We love the Brownfields Program, but it can be a tough sell, maybe even scary for some communities.  But those of us who have been involved, understand the community benefits of the Brownfields Program.  And so our job is to help leaders in the communities we work with understand the process, dispel any misconceptions, and help them envision the potential for identified properties.

Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties protects the environment, reduces blight, and takes development pressures off greenspaces and working lands.

From our first contacts with community leaders, we listen closely, take notes and try to understand their concerns and challenges.  Together, leaders in city and county governments and public participation professionals can work to create a true public process and build a plan that addresses needs and supports the community at large.

Each step of the way, we’re focused on the future of the communities we work with.  We address issues that arise up front and look for meaningful solutions. We are always mindful of Brownfields program benefits – economic development, community pride, reducing negative environmental impact, etc.

There are many considerations when planning for the Brownfields public outreach and participation process, but here a few points to get you moving:

1. Bring your entire team to the table first. This is very important.  Everyone on the team plays a different role and each role builds on the other, so take advantage of good planning up front.
2. Start early!  Don’t wait until you’re twelve months into your grant.  Launching at the start-up can give you more than time to plan, tap resources, create a vision, determine public involvement, etc.
3. Determine the criteria for eligible properties (this is in addition to any qualifying Brownfields program criteria) such as focusing on properties that need to be within certain corridors.
4. Listen to the wants and needs of the community and community leaders at city council and county commission planning meetings. This can be a wealth of information.
5. Write an outreach plan. And gain agreement on the plan.  A good plan will not lead to success if it doesn’t have support.  Use a suitable approach whenever possible – i.e. don’t place an advertorial when you could contact property owners directly via a phone call or letter or both.
6. Let the experts do what they do best. Keep in mind what each expert on the team brings to the table. Environmental engineers, program managers and public outreach professionals’ expertise are entirely different. (And they should be!) Let them do their jobs. Each team member working to the fullest potential is what will create the best outcome.
7. Seek out additional resources for support. There are many avenues for funding community projects, so do your research.  Get creative; there may be ways to pull together private businesses to reach your goal.
8. Finally, communicate within the team often. Be positive. Celebrate success. Share your knowledge.

The process takes time and Brownfields development takes even more time but there are plenty of examples that demonstrate the benefits.  So get started!

Congratulations to us for winning the Bike to Work Week commuter challenge in our category!

There are many worthy causes out there. Countless, in fact.  And when it comes to marketing a cause, it’s about far more than just running an ad campaign, sending out a press release, or holding a press conference. It’s about educating the public. Reaching them where they are, and where it matters to your cause, and helping them see the importance of volunteering/donating/conserving/recycling/etc. It’s about changing behavior. Creating a targeted effort that empowers the person who cares to make a difference and move to act.

Yes, it takes a ton of time, because this is not simply just about a good ad, or well-written copy. This is about actually communicating with people that are receptive to what you need them to know or to take action.

What makes a cause worthy to you? A good idea is only as good as who sees/feels/experiences it.

It’s about finding, knowing and connecting with your audience.  Yes, you have a worthy cause but there’s a lot of worthy causes out there (which is a good thing). So, you have to do your homework.

How will you connect with your audience in a way that makes them want to make your cause a part of their daily lives if you don’t know who they are? What they like? Where they spend their time?

Know who you need to connect with and where they are and what message will resonate with them. They should revel in providing opportunities for their audience to volunteer or donate – it’s for a certain communities benefit. If they’re not, you might not be talking to the right people.

Go ahead.  Do it.  It’s freeing.  It’s exciting.  And it works.

Stand out from the crowd by beginning a public process because you want to hear from your public, not because you have to or because it is required.   Host a public meeting because you know an open, public process will lead to better decision making for your community.  And, hold a series of feedback opportunities if that’s what it takes.  Don’t be afraid to care about what the public has to say.  It’s cool to care!

Begin the public process with a goal of hearing from anyone who wants to be heard and be sure to create a variety of ways to communicate and to receive feedback so your audience knows you value their input, comments, questions and concerns.

You’ll stand out from the crowd if you take the time for thoughtful planning of your public process. Know what your goal is and remember to be upfront with your audience about what their role is in the process.  Encourage participation from all stakeholder groups. Often times, the public process goes terribly wrong because the public’s expectations about the outcome aren’t clearly addressed by the organization.  You can be sure that this is vital in a successful process and outcome. The public wants to participate, but they want you to be honest about how their participation will be used.

