Check out these beautiful posters by volunteer artists for Design Hope Toronto's Greater Good Gala. The grassroots organization will be hosting their annual art auction on May 23, in support of the St. Felix Centre.

Learn more about these talented artists here and don't forget to purchase your poster!

As design lovers, we love any evening where the possibility of picking up one-of-a-kind art is high—especially if it's for a good cause. That's why we're marking our calendars for Design Hope Toronto's Greater Good Gala on May 23. The ninth annual live art auction and raffle consists of 26 works of art based around the theme of shelter, all donated by local artists. Proceeds will be going to the St. Felix Centre.

Our designer Aimee Wood, who's on the organizational committee will be on hand after months of planning and hard work.

"This year we'll be hosting our event at The Burroughes Building on Queen Street West, which we are really excited about," she says. "We like to think of the gala as much more than an art auction. It’s really a social event with an opportunity to look at some fantastic art pieces, enjoy the auction and network."

Marcia Young, from CBC's The World This Weekend, will be hosting this year's event and Bill Kime of Waddington's is returning as a live auctioneer.

Get your tickets in advance and be automatically entered to win one of the 2014 Design Series posters by Bob Hambly, Ben Weeks, Leonard Wyma, and Alexia McGinty!

1. Provide them with the right tools, whether it’s an iPad, budgeting app or a few freebies to give to clients (Jays game anyone?).

2. Get to know your team member’s individual strengths and weaknesses to personalize their duties. If people are doing things they’re good at they’ll probably be happier too.

3. Provide personalized incentives to reward your employees for good work.

4. Hold a daily team meeting to reinforce goals and answer questions in a cohesive way.

5. Provide team projects when you can so members can work off each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

6. Don’t forget the old solutions! Sometimes a quick phone call is a lot easier than an email.

7. Give your team flexibility so they can meet customer’s needs.

8. Allow your employees to make mistakes so they won’t be afraid to take risks.

9. Make sure you have a process in place so project overviews don’t get lost in the shuffle.

10. Reinforce the customer—see through his/her eyes.

11. Train employees by granting them access to conferences and workshops that will help them think outside the box.

12. Listen more than you speak!

13. Measure your goals so you always have something to work towards.

14. Provide a budget for your employees to invest in networking. Sometimes meeting for lunch or golf is more effective than a cold call.

15. Trust your team and they’ll trust you back. Have faith in their expertise.

16. Don’t micromanage—allow them to take ownership of their work.

17. Make your business an open book!

It's judgement day! Our Principal Susan McIntee is judging entries for the 2014 Applied Arts Design Awards at S1 Studios today! It was quite an honour to be asked and we'll keep you updated on the results.

Flip your calendars! It's finally April. This month we're talking all things sales on our blog and social profiles.

Is your company experiencing sales slump? Empower your marketers with cool tools and pick-up some svelte sales strategies (for free, no less) all April long.

When considering whether or not to hire an agency, there’s no straightforward answer. However, there are a few things you should consider.

Social Media is a full-time job

Believe us, tacking social media onto someone else’s other responsibilities will not work in the long run. Everyone from web developers to account managers claim social media as a “side” responsibility however you should keep in mind:

The time. Hunting down story ideas, replying to followers quickly, posting newsworthy updates and maintaining an “always on” presence requires constant maintenance. Sure, there are auto-programmers out there but you want to make sure to keep your accounts in real-time as much as possible. This is a full-time job.

The voice. Nailing down your company’s voice requires a plugged-in writer or digital marketer who understands the brand and industry. Social media coordinators and strategists have a skillset that is unique from anyone else.

Hiring an agency might give you more bang for your buck

You could hire a full-time strategist to manage your social accounts but in the long run, hiring an agency might make more sense. For one thing, you get an entire team of writers, designers and web gurus at your service. For another, many agencies have specific expertise in measuring analytics and improving SEO.

Integrated campaigns

If you have an agency that’s handling your print campaigns, it’s a good idea to make sure print and social is integrated. It’s much more effective and will help drive sales. Sometimes companies have their own social media coordinator who manages each account, but they still work with agencies to help with branding, writing and measuring.

While every company is different, put some thought into your objectives with social media. Online marketing is no longer an option, it’s mandatory and if you don’t get on board now you could be losing out on many opportunities.

So overall, remember — there's a lot of work that goes into social media campaigns and you have to dedicate the proper resources to this evolving medium.

