First Friday: What’s A Posture?

First Friday: What’s A Posture?

“What’s a Posture?”

We live on the 3rd floor of a popular downtown spa and salon, so we’re pretty tucked away doing our web design thing. Most spa-goers think we either do waxing, some sort of chiropractic service, or excel in eyelash extensions. We were thrilled at the invitation of our downstairs neighbor, Alexander’s, to exhibit for First Friday. Getting down to business, we set out to create an experiential installation that helped illustrate what we did all day. But just what did that mean? (Besides Doug’s afternoon naps.)

We decided on two concepts which centered around coding and design. At its core, our daily tasks involve putting certain actions, commands or thoughts into a machine (or Macbook Pro) and anticipating a desired result or reaction to make some slick websites. We also use computer programs to help us design unique branding and awesome interactive elements for our projects.

To put our daily workings into a tactile experience, we used a microcontroller called a  Makey Makey (a fun programmable device) to put the spectator in the driver’s seat.  We programmed various interactive pieces around the space with hand-wired controllers projected to large screens. We constructed our own old school video game controller as well as a cornucopia of wired fruit (yes, delicious, nutritious, AND conductive.) Using their own energy as the conductor, visitors became part of the program as well as the designer. Their own actions layered different motions, shapes and sounds on our interactive canvases throughout the evening to create unique works of digital art.

We also exhibited some of our own generative art. What’s that, you ask? Generative art utilizes computer algorithms and user input to build textured patterns of image and design in static and dynamic forms. These selections were produced using software which was programmed to start minimal and grow while exploring the complexities of computer calculations in stunning and captivating visual pieces.  Umm… still sound like Greek?  TL;DR: We created these sweet designs by setting certain rules in the computer and then letting it go wild!

It also turns out that most of our team is, was, or would like to be in a band.  Pooling their talents Captain Planet-style, our musical forces combined for an awesome evening of entertainment.  This, coupled with Kat’s harvest sangria recipe (thanks Pinterest), some culinary delights from Vine Cafe, and a bunch of curious people – all helped answer the question we were asked throughout evening:

“What’s a Posture?”

 


Getting Social with Posture

Recently, we had the opportunity to host a social media and design session with NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) NEPA at the Posture office. We were thrilled to have this opportunity to not only share what we’ve learned over the years as an agency, but also discuss ways we all handle the daily challenges that we all encounter with our businesses on social media.

A lot of great points arose from our session with these driven business leaders, and today we’d like to share our 5 favorite takeaways with you:

Respond (positively) to criticism
It’s tempting to just shut out the haters –  but when you own a business, shutting out a hater means shutting out a customer. And their family. And their friends. And probably their friends of friends. This is what reputation management refers to – actively engaging in online comments and reviews to build customer trust. Responding positively to a bad customer review or comment and trying to “make things right” is more likely to regain trust and prompt the customer to return to a business. Other followers can see how the negative situation was handled and build trust with your business, too. With the proliferation of reviews and recommendations on social media, our peers are now viewed as authorities on a variety of topics. Make sure trashing your business isn’t one of those topics.

Be authentic
Sorry, but your social media followers actually can see through bullshit. If you’re constantly pushing your product or service in their face you’ll come off as “fake.” Try finding creative ways to introduce your product in everyday situations while giving them a glimpse into who you are as a person/group of people. Post about your mission first to show where your values lie. Talk to your social following like you would a friend. Otherwise, your followers will have difficulty relating to you or engaging with you – and will bump you out of their feeds fast.

Take advantage of free resources
We’re not saying these resources can take the place of the quality and depth of detail that an agency (wink, wink) can provide you, but photo editing apps like VSCO Cam can help you improve your image quality outside of Instagram while Canva or PicMonkey can help even the most “design-challenged” folks on a budget create eye-catching image layouts on the fly. License-free stock image sites like Unsplash are a must to protect yourself from copyright infringement – always give credit to the author of your images if you did not take them yourself and they are not clearly labeled as royalty- or license-free. Free post scheduling software baked into Facebook is super helpful for loading up your posts ahead of time – or you could use a platform like Hootsuite or Buffer to manage content on multiple accounts at once.

Variety is the spice of life
Have a sale, event or promotion going on that you really want to push? Great, post away! Using the same image/content and posting it every day of the week, however, isn’t going to attract the attention of your followers as much as it will bore them. Find different ways to frame the same event or promotion that will continually grab potential customers with exciting new announcements and eye-catching images. Even try mixing it up a little every time with the types of events and promotions you post so you and your brand don’t become “socially predictable.”

Have fun :)
Posting on social media shouldn’t be something that keeps you awake at night. Talk about what comes naturally to you and your business in your daily routine and have fun with how you use photos/video to get people’s attention and share your unique experience. Really liking a popular meme? Go on and work it into a post – your followers may see you as more human. You don’t need a whole marketing team to do this – you just need to be you!


