Hot Studio

Leadership Lessons from... Howard Stern?

Maria Giudice

Over the past year, I’ve given talks at TEDxPresidio and AIGA Pivot about what I’m calling the DEO, or Designer CEO—a leader who holds the highest office in an organization and puts creativity, design, and innovation at the center of all its activities.

In thinking about ways to explain the idea of a DEO, I’ve naturally looked to the stories of other leaders as examples. And there are lots of great folks to choose from: people like Robin Chase, the founder or ZipCar, or Ray Anderson, the late founder and CEO of Interface Carpets. These are design-aware, big-picture, disruptive thinkers, and they illustrate my vision of the DEO.

One such person is Howard Stern. Howard, of course, is a divisive character: you either love him or you hate him. I love him, and I listen to him every day during my morning and evening commute. I’ve loved him ever since I was a young art student in New York City when Stern was shaking things up in the mornings on 92.3 K-Rock.

Over the years, Stern’s persona and the controversy that’s surrounded him have obscured some of his better qualities, including the fact that he is a very, very effective leader. Radio is a team sport, and Howard and his supporting cast have experienced phenomenal success and built a brand that’s thrived for nearly 30 years.

You don’t amass a track record like Howard’s without being a great leader. That’s why, love him or hate him, creative leaders can learn a lot from Howard Stern.

1. Let your people shine

Think of all the characters in the Stern universe that have become celebrities in their own right: Robin, Jackie “The Jokeman,” Beetlejuice, Baba Booey, Artie Lange, Ronnie the Limo Driver—the list goes on and on. Howard’s not afraid to share the spotlight, and he fosters a creative atmosphere that highlights the talents of his crew. What’s more, he’s loyal to his people, and they’re loyal to him.

2. Iterate constantly (but stay true to your core)

Everyone knows Howard as a radio host, but he’s also published best-selling books, starred in a movie, hosted his own TV shows, and been a pioneer in satellite radio. He’s jumped from platform and relentlessly experimented, all while never deviating from his central brand.

3. Respect your customers

Howard’s rude and crude reputation belies the fact that he has a profound respect for his customers, i.e., his listeners. He doesn’t talk down, and he never has lazy shows, which typically run every weekday morning from 6am to 10am. And he’s still surprising listeners: on New Year’s Eve this year, he asked his Twitter followers to send him their phone numbers so he could drunk dial them. Many obliged, and many received calls from Howard himself.

4. Give and take

Even a casual Stern listener knows that Howard is probably the best interviewer working today. Interviewing is a tricky art: you must simultaneously listen to and direct the conversation. The same can be said of leading a team. You’ve got to hear your team’s contributions and needs, but still point the group toward the final goal. Or you can wind up like this.

5. Remain human

At the end of the day, Howard is brutally honest and remains true to himself. He’s funny and he’s crude, but he just as often has moments of awkwardness or vulnerability. This, above all, is his defining quality. It’s what makes him liked by his listeners. It’s what helps him as an interviewer. And, ultimately, it’s what makes him a good leader. A DEO.

Location Labs Launches Safely

Margot Merrill

Congratulations to our friends at Location Labs on the launch of their new website and Safely Social Monitor, the company’s newest family-focused application.

Location Labs’ Safely products help parents keep their families safe both online and off. Parents can monitor and guide who their kids call and text, track their kids’ locations using GPS, access regular updates on their kids’ Facebook activities, and even help prevent texting while driving.

Though Location Labs has long been a leader in family-focused mobile apps, offering hugely popular apps through the nation’s largest wireless carriers, Safely Social Monitor was its first self-branded offering. Hot Studio worked with Location Labs to develop a set of brand guidelines to help their immensely talented internal team do something they’d never done before: speak directly to their customers.

Click here to learn more about our work with Safely and Location Labs. And if you’re a parent with Web-enabled children, be sure to check out the full line of Safely products too.

The Super Special Interactive Storytelling Hour

Henrik Olsen

Our very special guest speaker Ian Kovalik, Mekanism Executive Creative Director, brings us an evening of storytelling delight.

When it comes to telling stories interactively... The fun is back. The joy is back. Shear simplicity and elegance is back.

2012 is the year of Interactive Storytelling.

Sure, in the past, storytelling has been crowdsourced, arged, randomized, therapy-ed, and of course chooseyourownadventured. All very good approaches, and all still valid. But this year, something amazing is happening... An iced tea brand got a million people to download their mobile app. A bunch of sneaker enthusiasts got their own sneakerpedia. The Old Spice guy got even more muscles and started “crashing” other brands' commercials. And we still haven’t gotten over the latest interactive endeavor from Arcade Fire.

“The Super Special Hour” is a rapid-fire, adrenaline-inducing rush into what stories are being told, and how people are telling them. We’ll cover the successes and mistakes. We’ll show what we’ve done well and what we haven’t. And we’ll analyze new storytelling techniques with a fun interactive prop we call the “storytelling box.”

New technologies and social strategies of course will be in the mix, and we’ll address the ultimate recipients of storytelling: our audiences. We’ll talk about what builds them, what engages them, and how we encourage them to influence the stories that we tell.

