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In our DNA


Doors + file cabinets = Desks! XPLANE circa early 2000s.

When I was combing through dusty hard drives and ancient project folders the other week looking for that old Robonaut XPLANATiON, I found an old text file (saved in BBEdit!) called “Core values: Things we believe in.”

It came from conversations and emails with Dave Gray, XPLANE’s founder. It was shared with all employees, even back when we were just five or six people working on desks made of doors and file cabinets. I’m pretty sure it dates to 1999…
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Posted by Bill Keaggy on Monday, March 7th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Also published in Business issues, Business of design, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, XPLANE news | comments (1)



Safe travels, Robonaut

Way back in 2002 XPLANE did an XPLANATiON for NYSE magazine about NASA’s robotic astronaut, which was then in development and expected to start flying in 2004 or 2005.


Click above to view larger.

Well, yesterday our friend Robonaut finally blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. While Robonaut 2 is the first humanoid robot to go into space — this is the shuttle’s 39th and final flight.

We’re very happy you finally made it to space, even if you’re never coming back.

But don’t be too sad, folks. You can follow Robonaut’s space exploits on Twitter: @AstroRobonaut.

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Also published in Software & technology, XPLANE news | comments (1)



Meet Matt Morasky, Senior Designer, EMEA

We’ve been running these quick Q&As in our email newsletter XPRESS but we’re going to start cross-posting them here.

Meet the people of XPLANE…

  • Who: Matt Morasky, Senior Designer, EMEA
  • Started at XPLANE: …officially, August 2010 (but I freelanced for a good 6-8 onths beforehand)
  • Office: Amsterdam
  • Education: BA in Political Science, Boston College; AA i Graphic Design & Illustration, Seattle Central Community College

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Posted by XPLANE on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Also published in Employee profiles | comments (0)



A love letter to Designers

I bet you thought we forgot all about Valentine’s Day.

We didn’t.

A love letter to Designers from XPLANE on Vimeo.

Dear future XPLANE Designer,

We may not have met yet, but I suspect you’ll receive this letter as if it’s a call from a wayward kindred spirit. See, we’ve got this magic chemistry that’s precious and rare. In short, I’m looking for you. More directly, the world needs you.

First, let me tell you that XPLANE is unlike anywhere you’ve worked before. We give respect to Design by using it as a proper noun. We’re neither an advertising agency nor a marketing group — we’re a consultative Design studio wherein Designers employ the arts of listening, strategizing, creating and presenting on a daily basis.

Now that I have your attention, please allow me a few moments to tell you why you’re so very special.

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How will your week work?

Hi. It’s Monday — the start of the work week for most of us.

But before you get started, let me ask you a few questions… Did you know that 40% of workers say they bring work home to complete at night, or work overtime at least once a week? That 15% of people admit that they are addicted to email — some confess to checking their email at the beach, at weddings and even at funerals? That the number of workers who work remotely is on the rise — in 2009, 28% of the global workforce worked remotely and by 2016, an expected 43% of the workforce will become remote workers (and did you know that studies show that working remotely improves productivity by 15%)? Did you know that a whopping 26% of Americans say they never take vacations?

If you didn’t, kick off the work week by watching this:

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Posted by Bill Keaggy on Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 6:40 am
Also published in Business issues, Life, Meetings & office culture, Mobile, Movies & motion, XPLANE news | comments (0)



An open letter to job-seeking designers

As XPLANE’s Director of Design I’ve plowed through thousands of résumés from young designers looking for work, and I must admit it’s starting to take a toll on me. Each time I sift through a pile of applications or portfolio samples I wish I could have given that person a little coaching beforehand to give them a better chance of moving forward in the process — or at least save some of their time.

So with graduation just around the corner and this economy being what it is, I figured it was a good time to reach out and give you a few things to think about as you apply for your next job… hopefully with us. We’re hiring.

