A "welcome" alternative to advertising

When you've got about 50,000 cars a day driving by the place you're marketing just on one street alone, why not lay out a welcome mat for those road-weary travelers? That was the idea behind a series of three large, mostly permanent banners we developed for Vulcan Real Estate to tout the sustainable lifestyles and building practices going on in South Lake Union. Other messages on the high-visibility banners include: "Other neighborhoods are just as green. But only with envy." and "Hey, you in the hybrid. We (heart) you." Kudos to DEI for their design efforts.

Sometimes the best ad isn't an ad

After the Swedish Cancer Institute approached us about putting together a plan to mark the 75th year anniversary of the institute, we came back with an advertising-light proposal that stressed building bonds with past and current patients. After all, when you get some very bad news from a doctor do you go searching for newspaper ads about cancer, or do you call your friends and relatives? One of our suggestions was to create these wall panels festooned with ribbons representing each of the 3,000-plus patients the SCI will treat in a year. People have taken to writing their names -- or the names of loved ones -- on the ribbons as a powerful, personal reminder of how widespread this disease has become. A tip of the Worker Bees cap to our partner, Michael Courtney Design, for beautifully handling the environmental design duties.

Swedish CEO Retirement Book

One of the more interesting projects we've taken on in recent weeks was the design and writing of a 110-page history of Swedish Medical Center during the 12-year presidency of Richard H. Peterson. The Swedish President and CEO recently retired, and the board of trustees felt that a published history would be a more meaningful gift than the tried-and-true set of golf clubs. As it turned out, the history of Richard's leadership will provide a serious headstart on another upcoming Swedish project: The writing of the organization's 100-year history to be celebrated in 2010.