Schedule:
6:00–6:30 pm: appetizers & drinks 
6:30–8:00 pm: presentation 
8:00–8:30 pm: Q&A and discussion

SFMOMA Leads Workshop at 2012 Museums and the Web Conference

Hot Studio

Attention webmasters, educators, curators, librarians, designers, scholars, and anyone else that may have a vested interest in discovering ways of meaningfully bringing data from museum collections online:

Our friends at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will be leading a workshop at this year’s Museums and the Web conference, held April 11-14 in beautiful San Diego, CA. The workshop, “Advancing Collaboration in Museums,” is based on conceptual frameworks developed by Hot Studio and SFMOMA and looks at different ways of collaborating around and sharing data from collected catalogued art, especially non-traditional works.

Hope to see you there.

Registration is open!

Unhackathon #1: The SF Taxi & Communication Challenge

Hot Studio

Join the City of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, and Mix & Stir Studio for 24 hours of intensive fun while inventing design-driven technology solutions for real world problems. The hosts provide the challenges, datasets, cool workspaces, and lots of food; you collaborate with other smart, creative people to find the solutions, win cash prizes (of at least $1,000!), and help make the city work better for everyone.

Sign up now!

Aloha, UX: Maria Giudice Leads User Experience Intensive at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

John Cantwell

Maria Giudice believes strongly in making sacrifices for education. That’s why every November since 2007 she’s dragged herself to Honolulu to lead a three-day user experience (UX) intensive at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Intended to help attendees learn what makes a website successful for both clients and users, the intensive covers a different key concept during each of the three days. Day One looks at the purpose, people, and processes behind project management. Day Two leads students through the basics of interaction design. And Day Three covers the underlying strategies of brand, content, and visual design.

“The program is really a crash course in human-centered design,” said Maria. “It gives students a playbook for applying strategic thinking and workflows into their own projects and businesses.”

Maria’s user experience intensive is offered through Pacific New Media (PNM), an organization within the University of Hawaii’s Outreach College that “presents popular classes and workshops taught by an exceptional group of nationally recognized professionals.” Intended to help students develop both personally and professionally, PNM classes are open to Hawaii residents 18 and older.

“We always look forward to Maria’s sessions here,” said Susan Horowitz, PNM’s program coordinator. “She brings a lot of solid information and positive energy. Her influence can be seen in the community here.”

One example of Maria’s impact is Ryan Brant, a former program attendee who returned this time as a guest lecturer after using the intensive as the framework for his new business, A/DM. A/DM is Hawaii’s only full-service brand and media agency, and has already done work for the likes of Bad Robot (the production company behind Lost) and Hawaii State Art Museum.

"Maria Giudice was a central figure, and key component to a personal paradigm shift within my career as a designer and technologist. Prior to meeting Maria, I was considering many design theories and principles, trying to evaluate "best practices" as well as my individual application of these. Her ability to clearly relate the goals and processes behind quality people-centered design helped to solidify a deeper understanding within me regarding design thinking and the overall user experience. The time spent in her lecture was pivotal to my growth and comprehension of ideas which support a solid foundation in user experience, client interaction, and processes utilized within my own design studio. I look forward to the opportunity of crossing paths with Maria in the future, and wish her the best of luck in all of her endeavours."

“It was great to have Ryan come back and speak this year,” said Maria. “I love having the chance to teach and help people think in new ways about their businesses and passions.”

She added: “And going to Hawaii’s not so bad, either.”

Motion Design: The Basics and Beyond

Henrik Olsen

What are the essential principles of solid motion design? In what ways can motion be used to enhance storytelling or sell an idea? Where do transitions come into play? How can you bring your own designs to life? Where to start?

Join Justin Katz, of Flock of Pixels, as he discusses best practices that drive effective motion design—the basics and BEYOND! Justin will cover conception to completion so that you can be prepared when working with motion and motion designers. He’ll take you through how he plans an animation—from scripting, thumbnails, storyboarding, style frames, animatics, rough cuts, audio, animation, editing and color correction.

Get the kick start you need to experiment with the art form yourself. If you’re just getting into motion or even already have a working skill set, you don’t want to miss this inspiring event. RSVP now!

About Justin Katz
Justin Katz, of Flock of Pixels, is an Emmy award winning motion design director and animator. Justin has been bringing notable brands and causes to life since 2004, with work spanning across corporate identity (most recently Canon’s new Cinema EOS), broadcast commercials (Fiesta Bowl, Jet Blue, Goodwill, Massage Envy), web advertising (Sylvan Learning, iGo, Cold Stone Creamery), corporate video (Coca-Cola, Insight, Del Monte), and film & conference titles (AIGA, Brand New Conference).

The Business Case for Lactation Accommodation

Maria Giudice

The San Francisco Breastfeeding Promotion Coalition is organizing a forum geared toward businesses and business professionals. The goal is to help all local businesses better accommodate their breastfeeding employees so that women can continue breastfeeding after returning to work.