ADDY Award win for Metz design

It was a successful night at the NEPA American Advertising Awards (formerly the ADDYs) held earlier this month. Posture proudly accepted a gold award in the category of marketing sales and promotion for the design of the Metz Culinary Management sales kit.  

Posture Team winning  Gold ADDY Award 2017

The Posture team has always been big supporters of The American Advertising Federation, but our favorite event is definitely the ADDYs. Both Kathryn and myself have served on the AAF board of directors for several years and have seen not only the work that goes into this event but also the increasingly competitive quality of entries that come from all across our region.

The Award-winning work

We’re especially proud of this project because it was a true collaboration of not only the Posture team but also our good friends at Metz. We were tasked with packaging sales materials in a new way that would reflect the company values of fun, integrity, quality, hospitality, balance and respect. Once we immersed ourselves in the family-driven, guest-first culture of Metz, our task became much easier.

ADDY award winning Metz Culinary Management sales marketing Using the core company values as our guide we organized information in an interactive and engaging reader experience. Tiered pages created a pacesetting telling the story of the company, while bright colors represented the quality of fresh ingredients. The heart of the packet housed a colorful depiction of the values that drive the team at Metz. A pocket folder in the back of the piece contains matching supplementary material which provides a customizable aspect to the sales piece.

District Two Awards

Our winning work along with eight other professional entries will now advance to Pittsburg where they will represent Northeast Pennsylvania in the District Two competition. District winners will then compete nationally at ADMERICA in New Orleans. Congrats to all of the 2016-2017 ADDY winners!


The Creative Ritual

Sustained creativity isn’t easy. It originates from routine, a bedrock of creative productivity. We struggle with it at times here at Posture – maybe you do as well.

One of the most rewarding things about working in design and development for me is the flow I can fall into during a project, not coming up for air until I feel whatever I’m working on is “finished” and that part of my mind feels satisfied with the results.

Getting to that point, however, is honestly incredibly challenging for me. Coming up with a creative ritual, a foundation and groove I can build and carve out to keep myself moving I’ve found is much more difficult than just plugging headphones into my ears and going to town on something.

Benjamin Franklin made sure to end every day by asking “What good have I done today?” Maya Angelou only wrote in tiny hotel rooms. Jack Kerouac made sure to touch the ground nine times before writing.99u.com

One of my favorite sites to visit to recenter my mind for work is 99u, which featured a really great article entitled  “10 Creative Rituals You Should Steal” that does a deep dive into the creative routines of some of the world’s best thinkers, entrepreneurs, researchers and creatives.

While I am far and away not practicing any of these as religion (yet!), some of them just make sense to me. Namely:

  • Holding a retrospective team meeting after a project to see where everyone’s head is at, how they feel, gripes they have etc.
  • Getting out of the building; sometimes just a 15 minute walk clears my head enough to get back in the game.
  • Take time to let your mind breathe; a vacation of sorts isn’t always a reality but something as simply as honoring your weekends to keep to yourself can make a world of difference.

Check out the full article at the 99u here

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Northeast Woman (right here!)

Kathryn Bondi sits across from us all, doing her thing.  We’re beaming with pride today as it’s exposed that she’s just as busy outside the office inspiring great things as she is daily with us!  Take a peek at our very own resident Northeast Woman!

“What I’ve gotten from this area is a great community,” she added. “There’s a sense of lifting each other and camaraderie, of wanting to see other businesses and events do well. We have to be there for each other. In this area, I feel like no good deed goes unnoticed.”

Read full article here


Posture Sharks in the Everhart Tank

What does summer camp make you think of?  The woods, getting dirty, s’mores and camp fires?   Naturally when our friends at the Everhart Museum asked Tony and I to be part of their summer camp we shared the same concern- ‘are we going to scuff our saddle shoes?’  Then we were told it was a camp called ‘Mini Millionaires’ and it was NOT your traditional summer camp!  

The week-long camp was only one of the many week-long adventures the Everhart offers every summer to kids in grades K-6.  Mini-Millionaires week took campers through the process of inventing, branding, marketing and financing their own product.  At the end of the week, the groups presented to a panel of local ‘sharks’ with the hope of buy-in on their big idea.

 

worksheetExcited at this educational opportunity, Mr. Joey and Mr. Tony got out the white board and prepared a lesson.  Our week began on Wednesday- our young entrepreneurs had already begun designing their products and our task was to help them brand their new inventions.  Using Tucan Sam and Cap’n Crunch as our tour guides, we dove into the world of branding and advertising- and boy were we impressed with these young minds!   From a fork that would spin your pasta to a space-saving couch that converts to a table and bed, it was clear these kids had some serious ideas- seriously good ideas!

