I learned a new word recently. Chaordic. Maybe you’re familiar with that term, but I wasn’t until Natalie Nixon sprung it on us at Cusp Conference 2017.

BizCast produced this executive interview highlighting Dave Mason as he reflects on past lessons and discusses the difference between customer needs and wants.

It’s been more than ten years since we thought maybe we could help inspire the kind of thinking that makes a difference. And what an incredibly optimism-inducing experience it has been.

We developed the brand framework, naming and identity that was applied to everything from business cards and website to the app interface itself, created video assets to help communicate the concept, and worked with Oxbow’s app developers to design features and functionality to help family social media interactions.

Despite the sheer number of ways in which so many of us now make ourselves available to the world — websites, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, MySpace (believe it or not, people still use MySpace!), SnapChat, and yes, even actual phones — it has become increasingly difficult to connect with anyone.

We helped a biosimilars pharmaceutical company communicate scientific rigor and unique perspective on the biologic medicine industry with a new identity and website.

Innovation is rooted in knowing and not knowing. It's about being able to look at something that exists (in some cases that existing something might actually be ‘nothing’—an unmet need) and then combining expertise with creativity to conceive and develop previously unknown ‘things’ that solve problems, create value or generate opportunities. We do a lot of work with people who simultaneously know and don’t know. And we love it, because that’s the way we approach what we do.

DesignApplause and Dave Mason agree to meet right after his 2016 Cusp Conference – after Dave takes a few days off to do whatever one does after a ninth annual iron man of sorts.

I once had the incredible good fortune to spend a few hours with Gord Downie. The enigmatic front man I’d ‘known’ from afar, was at first almost shy, but also incredibly warm and funny and engaging, a guy like any other guy you’d be happy to hang out and watch a game with. I can’t think of any greater quality than that.

Traveling muralist and artist Lauren Asta made a stop by Multiple Chicago to create a hand-painted mural in our office.

While it may be true that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, for members of the world’s population who are cursed with abnormally sharp critical thinking skills, the simple frustrations of everyday life can be a source of inspiration.

I know there are people out there who like to pretend they’re ‘self-made.’ Who claim that it’s their own hard work, smarts, and guts alone that made them successful, and whose lesson for those who aren’t quite as successful is, “well you’re just not hard-working, smart or gutsy enough”. I call bullshit on that.

I mean, why would someone who wants to throw a monkey wrench into everything that drives his industry—everything that represents the status quo he deals with every day—want to do anything ‘standard’?

Among other things, I help people and organizations communicate their best selves to the people they most want to connect with. But something about BRANDS! doing BRANDING! just rubs me the wrong way. At least to me, BRANDS! can seem like the equivalent of the loudmouth in the busy restaurant. They’re the guy in the powder blue tuxedo who shows up at your wedding.

We take design seriously, but we’re not above using our powers for a little fun once in a while. Especially around the first day of the fourth month in any given year.

Many species communicate. It's thought that whales, dolphins and porpoises do it sonically and that bees communicate with each other via some sort of pheromone-driven interpretive dance. Parrots can ‘talk’. But can you name a species other than homo sapiens that’s created and perfected a system of symbology in order to communicate? More specifically, what other species has been able to graphically encode thought or spoken language?

Kevin, Dave, Kelly and Andy share their individual creative processes with Get Fueled. Get Fueled is a collection of answers for the question: What is your creative process?

The next time your favorite organization (sports franchise, bank, airline or design firm for example) lets you down, just imagine how much better it might be if it only sourced its personnel the same way it sources its office supplies.