Some time ago we made the decision to begin the journey of “greenify-ing” our design practice. Obviously we’re by no means trendsetters where this is concerned, (not only are there lots of other studios doing much more on the sus-design front, but conferences, groups and resources to forward the cause) but we’d like to think that there’s no time like the present to start trying to make a difference.

We’ll highlight more of the resources and information that we find as time goes on but this posts focus is a Master’s thesis study by Rebecca Green on “What can be done to promote Sustainable Design in Brisbane Australia.” Although the study is geographically focussed in Australia the insights are applicable to any market. I know there’ll be something of use for designers and non-designers alike in there (even if it’s just a great history lesson) and some inspiration to do your little part to forward the cause of Sustainable Design.

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I remember learning about this one from the Photoshop Guys some time ago, but recently I’ve been using it a lot in some web designs so I figured I’d share it in case you could find it useful as well. It involves using smart objects within Photoshop to keep a layer’s resolution intact even after resizing it.

If you’re as indecisive as I am when you’re designing then you like to make sure your changes are reversable as much as possible. And if you’ve ever tried to scale an image up after scaling it down you’ve realized that that’s not exactly reversible. Unless you use Smart Objects.

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I just got the latest ChangeThis newsletter and immediately read Patricia Martin’s peice on what she’s calling the Renaissance Generation (or RenGen). She has a whole book on the subject but this quick read perfectly encapsulates a lot of the social media trends we’ve been seeing or feeling around us over the last couple of years. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a catchy word like RenGen to add to the “cool” factor.

Some of the points that resonated with me dealt with the central character of the RenGen: the Cultural Consumer. The CultCon (sorry, I couldn’t resist) isn’t satisfied with the old guard uni-directional flow of information, entertainment or opinions. Rather they relish (and seek out) avenues of creative self-expression. Engaging in more of a dialogue with their media… a conversation, if you will…. sound familiar?

Part of the beauty of a collaborative-rich environment is that phonies are eventually found out. One of Martin’s lessons of the RenGen: “The RenGen prefers products that are imperfect but authentic, over perfect products that pollute.” You see this a lot at professional networking events. You can always tell when the person you’re talking to has checked out of the conversation, and all they’re doing is doing the obligatory nodding and smiling. They don’t care about what you’re saying but they know they need to look like it. Likewise, there’s a tendency now for marketing and PR types to use blogs and social networking sites to appear to be in conversation with their customers. Sure they might be able to pour money into Interruptive marketing campaigns to convincingly appear concerned, but in the RenGEn the currency isn’t dollars but genuine attention; yours in exchange for your customers. And they’ll know when you’re not really listening. Genuine trumps polished.

I definitely recommend investing the 10 minutes it takes to read it for yourself here as well as subscribing to the ChangeThis newsletter. You get to read things like Build Your Brand in Bits and Bites: Building Your Personal Brand Online

In light of the writer’s strike in Hollywood, it’s nice to know that our vocabulary is rich enough to be able sustain an entire commercial with one word.

Found this hilarious video on Bittbox. An ingenious marketing campaign by Agency Fusion that shows they understand the trials of being a designer.

Some of you might remember the song of the same name. well, click below for the infommercial.

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