The walls came down and the gloves went on to jump start a new look for the San Jose Liquid Agency office. After occupying the large building that spans between South Market Street and First, it was time for us to make it our own, in true Liquid fashion.

Before any work could begin, we established the look, feel and materials that would be used in the renovations. Many sketches were created to review where the new walls would be established, to ensure a successful transfer of all servers, electricity and computers. Sketches also helped to look at the materials that would be used, including the sliding conference room doors, paint for the walls and size and shapes of the new carpet squares. Before we knew it, the time had come to evacuate the area to make way for the changes to begin.

The client services team packed their computers and bobble heads and got cozy with the creative team as walls came down, and carpet was ripped out.

After a few months of hammering and drilling, the office was once more at peace. Farewells were said and the client services team migrated back to their new habitat, and happily so. Geometric grey and black checkered carpet replaced the once solid wall-to-wall, new walls were created, giving our IT department more space to roam, as well as giving life to the new conference room. A secondary meeting area was formed, allowing for more meetings to occur simultaneously and more clients to be met with. The new orange screen doors gave a new life to the area, not only giving a punch of color, but help barrier conference calls from the productivity on the client services side of the building.

Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency, has been invited to speak at this exciting one day event. His latest book, The Designful Company, explores how complex business problems we face today can’t be solved with the same thinking that created them. Instead, we need to break away from traditional management approaches and start with designful thinking. In his session, Marty will explain why designful thinking will become the new best practice, and how you can leverage your unique position as a brand-builder to transform the way business does business in the 21st century.

Follow dConstruct on Twitter for the latest updates. Find out who the speakers are here.

Brand ManageCamp 2010 is an intensive two-day conference that features the most engaging and dynamic speakers in branding. This year, Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency has been selected along with twelve peers to speak at this renowned event in Las Vegas, September 21-22.

Created by experienced branders over eight years ago, the Brand ManageCamp marketing conference has become a place to generate new ideas today’s brands need in order to survive. Industry mavericks, best-selling authors, world-renowned experts – these leaders in innovative brand thinking will cover a wide variety of topics to help broaden perspectives, generate fresh, actionable ideas, and become a stronger marketer and a more dynamic leader. Some topics will include: Determine where to spend your precious marketing dollars, Drive innovation and creativity through a discipline of inspiration, Get big results by thinking and acting small, and much more.

“Industry professionals attend this conference because they want fresh inspirations on how to take their brand to the next level,” said Marty Neumeier. “I’m both honored and excited to be able to share what I’ve learned at an event like this.”

Marty will be speaking on Wednesday, September 22 about “How to build a culture of nonstop innovation” from his latest book, The Designful Company. In an era of fast-moving markets and leap-frogging innovators, companies can no longer merely “unlock” wealth. Today they have to actively “create” wealth, or end up in the fossil layers of business history. As a result, brand-builders have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a key role in the next management revolution.

Find out more about Brand ManageCamp 2010 here.

Using memorable principles and simple exercises, Neumeier leads workshops participants on a lively journey from traditional business thinking to “designful” thinking. “If you want to innovate,” says Neumeier, “you’ve got to design. Design thinking is the process that can turn a company into a leader.”

The 2010 Telly Awards honored the video in two non-broadcast categories: “How-to/Instructional” and “Training for Corporate Use.”

“We’ve received a lot of feedback about how the Innovation Workshop DVD has helped teams and organizations excel,” said Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency. “I’m especially pleased that my peers have found merit in it.”

Neumeier’s books, on which the DVD is based, have won wide acclaim in management and marketing circles, including media stalwarts such as Fast Company and BusinessWeek. His second book Zag was named one of the “100 Best Business Books of All Time.”

Hitachi hires Liquid to develop launch campaign for new brand.
Hitachi LifeStudio is a new brand of hard drive products that takes simple storage and backup to a whole other level. When Hitachi started looking for an agency to help them launch the new brand, they selected Liquid because of our experience with technology brands and retail. Working on the LifeStudio launch has been fun because the products are truly unique. LifeStudio is much more than an ordinary drive – the products include software designed to help users manage their “digital mess” through an innovative interface that enables people to find, organize, and share photos, movies, music and files like never before. This is a total breakthrough for this category…as no other drive offers this type of user experience.

From messaging to merchandising, we delivered a complete launch campaign.
Liquid worked closely with the Hitachi marketing team to collaboratively develop all of the materials needed for the launch. We started by crafting a new messaging platform, then we developed product videos and marketing collateral, and lastly we designed a modular merchandising solution that includes  inline, end caps, and stand alone kiosks for retailers nationwide. We worked with Rapid Displays to quickly execute prototypes, work out details and to build the units that would end up in the retail stores.

LifeStudio is truly an amazing series of products.
Hitachi has practically re-invented the category, and built tons of innovations into the LifeStudio series of products. As is typical with most new products, there are a few areas for improvement, as pointed out by Walter Mossberg in his recent review on the Wall Street Journal: “I can recommend the LifeStudio drives for local and online backup, if Hitachi follows through and fixes the “read-only” bug I encountered…” According to Hitachi the company is addressing all of the issues and it is committed to delivering a great user experience. LifeStudio has also been reviewed by CNET, and CoolestGadgets, among others.

Want to get one of your own?
The new line of products are currently available at Office Max, Fry’s Electronics, Micro Center, and can also be purchased online at Amazon, BestBuy, and Newegg.

Marty Neumeier, Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency has been invited by REBRAND to be one of ten jurors selected every year for the annual REBRAND 100 Global Awards.