This will be a 4-hour conference the morning of Wednesday, March 28, at the Federal Building on Mission and 7th St. Various speakers will discuss:

the health benefits of breastfeeding
CA law with regards to breastfeeding
options for accommodating breastfeeding employees, including allowing babies at work
how to create breastfeeding accommodation and/or babies at work policies

In addition to the speeches, there will be a discussion panel (10:30-11:15a) composed of local businesses serving as examples of how to accommodate lactating employees.

This is a free event, and a continental breakfast will be provided.

Register now!

Power Up Your Creative Process

Maria Giudice

D.Talks is an ongoing series of panel discussions presenting practical information about current trends and hot topics in the world of design and business. Our goal is to foster robust dialog and critical thinking, so crowd participation is an integral part of each event.

Can your best work be even better? How do you continue to “think outside the box” while spending most of your day in a cubicle?

Join AIGA SF as we discuss best practices for conceiving that big idea and then bringing it to the real world.

Hot Spotlight: Design and Music with Dave Eresian

Tomáš Zeman

Hot Studio tends to attract people with interesting backgrounds, like Director of User Experience, Dave Eresian. He's taught high school computer science in Chile, and has worked as a developer and a product manager. And he's a musician. We had an interesting conversation about the parallels between design and music. “Designing is like making music—it’s a collaborative experience. It’s all about co-creation, call and response, improvisation, and iteration.”

Dave became well-versed in the musical collaboration process as the leader of the Brazilian samba-funk band, Nobody from Ipanema, which performed regularly in the Bay Area for 10 years. (The band is currently on hiatus.)

Great American Music Hall

“Whether you’re jamming with someone, or sketching with someone, you need to be heads-up, open, and listening. Great listening is key for any kind of great collaboration. You listen in order to learn, to understand, and to connect,” he says. “It’s really key for building consensus and pushing ideas forward.” It’s also key to holding a band together for 10 years. “On collaborative creative projects, you’ve got to be able to listen and really hear each other.”

Call and response is another collaboration pattern. With both music and design Dave likes to use the “Yes, and...” approach. You listen to another person's idea and respond to it in an open-ended way—like theatrical improv.” In ideation sessions, “people sketch rough ideas and throw them up on the wall—just like playing a musical line or riff. When other people see the sketches they echo, refine, and build on them—just like call and response in music. That’s co-creation.”

A variation of this approach is to simply capture and mirror what people are saying. “When you’re facilitating a workshop, it’s really important to let people know that they’re being heard. During design workshops, I’m listening to everyone, attempting to capture their points, writing and diagramming ideas. Externalizing these ideas visually lets everybody see and build upon them.”

Dave also talks about the importance of improvising based on what’s going on in the moment, including feedback from crowd. “You have to listen to the other musicians, but you also have to listen to yourself and dynamically adjust your approach based on what the other musicians are playing. It’s like the musical equivalent of (visual) white space—part of listening is making space. You have to give people the dynamic space to sing, or play a phrase on their instrument,” he says. He also watches to see if the crowd is dancing, and may extend a tune, adjust the groove, or change up the set list accordingly. “The same thing goes for design process. You need to give space to your process, and permission to pivot, based on what you learn along the way.”

SFJazz show at Union Square

What about prototyping and iteration? “Yes! There’s also definitely prototyping in songwriting. You’re writing and recording things that have placeholder lyrics. I don’t use Lorem Ipsum (dummy text commonly used in UX designs), but I use nonsense lyrics until I find the right words.” Dave talks about performing songs-in-progress; experimenting, iterating, and learning what works as he goes. “It’s also a fun challenge to write in Brazilian Portuguese, which is not my native language.”

And you thought listening, collaborating, and prototyping was hard enough in English! Dave has shown me yet again that there’s always more to learn—and that our collective strength lies in valuing unique perspectives and talents like Dave’s.

-----

This is the fourth and last post in a series of articles spotlighting unique Hot characters—real people I’ve worked with who have some interesting stories to tell!

Here are links to the first three posts:

Hot Spotlight: What NASA Taught Holly Hagen About Company Culture
Hot Spotlight: Getting to Know Robert Kanes
Hot Spotlight: Dan Harrelson Blends Technology with Design

Moms vs. Management: Parents Make AWESOME Managers

Maria Giudice

A lighthearted but meaningful take on the power of working mothers, this panel will highlight parenting skills that apply to people management, and vice-versa. Joining Maria will be Margaret Stewart of YouTube / Google TV and Lourdes Alba of Pixar, discussing tried-and-true techniques for making the best of both worlds. Topics include time organization, conflict resolution, skilled listening, and balancing life with work.

“Being a good mom, like being a good manager, takes emotional intelligence, incredible organization, and sheer stamina,” said Maria. “I’m excited to join forces with fellow moms Margaret and Lourdes to explore ideas about how these sometimes conflicting roles can actually strengthen each other. I think motherhood makes us smarter and more resilient, which is priceless in the professional world.”

The “Moms vs. Management” panel marks Maria’s fourth at SXSW. In 2009, she discussed the relationship between human-centered design to agile development, and in 2010 she led conversations about how non-profits can leverage the power of social media for good and how experiences converge in the museum context.

SXSW runs from March 9-18, 2012 in Austin, TX. See more information about the panel here and about SXSW Interactive here.

