Out & About

It doesn’t all happen in the house…

Mills Lawn Book Supporting Glen Helen

February 27, 2013 in Agency Life, Clients & Worthy Causes, Out & About by Roger | Permalink

Pompey's Pillar - Glen Helen - Diehl Photography

Pompey’s Pillar – Glen Helen – Diehl Photography

A few weeks ago Nick Gaskins, the owner of Bing Design, was discussing a project of a friend who is a teacher at Mills Lawn elementary in Yellow Springs, OH. The project was a book assignment by teachers Ms. Shelton and Mrs. Barclay for their students using an online tool called Bookemon.com which provides users of any age a way to design and create books which can also be professionally printed for a fee.

This group of students is working to increase public knowledge about the Glen Helen Nature Preserve on the north side of Yellow Springs, OH. In fact, it is the yellow springs that provide the initial water flow that both is a feature of the Glen, but is also responsible for helping to carve this geological feature. If you have never been to Glen Helen, we highly recommended you check it out! For its close proximity to the village and bike path, you’ll find a gorge with a large creek, rock formations, even a standing rock pillar like those of area like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon. There are several hiking trails, a rock stairway near the nature center just off Corry Street with some 130 steps hewn by hand many years ago. From the Glen Helen About Us page… the Glen encompasses some 1,000 acres, has 25 miles of footpaths, features the yellow springs of Yellow Springs, some 400 year-old trees, and limestone cliffs.

This past Thursday, February 21, Mr. Starnes (aka Roger, web/print designer at Bing Design), stopped by for his first visit to Mills Lawn elementary. He met teachers Ms. Shelton and Mrs. Barclay as lunch was wrapping up and was greeted by a couple curious students in the lunch room. As lunch ended, a few classes met in the room of Ms. Shelton to meet Mr. Starnes. We discussed design, typical timeframes for making printed collateral (and what ‘collateral’ is) and talked about how things go from ‘just an idea’ to a ‘printed piece’. There were some 30+ kids during the meet-and-greet with a few questions of their own. :^)

Mills Lawn Elementary School Sign

Sign in front of Mills Lawn elementary

Following the group meeting, students broke into teams to start collaborating on their book. Some teams are creating content, others are designing the cover of the book, still others are doing research. Mr. Starnes met with the cover team to help them sketch out cover concepts for the book on Glen Helen.

After a quick online review of how Bookemon.com works, Mr. Starnes did some paper sketches showing the cover team how covers can be primarily image-based with small text for the book, or could be mostly book title text and smaller images. We also discussed the types of images the students felt most embodied the Glen as they wanted to portray it (trees, creek, animals, rocks, fish…). Each student was given a sheet of paper, and asked to do four ideas to discuss with one another after our hour in class.

Over the next few weeks, Bing will continue to work with the students and teachers to create their public awareness book on Glen Helen, and may even be printing copies. Stay tuned!

Below are some of the cool sites one can find by visiting Glen Helen. Click to visit the Glen Helen website or download a trail map…

Glen Helen Sites

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Staying F.R.E.S.H.

October 23, 2012 in Out & About, Technology, Tips from the Experts, Web & Social Media by Joe Gauder | Permalink

SummitUp

Last week, Roger and I attended the SummitUp conference held at Sinclair Community College organized by the many great Dayton creative associations.

The morning keynote from Todd Henry of Accidental Creative was worth the price of admission to the event.

He spoke of the creative process and how it’s easy to gravitate toward activities and environments that reinforce our expectations or existing beliefs. In other words, it’s easy to stay in our comfort zone and that we have to be committed to continuous improvement.

“The love of comfort is the enemy of greatness.” – Todd Henry

I’ve always been an advocate of a great work/life balance but it has changed thru the years to creating a creating rhythm. Brilliance at a moments notice begins with the fundamentals.

The fundamental elements to create rhythm are:

Focus

  • Define the real problem or challenge, refine them, and cluster adjacent tasks. Don’t jump from conceptual to emails.
  • Tame the “PING“; Things that distract you from being creative and productive. Emails, calls, and IMs can all distract and add up. Checking email every five minutes equals to checking it 24,000 times a year.

Relationships

  • Start circles with like-minded individuals/creatives who can contribute to ideas, help solve struggles in work, inspire us.
  • Try “head-to-head” problem solving. Going head-to-head doesn’t always have to mean a competition. Share ideas and collaborate. Choose someone whose notebook you’d want to look through.

Energy

  • Practice pruning; sometimes you have to say NO to things that will drain time/resources from you when better used for creative.
  • Think “Whole Life” – Be mindful of big picture and commitments where you need to place energy. It is better to be effective than efficient.

Stimuli

  • Engage in activities that stretch and create new skills.
  • Create relevant experiences in your life.
  • Take better notes and listen to your intuition. The quality of our notes equals the quality of our creative process.
  • Try a ‘stimulus dive’ and get out of comfort zones and try something new or difficult. Put yourself in a position to experience something new to you.

Hours

  • Try some unnecessary creative projects. When did you last spend time creating something for yourself and your own growth? Draw, build, or develop something on your own. Most of us started into design this way, doing only ‘work’ and not anything for your personal benefit can erode creativity.
  • Try some idea time with yourself or work peers. Engage in activities to build your skills.
  • Don’t rush! Rushing can equal mundane and imperfect work. Set your own style. Where you are putting your time determines your success or failure.

Tap your full potential and leverage your value. This will keep you FRESH! Remember: “Cover bands don’t change the world.”

So go out, generate brilliant ideas and explore new opportunities.

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Simply Women Ohio

July 19, 2011 in Clients & Worthy Causes, Event Planning, Out & About, Web & Social Media by Roger | 1 comment

Over the past couple of years, Bing Design has provided resources and support to a local organization called Simply Women Ohio. The effort is led by Paloma Wiggins, a student at Yellow Springs high school. Paloma is an avid runner, and the main reason that Simply Women began.Simply Women Ohio

This year, Bing Design worked with Paloma and the organization to develop and launch a new WordPress site at simplywomenohio.org with news and information for women who like to run and walk in the area.

The main event for the group is the Simply Women 5k Run and Walk, which is scheduled for July 30, 2011, with a pre-race event in downtown YS on Friday, July 29 for packet and t-shirt pickup, motivational speakers, and music. The website provides an easy way for those wanting to participate to fill-out a registration form and pay for it all online. There is also a downloadable PDF that can be filled-out and mailed in with a check.

The event is getting substantial coverage in local media, and Paloma was able to discuss her passion with Mina Samuels, author of Run Like a Girl: How Strong Women Make Happy Lives (available on Amazon.com). If you live in the area, you might keep up with this site, and maybe sign-up for their July run/walk while you are there!

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