Recently I was browsing the fantastic marketing/business magazine Fast Company and I was blown away by an article that talked about a contest Starbucks was running. Through the ‘2010 Beta Cup Challenge’ Starbucks asked designers how they would make their cups more sustainable and these were just a few of the designs:

Pulp-based Paper cup                                        Inflatable Thermal Cup

Consumable Cookie Cup

Sustainability is becoming an important focus of companies worldwide. Initiatives like the one above and others like The Pepsi Refresh project give companies an opportunity to reach a greater audience than traditional marketing alone. These initiatives also provide an excellent vehicle for media coverage. Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure Starbucks and Pepsi care about sustainability; but, they also get a tremendous amount of media coverage for their efforts—and in Starbuck’s case, free design ideas from some amazing designers.

I’d like to issue a two-part challenge to our blog readers:

Part 1: Take one thing at your company, anything, and find a way to make it more sustainable.
Part 2: Tell me what that sustainable idea is, and I’ll give you 3 ways you can market it.

You never know—with your idea and a way to market it, your co-workers might soon be thanking you for the edible cookie coffee mugs in the cafeteria.

Using materials unique to your project is a great way to stand out. I was reminded of this when I came across this poster created by Anthony Burrill for his Happiness Brussels project. He used actual oil found on the beach in the Gulf of Mexico to create his poster “Oil and water do not mix.” Hopefully this poster will gain some much needed support for this great cause.

His poster got me thinking about other examples I’ve seen of using materials unique to your project: squid inks used on books about the ocean, match heads used to spell out the word love, even Canyon has made advertisements using our client’s actual fertilizer granules (this came complete with a lot of glue and many stuck together fingers—I’m sure the design department remembers fondly).

Best of luck to the project by Happiness Brussels and Anthony Burrill, great work! I want one of the posters.

Recently well known retailer Gap revealed a new logo for its brand. Scrapping its iconic white typeface on blue box logo:

Gap launched a new black-on-white logo with an off-set blue box:

This week however Gap announced it will discontinue all print advertising and in-store uses of the new logo and will return to its logo of old. Why? Because its customers hate it and Gap gave them the perfect platform to voice their distaste by launching this new logo using social media. When the logo was launched, Gap created a Facebook Fan page & Twitter campaign. And, much to Gap’s dismay it learned quite how much the Internet can influence a company’s brand messaging.

That being said, Gap did have the right intention. By using social media as a platform for audience feedback, it opened up the conversation about the logo, engaged its customers to weigh in and, ultimately, Gap listened and is making changes—which is what social media in business is intended to do.

The lesson learned? Social media can be a great, low-cost, marketing tool, yes, but be prepared as to the power it can give your audience and do your homework as to how to handle this. Sometimes the results can be great, but other times, as Gap learned, the money you ‘save’ by utilizing these free tools can cost you far more.

Thanks to the tremendous success last year, Phoenix Design Week is rolling out again. This year, the event is being held September 29–October 3 at the Phoenix Convention Center.

It will include two full days of ADOBE training and a weekend conference with more than 30 national and local-based speakers. Some of the speakers scheduled to appear include Hillman Curtis, Von Glitschka, James Victore, Paul Sahre, Mike Joosse and Brian Singer.

Phoenix Design Week is a great event for anyone with an appreciation for print, web, motion, industrial and interactive design.

The event is presented by AIGA and Dojo Collective and is open to the public. Cost is $125 for the weekend or $75 per day. But, if you get a group of 5 or more attendees together, the cost goes down to $99 per person for the weekend.

Registration closes Saturday October 2 so hurry and get your tickets soon! See you there.