Many of us fell in love with paper at a very young age.

The infinite combinations of textures and colors combined with that fresh pulpy smell has conjured up many a glorious mountain of ideas that would eventually get each of us lost in a seas of paper. While our complimenting materials would vary; colored pencils, paint, pastels, pen and ink, scissors, glitter; it always began with the paper. The unending stream of projects those beautiful fibers inspired filled our parents’ homes, our bedroom walls, and inspired many a career where paper and its wonder could be present everyday.

It’s this kind of childhood wonder Neenah Paper has always conjured up for us. Getting new sample books and promotions always carries a little bit of magic with it, sparking ideas of what could be. So when we received an invitation to be transported back to this place of wonder and inspiration with a trip to the Neenah Paper Mill, we jumped at it.

Traveling with our good friends from Grip Design and our awesome Neenah Paper reps Michele Pistone and Jaime Sanders, we left our offices in Chicago and Geneva to head up to Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

As an aside, if you are given the opportunity to spend some extra time with your reps or a fellow firm, we recommend going for it! We have grown as individuals and designers as a result of our interactions and times spent volunteering or just meeting for a drink. Sharing the joys as well as the pains of our work with others in the industry creates a richer experience for everyone.

Neenah Paper, Inc Stevens Point, WI
The Stevens Point mill has been making paper since the late 1800s and has employed generation after generation of farmers and paper makers, creating a almost palpable sense of history within its walls. Our tour was not only information about the uncoated paper making process, but also peppered with stories of the mill dating back to its first owner, who employes young boys who chose to work barefoot as to not ruin their leather shoes. The wonder of the place was exemplified that day, by the larger than life rolls of Lift Off Lemon flying through the machines as the dyed and dried pulp became usable, printable, foldable, lovable, inspirational paper.

Here’s a little photographic walk through our day at the Mill.

Kelly & Justin are all geared up and ready for the tour to start!

Our tour guide, Jason, explains the intricacies of the paper making process.

Broke Paper: Neenah recycles just about everything. They are also perfectionists. If the paper made doesn’t meet their standards it is thrown back into the pulper and the process starts all over again.

A wooden gear from the original paper making machine that still sits under the Mill. 

Classic Linen handmade watermark roll.

Included in our day of paper history and manufacturing, our gracious Neenah hosts also treated us to an evening at their awesome farm house. As mentioned before, we love the opportunity to be able to spend extended time with our creative friends. Not only are they extremely fun folks and formidable euchre players, but they also encourage us to think bigger. Among a night of grilling, playing pool, and displaying some mad Rock Band skills, we found ourselves starting to dream about paper and what sort of things could become of those beautiful rolls, revisiting a place we all knew very well. Thank you Neenah, we love paper.

Ending the night with a little Rock Band with our favorite Neenah folks!

As my year-long internship at R29 comes to a close, I realize how lucky I really am. Few people get to experience Rule29 in such an intimate way that I did on a day-to-day basis. I got schooled in mathematical layouts, juggled multiple projects, learned how to communicate with printers, worked with developers, upped my production chops, and refined my type skills.

I knew starting here that some things in school cannot be taught and could only be experienced, but some things can only be learned at R29:

- Carrying 7 coffees at once is truly an art form
- Frozen lakes are best for practicing your golf swing
- Tacos are an essential key to creativity
- Coloring books and crayons make production meetings awesome
- Pumpkin smashing is the new carving
- Dual Shake Weights are easiest when doing deep squats
- Biscuits, honey butter, and blackberry jam taste best at 8am
- Healthy work culture breeds creativity

If you’re still in school or just getting out, an internship will help you grow and better prepare yourself to make the plunge into the working world. Thanks R29 for showing me how to Make Creative Matter®!

Want to have better conversations or be more interesting in meetings? Learn to talk about more than the weather.

Not everyone is a great conversationalist, and even the best have a tough day now and then. Plus, we all have clients that are challenging to talk to. So, how can you create a better conversation? Here are four ideas:

1) Be interesting by doing interesting things
“Interesting” can be simple or complex. Great conversations can come from things as simple as going to a gallery opening, book reading, or concert. Or for more extreme conversation topics, try running a marathon or skydiving, running with the bulls, or inventing the next great microbrew—you get the idea. Talk about, blog about, and share your interesting experiences.

2) Talk to yourself first
Sometimes I go though the steps of an upcoming meeting in my office or in the car. I work through possible questions that may arise or think of topics I can bring up if there is a lull. This exercise helps me visualize my presentation as a whole, as well as prepare for any surprises that come to light. Doing this makes me more comfortable, which makes my presentation go better and keeps the conversation flowing throughout the entire meeting. If I’m struggling, I think about the most outrageous or awkward questions that might be asked – this could be my warped sense of humor, but I have very seldom been caught off guard.

