Check out some lovely photos here, and if you’d like a copy, just drop us a line at socialmedia@designit.com, on our Facebook page, or tweet us at @SocialDesignit. You can have the PDF or a hard copy, and it won’t cost you a dime. Go on – what have you got to lose?

See? Lovely. Get in touch now and grab a copy while it’s hot!

It’s a great little collection of ways by which you can keep the juices flowing, and to stop your mind getting stuck in the quicksand of lethargy and monotony.

Creativity and innovation are hot topics right now. As a creative and innovative company, we have quite a lot of good stuff floating about the place, from room to room, and from inside to hanging outside with a cup of coffee. It’s not something you can keep inside, certainly not when it comes to the kind of people creative and innovative companies tend to hire.

In Frog Design’s article ‘Finding Creative People is Easy (and Here’s How)‘, Kate Canales talks about how creative people are not as hard to come by as we might think. She defines a creative person as one who “has the ability to identify and deeply understand a problem, and then solve that problem by breaking the conventions of the status quo.” She goes on to discuss how creativity can be encouraged in employees, and how you can bring out the creative in many different kinds of people. While this is something I believe it – we all have imaginations, and we should all use them – I think I’d like to add that creative people and places should not be afraid to fail. We (and many others) believe failure is a big part of creativity, and it certainly shouldn’t be frowned upon. Perhaps this is what defines a different type of people?

Failure is always an option. If you don’t succeed, try, try and try again – it’s something we’re told from our earliest days, but as the years go by, we are taught to be cautious, and to think before we act. We like to think that risk goes a long way. If it doesn’t work – start again. No failure is wasted.

So how do we keep these devil-may-care creative people under control in our zoo? As David Kelley so rightly states, “Leadership is […] building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.” You want things done? Find out what will make those people happy, and let them do it. Between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, intrinsic will come out trumps almost every time.

Our hiring process at Designit is, as we like to say, chemistry, chemistry, and then competences. Sure it matters that you have skills, or came top in your class, but we’d much rather hire someone we like, and someone who will add to the team, and definitely like us.

Once we’ve found that certain someone, we like to let them do their things, their way. Some people like late mornings, others early, and our hours reflect that. Work when you want. If you’re tired during the day, much rather you take a nap and work with a fresh mind than produce sloppy work. Needless to say, clients come first, and we’ll always be there if they call or need us. We’re not that lazy.

Our sofa-bed downstairs (please note the Post-its for those great ideas you get first thing in the morning!)

You could think of it as a bit like Google’s 80/20 rule, in that as long as you put in the hours and get the job done, how you do it is really up to you. Everyone works in different ways, whether you like a straight-up 9 to 5, or whether you like to doodle and stare out the window from 7 to 3, it’s up to you. We want our zoo to be happy, to work hard, and to be proud.

We’ve recently become partners with the Danish Red Cross, a partnership we’re proud of, and we’re sure will produce some great work. We’ve donated a total of 5000 working hours to be used over the next 3 years on projects.

We’ve already held one workshop with them which took place around Christmas 2009 and as a result of that, we found our first project goal; to double last year’s result of money collected. Challenges have been identified, and ideas brainstormed, and the project is now taking shape.

This type of cooperation is new to us at Designit, and it’s proving to be an exciting opportunity to use our entire creative palette and crisscross all of our different competencies, in new and inspiring combinations. By increasing the focus on companies’ social awareness and responsibility we hope the initiative will spread.

There’s a lot of talk at the moment in the design community about whether or not design can change the world. We think it can. Sure, it might not do it directly, but it can certainly help. From simple tools to healthcare, from instructional guides to education, design can play a part in making life better for people around the world.

Below you can see some photos from our workshop. With a seriously good chunk of Designit working away all day on it, you can be sure we came up with some great ideas and proposals on how we can help the Red Cross achieve their target.

The speakers were Yun Mi Antorini, Assistant Professor at Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, Founder of boblr.com, and Troels Nørlem, Senior Communication Strategist at Designit. Each gave motivating, detailed cases on how social media can play a pivotal role in user-driven innovation. Through examples such as LEGO Mindstorms, Quirky,  #18DaysInEgypt, Boblr, and more, Yun Mi, Malene and Troels argued the case for involving the users in innovation.

Malene highlighted four points she learnt on her journey founding Boblr. Don’t try to map it out – creativity and innovation are chaotic. There’s no point in trying to make a definite plan as the chances are things won’t go as you expected – take a leap of faith. No one is permanent – there is no definite structure or hierarchy. Neither is it strictly local – if you have a global user base – use it! Finally; just do it – you have to leap in, head first, and see where the flow takes you. Each presentation reflected these points. Companies, brands and organisations must tear down their walls and open up to users. As Malene so rightly said; if your service or product doesn’t fulfill users’ needs, they’ll find a way around this. You might as well learn from them.

