In the HB creative department, we are constantly working through different stages of our design process. Typically, this starts with a discussion amongst our design team and the client. After defining clear next steps, our creative team gathers for a brainstorm and begins to conceptualize designs.

Recently, we worked with the Marino Center for Integrative Health to introduce a new brand to its constituents. Through new company messaging, a monthly newsletter, on-site signage, a revamped website, and stationery, Marino has upgraded its look and feel to match its first-rate patient services. A brief gallery shows some of our logo developments.

For more about process, check out this post from one of my favorite bloggers: David Airey.

My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Southern India - Chennai, Bangalore and Trivandrum. My husband’s family are of Indian descent and this was my first trip. The experience was more amazing than I can put into words.

Nothing in India is predictable. It is complete sensory overload. It’s hard to describe a place where things are happening 360 degrees around you.

One way I can attempt to describe it would be: At the same time I was gazing at a beautifully-carved Hindu temple, I watched women in dazzling saris sell market goods under an umbrella to avoid the intense burning sun, a monkey steal an ear of corn out of a woman’s hand and other monkeys climb on a nearby car, cows graze in the street eating coconuts, an ox pull a truckload of goods in this overwhelmingly busy street, a family of four on a single motorcycle whiz through traffic and finally a little boy asking me if I had any chocolate he could have.

Wow. I feel exhausted just writing that sentence. Actually, I feel excited.

Seeing so much happen made me feel rejuvenated. The people are more religiously devout in all three faiths than I have ever met. There are many ethnic groups, each practicing daily traditions while sharing in a rich culture with deeply-rooted family values.

I met countless family members that welcomed me with open arms. Not only did I acquire a better understanding of my husband’s family, but of the life they had before immigrating to the United States. I never realized how much of a shock it must have been when they immigrated. I have so much respect for my husband’s parents for having the courage to start a new life in a different country so that they could give their children more opportunities.

The trip was interrupted the day after we left Bangalore when there was an episode of multiple small bombs, which killed a few people. This is a rarity in the southern part of the country.

When we landed back in Logan airport, I was confused. I just didn’t know where all the traffic and cows were. And, I could wash my face from water out of the tap. I joke about these differences, but I can’t wait to go back.

I have many stories to share, feel free to ask.

Receiving design awards is always good news at HB. Most recently, we earned two Davey Awards.

Our work on a previous award-winner, the NextPoint Properties direct mailers, netted us a gold award while our work with EMC & CDW on a baseball card promotion earned us a silver award.

Big thanks to our clients on all of our work – our client relationships help us to build and create award-winning projects.

One of our favorite resources for design discussion and brand criticism is Brand New, a blog that discusses corporate and brand identities.

The site does a great job of breaking down new brands and developing conversation amongst bloggers, viewers, and designers.

When you’re through, be sure to check out our own branding section.

We recently completed a creative invitation for a fundraiser supporting Compassionate Care ALS and the MDAA/ALS Center at UMass Memorial Medical Center. We were tasked with creating an elegant invitation with a Southwestern flair.

Our design included a swatch of denim adhered to a textured paper with a simple message: Wear Blue. Bring Green.

The event was filled with an audience excited to wear blue jeans at the classy Tutnuck Country Club. Attendees brought their “green” with them as the event successfully raised nearly $100,000.

The invitation design has been given an honorable mention by MarCom Awards.

EMC was looking to inform and motivate partners about a new product, the EMC CLARiiON CX4.

We developed a kit with an easy pull-out brochure and a cd with an interactive graphical user interface. It included assets in nine different languages.

The kit design, including a silver foil, has won two MarCom Awards for Platinum Award (highest recognition) in the Design/Media Kit category and the Gold Award in the Media Kit/Product Launch category.

We recently completed work for a new Green Initiative for the Office for Sustainability at Harvard University. The program kicked off with a University-wide celebration featuring a keynote address by former Vice President Al Gore.

To promote the event, we designed an eco-friendly poster that drove home the message: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. RETHINK.

We look forward to continue helping Harvard’s Office for Sustainability to effectively communicate the “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. RETHINK.” message as part of a campaign to reduce the school’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Additionally, here are five small things that make a big difference:

1. Adjust your thermostat: Dress for season, and take it easy on the thermostat. Turn down the heat when not in your room. Rooms warm up quickly when heat is turned back on.

2. Eat less meat: As global consumption of meat has risen, so too has the farm animal population, placing incredible strain on the planet’s resources. Livestock are a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing the quantity of meat in your diet can significantly decrease your own GHG footprint.