Code for America Helps Launch Civic Commons

Sarah Brooks

Congrats to our friends at Code for America on the launch of Civic Commons, a new application marketplace that aims to democratize the vendor market for government software procurement.

Created in partnership with Civic Commons, BondArtScience, New Amsterdam Ideas, and Warecorp, the Civic Commons project was truly a team effort. Hot Studio was proud to contribute product, design, and brand strategy along the way.

We’ve admired Code for America’s mission since it launched in 2009. Organized as a fellowship program, Code for America enlists the skills of the Web industry to help foster open government initiatives and create positive social impact.

For more information about this project click here. And be sure to check out Civic Commons and Code for America to learn more about the amazing work they’re doing!

Pivot: AIGA Design Conference—The Rise of the DEO

Maria Giudice

There’s a new class of business executive cropping up—creative leaders who hold the highest office in an organization and place creativity, design and innovation at the center of the company. Part strategic business executive, part problem-solving designer, these hybrid leaders leverage these potent attributes to disrupt the status quo and affect massive change.

Last fall, I shared my ideas about the DEO at Pivot: AIGA Design Conference. Expanding on a presentation I gave at TEDxPresidio earlier in the year, “The Rise of the DEO” introduces this new breed of executive—the DEO, or Designer-CEO—defines the key characteristics of DEOs, and shows how they are changing the world.

Things are breaking down in the world, big systems. We need creative leaders to take charge. And I think the DEO is the right person for the job. Just how much change can a DEO affect, though?

The story of Ray Anderson gives some perspective.

For years, Anderson was your typical “plunderer of the Earth.” As Founder and CEO of Interface, Anderson oversaw a multi-billion dollar corporation engaged in the profitable and petroleum-intensive business of carpet manufacture. Business was good; Anderson’s conscience was clear.

Then, in the summer of 1994, an employee asked Anderson what he planned to do about Interface’s environmental impact. Looking for answers, Anderson turned to Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce and promptly had his mind blown.

The book explained a startling reality: industrial activity was destroying Earth. But, because of industry’s scale and pervasiveness, it was also the only vehicle capable of saving the planet. For Anderson, Ecology represented a true epiphany. “It hit me like a spear in the chest,” was his famous response.

Anderson vowed to transform Interface into a zero-waste company by the year 2020, and at the time of his death last August, Interface was more than 60% of the way toward its goal. Along the way, Interface had reduced overhead by more than $400 million, doubled profits and become a company for which employees were proud to work.

Ray Anderson’s story not only points to the massive change that DEOs can effect; it also shows that DEOs are not born, they’re made.

My goal is to continue speaking about DEOs so I can help inspire a new generation of creative leaders.

Check out my presentation for yourself. It’s filled with leadership tips culled from the stories of other DEOs, as well as my own personal story—from an aspiring artist with a Staten Island accent and “Melanie Griffith hair” to CEO of a growing design company with offices on both coasts.

2012 InfoCamp PDX

Rachel Elkington

Does connecting people with information excite you? Then you won't want to miss this one-day unconference. Visual and user experience designers, librarians, web folk and other InfoNerds welcome.

Registration is open!
(Deadline: Monday, January 30)

Hot Spotlight: Dan Harrelson Blends Technology with Design

Tomáš Zeman

It took me a few days to track down Dan Harrelson, Hot Studio's friendly and energetic Executive Director of Technology. Like many people at Hot, he has a busy schedule. And, as I learned, he’s getting a lot done. I arrived before business hours to find him in the kitchen. He was listening to a design podcast while unloading the dishwasher.

When it comes to incorporating technology into design, Dan hires Design Engineers–developers with a passion for collaboration and soft skills that include design sensitivity. "There are a lot of engineers who talk about build automation, test coverage, performance, scaling, etc. All of this is important, but Hot's not the kind of company where that's the lunchroom conversation," he explains. “At Hot, our technology conversation crosses disciplines. We have design engineers who consider themselves designers first.”

“Kerry Nehil (engineer) not only built our mobile site, he designed it too,” says Kelly Meanley, Producer. “When we launched the new hotstudio.com last February, we wanted to redesign the mobile site to match. Our user experience and visual design teams were fully allocated on client work so Kerry took it upon himself to tackle the mobile site redesign. Maria loved his work–and initiative–and approved the design so fast it made my head spin. We were able to get our new mobile site live in a matter of weeks and now Kerry is regarded as a double threat.”

Back before Hot built and delivered its own end-to-end technology solutions, the company was primarily known for its prowess in design. “There's always been someone technical here at Hot, but we weren't really invested in technology," says Dan. That investment changed two years ago when Chris Jones joined as Principal of Strategy and Engineering, and began to expand Hot’s in-house technology offerings.

Mixing design and technology comes naturally to Dan, who himself has been a cross-pollinator between the fields. "I'm most excited about not just building what we're designing, but actually having the technology team impact the design.” To that end, he believes design engineers need to think like designers too. “There are dev shops that really focus on the technical aspects of a deliverable. I care more about how people interact with software, and what technology needs to do to make those interactions wonderful.”