It was a super afternoon that ended with some networking, wine, and sandwiches in the sun. Thanks to all that made it.

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Today we headed off to Open App 2011, an two-day event held by The IT University of Copenhagen. The first day focused on developing apps, the second on the market value of having an app. Unfortunately we could only attend for a short while on the second day, but we made it! Martin Delfer, partner and Director of Brand and Communication, gave a 30 minute talk on Designit’s role in the app world.

Covering the transition from print to web and from web to app, Martin demonstrated the benefits and value of creating an app through cases Designit has worked on. Martin can’t talk for more than 10 minutes without making a joke, so needless to say, on more than one occasion he had the audience in laughter, and his fellow Designits shaking their heads.

It was a great morning, and if you didn’t catch us this time, hopefully you will in the near future! Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with events, and check out Designit.com too.

To whet your appetite, here are some pictures. Enjoy!

No, you can’t see anymore. If you want more, you’ll have to ask for one (either comment here, tweet @SocialDesignit, or email lara.mulady@designit.com – remember your address!).

We know that the consumer is not king, that’s a 90’s mantra, but neither is the brand king. The playing field is levelled, and with that, brand and user meet each other on common ground. We work together as one unit.

We all know the story about Henry Ford, cars, and faster horses, which is in effect what this article claims Apple and IKEA adhere to, and of course, there is some truth in that. Just look at crowdsourcing; not exactly the death of advertising it was once touted by some to be. However, I don’t think any brand believes exclusively in the ‘user as leader’. User-centeredness doesn’t mean ‘what the user says goes’ as this article implies. It means involving the user from the outset, taking the views and opinions of the end-user and then incorporating the skills and talents of designers and creatives to help evolve, enhance, and refine the ideas.

The whole process is easily explained through our approach; we, (Designit) and you (the client) both create the solutions you need. We constantly throw ideas back and forth, never losing sight of the market or your customers, meaning that the end result fits perfectly with your expectations, your customers, and your ideals.

No brand relies solely on their users, and no brand completely ignores their users (even Apple!). Winning innovation and winning design are born from collaboration. It’s worked extremely well for us over the past 11 years, and it’s only getting better.

It’s lovely.

It demonstrates primarily through images how we execute business strategies for various clients. We weave every aspect of a brand into a united strategy covering all media and platforms, with the client’s unique business context at the centre of everything we do. Every time.

Just as exciting is our ‘The Irresistible at First Glance Book’ (which covers our product design), which we haven’t even got yet! We’ve only seen the PDF, and think it’s safe to say that the printed version is going to be just as smooth and tactile as the branding book.

Feel free to tweet me (@SocialDesignit) or comment here if you’d like a copy. We’ll have them to dish out on Tuesday (22/02). Check out some lush pictures below….

In the US, brands have long since recognised the power of female bloggers. But only now is the rest of the world waking up to this lucrative phenomenon. And it’s rapidly changing the rules of advertising, marketing and even brand management.

Women bloggers are the new advertising heavyweights. They control a huge audience – a whopping 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week.

And a survey published by BlogHer this year revealed that around 50% of women consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information and are directly influenced by blogs in their purchase decisions.

So how are brands reacting? Businesses now send promo items to bloggers in an attempt to win their favour. Even Wal Mart publicly admits working with a team of female bloggers to promote the company.

My advice: take a more deliberate and inclusive approach to women bloggers. They can make or break your product’s success in the female consumer segment, so find out what they’re saying about you. If you decide to actively engage with them, read the blog to understand its editorial agenda before approaching the blogger.

The times are a’ changing. Women have long since established themselves as the stronger sex and influential consumers. And now they are ruling the blogosphere too. A safer option than letting us men lead the way…

My new design thrill is time. After 17 years of designing, it’s occurred to me that companies continually fail to consider one important parameter: time factor. Put simply, this is the amount of time a user is willing to spend on your product, service or communication solution before they give up and walk away.

Take this American billboard, for example. It may not be pretty, but it sure as hell works.

Why? Its design acknowledges the fact that people only have a split second to get the message. A two-word eye-catching question against a brightly coloured background attracts your attention in a flash and quickly communicates the product.

It competes hands down against the hundreds of other billboards in the city, which demand as much as 10 seconds from passers by. Just a thought … Check out Thinkaboutit for more reflections on the design time factor.