The job posting
We put a lot of thought into what we say in our job postings. We do this in the hope that you’ll read through the qualifications and only apply if you meet our criteria. So please make sure that your skills and experience fit well with what we do. We take complex, messy information and make it understandable. You do too? Great! Let’s talk. No? I’ll just push the button under my desk that makes the trap door open.

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Posted by W. Scott Matthews on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Also published in Business of design, Communications, Graphic design, Infodesign & graphics | comments (2)



My 2011 New Year’s Resolution

The holidays are now behind us and the new year has ushered in a renewed sense of optimism and hope. So many possibilities for what 2011 could bring. Maybe this is the year you finally write your first novel. Maybe there’s a business you’ve been wanting to start, a diet you’ve wanted to try, or a favorite hobby that you’ll finally make time for. Heck, maybe your 2011 resolution might be to draw more. Why not?

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Posted by W. Scott Matthews on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Also published in Life, Sketching & illustration, Visual meditations | comments (0)



26 wonderful triangles

Last month at VTS our St. Louis studio did an exercise we called “What’s in a triangle?” Basically, everyone drew a triangle on a whiteboard and had five minutes to turn it into something. So from a very simple starting point we ended up with a lot of clever and creative sketches. The idea was to make something out of nothing — to exercise our visualization muscles.

Brian Williamson came to that VTS. We had been talking with him about the designer position we had open. Afterwards, Brian went home and took that single triangular starting point all the way to the finish line: He made his niece a beautiful book called ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ: An alphabet book of drawings inspired by the simple triangle — and he sent us a copy.

Brian started working with us in our St. Louis office last week.

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Also published in Books, Sketching & illustration, Visual Thinking School, XPLANE news | comments (0)



The official Gamestorming video

As you may remember, a few months ago Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers hit shelves. Today, I’m excited to share with you a new XPLANE video that offers a sneak peek into the inner-makings of the book and why it is so unique, and useful, in today’s business world. The three-minute video, created by our ever-brilliant creative team, can be seen on both Vimeo and YouTube:

For the most part, the video was created with markers, whiteboards, sticky notes, paper and other “low-tech” tools commonly used in Gamestorming.

Written by XPLANE founder and business design mastermind, Dave Gray, XPLANE consultant James Macanufo and Sunni Brown of Bright Spot Information Design, Gamestorming is a collection of 80 games to help teams break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies.

Read more »




XPLANE named one of Oregon’s 100 Best Places to Work

XPLANE has been named to the 2011 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon by Oregon Business Magazine. Winners will be celebrated at a banquet on March 3, at which time specific rankings will be unveiled.

To make the list, organizations are ranked based on confidential employee surveys and a benefits report completed by each company’s human resources representative. For the 2011 list, 263 companies participated and more than 14,000 employees were surveyed.

“It is a great honor to have XPLANE recognized as one of Oregon’s best places to work by Oregon Business Magazine,” said Aric Wood, chief executive officer, XPLANE. “This is fantastic validation of the special kind of employee experience we’ve worked hard to build, and I couldn’t be more proud of our team for turning those ideals into a reality.”

ABOUT XPLANE
XPLANE, A Dachis Group Company, is an information design consultancy that drives better results for many of the world’s leading organizations including Microsoft, Nokia, ITT, and BP. XPLANE is a new kind of consultancy that drives innovation through the combination of its employees’ diverse expertise, including journalism, consulting, technology, marketing, training, illustration, interaction, process improvement, information design and architecture. Global XPLANE headquarters are in Portland, Ore. USA; European headquarters are in Madrid, Spain; additional locations are in St. Louis, Mo. and Amsterdam, Netherlands. www.xplane.com

Posted by XPLANE on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Also published in XPLANE news | comments (0)



Kronos video

Sample visual
Check out this video we made for Kronos to help celebrate International Women's Day, 2011. Learn more in this xBlog post or jump over to YouTube and watch it there.

Azure poster

Sample visual
XPLANE | Dachis Group developed a A vibrant, engaging poster showing how Microsoft Azure enables developers to run applications and store data on Microsoft servers. The poster recently took top honors in the American Business Awards.

Tweets & Flickrs