Domain7

Earth Day in Abbotsford

The D7 Abby crew hit the streets on April 21 to do a little bit of our part to keep this fine city clean. Andrew Hawthorne graciously restrained himself from picking up trash and took photos instead. To see all Andrew’s Earth Day shots, visit D7 on Flickr.

UGM races to 100K for Downtown Eastside

Our clients at Union Gospel Mission are in the running for Pepsi’s Refresh Project (you may have seen the commercial on TV for nominations). Learn more about their mobile mission to bring hope to Vancouver’s downtown eastside, and vote for them if you’re a fan of their work!

Domain7 Runs For Water

The Domain7 team hit the pavement last weekend at Abbotsford’s annual Run for Water , an event we look forward to every year. Not only is the run in support of a great cause, but we also love being part of our community and volunteering alongside some of our clients, vendors and colleagues.

For the past three years we’ve been honoured to sponsor the Run for Water, which raises money for clean water in Ethiopia through Hope International Development Agency. Our team donates all of the web work for everything from the sponsorship phase to email campaigns to online registration and the post-event results and photos. It involves hundreds of hours every year, but we’re proud to be part of bringing such an important event to life. We’re also training the Run for Water organizers to become more self-sufficient on the web in areas like social media and content management, so that every year they’ll be able to do more themselves. Of course, it was also inspiring to see many of our programmers, designers and client services managers get out from behind their computers and break a sweat on race day! The event raised over $150,000 and brought out 2,300 people in what was Abbotsford’s largest charity run ever.

To us, the continued growth of the Run for Water illustrates how non-profit organizations can effectively use the web to promote and organize their causes. We have a special place in our collective hearts (and our portfolio) for non-profits, and there’s nothing we like better than seeing them embrace the online medium to be successful in reaching their goals.

See you at the run next year!

Design Currency 2010

Last week, my colleague Stephen and I attended Design Currency 2010, presented by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada in partnership with the International Council of Graphic Design Associations at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The three day event was comprised of a combination of presentations, discussions and workshops that fostered conversations around the events’ theme: Defining the Value of Design.

The nearly 30 speakers represented a wide variety of nationalities and professions including: Architects, CEOs, Creative Directors, Interactive/Web Designers, Illustrators, Communication/Graphic Designers, Business Owners and Educators. Each elaborated on the concept of “Defining the Value of Design.”

There was a lot to take in and discuss each day. A few key moments that stood out to me were:

1. The presentation by Dutch Creative Director at Philips, Oscar Pena who described the Philips concept as “matching the technically possible with the humanly preferable.” His presentation included some extraordinary designs of everyday objects such as the “moving flowers” street lighting that respond to and are powered by sunlight, the solar-powered outdoor stadium lighting used in African villages for evening soccer games where electricity is not available and the personalized MRI machine experience that includes custom music and illuminated backgrounds to put patients at ease.
2. An eye-opening presentation by Kenyan Martin Miruka, Founder, CEO and Lead Strategist of ATOM-tdf. Martin fielded questions through Skype as he was unable to be at the conference due to the Icelandic volcano but his well-crafted presentation and passion came through, making this a very engaging session. Martin elaborated on his vision for Kenya as the Chairman of Diversity Africa Foundation as he champions issues of diversity and the creation of a Value-based National Brand for Kenya.
3. The amazing works by Canadian Typographic Illustrator Marian Bantjes who still draws by hand to create relevant, forward-thinking designs. Her use of pattern and detail makes her work a rare combination of fine art and design.
4. The standing ovation received by Canadian designers Ali Gardiner and Ben Hulse for their work on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics . They responded to the applause of a convention room full or peers with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces. A true Canadian-pride moment!

The conference left me with much to ponder and as I continue to explore the Value of Design and hope to bring more value to my work. I’m not certain that I can yet define design, let alone the value of it, so I will leave you with a summary from the week’s MC, Dave Mason, who put it best with this summary of the three day discussion.

Domain7 Hits the F5 Expo

Last week, my colleagues Scott (@scottmacg), Jeremy (@jerpenner) and I (@frizzbarks) attended Vancouver’s first F5 Expo ,a business conference on changing technologies in the online space including social media, search marketing, mobile applications, and future trends.

We attended panel discussions on The Metrics of Social Media, Search Marketing and Mobile Marketing - most of which were fairly 101-level but a good chance nonetheless for us to discuss and brainstorm our own online strategies to the next level (and to bump into some of our most tech-savvy clients and treat them to lunch, of course).

Check out the details discussed and debated by following these hashtags on Twitter:

• Social Media: #f5social
• Mobile Application Development: #f5mobile
• Search Marketing in 2010: #f5seo

Malcolm Gladwell capped off the day with a somewhat controversial keynote talk on social media. The Vancouver community will continue to hash it out at an upcoming event on Thursday, April 29th at Ceilis Irish Pub. It’ll involve a screening of Malcolm Gladwell’s presentation, followed by a discussion on the future of social media and what it means to business. If you’re interested, sign up here.

Help For Haiti

credit: AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo

Two of our clients, Hungry for Life and Childcare Worldwide have people on the ground directly in Haiti providing aid. If you would like to donate directly to the emergency response teams, please check out both websites and help out estimated 100,000 people affected by earthquake.

• Donate to Childcare Worldwide
• Donate to Hungry for Life

A United Effort

Domain7 started working with United Way of the Lower Mainland this past summer to help lead them through strategic web development process that laid the groundwork for a new website re-design. Our team was led by Shawn and Ryan and focused on using the web technologies to help the United Way reach a new generation.

We were able to work alongside partners 6s Marketing and Veratta, strategizing directly with United Way staff to gain an understanding of the different needs and components that the organization required.

At Domain7 we like to come along side with organizations doing great work in our communities. Our team members are committed and passionate about helping out, so projects such as United Way of the Lower Mainland enable us to make a difference with our work.

A very special thank-you to 6s Marketing and Veratta for all their help as well, it was a great team to work with.