bg thoughts

Why hello there! My name is Matt and I joined the team here at birdsong gregory in November. Much like my design colleague Carolyn, I’m a native of Boston who has crossed the Mason Dixon line and never looked back. I moved to the sunny south in 2004 to attend Clemson University and after graduating, I spent a bit over a year living and working in the nearby city of Greenville. I had always liked Charlotte for its architecture and great food (among other things) so when I was offered the chance to move here I jumped at it.

Outside of work, I’m a man of many interests. I like cooking and eating good food, Formula 1 racing, cycling, watches, good design and of course, the Red Sox. Here at birdsong gregory, I work on the Account Management team but I love getting my hands dirty so you never know what you might find me doing. If you want to learn more about me or what we do here- don’t hesitate to call or stop by, we love visitors.

Eyes are cool things. They let you see, experience and do things that would be pretty difficult otherwise. I know that’s a strange theme for a blog post but bear with me. I’ve come across these two projects recently and I thought it was an interesting dichotomy. 

That's the phrase our copywriter, Phillip, lives by and it was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video. It takes an extremely complicated problem, the US Education system, and boils it down to the core elements and presents a quick and easy to understand overview. As a Charlotte Graphic Design agency, we make a living expressing ideas through the use of imagery and we always appreciate great work from others. Check out more from GOOD here.

A few months ago I wrote about an endeavor called Project H, which set off around the country in an Airstream Trailer to "Connect the power of design with the people who need it most". Well they have wrapped up their journey now and this article is a pretty fascinating look into what they did and where they went. Their insights into how people of different ages react to alternative designs was the most touching part for me. It was a great mission and I wish them the best of luck setting up shop in Bertie County, North Carolina. 

Side Note: If you are offended by the occasional use of words that could get your mouth washed out with soap- Click through with caution!

Check out these new cards from a small company called fomato. Lots of sarcasm and wit, in fact I think I may need this one for a few people I know! Click the picture to see more of their work.

One of our clients, WEIMA America, recently asked us to help them with an invitation and several pieces of collateral for an event with their dealer representatives and we were only too happy to oblige. The time line was tight and we had to be resourceful, but the results were stellar nonetheless (if I do say so myself) and I thought I would take a minute to share. 

A little while ago I posted about a design competition, Lift Hold Roll, that encouraged creativity with every day objects. Well, the results are in and they are nothing short of spectacular. Click the image to check out the Core 77 post on the show. 

I would like to have a moment of silence for the death of the Floppy Disc. Sony, the last manufacturer of the floppy disc, has announced that they will stop production in March of 2011. Now I can't claim that I was part of the workforce when these guys were still popular, but I can't help but laugh when I think about needing 10 discs to move our packaging design. While the floppy will no longer be a main stream product (if you could ever call it that), I'll be interested to see if any fan fueled passion pops up like it did with the Polaroid instant film did. 

We got a letter in the mail last week for one of our designers. I know, how shocking! We're a Charlotte Advertising Agency so we get lots of mail but this particular letter stood out. It was addressed to one of our designers but the front of the envelope had bold, all capital letters that stated "PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL". And if that wasn't enough to pique my interest, the return address was written cryptically on the back of the envelope.

Our designer was out for the entire week preparing for a move but I knew I would be seeing her on Friday. The envelope sat on my desk, searing it's private and confidential nature into my brain. "What could it be?" I thought. Is she a spy for the Soviet Union? Has she turned states evidence against the mob and this is her information to join the Witness Protection Program? The possibilities were endless!

So imagine my delight when I was able to deliver this important message to her on Friday. Something marked "PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL" would surely be an important document she was eagerly awaiting. Well that delight quickly turned to confusion mixed with a healthy dose of outrage when she showed it to me:


A form letter from a printing company? Ridiculous! Now my first impression of this company is that they are A. Disingenuous at best, really more like dishonest and B. In need of cheap tricks in order to get you to look at their materials. Double whammy and I'll probably never use the company in the future because of it. 

The bottom line is that honesty is not a bad way to approach someone and tricking people is. I'm sure this letter was opened more than some of their other letters but I'm nearly certain it didn't give anyone a better impression. Theres no need for tricks or obfuscation- just tell people who you are and what you do. If you have done your job well up to that point then that person will see that and appreciate your honesty.

