12×6 (Summer ’21 Edition)
Not to belabor the point, but back-to-the-office vibes feel great for a lot of us right now. A team of four like ours really feels the boost of creativity (not to mention the across-the-street caffeine perks) when we’re together in the studio. We hope you’re all safe, healthy, and enjoying some IRL facetime as summer kicks into high gear.
There’s No Looking Back
We kicked off 2021 rallying around the fitting mantra of “Onward”, given *everything* (we’re looking at you, 2020). We coerced our friends into joining the positivity movement by sending them some swag.
Tom & Dan Hit Six
A tale of two celebrations: in January, we surprised Tom with an Indian lunch delivery at home. In May, we were all able to enjoy a lunch out for Danniversary. Unique circumstances hopefully behind us, we're looking forward to all the in-person studio celebrations we can get.
10 Years of Photoshop Eye Rolling
Photoshop Etiquette, a “helpful” guide promoting tidy Photoshop habits, turned 10 this year. Dan reflected on creating buzz with something that was initially intended for smaller audiences.
Our Faces All In One Place
Admittedly, we had to play a little catch-up when the world went all Zoom. As we’ve come back into the studio, we’ve played around with a few new toys that’ll intelligently help our conference room look great on video calls.
Teaming Up for a Worthy Cause
In our latest collaboration with the Attention Span crew, we helped refresh cancernutrition.org, a site dedicated to providing resources for cancer treatment & recovery. Among the upgrades: brighter colors, sweeping curves, and a more generous scale.
Adjacent In Spirit
We made the best of a remote anniversary celebration for #9, thanks to Nate’s booze boxes filled with cocktail fuel for days (and nights). We used the occasion to support Rise Above Poverty, a group working to provide Syracuse youth with basic necessities so they can focus on education.
The New-ish & Improved hormelfoods.com
We were able to help our Hormel Foods friends launch a significant 2020 project this April: a site-wide style refresh. Many elements gained editor-friendly flexibility and gave us a consolidated foundation to continue building on.
Hello, Walton
A child-free workspace. A waning reliance on Slack. Easier lunch options. Walking distance to Starbucks. We don’t know… actual socialization?! Whatever the benefit, it’s been delightful to return to Downtown Syracuse lately. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see your faces there soon, too.
Sometimes We Cut Up & Let Loose
A recent project with our Wegmans friends put us in a familiar position: creating digital patterns by cutting up a printed guide. Since we’ve done a few of these print-to-web projects now, Dan blogged about what’s involved and how we make it work.
A Closer Look at Design Systems
On the heels of refreshing hormelfoods.com, we broke down how periodic audits — especially of nuance-y stuff — can help design systems preserve the consistency and efficiency benefits they typically extol. No demolition required!
Nice Wheels, Mr. Peanut
We’re as excited as anyone that Planters® is part of the Hormel Foods family now. So of course we jumped at the chance to help with a “Request the Nutmobile” landing page in a pinch.
Personalized Recommendations On So Many Levels
JavaScript libraries aren’t one-size-fits-all. Who knew? Apparently us, and Tom blogged about an adventurous path we took with the Wegmans Digital Customer Experience team in pursuit of a future-friendly solution.