Of course, Hot’s expanded end-to-end technology capabilities come with some small internal challenges. Bringing design engineers upstream is “a little foreign to our process, but we have evidence that when an engineer is involved early on and can start building something to see how it acts, and how people interact with it, you can quickly bypass some wrong turns.”

Most recently, Dan describes a new product design. “At the same time the design team was moving forward with the look of it and how it works, the technology team was researching and experimenting with how we could pull it off. If the team didn’t have the capability to tinker, prototype and build, we would have ended up with a Photoshop comp and an After Effects movie. Instead, the final deliverable was a stand-alone HTML 5 application that runs in a browser. Once the design was done, we turned it into production-ready code. We did all of the browser testing and performance testing.” This is an example of full service strategy to end-product offering.

Dan and the technology team have a lot more on their metaphorical stove. “We ended the year with some pretty compelling engineering solutions, a number of products in the Apple App Store and apps for third party tablet devices. We're going to announce a number of case studies for websites we've designed with interesting content management solutions. We're going to have custom software written for the Windows platform. In all, we'll soon have well over a dozen projects that we've built in house.”

Hot Tech Team (from left): Oksana Timonina, Scott Tran, Chris Jones, Adam Chromicz, Kathy Simpson, Kerry Nehil, Bill Fisher, Eric Hackman, Brett Webb. Not pictured: Dan Harrelson, Jason Punzalan, Anthony Bovasso, Tory Polich

With a burst of enthusiasm Dan adds, “We’re not just a design studio. We’re a design studio that builds software really well.”

-----

This is the third post in a series of articles spotlighting unique Hot characters—real people I’m working with that have some interesting stories to tell! Read the first post and the second post.

Hot Studio Named to Hall of Fame for Bay Area Businesses

Rajan Dev

What do Babe Ruth and Hot Studio have in common?

They’re both hall of famers!

Hot Studio was honored to recently be inducted into the San Francisco Business Times’ Hall of Fame.

Hot earned its spot thanks to recurring appearances on the Times’ annual lists of the Bay Area’s 100 fastest-growing private companies, and largest woman-owned businesses. Hot’s been featured on both lists every year since 2006.

According to Times publisher Mary Huss, the 2011 list highlights businesses that grew during challenging years, when “many companies were thrilled to stay flat.”

“It’s truly an honor to be included in the San Francisco Business Times’ Hall of Fame,” said Maria Giudice, Hot Studio’s CEO and Founder. “It’s a reflection of the hard work and immense talents of everyone at Hot, as well as the faith our clients have shown us over the years.”

The Times list covers sectors ranging from technology, finance and marketing, to media, biotech, retail and manufacturing. About half of the 2011 honorees made their list debut this year.

Hot Throws its 4th—and 1st!—Annual “Philanthroparty”

Hot Studio

The only thing better than a party?

A party for a good cause.

That’s the thinking behind Hot Studio’s annual Philanthroparty, a holiday tradition that gathers Hot’s employees, clients and friends for a healthy dose of revelry mixed with some general do-gooderness.

And 2011 was the biggest year ever for the Philanthroparty—the first time it was celebrated on both coasts.

Hot opened up its New York office on December 1 to play host to the inaugural Philanthroparty NYC. Fed by Brooklyn’s Naturally Delicious and grooved by Peter Touissant, partygoers also participated in a raffle that raised $1,000 for the PopTech Science Fellows program.

The raffle’s proceeds were donated to PopTech in the name of first-place winner Gina Terada; both she and runner-up Jake Porway also took home an “instant wine cellar” featuring more than 40 bottles of wine donated by Hot’s New York employees.

“Even though we’ve been in New York for more than a year, the Philanthropary was a kind of coming-out party for the New York office,” said Phil Lam, Hot NY Principal and General Manager. “We were really happy to welcome everyone into our new space.”

Now in its fourth year, Hot San Francisco’s Philanthroparty was, according to office manager Peter Jacques, “the most professional party we've ever thrown.”

The third floor of Hot’s offices was converted into a “sparkling winter wonderland” with red lamps at the tables, giving the space the feel of a nightclub out of the 1930's. Beer, wine and Irish coffee (the coffee coming courtesy of Bicycle Coffee, the “Irish” coming from Hot) were served up at a 15-foot bar.

Entertainment included a clairvoyant, Mary Spicer, DJ Josh, and a holiday sweater contest. And San Francisco’s raffle raised a record $2,500, with winner Karyn Johnson of Peachpit Press donating the proceeds to Project Commotion. Hot’s own Rajan Dev took home the instant wine cellar; Nathan Shedroff and Holly Hagan split the sweater prize (seven bottles of wine each); Jerry Michalski of REXpedition won the “mystery gift” (Monopoly: The Card Game); and Hot’s Kristi Teplitz won a 1-year subscription to Lynda.com.

We hope your holiday festivities were as joyous as ours. Have a happy and healthy 2012.

Getting Bigger, Staying Hot

Maria Giudice

When Hot Studio opened its doors in 1997, the first employees were housed in a one-room office on Folsom Street in San Francisco. Today, Hot occupies two floors of a Howard Street loft building in S.F., and has a shiny new SoHo office in NYC. At the same time, Hot has morphed from a small shop focused on information design (hello, Yellow Pages!) to a full-service experience design consultancy. There are nearly 75 “Hotties” now, and the San Francisco office is gearing up to accommodate as many as one hundred desks.