3. Wash clothes in cold water: Most modern liquid laundry soaps work well with cold water. Up to 90% of the energy used to wash clothes goes toward heating the water.

4. Ditch the plastic: Avoid the disposable water bottles and use refillable containers.

5. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. RETHINK.

The Solar Power International Conference, held in San Diego last week (Oct 13-16) blew me away. It reminded me of what dot.com conferences were like in the 1990s. How vibrant is the solar industry? Here are some anecdotal indicators, based on my two days at the conference:

• There were lines everywhere: lines to get in before the doors opened, lines at many booths, lines for food, for the bathrooms, and long waiting lists for local restaurants at lunch and dinner;
• Many of the excellent sessions were filled to capacity, standing-room only;
• Aisles were crowded, and it was hard to move around;
• Most people were smiling, despite being exhausted from the frenzy;
• I had meetings planned with ten exhibitors. Among the meetings that were scheduled as “let’s just meet at the booth,” several had to be rescheduled because booth traffic was so heavy;
• Attendees and exhibitors even crowded the display of “industry magazines,” grabbing up all the solar and renewable energy titles;
• The industry magazines were thick with content and advertising — much like the electronics or Internet/networking publications during the 1990s.

My first appointment was scheduled at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, when the exhibit doors opened. The man I met with was practically vibrating on his feet, and his first words were: “I don’t know about you, but I am so pumped!”

From one end of the conference to the other... crowds everywhere!

Even late in the day, the crowds thronged the exhibits

The beauty of this event is that it brought all groups from the vast solar community together: contractors, installers, consultants, and manufacturers/suppliers of all types: solar (photovoltaic) panels, robotics, inverters, casements; display kiosks, publishers, researchers, scientists, non-profit groups and government organizations.

As the industry matures, I hope to see the conference maintain its appeal to all these members of the community, though I fear that we will eventually see some fragmentation, and that certain segments will group together and create their own conferences (installers, PV manufacturers, etc.). While this will be a result of huge industry growth — it will also mean a potentially less colorful conference. But for the time being, I couldn’t recommend this conference more highly.

It’s about time.

Over the past few months, the Hart•Boillot team has been hard at work designing an entirely new website. Although our old site performed its job effectively, the new HartBoillot.com will offer a better reflection of our company. Visitors can learn more about our areas of expertise (including several in-depth case studies), our key players (including some unique facts about the HB team), and our newly-expanded collection of design work (including a unique pro-bono event invite).

We invite you to visit the site at your leisure – we hope you enjoy browsing it as much as we did creating it. Happy clicking!

The average household discards between one and two pounds of organic waste each day. For the city of New York, that adds up to over one million pounds per year. New York has its own compost project, and as does San Francisco, and even Los Angeles is starting a pilot table-scrap composting program.

Click here to see what composting programs might be available in your region.

The EPA notes that composting could reduce waste going into dumps by 700 pounds per year per household. If that’s not convincing enough, the EPA also lists the following benefits of composting:

• Reduce local garbage disposal costs
• Conserve valuable landfill space
• Reduce air emissions from the incinerator plants that burn garbage
• Produce a nutrient-rich additive for soil.

We started composting this year. Here are some tips we learned the hard way:

• If you’re in an area with animals roaming (foxes, bears, raccoons, skunks), do not compost meat products and oils. They will attract animals more than your other organic waste.
• If your compost begins to smell nasty, use cut grass and leaves in it to accelerate the breakdown of organic matter. You can also cut larger items into smaller pieces (corn cobs, watermelon rinds, grapefruit skins) to help them break down. Ideally, your compost will give off a rich smell that shouldn’t be offensive.
• Get two compost bins or tumblers — we use these recycled pickling barrels made by a company in Vermont, Jack’s Composters and Rain Barrels. When one seems a bit full, we let the compost mature and use the other barrel.

Some benefits we’ve experienced: our kitchen garbage smells far less than it used to,and we change it less often (organic waste is what generally decomposes and stinks first); we have amazing, rich compost to use in potting plants or for growing vegetables in the summer; we feel better about bringing less garbage to the dump; when it’s time to finally give up on that rotting fruit or head of lettuce, it feels better to recycle it in the compost than to throw it in the trash.

If you get into composting and want to learn more, try these useful sites:

• EPA site on composting
• VegWeb.com Composting Guide
• Howtocompost.org and its list of other earth-friendly sites