4) Storytelling
Neuroscientists and poets agree that humans crave stories. Whether establishing a narrative for a new project, recasting an old one so more of the story is told, pitching an already great story for wider readership, or using visuals and graphics to create more visceral connections, we love helping clients tell their unique stories.
Our wonderful clients — our collaborators — create more good in the world through very different mediums. Some create innovative products and platforms while others develop new models to improve the lives of the people they serve. From software to green energy; handmade guitars to superfoods; a new school to a new way of organizing collaborative working spaces, we are inspired by the passion of our clients.
Here are just a few of the stories that we had the privilege of collaborating on this year:
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the organization responsible for LEED, the world’s most widely used green building certification program. In addition to protecting precious natural resources, green buildings are good for the bottom line, too. Whether it’s educating Milwaukee’s business community about programs available to help them reduce energy, working with a Minnesota warehouse owner to expand our vision of what green building can be, or showing how green schools like the University of Iowa attract students, we’ve been proud to help make the case for better, more efficient buildings.
Red Cedar Solutions Group crafts elegant and innovative software solutions through the union of technology, design, and subject matter expertise. We were thrilled to help the talented team over there with a full brand identity development and product launch for Stepwell — a web-based, integrated platform combines automated best practices for corrective action steps with on-demand data. Take a peek at the banner, brochure and news release, for starers. Know any special education administrations who are ready to take charge of IDEA Parts B and C compliance? If so, send them Stepwell’s way!
Sparrow, mid-Michigan’s largest health system and also the region’s largest private employer, has a lot of incredible stories to share. We worked with Sparrow and their other partners to make the Choose Wisely website — designed to share behind-the-scenes stories — a reality. We also helped their annual report come to life in a digital way. (As a fun side note, for those of you who followed this summer’s #TeamMoonsail announcement about the arrival of Kai — our baby ambassador was delivered and cared for by the outstanding Sparrow crew.)
It warms our hearts that The Scott Foundation aspires to empower local Bay Area children to achieve their personal best, and it makes us downright giddy to remember that Shannon Hunt-Scott and her husband, Kevin Scott, have positively impacted the lives of more than half a million children in a few short years through their gifts totaling more than $2 million. We were honored to help tell the story of The Scott Foundation by developing its brand identity, including its logo and website, and by helping to tell the story of the foundation’s grantees through social media.
A child’s first three years are critical. By the age of three, 80% of their brains are developed. Educare California at Silicon Valley — California’s first model early learning school — makes certain that financially disadvantaged young children have the best opportunity for success in life. Educare helps young children develop the social-emotional and language skills and fostering curiosity and sense of wonder through play-based activities and projects. It seemed like just yesterday the Moonsail North team was assisting with the school’s ribbon-cutting, but we recently pulled together the story of the school’s first year. Take a look.
The Michigan State University College of Natural Science was already doing some excellent storytelling before we came on board – after all, the college is world-renowned as a center for innovative research. Our role was to take those stories and tell them in the digital sphere. We helped develop the college’s digital voice, key messages and target audiences, while growing #IHeartNatSci’s online brand and audience with a strong social media presence.
Innovation has driven the University of Michigan Health System’s Pathology Relocation and Renovation (PRR) project — both through the Lean Facility Design process employed and through the anticipated impact of the multi-year project affecting 186,000 gross square feet. Our team loved the opportunity to help tell the PRR story to specific audiences. In one example, we worked with the PRR team to develop this handout on lean design for distribution at a national conference.
Sarah and Bryan, the health coaching duo behind Nourished World, have devoted their lives to helping their clients make sustainable change through superfoods, group coaching, one-on-one coaching and delicious, healthy recipes. We had a blast developing Nourished World’s logo and working with this energetic duo on telling the story behind their superfood blends through a complete package design. Bonus: We picked up some bags of their Green Energy Superfood Blend and Brain Energy Superfood Blend, so our holidays dishes will have infusions of the best blends around.
Matt Martin creates inspirational tools for musicians, and as a luthier, he crafts beautiful custom guitars in his studio. We helped Root Guitar Works share the story behind Matt’s passion for combining time-tested design features seen in traditional building along with unconventional concepts to provide a unique experience in both tone and playability.
We’ve lost count of how many whiteboarding brainstorm hours we’ve had with clients in 2016. We captured this shot inside our client’s Innovation Suite. Can’t wait for 2017’s storyboarding sessions to start!
Story on!