New In Homes feature: "10 Minutes with Michoel Klugmann of Lindvest"

Required reading today: A Q&A with Michoel Klugmann, Vice President of Lindvest. He goes into the beautiful rebranding that we had the opportunity to spearhead with the company.

Whether you're redesigning a simple logo or your company's entire image, here are 16 branding mistakes to avoid.

1. Designing your company's logo on Paint or PowerPoint with special use of the spray paint tool.

2. A cliched tagline like: “Making customer smile, since the year XYZC." 

3. Cluttering your brochures with cheesy images you found on Clipart.

4. Rolling out brand changes poorly.

5. Not having a mobile website.

6. Not doing what your preach. If you’re a social media company, make sure you OWN your feeds. 

7. Choosing a name that's hard to pronounce—if people stutter over your name, they’re definitely not going to remember it.

8. Choosing a name that's overused and tired.

9. Offering the same services as everyone else. What’s your angle? How are you different?

10. Not monitoring or tracking your branding efforts to see if they’re actually successful.

11. Choosing employees that don’t reflect your company branding and culture—they have to understand what you’re about.

12. Offensive campaigns (need we mention Bic For Her pens?).

13. Choosing platforms that don’t align with your target market. If you’re demographic is teenagers, why aren't you on Instagram?

14. You don’t let your employees visit Facebook—your employees should be able to build their personal brand too! It reflects on your overall company culture.

15. Not being able to explain your brand in 15 seconds or less.

16. Being too serious—let loose! Have some fun and show off your personality.

Our team had the chance to stop by Toronto’s DX3 conference on March 5 for Eric Harris’ keynote speech. The EVP of Business Operations at BuzzFeed shared some of the site’s secrets to viral success. While science plays a big part in it (tracking analytics and making predictions) there's a fine art behind content too.

People are more likely to share content if it has:

Inspiration

People are more likely to share inspiring content than embarrassing. Check out "A Love Story in 22 Pictures."

Identity

Even though a small majority of your audience might fit into a certain identity, you should still publish content that resonates with those who have a unique identity. Think of people who are left-handed—they’re going to share humorous posts because it communicates who they are. Check out "14 Reasons School is Basically Torture for Left-Handed People."

Humour

People share content that’s funny because it makes you look good plus it’s a great way to share a laugh with a friend or colleague.

Cute animals

They deserve respect and if you don’t laugh at Basset Hounds running or cute kittens, you’re not human. No one’s embarrassed to share this content either—it can be shared with anyone.

Nostalgia

People love to be brought back to a simpler time and be reminded of their childhood. Nostalgia is a great way to communicate and share memories with people on your Facebook page (who have probably been with you for a long time).

BONUS:

Intelligent articles

Anything that makes you look smart.

Mobile

Don’t ignore mobile. Most people sleep with their phone and check it when they go to bed and when they wake up.

Congratulations to all our clients who were nominated for BILD Awards 2014. We're so honoured to have worked on these fantastic projects.

BILD 2014 nominations:

Harmony Village

Best PR Campaign

Pinnacle

Best Brochure

Lindvest

Best Signage

Best Website

Best Home Design (Under 1500)

Smart House

Best High Rise Building Design

Best Brochure

Best Sales Office

Best Project Logo

Best Website

Best Suite Design

Best Video

Best Print Ad

TheHUB

Best E-mail Marketing Piece

When BuzzFeed started in 2006, five people were crammed into a small office in Manhattan’s Chinatown, experimenting with new media. Today, the site has over 425 employees and gets more than 150 million uniques per month, including 12 million in Canada. 

Our team had the chance to stop by Toronto’s DX3 conference on March 5 for Eric Harris’ keynote speech. The EVP of Business Operations at BuzzFeed shared some of the site’s secrets to viral success, gleaned from the company's learning labs—a unique investigation of online media that the website spearheads.

1. The vast majority of people get their news and information through news and social.

Your Aunt Glenys might still go through old school platforms like AOL, but today, millennials don’t subscribe to newspapers—they obsessively check their mobile devices to communicate with friends and discover new content. Harris says this is the core place where they engage with what they find.

2. Find the heart in your content. 

How can BuzzFeed simultaneously publish content about serious news alongside cat videos? Harris likens the Internet to a Paris café. Picture this. Sicily 1956. You walk into a Parisian café and find a man talking about serious issues with his friends. If a cute puppy walks by, will he ignore it? No. He’s probably going to pet the dog and say “what a cute puppy.” That doesn’t make him stupid, it makes him human. The lesson: You have to dig into your consumers' hearts. Find content that’s serious, fun, nutritious and delicious.

