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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.

Read more »

Posted by XPLANE on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Also published in Business of design, Communications, Creativity, Graphic design, Infodesign & graphics, Interaction design, Interface design, XPLANE news | comments (2)


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)


The role of visual thinking and communication in change management

Because we get a kick out of seeing our beloved founder Dave Gray wearing a tie, here’s a great interview he did with Dr. Martin Eppler of the University of St. Gallen. It’s about visual thinking, effective communication and change. It’s about 15 minutes long and was recorded during Dave’s stay at the =mcminstitute in Switzerland.

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Posted by Bill Keaggy on Friday, February 4th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Also published in Business issues, Communications, Leadership, Visual thinking | comments (1)


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, XPLANE | 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)


Constant reminders

Hang around the designers’ corner of the internet for any amount of time and you quickly are overwhelmed with great work and lame work, sound advice and bad advice, rules, ideas, maxims, quotes, plagiarism, inspiration and inanity.

Over the last few years all of these things have been getting mashed up and spread around, especially on Tumblr, Posterous and sites like FFFFOUND. I can’t even count the number of simple but lovely posters, graphics and sketches featuring an inspirational quote or a set of rules or a piece of advice set in a condensed gothic font and overlayed on a moody photograph. Don’t get me wrong — for the most part I like them. Sometimes they make you think or give you a needed kick in the butt — or at the very least give you a peek into another creative person’s head.

I’ve had the above poster hanging in my home workspace for several years now. It’s a constant reminder, and I like that.

But it seems that pretty much everywhere I go online lately I am being told what to do…

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Posted by Bill Keaggy on Friday, January 21st, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Also published in Creativity, Graphic design, Learning, Life | comments (3)


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 »

Posted by Parker Lee on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Also published in Business issues, Business of design, Communications, Creativity, Games, Leadership, Learning, Meetings & office culture, Movies & motion, Sketching & illustration, Visual thinking, XPLANE news | comments (4)


Happy holidays from XPLANE!

What a year!

We worked hard, traveled the world, learned a lot, met a bunch of wonderful people, had some fun and expanded our family — in April we joined the Dachis Group and now count the folks from Dachis, Headshift, Stuzo and Archrival as colleagues (Update: And as of yesterday, the folks at Powered!).

So to celebrate, we asked our new friends from around the world to send us their favorite local holiday recipes: Amsterdam, Austin, Lincoln, London, Madrid, Philadelphia, Portland, St. Louis and Sydney. And as an added bonus, we’ve thrown in some silly charts about the chow along with some serious information about infodesign.

The recipes include Marionberry cobbler, Cocido madrileño, Grilled tri-tip, Texas pecan cake, Boerenkool Met Worst, Pavlova, Philly cheesesteaks, Mince pie and Gooey butter cake.

We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we do — and here’s to an amazing 2011 and beyond.

Happy holidays from your friends at XPLANE!

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 at 10:40 am
Also published in Food & drink, Infodesign & graphics, XPLANE news | comments (1)


Jason Fried on nature

Seen on Dave Gray’s site: “A short, 5-minute chat with Jason Fried about nature and how it influences his work.”

A refreshingly different and light podcast touching on design and creativity, nature and springtime, inspiration and solutions, evolution and adaptation, complexity and simplicity — with sketches!

Posted by Bill Keaggy on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Also published in Creativity, Life, Sketching & illustration, 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