A good place for you to start is to clearly understand what you need from your public.  The Spectrum of Public Participation can help, for example:

• Inform – this is an opportunity to provide information about what has been decided and why. Don’t shy away from letting folks know that a decision has been made and you are not looking for input or feedback. But that you’d like to share how and why the decision was made.
• Consult – obtain feedback on potential solutions to a problem. Be sure to explain that their input will be gathered and considered, but that a decision will not be made at that meeting or meetings.
• Involve –we will work with you to ensure that your concerns are reflected in the alternatives that are developed. Feedback regarding how the public’s input influenced the decision will be provided.
• Collaborate –gain input to collaborate on an upcoming decision. Again, be clear about what point of the process you’re in – collaboration and not voting or making a decision.  When the decision is made, make sure you report back to those who participated in your process and clearly explain how their participation was used.
• Empower – we will do what you decide. This should be the least confusing, however make sure you are prepared to implement the decision.

So, stand out in the crowd by standing up for the value of the public process. I’d enjoy hearing how you’ve participated in the public process and what value it brought to your organization.

Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. author and physician

My co-worker Victor got me thinking about where to go for inspiration. It is a good thought. Don’t you love a creative train of thought speeding wildly out of control, especially when you aren’t expecting it?

This brings me to a recent experience.  I spend a lot of time on campus–University of Nevada, that is.  Where there’s always the hustle bustle–getting to a meeting, parking, finding the meeting place, trying not to get lost, etc.  Last month I got a chance to slow down and learn about some of the work that’s being done every day at our university.  It was inspiring because learning is a very important life value to me.

Nanotechnology, seismology, behind-the-scenes history, integrated marketing competition…   Learning about the faculty, the graduate students, their research and how they are applying it to the real world was inspiring. My mind went off on a tangent—how could what I learned apply to what I do?  I was surprised that the experience started a train of thought that I am perusing in my work.

Being exposed to topics that you don’t know anything about can jolt your brain.  It can set you off on a path to new ideas that can be applied in your world.  Maybe some ideas will be wild and you will laugh about it later.  Maybe there will be a tangent that will apply to your work. Maybe you’ll just have fun dreaming.

The thought I would like to share is: say yes to a new experience.  You never know.  It might inspire you.

What are information graphics and why are they so important? What separates information design from other types of design? It involves the design of things such as signage systems, forms, statistical and fact-driven displays, graphs, charts, diagrams, ballots, maps, schedules, manuals, and all that “stuff,” but what makes it successful?

From a broad sense of design, those types of items may not seem all that interesting, but to create information design that speaks clearly and effectively to your audience takes thought and skill. On the surface, it’s about juggling form, function, meaning and accuracy. The information needs to have meaning and accuracy, while design needs to have form and function – all while attracting the eye.

Why is it so difficult?

Unlike advertising, where you’re conveying an idea or concept through design, photography, copy or that zinger headline to make the audience feel or think something, information graphic design is taking information that already exists, like numbers, a map, a blueprint or statistics, and making it easy to understand and beautiful to look at. Remember, if you have to think about it, it doesn’t work. From a simple map of a park to the percentage of internet memes about lolcatz, it should flow and not take second guessing to figure out what it’s about and what it says.

Information design can either make a designer’s mouth water or have them running from the room screaming. One of my first jobs here was to redesign a clients’ employee application form and I was so excited. It’s like putting a 1040 Income Tax Form in front of someone and asking them to redesign it, it’s that juicy and delicious. Predetermined (boring) information, rules and boxes, that needs to be functional and pretty, yet doesn’t lose its original intent or purpose.

It’s about seamlessly marrying form, function, meaning and accuracy when creating a clear information driven graphic or image, but in the end it’s about helping people understand.

This is piece is not easy to follow, the years are not in chronological order, the rounded boxes confine and suffocate the text, so it’s hard to read, the color palette has nothing to do with Apple, the eye can’t follow the information easily and doesn’t have a destination and what is up with that tree?

This is a great piece that’s easy to understand, has a flow and direction, accurate information accompanied with recognizable icons and graphics, hierarchy within the information and type, so your eye knows when there’s a new section to look at and the colors are not distracting to the information.

One may think that recreating information in a graphic form may be easy, but a designer has to balance form, function, meaning  and accuracy in the information graphic to be truly successful.

Keeping good people has been a challenge.  Sometimes in response, organizations put staff in positions that they are not qualified to do.  I have seen many such examples:  a trained engineer now doing a marketing job, a receptionist doing PR work, etc.  Usually, there is no support within the company to help these staff members succeed.

Companies are forced to make decisions to keep good people and then put them in new positions that they may fail at.  If that is happening in your organization, look for outside expertise to help guide you.  What can an outside expert do?

