It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of the City of Ottawa’s Light Rail website!

Many Ottawans felt as though they were left in the dark when it came to the City’s big Light Rail Transit (LRT) plans. Well folks, there is no longer any need to feel mal-informed. Thornley Fallis and 76design in collaboration with the Light Rail Implementation Team have created an “information-sharing mechanism” that arms the citizens of Ottawa with more than sufficient information relating to the project plan.

The communications efforts applied by Thornley Fallis & 76design were strategic and smart; we have received positive results on the site and its search functions, information content, structure and ease-of-use.

The website in particular has proven to be the most crucial piece of the puzzle. The website we’ve created is meant to engage the entire City; to provide all the facts our users require to fully understand the project and to provide them with a platform to communicate their feelings towards the project.

With the integration of various social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), interested citizens are able to keep up-to-date and connect with the Light Rail Implementation Team with any questions or concerns. Any questions submitted to the team will be answered in a timely fashion; responses will then be posted on the website. The LRT website helps make a difference by providing comfort to Ottawans by reminding them that Light Rail green and it will only improve the City.

Since yesterday’s launch, the LRT project is getting great media play, print and radio; it is noted that there are happy people all around.

As designers during these rapidly changing times it is more important than ever to exercise flexibility and adaptability in the approach we take to our work. With the competitive nature of our business, the ever evolving vehicles of communication and the state of our recovering economy, our clients have become pretty demanding when it comes to us delivering the goods. If we can’t deliver to their expectations, they know someone else is waiting in the wings, hungry and ready to take over. 

I said it before and I’ll continue to say it “one size does not fit all”. Each client we work for and every individual project we work on has unique objectives and goals and therefore we need to make sure that we take a unique approach to each one and that means being flexible. 

A lot of times it’s smooth sailing. Good ideas flow quickly and client “buy-in” happens without a hitch. However, there are those occasions when things become a little more challenging, when it takes more time and effort than normal to deliver “the goods”. It’s during these times that we ask ourselves “what happened?” The reality is a number of things could have happened and the fact of matter is you still need to deliver. Great designers find a way to adapt on the fly, extending themselves further and further with each new challenge that’s thrown their way. In the end it’s a win-win situation, the client gets delivery of a project and the designer has taken the opportunity to grow and work beyond their past limitations. We are fortunate enough at 76design to have on staff a group of great designers that have shown me the true meaning of adaptability and flexibility. I’d like to take this opportunity to say, “thanks guys!”

Being a designer is not always easy. Deadlines can be tight, projects can be challenging, clients can be really demanding. But being adaptable in the face of challenge makes it easier for everyone involved and that’s a good thing.

To further illustrate my point I leave you with a quote from the late great Bruce Lee, one of the greatest martial artists in history, “Be formless, shapeless like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.” 

I am pleased to announce  the launch of  Thornley Fallis & 76design’s new online presence.

Our new websites, conceptualized, designed and developed by  our team of creative masterminds and technology all-stars, exemplifies our capacity to push the limits of innovation  in the world of social media and digital marketing.

Thornley Fallis & 76design is made up of individuals with fun, smart and professional personalities; personalities that have all contributed to the success of marketing & communications projects. To fully demonstrate  the range of personalities, talent and intelligence our  team has to offer, we’ve done something  a little outside the box.  Something very brave… or maybe something very stupid – we’ll let you know ;-)

We’ve created a live LifeStream for every one of our employees. This is more than just a standard funny profile picture and biography.  It is an aggregate of their work and online profile, intended to paint a picture of who they are, what they do, what they think and what they are interested in.

To explore the diverse and unique characters at Thornley Fallis and jokers at 76design, take a look through our people profiles and find out who you could be working with on your next project.

Not only is our team exceptionally talented (and good-looking), we are experienced & passionate about the work we do.  While adventuring through our People pages, zoom over to the Work & Services sections to see what Thornley Fallis & 76design has to offer.

My colleagues and I hope you enjoy perusing through our new sites.

Oh and one more thing… if you like what you see, don’t hesitate to call us, we’d love to hear from you!

Give me an “X’, give me another “L”, give me an “I”, give me another….

You get it the drift. Today is Super Sunday, average joes across the Americas and elsewhere, will don their “colours”, slaughter 100′s of buffaloes for their magical wings, drink a lake’s worth of beer, take a nap, skip bathroom breaks to watch commercials, and then experience some the most over-hyped mediocre (correction:electrifying) football ever. Yes friends, Superbowl XLIII will showcase the Steelers of Pittsburgh and the Cardinals of Arizona. Both teams have a deep heritage in the league, all the way back when the Superbowl was a naive single roman numeral.

