the art of embracing change

One of our writers lives in a neighborhood where the city is in the middle of a huge tree-planting project. Their streets had lost a great deal of canopy when Hurricane Irma came through a few years ago, and the shady covered roads had lost a bit of their charm. Almost as soon as the project started, however, neighbors had complaints. “Trees are messy,” and “I never asked for a tree” were popular complaints as were the responses from excited residents who couldn’t understand why anyone would be resistant to nature. In most cases it wasn’t the tree itself that was a problem for any one neighbor as much as the unexpected change to the city-owned property in front of their homes.

As human beings, we’re all somewhat resistant to change – especially when we’re in a situation that “works” for us. It is a instinctual behavior developed over centuries to help us know how to survive harsh winters, how to avoid poisonous berries, and later, how to stay away from the dangers of gas station sushi. Embracing change is a skill that can be learned like anything else.



Start by identifying your emotions. Does the change make you mad? Worried? Anxious? Confused? Then, locate the source of that feeling. For our story above, some neighbors were mad that no one had contacted them to let them know the project was taking place. Others were worried trees would be planted too close to power lines. Some were confused about how the city chose certain types of trees [all native species]. These were all concerns that could be easily answered once the feeling of resistance was identified.

That’s not always enough for some people. Many of us like to hold on to things out of tradition or memory. Sometimes the logical answer doesn’t solve the emotional dilemma. In those cases, one of the most powerful exercises to try in the attempt to accept change is to take all the people out of the equation. That may sound strange at first, but consider the following: a resident doesn’t want a tree because, well, they just don’t. The city wants one because it cools streets and improves property value. Take the people out of that situation and what’s left is the tree. What would the tree want? Is the tree really asking for too much? “Mysteriously” and anonymously, the trees on our writer’s street all showed up one morning with name tags and a thank you note that went something like this… Hi! I’m Trevor. I’m a Florida Pigeon Plum and I am super grateful for this friendly piece of soil you’ve given me to grow and be part of your home. I’m great at holding orchids in my branches, I don’t require a lot of water, and I’m pretty strong against hurricanes once my roots grow in. Thank you for being my friend. The neighbors who had been protesting having the trees removed withdrew their complaints. By taking the idea of a winner and loser out of the equation, the change was easier to accept.

Our lives have changed a ton recently. They’re going to keep changing for the foreseeable future. The choice we have is in how we manage those changes. Recognizing resistance is how we accept change. Learning to accept change is how we grow.
Source : https://www.heliumcreative.com/the-art-of-embracing-change/

0 comments:

northern exposure


Just a few months ago, helium opened a second office in Baltimore, MD. Now that we’re all moved in, we wanted to make the official announcement about expanding our presence and serving whole new audiences in the northeast and surrounding areas. Worry not, our South Florida office on Fort Lauderdale Beach is still our main headquarters – this is a second helium location, meaning there’s more of us to love. 

A few of us are actually originally from the northeast… so this has been a welcome return home in some ways. Our new digs are just an hour outside of Washington DC and Philadelphia, and just a quick train ride or drive to New York City. That means our award-winning approach and proven creative skills in real estate, luxury brands, corporate branding, hospitality, retail, and more are now easily accessible to area businesses looking for new ideas and fresh thinking. 
So far, the transition has been great. We’re finding amazing new inspiration in the change of seasons, architecture, varying city dynamics, and the people we’ve met. Stay tuned for updates and new news from helium [north] soon


0 comments:

making things click


Did you know that the typical American averages nearly 5 hours a day online? That number goes even higher if you start thinking of phone games and internet TV as online time. Add all those minutes and seconds up and you’re talking about hundreds of thousands [if not millions] of impressions all fighting to get the attention of customers you want, followers you’d like to add, or business partners you hope to attract. So how do you really break through?

As designers and artists, there are numerous techniques we can use to draw people in from a visual standpoint, but before we ever usually get a chance to do that, people and prospects do something else first. They hit up search engines. It’s not always the flashiest part of a web development effort, but SEO and SEM can generate big-time results. When done right, some business see dramatic increases in web traffic, lead generation, and lead conversion. The trick is, it’s not an exact science, and it is definitely a discipline that requires ongoing maintenance. 