REBRAND is the first, and only expert-led, global resource for case studies and programs focused on effective brand transformations. It has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, FastCompany, Yahoo! Finance, other publications and various media.

The REBRAND 100® Global Awards is the highest recognition for excellence in brand repositioning – and the first and only competition of its kind. Businesses, brand strategists, and various organizations have come to value knowing they are among the best in the world when it comes to effectively meeting strategic goals and building loyalty and strong connections with their targets.

Global organizations, Fortune 50 corporations, small businesses, accomplished entrepreneurs, respected nonprofit organizations, cities, and renowned universities from around the world are regularly represented in the REBRAND 100 Global Awards. Past winners have been based in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Italy, Lebanon, Romania, Australia, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the US.

Once a year, an esteemed panel of international design and business leaders is selected to jury the competition, with the ultimate goal of showcasing the most effective brand transformations to the world via RERAND.com and credible broadcast media. “I’m thrilled to be a part of this competition,” said Marty Neumeier. “Branding and design has been my passion for so many years, and to be selected as a juror along with nine other peers from around the world is really a honor for me.”

See this year’s juror panel at: www.rebrand.com

The problem with this process is that what you “know” is limited to either “what is” or “what was,” while innovation is all about “what could be.” It’s impossible to know what could be without the process of design. To generate new ideas, the design process inserts a middle step: making.

Through the act of prototyping—using sketches, models, maps, mockups, simulations—the “making” step puts options on the table that weren’t there before. It pushes back on what we think we know, and also changes what we’re likely to do. It shifts the emphasis from “deciding” the future to “designing” the future. In a business climate that requires perpetual innovation, industrial-age thinking is useful, but woefully inadequate. We also need design thinking.Here’s a simple pair of slides you can throw into your presentations when you build a case for a more innovative culture. Download slides.

Alfredo Muccino, Chief Creative Officer of Liquid Agency, has been invited by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a university in Cali, Colombia to participate in their celebration of World Graphics Day.

Alfredo will help lead a workshop involving students enrolled in the design program. The focus of the workshop is to create posters based on the theme “The Value of Design”. The program is being offered in conjunction with Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana is a private higher education institution founded in 1623. It is one of the oldest and most traditional Colombian universities with its main facilities in Bogotá and a sectional division in Cali. Since its creation in 1950, the School of Architecture and Design has established itself as a leading center for learning about the habitat, communications and design. Many of its students, faculty and school management have received national and international awards and recognition.

World Graphics Day takes place on April 27, and has been celebrated annually since 1995. As a way to participate in this global event, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana is inviting students to design posters that best express the theme. The exercise will be guided by the university faculty along with a select group of designers representing various parts of the world. Alfredo Muccino will be representing the United States. A panel of judges will select the top posters, and these will be submitted to Icograda, to represent the work being done by design students in Colombia. Alfredo will also hold a seminar to present the branding and design work that he has lead over the last 30 years and discuss the type of assignments that are being delivered by Liquid today.

“I’m very excited about getting a chance to speak to the students at this university. Their programs are very different than the ones offered in the US, and I look forward to sharing my experiences in the field, while learning about how designers are being taught in Colombia,” said Alfredo Muccino. “I am very excited to visit Cali and Bogota…and I am sure that I will return inspired and refreshed”.

Of course, most people know that Alfredo Muccino is an Italian citizen…but not many know that he was born in Bogota. He left Colombia to live in Italy when he was very young, and never returned. This will be his first time visiting his birthplace…which is another reason he’s excited about this particular trip.

Two of Liquid Agency’s packaging projects were recognized for their outstanding design by the Graphic Design USA through their annual American Package Design Awards competition.Liquid Agency received an award for the packaging system the company designed for Eton Corporation, which included packaging for the Eton brand, the American Red Cross brand, and the Grundig brand. Based in Palo Alto, Eton Corporation is globally recognized famous for its award-winning line of shortwave and emergency crank radios. Most of its radios are either hand or solar powered.

Liquid also received an award for the packaging design it delivered for Slice. Based in San Jose, Slice develops innovative products for the home and office, literally focusing on cutting edge design. Slice products include knives, box cutters, peelers and scissors, as well as line of manicure and pedicure accessories. Liquid has been responsible for the Slice brand since the company’s inception, and it has helped develop relationships with world class designers and architects such as Karim Rashid, Michael Graves, Yves Behar, and others.

“We are very proud of these two awards. This is a difficult and prestigious competition, with entries representing major brands in many categories across the US. Winning one award is not easy. We’re thrilled that our work landed us two - and much of the credit goes to our clients, Eton and Slice, who are both committed to fostering design innovation at every brand touchpoint” said, Alfredo Muccino, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Liquid Agency.

For more than four decades, Graphic Design USA has sponsored national design competitions that spotlight areas of excellence, growth and opportunity for creative professionals. One of the biggest annual competitions is the American Package Design Awards, which recognizes the country’s best package design. According to Graphic Design USA, “In this era of challenge and change, effective package, p-o-p and instore graphics are increasingly the “difference makers” in the success of a brand, a campaign, a product, a sale”. This year, entries in the competition grew by more than 20 percent, raising the total to over 1,500 entries.In the end, less than 150 firms and organizations were honored with a Certificate of Excellence and Liquid Agency was among them.They winning entries are featured in the March issue of Graphic Design USA. Both designs will also be published on the online version of the Design Annual. See more: www.gdusa.com