soulsight®

Credit: enschedeaanzee.nl

Wish you could snap your fingers and a cold beer shows up? How about a quick phone call? Grolsch has found a refreshing way to bring cold to the streets of the Netherlands with its "Cool*Season" campaign. Just dial up the "Cool*Hotline" and a Grolsch-slinging rep will zoom in on a scooter (complete with refrigerated sidecar, no less) and trade your other brand of beer for a chilled can of Grolsch Premium Pils. Each can features a "Cool*Meter", ensuring you'll get the optimal chilled experience. Very cool.

For more info on other "Cool*Initiatives", visit the Grolsch site.

Unplug Design's Dreamball is simply awesome. It's a perfect example of how inventive design can serve a greater purpose, something more than just nudging one towards one product or another.

Dreamball is a cylindrical, custom aid package delivered to children in developing Third World countries ravaged by war, poverty and famine. It's a new way to think about creating a sustainable package that can be more than just a throwaway vessel for a product.

When the children take the paper off the package and follow the simple patterns and instructions on it, they can building themselves a pretty cool soccer ball. The leftover cylinder can be used to store the soccer balls and rolled to wherever they want to play, and the cardboard is biodegradable. And because most of the soccer is played barefoot, the lightweight, flexible design works great. This really can bring some joy and hope to kids who have not been afforded too much of either. It's always inspiring to see outside-the-box thinking, of course very literally this time, but even more so when it's impacting lives in the best way possible.

Soulsight is not only dedicated to the work we do, we are also dedicated to letting our co-workers know when they are appreciated. Over the past couple weeks, we’ve created an anonymous way to let people know when they’ve been “Caught in the Act”.

The feeling of being appreciated can go a long way. By setting this little card on someone’s desk, you might brighten their day.

Try this! Print these cards out to pass around your work!

Pretty much what we do everyday is experiment.
We experiment with ideas, strategies, designs, new ways of thinking and approaching problems.
Experimentation allows freedom to explore around the edges,
peaks and valleys, the expanse and the elasticity of ideas and concepts.
This is where the mind challenges assumptions and lets go of the norm,
and is free from bureaucracy.
During experimentation, there is no fear of failure;
it's all "what ifs" and preliminary answers and questions.
Experimentation isn't the solution; it's how you get to the solution.
And it makes knowing what does and doesn't work happen more rapidly.
It can lead to collective learning experiences and more meaningful collaboration.
The mind likes this freedom, and it's where great ideas come from.
Experimentation introduces the intellect and information to creativity,
forming quantum leaps to great ideas.

This week, the Soulsight staff took the Strengths Finder 2.0 strength assessment test. What is Strengths Finder? It’s the #1 Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestselling book and online personalized strengths assessment guide. How does it work? Online, Strengths Finder asks you a series of questions that you have to rank on a scale of importance and relevance to you. After the test, the program tallies your answers and assigns your top five themes.

All of us at Soulsight felt this was a great opportunity to really dive deep into what makes us all individual with similar goals but very different talents and strengths. All in all, it was a great team building exercise and everyone at Soulsight was interested in each others strength, not weaknesses. In a time when we too often focus our attention on our weakness, this was a fun and informative way of celebrating our natural inclinations for success. Strengths Finder also includes hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths. The next step is to put an action plan together to maximize our natural strengths and energies. We encourage all who are interested in learning a little bit more about themselves to take the test and see if it reflects what you think you know about yourself.

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"
-- Benjamin Franklin

Normally, we use this forum to discuss trends or observations within the design community. But what about our own little community here at Soulsight? We do have a section dedicated to culture on this website, but it just grazes the surface.

It's well known that Soulsight is an amalgam of the smartest people in the industry, but did you know that we are the most fun too? We are privileged to work in a place that understands the importance of fostering a sense of community. As we've been crazy busy lately, the sense of family has become even more evident. People chipping in and helping out. People caring that their coworkers might be getting over loaded and proactively volunteering to help out. That's what I'm talking about people! We have a great team here that I am proud to say I work with and truly care about. So this one goes out to us. Good job family.