Designing a Unique Holiday Gift2nd Annual Adopt-A-Family

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!

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Give the gift of Viral:A New Twist on the Holiday Card

The Holiday Greeting card that encourages you to pass it on...



Every year, even creative types like us enjoy a love-hate relationship with Holiday greeting card design. Although we've designed a few award-winners in the past, that only serves to push us to a higher standard for what to do for an encore. This year we wanted to create a greeting card that the recipient was encouraged to immediately re-gift.

So this year instead of designing just one card, we had everyone from our office design their own card. We committed to a color palette, size, paper, and production restrictions (just like a client project) and had everyone work on their own concepts. We then packaged the final set of seven designs up with instructions to "share the love this Holiday." We even created a custom rubber stamping system to embellish the corrugated mailing envelope.


Here's a sample press sheet. All seven designs were printed using the same set of five inks, on one sheet of paper.


Here's what the set looked like together.


We created our own custom stamp to embellish the corrugated envelopes.




And here's another view of the complete set.

And finally, we created a website under our infamous microsite, HolidayCow.com - wherein visitors can gain further insights behind each unique design. We also have a few other pics up on our Miles Design Facebook page.

If you've not received a set, we still have a few left. Just send us your mailing info. In the spirit of "viral season", pass this along to everyone you come into contact with. Happy Holidays!

We welcome your feedback...

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Desiging for Impact: Citizen Effect

Miles Design had the pleasure of working with Citizen Effect (formerly 1WELL) to redesign their website and user experience, working closely with the team at ThriveSmart.

These brilliant and dedicated folks are committed to impacting third world countries in the areas of food, water, energy, health, and education through people they call "Citizen Philanthropists."

You won't find any celebrity endorsements here - Citizen Philanthropists are everyday people making serious impact in third world countries.

Here's how it works. A Citizen Philanthropist becomes the project's fund-raising quarterback, organizing anything from Facebook fundraisers, to garage sales or even dance-a-thons, all to raise money for a project of their choosing. Visitors can search for projects by global location, project type, or population impacted.

From their website citizeneffect.org you can search from projects like this one in Zambia in need of a "Women's Centre." What's really cool about Citizen Effect is how intricately it's tied to various social networks as well. Citizen Philanthropists can blog about their project right on the website, and as a project grows, various photos, videos, and other media will be posted.

So if you're looking for a way to design a little impact this holiday season, check out citizeneffect.org and see if you find a project that speaks to your heart.

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Help Us Give Back - Holiday Gift Drive

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.

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Final Update - Designing a Unique Holiday Gift

We're pleased to report that we have successfully shopped, wrapped, and delivered all of the gifts over the past week. Here's a little of the "evidence" shall we say? If you want to see the photos, you're going to have to click to read more!

To close out our 2008 Christmas Shopping Odyssey, here's a few photos from our adventures:


Nothing brings the office together like the holidays...


Surveying all of our great finds, and it only took two shopping carts... at this store.


Getting ready to brave the weather...


Our second stack of goodies.


One of our families made us paper cranes!

I'd like to give a special thanks to Amanda for heading up all of our shopping activities this year. Great job, and we're looking forward to doing it again next year!

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Update #2 - Designing a Unique Holiday Gift

We've been holding off to share our latest updates... mostly because a few of the details were still up in the air. So as of this week, Miles Design is officially adopting two families this Christmas. And today is our shopping day!

Both families appear to be single mothers. Our first family listed the mother and two boys (eight and twelve). Our second family listed the mother, two girls (eight and fourteen) and a twelve-year-old son.

Their Christmas lists are mostly just the basics: warm clothes, undergarments, school clothes, and a few toys. It's yet another reminder of how blessed we all are.

We're still working on the strategy for shopping this afternoon. There has been talk of splitting into teams for each family - or even splitting up the lists into categories and dividing and conquering in that fashion. Either way, I think we'll figure it out.

We'll be hitting some combination of Old Navy, Kohl's, Meijer, Target, and maybe even Castleton Mall after lunch today. And as requested, we'll take photos of our shopping trip to share with everyone here on the MD News blog. Watch out Castelton!

Our plan is still to keep the afternoon of December 12th as our wrapping day, and December 18th is when we plan to make our deliveries. And as before, if anyone is interested in joining in on the holiday cheer, drop us a line.

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Designing a Unique Holiday Gift

For those of you who have enjoyed our past holiday cards and fun little excursions like HolidayCow.com, we're excited to let you in on a little secret. This year, we're taking a different spin on holiday gifts. We're giving your gift to someone else.

With the roller coaster news from Wall Street this season, we thought this would be a great year to share with those less fortunate. We're still working out the details, but we've decided to use the money we would have spent on you this Christmas to adopt a family in need. And don't worry. We're so excited about what's ahead in this process, we're planning to document our excursion and share in the fun here on our blog.

So stay tuned. There are more good things ahead. And in spite of what the media might have many of us thinking, we're blessed to say, "business is good." And we're lucky to have friends and clients like you. If you have any ideas for our adopt-a-family project, we'd love to hear them.

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Holiday Cow

HolidayCow.com

Some of you are probably thinking, "Uh... a cow?" Others might be thinking "Finally something different this holiday!" And some of my more discerning students may be thinking, how does Holiday Cow relate to the Miles Design brand?

The short of it is, we wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays in a way nobody else would. And we think, even if you do have an innate fear of cows, you will probably find this humorous on some level. At least we do.

Sometimes doing something a little out of the norm is the best way to get noticed. And other times, it's not...

Something that veers towards inappropriate, crude or subversive, is bound to get noticed as well, but not necessarily in a good way. Chances are, the most creative way to get noticed is also appropriate for your brand. Doing something outside of the norm just might help a potential customer imagine your company in a fresh, new way. "Hey, did you see that thing with the cow? You gotta see this."

For us, Holiday Cow is about sending a fun Holiday message to our friends, clients, and vendor partners. It carries on our slightly irreverent sense of humor, our brand look and feel, and just so happens to "moo" occasionally. Hopefully you will enjoy Morty as much as we did creating him for you. (Who knows... maybe next year it will be a Llama, named Ike.)

What have you done with your brand that's outside of the norm (in a good or bad way)? What can your brand do differently in 2008? How can we help?

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