1. Create a communications plan.  Your staff can implement it.
2. Oversee the plan and process.
3. Manage an individual project.  Act as the marketing department: :  an external marketing department may allow for your organization to more easily expand or reduce work more easily.

Our expertise is in public outreach and education.  In the industry, there have been shifts in how public relations agencies are working with businesses and organizations.  We are helping businesses in all of the examples above.  But, this is also true in many other industries, especially in the professional service industry.  For instance, we made the decision last year to hire a CPA to come in several days a month, instead of trying to maintain that position on staff.  It’s working great.  We get more expertise without a commitment of a dedicated staff person.

So, if you are struggling with how to juggle around staff and keep the best people, you might search for a company that can help—either for a single project or to manage the entire  function.

Is every business committed to making the world or their community a better place?  As a business owner and an optimist, I wish that everyone I know–and don’t know–would say yes.  Especially for the businesses in my community.

I believe that with every new business, should come some benefit to the community or the world.  Yes, there’s priority of adding new jobs, paying taxes and contributing to the economy.  But, will that make you and your employees jump out of bed every weekday excited to go to work?  Or, would you rather start the day knowing that everyone can’t wait until the clock ticks 5 p.m.?

Making the world, your community, a better place can be a simple act or a big initiative in your company.  The following examples not only benefit your company, the community and your employees, but are great content for your communications plan, both internal and external.  These are differentiators that can set up apart from your competitors.

• A focused cause:  Those companies that commit to a percentage of profits to be donated to one organization or a cause category.  Or if profits are low, a company might focus all their fund-raising efforts to a cause.  I think of health related organizations like the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, or community hospice organizations.  There are causes like environmental cleanup, poverty, hunger, clean water, etc.  Patagonia is a good example of a big commitment to environmentalism.
• Let your employees determine their own cause:  If there isn’t a lot of profit right now, how about giving employees the flexibility of using a set number of work hours to support a charity they select.
• Fine-tuning and improving your industry, products or services:  What a great place to be—on the cutting edge of your industry, spending time and money on R&D and always looking for ways to improve your product or service.  If that is your initiative, ask for input from everyone in the company, not just the R&D department, by encouraging and rewarding innovative ideas.
• Setting standards of conduct and ethics:  This is another great place to be—on highly regarded ground in your community and industry.  I just read a story on Forbes Online about the world’s most ethical companies.  The benefit to setting standards that all of your employees, vendors and clients can count on develops efficiencies and pride within the company.
• Education and learning:  Be a learning organization.  Most companies cannot stand still very long without being mowed over by a leaner, meaner, smarter business.  The answer to that is to invest in your human capital.  Encourage learning time, webinars, seminars, continuing education and training.  Then, share the learning with all in the company.  If you send someone to a seminar, plan a 30 minute presentation open to all staff, vendors or clients afterward to share what was learned.

If you are doing any of the above, do your employees know?  Does the community know?  Does your industry know? If the answer is no, and you’re keeping this to yourself and a few managers, then your next initiative should be to share.  Sharing multiples the effort and makes the investment worthwhile.

Graphic designer Albin Holmqvist inspires me because he has a strong sense of concept and design aesthetic.

One can’t say when or how inspiration hits you. It just happens. You get that brilliant idea and everything just clicks. You just can’t stop writing or, in my case, designing something. So what fuels inspiration? Only you know what inspire you. Like most designers, everything around me inspires me, but they key is to be consistently inspired.

Finding a comfort zone in design can be a great safety net, but without being consistently inspired, there is no opportunity to grow Falling back on one, overused typeface or style is an easy comfort, but once you break away from those familiar tools is when idea ideas grow and flourish. How can you break away? Through inspiration.

So inspiration… I get inspiration from things around me. I admire a lot of the people around me and their work. It’s refreshing to see several answers to a problem and when it comes to graphic design, there isn’t one great design. The process and approach are always different, as well as the outcome. Student work has always impressed me, from my current MFA program to my alma mater. It’s a great example where there can be more than one answer to a problem and seeing their fresh energy come across through advertising and design is always an inspiration.

Always being in front of new ideas is an inspiration. I get inspired from reading new books, whether it’s specifically for design or as random as a well-designed cupcake cooking book. From movies, especially well-designed title sequences and end credits, to websites and blogs. Inspiration is everywhere, but it’s when you can pinpoint what inspires you and from where you can get your ‘fix’ is when you’ll feel the most rejuvenated.

Below are a couple of design blogs I consistently visit to inspire me:

• Inspiration Bit
• Design Snips
• Grain Edit
• Graphicology
• The Dieline
  

Inspiration can come from anywhere – what inspires you?