When helium does SEO, we tend to focus on what we call the big 3 – original content, earned links, and relevant research. Trying to skip steps on any of these three pillars often ends with less-than-ideal results. When balanced appropriately, however, we dive deep into the keywords, phrases, and questions a given audience has.


We look carefully at the little nuances between the brands who purchase listings versus those who earned an authentic first-page or top-ten ranking – who stayed there longest? What did it likely cost them? Did it really reach people ready to make a transaction or deal? Then, we take a look at the digital neighborhood a website is going to live in. How do the neighbors act? What do we want to say differently? What can we say better? Who can we connect with that shares our perspective and gives us the kind of legitimacy search engine algorithms prefer? After that, we start putting words to page… and we do it in ways that make people and robots both interested in reading them.  Our ultimate goal is that you shouldn’t even notice SEO is happening on your site… until you actually do a search and see yourself ahead of your competitors.


0 comments:

doing more at a distance

We have been very fortunate that amidst various closures and social distancing orders, the helium team has been able to work remotely and stay well connected. In a lot of ways, we were already prepared for these measures since we routinely work in non-traditional settings when we do site visits to real estate and hospitality properties. While some of us are taking photos or meeting with owners and developers, the rest of the team stays in touch with email, chat, phone, and file sharing for things like sketches, mood boards, design comps, and preliminary concepts.


In many ways, collaborating at a distance is a very positive exercise. Often, it reveals new ideas that are completely without influence from someone sitting nearby. As well, it forces us to develop concepts and designs that don’t require a lot of explanation or convincing to resonate well with other people. If they can’t be easily summarized in an email or phone call, then that can be a signal to return to the drawing board and refine, enhance, or think in a new direction. We’re used to this style of working on various projects here and there… but then we took it next level by opening a second office in Baltimore. Now, long-range collaboration is a more integrated part of our everyday process… even before it became required for public safety.

Because we spend a lot of time working with seasonal markets, a few of our clients have asked us for suggestions on how to make the most of social distancing time. This is a great time to pursue internal projects that normally get pushed aside during busier periods. A website refresh can be a smart decision right now, not just because there’s time to finesse details but also because it gives you the tools to hit the ground running when normal business activities resume. Or, it could be that this is the optimal time to finally integrate e-commerce services and capture online sales. Many of our clients are focusing on social media, and looking at ways to enrich engagement and foster deeper connections with audiences. Updated logos, revamped corporate branding, breaking into new media… all are great ways to ready your business for the future, and it’s all work that helium can execute remotely.  Downtime doesn’t have to be a downturn. It can be the dress rehearsal for your brand version 2.0.

New website for Natiivo


0 comments:

we’re a moody bunch with a bunch of mood boards

Mood boards are a critical step in our process. They allow us to capture the visual essence of a brand or project in a realm that is somewhere halfway between real and imagined. It allows us to help clients tap into their own creative vision and communicate their intentions and feelings much more clearly than words will sometimes allow.

Snippet of a mood board for our client, Casana, which helped shape the brand.

The mood board process helps us creatively as much as it help the client understand a direction. In our creative process, going through tons of visual inspiration will help shape the intangible concept in our head. Image after image starts to refine and idea and construct a direction that ultimately guides where we go with the brand — from storytelling, statements, and print collateral like brochures, packaging and stationery, to online material such as websites. The mood board helps get all the ideas in front of us.

 A snippet of our mood board for drip pop

With everyone picturing the same visual universe, we find projects move forward more efficiently. Instead of spending round after round of revisions to nail down design direction, we can spend more time executing the special details that make a project one of a kind. It might mean having extra time to add 3D renderings [check out helium reality  for more on this]. Other times, a streamlined creative development process may allow sales efforts to launch sooner, a quicker transition between temporary and permanent websites, or the addition of special finishes on printed pieces and animations on digital elements. 

A snippet of our mood board for ROK Hotel and Residences

So, what goes into a mood board? That’s both the fun part and, perhaps, the most challenging. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it easily takes a thousand [or more] pictures to convey an idea as complex as an experience, an idea, a destination, or a home. We comb through a gross amount of images in magazines, websites, books, and everyone’s favorite: Pinterest. We’ve got our own bank of photographs and items we’ve collected of the years.
Mood boards are made up of collected items on Discovery trips and travels as well.