Through our cereal inspired exercise, we helped kids identify the elements of a successful brand and then apply those elements to their own product.  The outcome was solid logo designs for each group to identify their product and use in their presentation later in the week.

Everhart_sharks

At the end of the week, we were honored to be invited back for the campers final presentations of their branded products.  ‘Sharks’ joining us on the panel included Michelle Pane of Fidelity Bank & Trust, Aurore Giguet, Executive director of the Everhart Museum and Katie Gilmartin of Nada & Co.  To say we were collectively impressed is an understatement!  Mr. Wondeful and Lorie Granier would have been battling it out to jump on these ideas!  Great job kids!  And Bravo Everhart on another fantastic program for our kids!


Peep Our New Posture Peeps

In any random leadership book, they tell you to surround yourself with people smarter than you.  I’m insanely blessed that over the last couple years we’ve somehow grown our team with passionate, talented individuals that have truly shaped every inch of Posture as we know it.

 

Rob, Mat & I recently embarked on a crazy mission to expand our team.  The hiring process is a super daunting one, especially with a small group like ours (and looking to hire actual full-time humans to come in the office and play with us). I’m pleased the long search is over and I’m absolutely in love with the synergy of our expanded crew. I proudly welcome Kathryn Bondi & Kevin O’Boyle to Posture.

 

Kathryn is no stranger to start-ups, having grown with the local internet success story, Net Driven, leading the design team almost since their inception.

 

Relocating back to the area, Kevin is a gifted full stack developer who successfully ran his own development business and now will graciously be contributing more of those same talents with us.

 

There’s a lot more to these peeps than their resume (like how you can never talk about the most current episode of Game of Thrones in front of Kevin), but to find out you’ll have to stop by the office to meet them yourself!

 

Welcome welcome!  Peep our full team.

 


Local ADDY winners revealed; Posture Interactive wins Best in Show

Excerpt from Scranton Times Article:

Scranton-based Posture Interactive won Best of Show at the annual American Advertising Awards held Friday night by the American Advertising Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Posture Interactive received the top award at the event at the Radisson at Lackawanna Station hotel for its “Electric City Roasting Seasonal Packaging Campaign” in the sales promotion packaging category. It was among the nearly 50 awards handed out.

Gold Award winners from the local level compete in District 2 in New York City, with top winners from the district heading to the national American Advertising Awards competition in California.

The student “Best of Show” award went to David C. Bonomo from Marywood University for the Poster Campaign, “Shakespeare Summer Series.” Marywood University student Casey Nicholas Peckio received the Judges’ Choice award for Sales Promotion Packaging Campaign titled “Beer Bottle 4 Pack Labels.”

Read full article here


Is This the New Google Glass?

You’re looking at what could be the future design for Google’s Glass project. A slew of new photos were posted to the FCC’s website yesterday, and with that came some interesting new speculation on the future of face computers.

 

On the outside, the design looks roughly the same, with some notable changes – it’s foldable, which is a definite improvement over the previous design, and includes a larger prism for better interaction with your notifications. According to 9to5Google, the internal upgrades revolve around an Intel Atom processor, faster 5GHz WiFi connectivity, and a much-needed improvement to battery life. Unfortunately, it seems this particular Glass design won’t be destined for consumers, even though it’s been almost 2 years since the original was met with lukewarm reception.

With the ever-increasing popularity of wearable tech like smartwatches, is it time for people to embrace smartglasses too? Google’s early concept video certainly makes it seem pretty amazing, although the reality has yet to meet expectations.


~Come Together~

Some things are just meant to be. Peanut butter and jelly, root beer and ice cream, cats and every box ever – and now, Valerie Kiser Design and Lavish Body & Home!

Recently two of our favorite clients teamed up in a collaboration of stunning design and luxurious products. Sharing a similar style of classic black and white, bold patterns and a focus on a lifestyle that’s… well Lavish… makes these two a match made in heaven!  Lavish’s beautiful downtown Scranton storefront provides the perfect place to showcase Valerie’s collection of elegant hand-printed linen cloths, classic cotton pillows, and tons more.

VKD_lavish_square

VKD and Lavish came to us independently, both looking to further their brand and create an exciting online presence.  As we became intimately familiar with the VKD and Lavish brands, it became obvious this was a natural fit! It came as no shock to us when all of our worlds collided with the announcement of this collaboration.  After one of our infamous Posture happy dances we got right to work!

We had the honor of creating ads, social images, posters, other collateral to cross promote between the brands and build excitement around this great partnership!

The next time you’re in downtown Scranton be sure to pop into Lavish Body & Home, and check out the Valerie Kiser Design Collection! We love it when our friends become friends!

 

VKD-Lavish-4x62

 


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