
Congratulations to all the designers with work on display and to all of the companies, clients, and individuals being recognized along with them.
For more information on PRIME and AIGA Indy, visit www.indianapolis.aiga.org
I wanted to note a few announcements, links and other things you may not have seen this summer (unless you’re following us on Twitter). In fact, I didn’t catch a few of these links until earlier this week. (Thanks Melissa!)
Miles Design launched a few website designs this past month. We’ve also found a few articles posted online about our clients and our Indianapolis design firm. So check out the stories below, and keep us posted if you find any others. Enjoy!
Chalet Landscape was featured in Today’s Garden Center as a “Next Generation” marketing website design. Congratulations to Chalet and their team!
In case you missed it, the new Knozone.com and flash game Zoneout launched in June. The game is getting a ridiculous amount of traffic – great to see that! These projects were in partnership with The Basement and Fat Atom. We have seen several web articles on the project. In fact, here’s one now. We’re currently working on a few other Knozone initiatives which should launch later this summer.
We were proud to hear that our letterhead design package for Brand Photodesign won a Silver award in the Neenah Paperworks Letterhead Contest.
A freelance writer for Anderson University did a great story on Cookie, our graphic design intern from AU.
And last, but certainly not least, we launched a major corporate rebranding initiative for Kevin Kennedy Associates Inc., beginning last week. You’ll be seeing more of them on our new website later this Fall, but for now you can check out the new KevinKennedyAssociates.com
That’s it for now… stay tuned for more.
We were very excited to learn that Logo Lounge had selected three of our recent brand identities for their inaugural Master Library Series book, Initials & Crests.
What is the Master Library series? We had the same question. Here’s what Logo Lounge had to say, “Like our existing (and continuing) LogoLounge book series, the new Master Library books will bring you plenty of exemplary logo design work from creatives around the world.
Unlike our original series, though, each book in the Master Library series will focus on a very specific logo design category…”
Sounds good to us. The book should be published “in the next year.” Until then, to see what was selected, continue reading.
Since my last “book club” post I’ve wrapped up my book for January: The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier. And if you’re a brand fanatic like myself, I can’t recommend a better use of two hours of your day. Marty has some spot-on insights regarding design thinking, and manages to make it neither over-simplified, nor ridiculously cerebral.
I also recently wrapped up Tribes by Seth Godin in December. Like most of Seth’s books you could probably read the first few pages and get the point of the entire book, but there are some great examples, and some interesting Godin wit. There are times when I think even Godin is confused about whether he’s speaking of actual faith vs. religion, metaphorical faith vs. religion, or both. Knowing Seth, it’s probably both. Either way, it’s an interesting perspective. Anyone from a business owner to a volunteer in an organization should find this book both interesting and practical. Seth’s Blog is always worth your time as well.
Finally, I wanted to remind all of our new book club comrades that our next book was up for vote. And since I already have Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam in my possession, (and I’m in charge) unless there are any dissenting votes, we’ll be moving along with that one. I’ve got a non-biz book to wrap up before I get started on “Napkin”, but I should be hitting it early February. There’s no rush, and no time limit, so whenever you’ve finished with one of our selections, please share your thoughts – happy reading!
In theory, I’m a part of the Smaller Indiana Business Book Club, which I think is a great concept. In reality, I have my own stack of books that I’m cruising through and haven’t actually made it to a Smaller Indiana Book Club meeting, or even picked up all that many books from SI’s list.
I may not have had much success reading from the other list, but I am reading, so I thought I’d share what I actually am reading to see who would like to join me in the official Miles Design Book Club.
As you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve posted a few of my favorite design, marketing and branding books on the homepage of our blog. I’ll post a new book every month (that I actually will read) and hopefully you’ll join me in reading a few of these titles.
I’m looking forward to your feedback.
December: Tribes by Seth Godin
January: The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier
And a few others I have in the hopper for February, March and April (any votes?):
Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
RSS
Subscribe: Blog updates in your inbox