If you have haven’t reached your Superbowl ingestion limit yet, the New York Times had a few prominent designers take a couple snaps at re-doing the logo. It is interesting to note that a common graphic element was common in a few of the logos. See if you can notice. It gives an insight into this wacky creative world; just because you came up with an idea, doesn’t mean that it is that original.

Anyhoo, check out the logos, stuff your faces, enjoy the game and ‘Go (inserts team name)!, Kill the loser (insert team name)!’.

What does a retired General, a former Olympian and a man they call “Dog” have in common? If you said they’re all speakers available through the National Speakers Bureau, you’d win the big stuffed narwhal.

For over 35 years, the National Speakers Bureau has garnered a reputation as the source for event speakers. They are the sole agents for over 100 speakers, and they work with over a thousand others in North America and abroad.

They came to 76design with a request, upgrade their brand. This included a new logo and revamping their site. During our analysis of their brand, we felt that their existing website didn’t accurately reflect the class of speakers they had, nor did it “speak” (so punny!) to their great customer service.

76 updated their corporate logo, created a brand new site with a focus on bringing their speakers to the forefront, improving the speakers search functions, and we also created a new interactive module on the homepage. Overall, our goal was to facilitate the user experience, but also motivate potential clients to call one of their reps to assist them through the booking process. The new National Speakers Bureau site launched January, 2009.

Take a spin on NSB.com, and book yourself a speaker or two. On a personal note, I am awaiting the confirmation that Strombo is coming to my Super Bowl party. Fingers Crossed!

Conair Consumer Products Inc. (with our assistance) has recently released its newest product with a contest micro-site, driving its line of hair related products to a whole new level.

Conair, Helps You Tame The Beast

For all you lovely ladies out there who can’t seem to take control of that beast we all call “hair”, I introduce to you the Infiniti Nano Silver by Conair. Simply put, it is the #1 most effective hair straightener on the market. The person who thought of adding steam to a hair straightener is an absolute genius. Not only does it make your hair look vibrant and lustrous, removes all frizz and protects it from the humidity, it takes no time at all. Take my words and check out the website to see what other features and benefits this product has to offer, www.conairsteamstraight.com.

Aside from my obsession with this fabulous “life-saver”, you deserve a little S.O.S. too. The “Tame the Beast” website, was a concept conceived by Conair and 76design/Thornley Fallis. It is your gateway to owning one of these magnificent hair straighteners along with other Conair and John Frieda hair related products. The contest closes on December 17th so don’t wait too long, visit the site, watch some videos, enter the contest and most important…don’t forget to tell your friends. The secret needs to be unleashed so go spread the word.

ENJOY!

You may be familiar with the Italian clothing brand Diesel. Trendy, cool, hip stuff. And generally very creative campaigns highlighting their edgy brand. (For example, their logo is a guy with a Mohawk and their slogan is “Only the Brave”).

I recently visited the Diesel website and sent them this email via their customer service page:

“Hi. About 10 years ago I purchased a pair of silver Diesel glasses. I have worn them ever since. They are not only the best glasses I have ever owned but probably the best value of anything I have ever bought. They have endured despite the arrival of my two kids, who grabbed and flung them around more times than I can remember. I also love the look. You can see a picture of me wearing them if you search my name – JOHN SOBOL on Facebook. (I’m the guy with the flower on his head!
But I am not just writing to praise your glasses but to ask whether or not you still have any pairs like mine kicking around anywhere in storage. Mine are on their last legs and I haven’t found anything like them in any of the many stores I’ve been to. I would be very happy to buy a pair, or a few pairs from you, if you can locate any. Thanks.”

The next day I got this response:

John,

Carlotta
Diesel Customer Care

It is not possible to reply directly to this message.

Now I know Carlotta was just doing her job as she’s been told to do it (assuming Carlotta is not simply an automated reply function, which I suspect she may be) but considering the unusual (for me, anyway) degree of loyalty I expressed to Diesel in my email, this response amounts to a complete kiss-off. How disappointing. I mean, if you are going to bother having a “Customer Care Centre” you should at least show that in some small way you do actually care about your customers. Unfortunately for me, Diesel apparently doesn’t.

We recently redesigned the Portrait Gallery of Canada’s website, including a flash exhibition of fascinating collection highlights. Happily, our work was mentioned in an article about the Portrait Gallery in today’s Globe and Mail. The Portrait Gallery doesn’t yet have a new physical home, but we’re pleased that people are noticing its new virtual home.

You can find the Globe and Mail article here. And you can find the Portrait Gallery of Canada website here.

A beautiful way to discover what the world of travel has to offer!

P.S. It’s a 76design site!