Hot’s culture is at the heart of our transformation. Respect for different kinds of people, a work-hard-play-hard mentality, and a touch of entrepreneurial spirit have kept our employees happy and clients coming back with ever-tougher problems to solve. Today, especially during this period of significant growth, preserving Hot’s culture is a primary concern. As offices on both coasts expand, as we move from local and regional projects to work for major international clients on a deeply strategic level, how can we maintain the culture that helped us get to this point? How can Hot get bigger—and stay Hot?

In San Francisco, Hot’s culture is being reflected in the office itself, which is currently under major renovation. During planning phases, Hot held open forums in which employees provided input on what the new space should be and have. The top request? Yoga. Beyond this, says Peter Jacques, San Francisco’s office manager, employees gave input on everything from the location of breakout areas and quiet spaces to ways of encouraging mixing among Hotties on the different floors. Mixing is a major consideration: how can you maintain the intimacy and camaraderie that a much smaller office affords when employees are now spread across an entire building?

There’s also been a lot of thought given to clients’ experience of the new Hot office. “Our clients are our partners. We want them to feel at home,” says Peter. Thus, they will have dedicated work spaces too.

When Hot’s New York office opened, the culture was carried east by Hot Studio veterans. Eric Grant, Director of Brand Experience, and Vinicio Vazquez, a user experience engineer and Hot’s fourteenth employee, are both transplants from San Francisco. Alison Rand, once our lone East Coast producer, now oversees a small team of people dedicated to getting creative things done. What they’ve helped build in New York is an office that in some ways feels like the old Hot—a smaller space where everyone knows and sees each other. The experience design field in New York, the former San Franciscan-ites say, is a little bit scrappier. It has more of a startup feel. “We all feel like we’re helping Hot, and our clients here, tackle a new frontier.”

Being in New York means several things for Hot. For the first time in its history, the company’s hiring lots of people from outside the Bay Area. Folks like Phil Lam, Hot NY Principal and General Manager; Jennifer Kilian, Principal and Creative Director; and producer Ashley Day were based out of New York before joining the company. They’ve each visited Hot SF to get a feel for things out there, and we frequently share team members between offices. There’s an overriding belief right now that New York and San Francisco can learn a lot from each other.

Being in New York also means new kinds of work for Hot. With its San Francisco roots, Hot has traditionally worked with clients native to the Bay Area—tech companies, startups and non-profits. The New York office has exposed Hot to many of New York’s big industries: publishing, finance and fashion, and has also opened the door to international clients.

And yet, despite all the changes Hot has faced over the past few years, Hotties throughout the company say that Hot is still, by and large, the same place they’ve come to know and love. Folks still bring their dogs to the office, and still grab drinks after work. And there are still parties—a Hot Studio hallmark. It’s just that when there’s a party now, it’s a little bigger, a little louder, and there’s a bit more reason to celebrate.

Drink Up the Brand: Report from the Brand New Conference

Margot Merrill

In the dark of a theater in San Francisco, I sank into a velvet chair. I was at the Brand New Conference simply to watch and listen. Given the amount of thinking, designing, and “doing” of all sorts we’d been doing back at Hot Studio, enjoying others’ work was a welcome break.

The presenters were from all over the world. Visual and intellectual, the presentations were chock-full of insights into process as well as executed pieces that made me want to run out and create. Below you will find my notes from the conference. Go ahead, sit back, and take a long drink of brand. It's so satisfying when done well.

Vince Frost, Frost*

Loved this man and the work! He seemed to have a generous spirit and approach to solving design challenges. From a library to the Sydney dance company, it seemed clear that his group worked on projects with a heart. When asked how he knows what the right solution is, he said an old colleague advised him to "look for the clue" in the client brief and materials.

Being a word person myself, I was particularly pleased with many of Frost's designs that played on the characters of his clients’ names. For instance, see the lower right corner of these posters for the Sydney Dance Company's identity:

Christopher Simmons, MINE™

An almost-one-man shop, the founder of MINE and his client spoke about the design of the identity, and almost everything else in and on Bun Mee restaurant. It made me really want a Vietnamese sandwich.

Marina Willer, Wolff Olins

Marina is a total badass. She wore hot pink leggings and cool clunky glasses. I only mention her attire because I want to be her. I was taking notes, but I have neither her fashion sense or filmmaking chops.

What we do seem to share is a belief that people can be inspired and fulfilled by organizations. And that design systems and guidelines should inspire people to contribute and create.

She showed us some of her original films, then walked us through projects ranging from Gap (RED) to AOL. Two that stood out for me were the identity of the Tate Modern, which she recently updated, and this one for Southbank Centre for the Arts—Amazing visual language! A weave celebrating complexity rather than simplifying it.