We scan what the competition is doing and look for uncharted territory. We sketch on notepads. We take our own photos of things that inspire us. We start arranging things together in a composition. We see what other team members think. We switch things in and out. And then… we walk away for a while and see what still strikes us as powerful and unique. After we’ve done all that about a dozen times [usually more], our clients get a chance to dive into the mood board themselves. It’s at that point that our role shifts from creators to listeners and observers. What was the initial reaction? Positive? Awe-inspired? Energized? Which elements are getting the biggest and best responses? Is it color? Camera angle? Something else? The mood board brings all of this to the forefront and becomes the anchor point for everything that comes next.  


0 comments:

print = not dead.


Yes, we know the world is getting more digital by the second. Yes, we appreciate paper is a precious resource. And yes, we are aware that the media landscape is so not 1994. We get all of that. You will still never hear us say that print is outdated. Ever.
The truth is, print pieces simply have to work harder and be smarter than they did in the past. A brochure can’t just be pictures and words folded into a booklet – it has to be an interactive journey. The feel of the paper or a gloss varnish or embossed logo is a tactile experience that engages the sense of touch in the way swiping and tapping a screen does not. The anticipation of opening an envelope creates a moment that primes an audience for the message inside. An artfully crafted package stands out on a store shelf and says “take me home” before a salesperson even utters a single word. 



That’s the benchmark we aim for when people come to us looking for collateral, business cards, POP displays, direct mail, and other print advertising and marketing materials. A piece that’s “not just another” anything, but rather, a piece that helps redefine what’s possible for print. In fairness, we have a lot of resources at our fingertips for making that happen. Amazing things are possible in the world of inks, coatings, and finishes these days… like glow in the dark, scratch-and-sniff, waterproof things. Paper keeps upping its game too with everything from re-printable paper, to paper that looks and feels like leather or plastic, to paper that can be used as furniture. Seriously. Then there are techniques for taking print pieces from flat to fantastic – 3D, Pop-Ups, unique folding designs – it’s truly fascinating how much print really can do. 







So, while we agree that it’s very cool to explore the depths of digital design, the things that happen on screen are all limited by one thing – it always happens on a screen. Only print has the power to take countless shapes, sizes, colors, and textures that people can hold and keep, and that can’t be turned off. 









Be sure to follow us on instagram or facebook for an inside look into our discovery session trips, latest projects and award winning work!

0 comments:

an idea studio



People often ask us, “How do you come up with ideas?” The short answer is years and years of practice with sorting out good concepts and bad concepts. Along with a shameful amount of coffee. The longer answer is that each time we’re presented with a new challenge or project, each person on the team dives into their own head and starts building a list [or pile] of every idea that wanders into their minds. Some of us jot that down, or sketch it, or give it a quick design work up. At the beginning stages, the most important thing we do is realize that creativity design, branding design, advertising design, and interactive design all start with a concept first. The best concepts are those that capture attention from the start, and then show themselves to have deeper meanings and connections over time. 



Once we all feel as though we’ve taken our own brains as far as we can, we come together and share what each of us believes to be our very best ideas. We’ve already “edited” ourselves to eliminate concepts we know have been done before, those that are off-target for a given audience, those that are just too complicated (or too expensive) to execute, or those that are one-dimensional. Knowing those things are all part of the years and years of practice part. What usually happens while we’re sharing is that one concept sparks a new, or complementary idea in someone else. One of us might have an incredible idea for a logo, but there’s something about the shape or color that inspires another team member to create a tagline. It even happens sometimes that two or more of us were all thinking in the same direction and snap – a bunch of components of a brand, sales campaign, or website all come together at once. It’s awesome when that happens. When it doesn’t, we work our best ideas until the snap happens. Or, sometimes we go back to the drawing board. This might all happen dozens of times on a single project before there’s anything to show to the client. Once our OCD heads are in love with an idea, then it’s finally something worth getting off the ground and in front of an audience. 

0 comments:

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)