3. Tap into the “art” of viral.

Make sure your content is worthwhile and shareable. Harris says people prefer things that tap into: inspiration, identity, humour, cute animals, nostalgia, intelligence and mobile. We’ll talk more in depth about this tomorrow. Check back then!

4. Tap into the "science" of viral.

Harris recommends you constantly measure how content is being spread and shared so you can promote the winners. Tracking analytics also allows you to predict what content will be successful. Remember that content is all about immediacy so make sure you’re tracking posts as soon as possible.

5. Optimize the promotion of your content.

According to Harris, optimizing your headlines and thumbnails will do wonders for your SEO. Make sure your headlines are direct, concise and provide an expectation of what to expect. For example, “15 cheesiest rap videos of 1994” will probably perform better than “15 best music videos.” Your audience is much less likely to be disappointed when their anticipation is met.

6. Optimize your share buttons.

Be smart with your share buttons, says Harris. For example, BuzzFeed found Pinterest users were sharing content about DIY and recipes so they made their Pinterest share button larger on these articles.

7. Experiment and pioneer.

Don’t be afraid to try new platforms like WhatsApp and Snapchat. There are so many new technologies to experiment with on mobile and tapping into them early on could benefit you in the long run.

8. Video streaming is only going to become more important.

Prime time no longer exists, Harris says. People are increasingly grabbing a glass of wine and their iPad when they get home to watch YouTube videos instead of their television (or at least watching YouTube during commercials). Fifty percent of BuzzFeed’s video content is mobile so people can watch short videos anywhere and everywhere. Generally, 9 pm to 10 pm is the peak time for traffic on smartphones.

9. Great promoted content tells a great story.

Be smart about sponsored content, Harris says. Think of ads during the Super Bowl or print editorials in Vogue. Social advertisement should be something that the viewers or readers actually want and it should enhance their experience. While no one comes to BuzzFeed looking for ads, the site creates advertising that is thoughtful and worthwhile.

10. If something isn’t working, try to fix it.

Like us, you may be obsessed with BuzzFeed’s quizzes. The site was trying to do quizzes for a long time but they just weren’t working. A team came together to analyze the data and come up with a new, innovate design. Now, BuzzFeed quizzes have become incredibly powerful on the site, says Harris. The lesson here? If something isn’t working, think of how the content’s design and layout can be improved. Try and try again if you believe in it.

Have something to add? Tweet us @52pickupinc and join our conversation about successful brands at #BrandBoosts. Check back tomorrow for more lessons learned from DX3.  

Flip your calendar to March for our newest online discussion #BrandBoosts!

The City of Mississauga unveiled a brand new logo to mark its 40th anniversary and an urban future that will see the transition from Hurricane Hazel McCallion to a new leader. That's a big deal considering this world-famous mayor has been in power for 36 years.

The logo is a series of intersecting triangles that form the letter M, possibly a constellation of map points that mark Streetsville, Port Credit and Mississauga. It replaces the existing logo which has been around since 1987—an outline of City Hall. The new brand strategy focuses on the city as a hotspot for businesses and neighbourhoods, green living and transit-friendly options.

Web trends move faster than light and what was popular a month ago is too quickly yesterday’s breakfast.

Still, tends create new ways for designers to think, optimize and evolve — they’re also great launching off points. You may have heard the following trends floating around and have no idea what they mean. Not to worry! Here's your 101 lesson. 

While some trends are already waning, ultimately, you should just go with what your heart tells you.

1. Parallax

You’ve probably encountered parallax sites before, even if you don’t know exactly what they’re called. Parallax is the web design technique of making different layers on the web page move at different rates. For instance, when you’re scrolling down the page, text and photos move at different paces. It’s beautifully visual and feels more interactive.

Examples of parallax:

Milwaukee Police News

Snow Fall, The New York Times

2. Flat Design

Flat Design works for all applications and websites, honouring simplicity and minimalism so it’s easy to use. While Flat Design can be overly simple, the best examples make the experience much more friendly and efficient for the user. If your site is incredibly content oriented, Flat Design might inspire you.

Examples of Flat Design

Flat Design Versus Realism

Flat Design Luv

Foursquare

Twitter

NPR

3. Masonry

Masonry layouts are usually laid out in a grid, sometimes with items of varying heights. It’s incredibly visual so it’s a great way to showcase images. However, this may not be the option for you if your site is very editorial. It’s also important to implement the designs properly so it doesn’t detract from the user’s experience.

Examples of Masonry

Pinterest

Inspire Well

Masonry Desandro