Southbank Centre

Paddy Harrington, Bruce Mau design

Bruce Mau's firm has a stellar reputation because their work is clean, clear, and frankly just awesome. Paddy took us on a brief tour, an intro to branding and then some projects. What resonated most was his passionate cry for the story. Stories are core to connecting with people. He said, "Stories make us human beings. They're literally what we're made of." As a writer and one of many storytellers at Hot, I almost cried. We love stories that much. Don't you?

Paddy said Bruce Mau made any project inspiring. That of course reminded me of Maria, who founded Hot and constantly pushes us to explore and to improve people's lives through design.

Some of Paddy's projects included the Fogo Island Inn (OMG, go! And take me!), the BOOM gay and lesbian retirement community (great Facebook integration), and this movie about the identity of OCAD U:

OCAD University Visual Identity from OCAD University on Vimeo

Jonathan Notaro, Brand New School 

Motion graphic firm which has expanded into marketing and brand. Really impressive. Just HEARING and SEEING things move. We live in the 2010s! Made me happy—and envious and excited to do more with motion.

Check out just one example:

Jack Daniel's No. 7 movie—the movie led to all brand and print advertising work. 

Claudia Boggio and Alfredo Burga, Infinito

Lovely people, lovely designers from Chile. Started with an intro to Chile, where they come from, its cultural diversity and landscape. They painted a picture which grounded us in the work they did for clients all over Chile. It included beautiful packaging to celebrate a chocolate's 50th anniversary. And yes, I really, really, wanted that chocolate!

Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak, Facebook

I didn't know FB had a small team of originally-from-print designers who are just making things better for the people who work at FB. I was seriously impressed with the graffiti art they'd inspired, created, and curated around the campus. And the printing press they got up and running just because they could. They shared a little about the developer culture there, now loosely supported by the moniker "hack," and the beautiful materials for the latest F8 conference, all of which were produced in-house.

They told a story about imagining the windows of this rented building saying "H-A-C-K." They spoke with a facilities manager who said he couldn't condone it. But that he was leaving on vacation for a week...

Done overnight! Awesome.

Lastly, Matteo Bologna of Mucca was making everyone laugh about the process and client/designer communication as I made my way out of the auditorium and home to my family. (Sorry, Matteo. Really.) Everyone from the conference went out to drinks while I guzzled a glass of red wine at home and picked up my 10-month-old girl's dinner from the floor.

The Monday after the conference I returned to Hot Studio inspired, grounded, and knowing we were in good company in the world of design.

Looking forward to many more conversations, and to sharing details of our recent brand projects with you soon!

Take care,
Margot

Maria Giudice to Present at SXSW Interactive 2012

Hot Studio

Hot Studio is proud to announce that Maria Giudice, CEO and Founder, will lead a panel titled “Moms vs. Management: Parents Make AWESOME Managers” at SXSW Interactive 2012. The program will be featured in the conference’s “Future of Work” series.

A lighthearted but meaningful take on the power of working mothers, the panel will highlight parenting skills that apply to people management, and vice-versa. Joining Maria will be Margaret Stewart of YouTube / Google TV and Lourdes Alba of Pixar, discussing tried-and-true techniques for making the best of both worlds. Topics include time organization, conflict resolution, skilled listening, and balancing life with work.

SXSW Interactive runs from March 9-13, 2012 in Austin, TX. See more information about the panel here and about SXSW Interactive here.

Maria Giudice Named Women’s Initiative 2011 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

Rajan Dev

Congratulations to CEO and Founder Maria Giudice, who was recently named a Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by the Women’s Initiative, a non-profit organization that helps low-income, high-potential women start or expand their businesses by providing training, funding and ongoing support.

I am very excited that Maria's been awarded this recognition. She embodies a number of characteristics that help make her a great leader. Maria is fearless and confronts both opportunities and challenges head on. She demonstrates integrity and inspires those around her to think creatively beyond defined boundaries. And, she is an inspired collaborator, who helps teams of people do things that they could not do as individuals.

“The Women’s Initiative holds the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards to recognize successful women entrepreneurs in the community who serve as role models for the women who go through the Women’s Initiative program,” said Nicole Levine, Executive Director of Women’s Initiative San Francisco. “Maria was nominated by the community and chosen by a panel of business leaders as a visionary who is making a difference and leading through innovation. Women’s Initiative also hopes that this award shines a light on the tremendous impact that woman-owned businesses have on the economy.”

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by the Women’s Initiative,” said Maria. “I'm also thrilled to be recognized alongside some truly remarkable women."

This year, the award is shared by eight other entrepreneurs, including Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and President of Eventbrite, and designer Lily Samii.

Way to go, Maria!

Hot Hosts Balanced Team Conference

Hot Studio

How do developers, designers, and product managers all focus on making great products?

That was the main question asked at the Balanced Team Conference, held in late September at Hot Studio’s San Francisco office. The weekend-long event gathered 60 leading product minds, including Jeff Patton of Agile Product Design; Janice Fraser of LUXr; and Alan Cooper.

“Balanced Team is about creating better products through collaboration,” said attendee Dave Eresian, Hot’s Director of User Experience. “It’s about improving communication between developers, designers, user experience architects and product managers, getting people out of their silos and leveraging the collective wisdom of a balanced team.”