3) Read interesting stuff
Conversations with clients, or anyone in general, improve when you make time to read. It doesn’t have to just be books. Read up on your favorite blogs or magazines, and suddenly you’ll have a lot more to talk about. Plus, being up on current trends, technologies, etc., leads to more work because it results in deeper conversations and better relationships. One of the greatest aspects of Twitter is the ability to get snapshots of things that can be really engaging to talk about. You can use Twitter as a search engine to see what trends are hot in your clients’ industry; this is a great way to get familiar quickly with the current industry conversations or happenings.

4) Do your homework
Nothing beats research before a meeting. Reviewing your clients’ materials, their competition, or learning a little about their industry simply adds to the understanding and depth a meeting can have. Sure, this is a no-brainer. But if you are like me, it’s easy to lose track of time and never get around to doing it. With the ability to Google anything, getting the latest info about your client’s industry or company is easy, so make sure it doesn’t get brushed aside. Twitter, LinkedIn, and industry blogs are a gold mine for capturing key data.

Quick Tips 
So, what do you do to better interact with your clients?

Bookmark sites that provide daily inspiration for you. This should include some of your clients’ sites or related content. On of my favorite inspiration sites is Colossal.

Schedule time before a meeting to spend at least thirty minutes searching for the latest news about your client. Don’t just do this for new ones. And it’s always good to send your existing clients links to some of the latest things you are reading that they might not even know about..

Dig Deeper!
USA Today: The CliffsNotes of the newspaper world. Have it on your phone and get an overview of what is going on in the world.

For inspiration, watch and read some of the brilliance you’ll find at The Most Interesting Man in the World campaign.

This year the theme of Earth Day is climate change, and after this past week’s rainfall, we all now know firsthand that Mother Nature is a beast and we need to take extra good care of her! Not that we could ever stop the flooding or whatever natural disaster she sends our way, but there are things we’re doing that certainly are not helping.

This past year the earth marked many milestones regarding climate change. 2012 was marked as the hottest, most extreme year in United States’ history and then marked the hottest year the entire planet had ever experienced! Extreme weather events are now the “norm.” Here in the United States, we went from historic flooding in 2011 to devastating drought in 2012. Those droughts helped fuel wildfires that consumed tens and thousands of acres across the West.

Most of us had never heard of the word “Derecho” until 2012. It’s derived from a Spanish word meaning “straight ahead,” and that storm system covered more than 700 miles—knocking out power to more than 4 million customers in the United States. The winds were clocked at more than 90 mph, killing at least twenty-four people in seven states, and leaving many without power for days in the midst of the hottest stretch of the summer.

Storms rocked the Caribbean, the Philippines and the northeastern US with Hurricane Sandy being ranked the most deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. The most troubling climate malfunction was the melting at the tops of the world, with the Summer Sea ice in the Arctic shrinking to 18 percent below the previous record low. The Arctic Sea covered an all-time record low, with a high-water mark in a long-term decline. Solar flares hit earth—which hadn’t happened in six years. Suddenly there was talk about space weather, something that most of us have never even heard of or thought about. In Greenland 97 percent of the surface ice sheet experienced melting.

2012 brought major floods in Nigeria, Pakistan, and parts of China. A European winter cold snap killed more than 650 people. With all of that information on happenings worldwide, insurance giant Munich Re still said, “Nowhere in the world is the rising number of annual natural catastrophes more evident [than in the United States].”

This is all very troubling, and it helps us understand that this year’s Earth Days theme is really important. After 2012 weather events, it is very evident that global warming is making its presence felt. This shift in weather means certain types of extreme events are more likely to occur and will be more damaging when they do. All bad news, right? Well, yes… but that’s why we need to move forward and do what we can while we still can.

The first step to climate change is interest, and the second step is knowledge. The Earth Day Network has a very cool area to upload images and mark yourself as the face of climate change—and they are not all human faces.

Steps that we are taking at Rule29 include just getting active—becoming aware of what damage we are doing and tracking with our carbon footprint. Instead of driving everywhere, like our daily visits to Starbucks, we can walk. And as we have stated a hundred times our Nest has really helped us. Shopping locally is also important, since trucks and planes bringing food from other countries or distant parts of the US uses huge amounts of fuel. All of us are trying to change our driving habits, driving more gently (i.e., not using as much fuel as having a heavy lead foot does), which will help us save money, too! If only we could get the office to survive on solar energy, we would really be doing well. And like our last green post stated, we are starting the Rule29 garden—growing our own vegetables—and we continue to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

What steps are you taking to help climate change this year? We are always open to suggestions—after all, this is our world and we need to take care of it. Happy Earth Day!