I found this great video of the new exhibition featuring the work of Dieter Rams. Rams is one of the most prolific product designers in history and this is the first retrospective of his work since he retired in 1998. Rams spent most of his career at Braun but contributed to the design of dozens of different products. His influence is still just as strong today. Many people have pointed out the influence of Rams on Jonathan Ive, the head of design at Apple. 

Thats the driving force behind Project H, a group of designers, architects and builders who believe that design can be more than pretty. They are travelling the country in an Airstream trailer helping educational institutes solve their worst problems through creativity and design. 

Their latest project is a year long stay in Bertie County North Carolina, the poorest county in the state. Their initiatives range from connecting the county through high speed internet to setting up a training center called Studio H. It's an inspirational cause that I'll be following throughout the year for sure. 

Check out this new competition being put on by The Future Perfect design shop called Lift Hold Roll. The goal is to take an every day object and use one (or more) of them in an inspired way to make a new object. With a caster, pulley and clamp- the opportunities are endless. Whether it applies to our packaging design or a print ad- the creative process has to start somewhere, so we always love things like this.

and have a look around!

I think we have a pretty cool office over here at birdsong gregory, thanks to some help from our friends at Dialect Design. We get a fair number of comments about it, even though we are a bit hidden, so I thought it might be fun to post a few pictures of our space. And if your ever in the area, feel free to swing by and say hello!

One of my good friends from high school, Adam, went to college to get his degree in Historical Preservation, and I made fun of him for it for years! I just couldn't see the need for something like that. Maybe it was the fact that I was in Boston, and the history of that city is everywhere you look. Well, since I've moved to Charlotte, I've completely changed my mind about the need for people like Adam. While there are beautiful buildings in Charlotte, the Bechtler Museum being the newest and most amazing, there aren't many historical buildings. A lot of buildings with real character were torn down in order to build new high rises and apartment buildings, and I think people are starting to realize they should have put more effort into saving those places.

This latest initiative, called Save Our Signs, is trying to maintain some of the visual history of Charlotte and I think it's a great idea. Their goal is to register the historic signs of Charlotte to protect and preserve them so that people in the future will get as much enjoyment out of them as we have. So hats off to this group and I can't wait to see the JFG Coffee sign back up soon!

We did it! Set up a new project management software that is. It was a long and confusing journey and based on the number of options out there, it will be for you too. I relied on reviews and information from other companies around the world to narrow down my choices and now it’s our turn to contribute.

For us, we wanted to be able to track jobs, tasks and time at a bare minimum. Above that, we were looking for invoicing capabilities, a great calendar, contact management and robust reporting capabilities.

There are lots of programs out there that do the required tasks and some are better than others. Basecamp is certainly the most well known of the simpler project management pieces and Teamwork PM is a newer and more powerful version. Of the two, Teamwork PM was by far our favorite and while they are planning on adding capabilities in the future, it just wasn’t enough for us at the moment (their responses to our questions were above and beyond every time for what it’s worth). Both of these options were relatively inexpensive and could be set up with a minimum of effort.

On the very opposite of the spectrum (both in cost and in capability) was Function Point. This is meant to be a Microsoft Project replacement and is just as complex. It really was amazing program and it seemingly had the ability to do EVERYTHING. For us, it was overkill. We aren’t managing offices all over the world and projects with 200 vendors (yet) so using this program to its maximum would have taken more time than it was worth. Workamajig is the more well known player in this space and it is equally capable but be prepared to be rejected if you don’t have 10 or more people… they won’t take you.

We needed to meet in the middle and for us, the choice was Copper Project Management. It’s from an Australian based outfit called element software and it’s used by companies like Apple, with good reason. The interface is clean and pleasant and all of the information can be accessed quickly and easily. Tasks are easy to assign to multiple people and can be monitored easily from the Dashboard. The time tracking and update systems are both time stamped so we can see exactly when projects were updated. Above the base level needs, Copper also has a great contact management system, billing capabilities, a drag and drop calendar and ways to pull reports for custom time intervals. It really puts the budget in perspective and makes it easy to track.

To be fair, we’ve only been using the system for a couple of days now but so far so good! I’ll certainly come back in a few weeks to update our progress in the system but in the meanwhile, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you are considering copper as well.

Who doesn't love tracking Social Media? Ad Age has recently started tracking the 10 most popular brands on twitter and it makes for a good read (check it out here). This in itself isn't what concerns me, it's more the content that is being tweeted. If Justin Bieber, whose fans are so young I'm surprised they can even use twitter, can make on the list who knows what will be next on that list? A terrible remake of another Nicholas Sparks book? Oh wait...