The weekend featured more than a dozen presentations, each of which looked at the Balanced Team concept from a different angle. User Experience expert Johanna Kollmann considered the applications of Balanced Team within an agency context, while executive coach Dale Larson looked at Balanced Team’s impact on marketing efforts.

“We were thrilled to host Balanced Team,” said Chris Jones, Hot’s Principal of Strategy and Engineering. “Hot has an ongoing mission to look for better ways to collaborate with teams, clients and partners, and this is a pretty amazing group of people pushing these principles within their organizations. It was a really ideal fit.”

To learn more about the conference and the Balanced Team mission, be sure to check out the Balanced Team website.

Hot Spotlight: Getting to Know Robert Kanes—Producer Extraordinaire

Tomáš Zeman

Robert Kanes is one of Hot Studio’s talented and super organized producers. Producers are responsible for making sure a project is completed on time and on budget. They serve as the direct contact for our client partners, and help make sure everyone knows what’s going on and what’s coming next. Robert is really interested in the technical end of project management and is a self-described "huge fan of tips, tricks, productivity tools, widgets and apps." I sat down with Robert recently and asked him to share some of those tips and tricks, and tell me more about himself and what he likes to do outside of work.

Robert and Holly Hagen discuss a project schedule

Gig:
Producer

What’s your secret passion?
Avid mountain biker and photographer

What’s your favorite spot to mountain bike in the Bay Area?
Wilder Ranch State Park

Do you think like a producer when mountain biking?
"If you're doing a fairly stout ride and especially if it's someplace new, you're going to want to prepare and adjust for contingencies. On the trail, you have to be ready for whatever it throws at you."

What are three things you’re always thinking about as a Producer?
1. Determining who the stakeholders are and identifying their specific needs
2. Understanding how to report out on my project:

What kind of information is going to be needed, and who is going to need it when?
What is important for our clients—and other partners—to know?
What do we need to know internally?
How do we communicate the right information clearly, and in what format?

3. Properly setting expectations is crucial. It's an important life skill even that's not specific to producing. Everybody needs to understand what the deliverables are, and be able to define their success. I ask myself these questions:

Is this the right deliverable to answer the client's needs?
Does it meet all of the established criteria? Does it perform like it’s supposed to?
How could it be better?

Any advice for people interested in producing?
"Beyond learning the day-to-day activities, client interactions and software tools, what I’ve seen from watching some really experienced people at Hot is that relationship management skills are key. That’s emotional intelligence, politics, business savvy– learning where the levers are to get what you need done."

What’s one of your latest tricks?
"Caffeine is a tiny program that stops your screen from going to sleep, which is really useful during presentations. You could do the same thing by going into your system preferences and changing your sleep settings, but this is really simple." Some utilities do only one thing but do them very well. This app prevents the awkward scenario of accidentally "presenting" your screensaver.

-----

This is the second post in a series of articles spotlighting unique Hot characters—real people I’m working with that have some interesting stories to tell! Read the first post.

Sharing Tablet Best Practices: Henrik Olsen Presents at Web 2.0

John Cantwell

“There still aren’t many good resources for tablet design best practices,” says Henrik Olsen, Hot Studio’s Executive Creative Director.

That’s why over the past year Henrik has been busy sharing his experiences, and the collective knowledge gleaned by Hot, on app projects like Evri and Zinio with designers across the country.

Henrik’s latest workshop, held at the Web 2.0 Conference in New York City this past October, was an iteration of workshops previously given at Chico State University and San Francisco’s AIGA chapter.

More than one hundred designers, managers, and developers from companies like Intel and Marriott gathered for the Web 2.0 workshop. The three-hour talk, “Designing for Tablet Experiences,” walked attendees through the top 10 considerations for creating an app, then jumped into a series of interactive exercises intended to quickly help attendees concept and design apps of their own.

“The exercises built on each other,” said Henrik. “It was a logical way of replicating the experience of creating an app, and also a good way to keep people engaged.”

Echoing Hot’s own collaborative approach, Henrik encouraged participants to work in groups. During work sessions, Henrik ventured out into the audience to interview the teams and share progress. “I was going around with a wireless microphone, like Phil Donahue,” said Henrik.

Following the presentation, a few participants asked that Henrik post his slides online. “Designing for Tablet Experiences” has since been viewed more than 18,100 times on SlideShare, and featured on SlideShare’s home page.

View it for yourself.

Maria Giudice Named 2012 AIGA Fellow

Hot Studio

Hot Studio is proud to announce that Founder and CEO Maria Giudice has been named a 2012 AIGA Fellow.

According to the AIGA, the Fellow award program “is a means of recognizing mature designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their local or regional design community as well as in their local AIGA chapter.”

“This is a very exciting and well-deserved recognition for Maria,” said Rajan Dev, President of Hot Studio. “Maria’s dedication to improving her practice, inspiring studio leadership, and working with the community is unparallelled, and it informs the entire Hot ethos. We’re all so happy for her.”

Past winners of AIGA Fellowships include Matthew Carter, co-founder of Carter and Cone Type; Herman Miller’s Stephen Frykholm; artist and designer April Greiman; and DJ Stout of Pentagram.

Congrats, Maria!