In the past month Rule29′s work has been featured on AIGA’S website for the role it has played in design-driven social change. AIGA’S Design for Good initiative encourages and recognizes pro-bono and social engagement design projects that create positive social impact on the local or global community.  The case studies feature the work we have done with Team RWB’s and Life In Abundance’s Brand Development and the LIA Konjo Initiative.

Over the past 3 years Rule29 has worked with Team RWB in achieving their mission to transform the way America supports its wounded veterans when they return from active duty. They are currently viewed as the premiere veterans’ organization, and with 1.2 million veterans coming home over the next four years, R29 is proud to be part of helping them expand from 20 active chapters to (hopefully) 100 in the near future.

In addition to the efforts with Team RWB, Rule29 has made an impact in Africa as well in part through the Konjo initiative launched by Life in Abundance (LIA) in 2012. Konjo is an economic development initiative that involves sandals being handcrafted by the vulnerable unemployed men and women living in poverty of Nairobi, Kenya. The leather sandals are made from local resources and help create jobs within the community. In the past four years, through a dedicated community effort, LIA has successfully been able to help improve the living conditions of the people they are serving through wholistic development. Women (some HIV positive, widowed, single mothers, uneducated or extremely poor and with few options) and men are now employed and trained in skills that create a better life through created opportunities to buy medicine, food, and other necessities.

Before Konjo, Rule29 spent the past 5 years working with LIA to revamp their strategy, story and brand. This work took Rule29 to Africa four times, included two documentaries and a variety of experiences that has really changed our approach and understanding of story, design and why creatives should be a part of helping make this world a better place.

Design has an amazing part to play and we are honored to do what we can. For more details read the case studies on AIGA’s Design For Good section:

Team RWB
Life In Abundance
Konjo

I love social media. I pretty much have accounts on every platform just because I find it profoundly interesting. At Rule29, we consult with our clients about the best social opportunities out there, so some of my interest is work-related, but the rest is just gadgety-social-nerdiness.

But here is the problem: This ever-increasing, engaging, and addicting social lifestyle pulls us further and further away from much-needed focus on ourselves and our work and toward intermittent breaks for real social interaction. It prevents us from having that sacred downtime that can help us feel “normal” again and not as though we’re flying at a million miles per hour. Online and mobile engagement is both beneficial and enjoyable, but we all need to habitually unplug.

The more you engage, the more prone you become to constantly checking your accounts for communications you need to respond to. Soon time has gone by—in many cases, time that was just frittered away . The things you intended to accomplish may be partially delayed, or you ran out of time because you were posting an update to your Facebook account and responding to comments rather than focusing on the task at hand.

It can be vital to use technology to help you manage things in your life where appropriate. But when you want to be more efficient at work or have more time, you need to look at the big picture.

One option is to regularly schedule parts of the day when you are unplugged. For you, that may mean forgoing phone, laptop, or tablet. For all of its advantages, overly accessible technology has affected us socially. The watercooler talk happens more often online now—unless of course you change that. Take time to handwrite notes, meet someone face-to-face, turn the phone off during a meeting, and concentrate on the moment. Being present makes us feel better connected than our latest status post. Start with any of the preceding ideas, especially regularly unplugging parts of your day.

This accomplishes a couple of things. For example, it has helped me to pay better attention to conversations going on in my house. You will be more fully aware of what is going on if you are not having conversions in your head with other people. Make sure you are fully engaged when you need to be. Learning to turn off technology is difficult, especially considering how accessible we all are now with the various mediums.

To see whether your focus and productivity increase, start a campaign for regular antisocial rallies. These can be attended just by you, or you can unionize your workmates—or your family at home. Either way, make a concerted effort to unplug and do something else. You might take a nap, exercise, work on your novel, or enjoy an uninterrupted meal for 30 minutes; any of these is a great start. Try hanging out with yourself, surrounded by pure quiet. When was the last time you did that?

What’s interesting is that, when you do plug back in, you realize that maybe you are a little late to some of the conversations but that nothing happened is preventing you from still participating. The more time you take to return to the physical world around you and engage there, the richer your days actually become.

