Katie Spence:

The local press in Helsinki, Finland have taken notice of Bryan Boyer and the launch of Helsinki Design Lab.

From We Are Helsinki:

Designer-architect BRYAN BOYER, originally from California but now settled into Helsinki, is puzzled by the misuse of terminology. "Strategy often gets mixed up with planning. To be strategic, you have to also make difficult decisions and produce results," ponders the Harvard graduate, who has been working on Sitra's Helsinki Design Lab project since the fall of 2008.

Read the rest here.

Posted 71 days ago by Katie Spence. Topics include HelsinkiDesignLab clients press

It's been a busy time here at XOXCO. I am very happy to announce our second launch of the month, Helsinki Design Lab. It was our first time working with an organization on another continent, but HDL's Bryan Boyer and his nightowl tendencies made it easy for us.

HDL's mission, in part, is as follows:

We assist decision-makers to view challenges from a big-picture perspective, and provide guidance toward more complete solutions that consider all aspects of a problem. Our mission is to advance this way of working - we call it strategic design.

HDL is collecting case studies of strategic design projects to be featured on the site and at their conference later this year. Applications for inclusion to HDL are accepted through the site.

We wanted the website to do justice to the beauty of HDL's identity and collateral, so we partnered with Andy Pressman at Rumors Studio, who did an excellent job of creating the website's design.

We're especially proud of bringing to life the special features around the site:

• Subtle animation effects in the case study and around the site highlight portions of the content.
• Case studies "come to life" as they are created using the submission tool thanks to tons of fancy CSS and jQuery magic.
• Each time the page is loaded a randomized version of the logo appears!
• "Exquisite" PDFs are generated through a custom javascript-based pagination function.
• Behind the scenes, all of the editorial tools feature autosave!

Of course, PeoplePods is providing the community components necessary for running the intense multi-user creative and editorial process Bryan and his internationally distributed team use to craft the case studies they feature. Thanks to Bryan, Andy and their teams for their hard work on this!

Posted 94 days ago by Katie Spence. Topics include Launch

Today we helped launch MediaBugs.org, a website that aims to 'fix the news.' When Scott Rosenberg approached us for this project, his goal was to create a space where the average newspaper reader could submit a "bug" - or an error in reporting - that they'd spotted in their local paper. With the local news organizations participating, a conversation between the audience and the journalist responsible could then resolve the issue.

We built the site using our own PeoplePods software. It was a perfect fit for the type of interaction between readers and news organizations that Scott envisioned. Mignon Khargie designed the logo and branding, which was carried into the look and feel of the site with the help of Courtney Patubo.

For the launch, Scott and Mark Follman are focusing on Bay Area media, but eventually their plan is to expand nation-wide.

Posted 100 days ago by Katie Spence. Topics include Launch mediabugs

It's the end of the year, so as we try to hit our deadlines and move projects forward before the holidays, I have the glamorous job of organizing all of the financial information to have it ready for taxes. OK, it's not really glamorous but it is oddly satisfying.

I held the fort down in Austin, and Ben flew to San Francisco. While there, he met with Micki from NeighborGoods, Scott and Mark from MediaBugs and Amit from Photojojo.

When he returned, we watched the video prototype for the potential future of magazines, Mag+ brought to us by BERG and Bonnier R&D. Sadly the prototype comes at us the same week that the folding of ID Magazine is announced.

Posted 222 days ago by Katie Spence. Topics include photojojo weeknote mediabugs neighborgoods

It is our pleasure to announce the launch of our latest client project, Soul of the Community.

Soul of the Community (SOTC) is three-year study conducted by Gallup of the 26 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation communities across the United States employing a fresh approach to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area's economic growth and well-being. The study focuses on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.

We had the help of some great folks on this project: Jesse Keyes, Courtney Patubo and Brian Oberkirch. We're pleased with the result of our combined efforts and we feel lucky to have worked with the Knight Foundation on such an important study.

Posted 302 days ago by Katie Spence. Topics include clients launching