Quick Tips
Here’s how to start your antisocial campaign:

1. What times of the day are you most productive and tuned in? Choose those times to focus on the items you want to accomplish, whether it’s at work or after hours. Unplug before you start.
2. Read something—not on a phone or tablet. Play a board game or a card game. Draw. Paint. Do something that does not entail an electronic device. Dust off the Etch A Sketch?
3. Work-out and don’t check Facebook, talk on the phone, or tweet. Seriously.
4. If your phone or tablet is just too tempting, give it to a coworker or family member for a period of time. You can set aside regular, fixed times to have a no-device zone. This could be at morning meetings, at the dinner table, wherever. You might actually have some meaningful conversation!

This past Christmas season, Rule29 helped launch a new collaborative project called InstaThis, a new streamlined service that connects directly to your Instagram photos and creates stunning prints on wood or acrylic. Now, instead of merely viewing your prints digitally, you can arrange them in your home or office to match your style — or give them as gifts to family, friends, and business colleagues.

Who is behind it? We are! (in part) InstaThis is a joint venture between Rule29 and Birddog, Inc – both who are committed to exploring creative solutions and opportunities for emerging technologies.

How does it work? Using a unique mix of web-to-print technology and handmade craftsmanship, InstaThis creates one-of-a-kind wall art in a variety of sizes at a reasonable cost with significant discounts for ordering multiple prints (up to 40%). If you choose wood, the natural wood grains come through the image and the colors pop off the birch. Choose acrylic, and the vibrancy of the colors combine with the polished finish to create a truly stunning piece.

Do I have to use Instagram to order a print? As of this past week, no! We’ve added a “upload-your-own” feature enabling any user to upload the photo of your choosing.

Be sure and check it out and give your space(s) some new love.

InstaThis.com

Ever so often, you meet someone that shifts the way you see the world. When we met Ellie for the first time, this happened. She is a dreamer. She is a believer. And she has given us an excuse to smile midst some of life’s obstacles.

Sometimes the most inspiring moments come in the smallest packages. Meet Ellie.

If you havent yet, enjoy all of our Stories Matter installments.

This is a great perspective more of us need to understand. Whenever you go to developing countries you see signs of people trying to help without listening. Whether you are in this line of work or not create some space today and shut up and listen.

My amigo and creative producer The Bob™ shared with me one of his favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau that really challenged me: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

This nagged at me—maybe because in my life and work I sometimes feel things getting rote, or expected. I turn too quickly to the proverbial “bag of tricks.” We all seek a certain level of comfort. We like routine. But we also get busy, self-focused, distracted, find ourselves going at warp speed.

I decided to review some definitions of “look” and “see”—and I was even more challenged:
Look: to view something for a reason, with an intention.
See: to notice something that you weren’t looking for.

The definition of “see” is what I want more of in my life, in my day-to-day, and ultimately in my work and conversation. So what to do? That, my friends, is the magic question. The good news is that there are so many roads to “seeing.” Ask yourself the following questions: Do you want to “see” things you weren’t expecting? Do you want to see the world and all it’s beauty, pain, challenges, hypocrisy, and the hope that it holds? Do you want these things to affect you and motivate you? Or do you like just “looking” as you go through your day? Really, your answer to this last question is the key.

If you answered yes, then you’ll want some activities built into your day to help remind you to see. Let’s focus on one: creating space. The concept is simple: Plan a time every day, once a week, once a month, whatever you can spare, and just do something different. It can be for five, ten, fifteen minutes or more. Find a place that works for you—ideally one that is inspiring but not distracting. When was the last time you were all alone and able to just dream? Dreaming about you? When was the last time you were just still, silent, and focused? When we are alone, we can really take time to be honest and tune in to what we have been doing well or what we’ve neglecting at work and at home. Take the time, and take notes.

I think we “look” during the majority of our day—I know I do. But now it’s time for me to “see” more. To create space to see. Do you want to join me?

Quick Tips

1. Take twenty minutes and just go sit somewhere: in a park, at a coffee shop, on the roof of your building, in a room you barely ever spend time in, whatever. Just listen and watch. Lay down and stare at the sky if you want; just be free for a moment from anything you have to do…just be. When are still you can hear and see better, both what is going on around you and what you are thinking about.
2. Get out of your comfort zone. Submerge yourself in a different culture, or volunteer somewhere. The key is to do something outside of your normal.

Dig Deeper!

1. As the wise sage, Mr. Ferris Bueller, once said, “Life moves pretty fast—if you don’t stop and look around once in awhile you might miss it.” Stop and look around; life is short. Play hooky and watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, even it’s just for a few hours.
2. Make a list of the things that bother you in this world. Right now, just make a list. When you are done, put it away. Tomorrow, take a look at the list, and then spend sometime learning more about one of those things.

For more on this topic and other great tidbits check out Life Kerning
Originally written for Parse.