Blog

Join us in conversation on the topics we believe matter...to our industry, our city and our society.

2016 Design Week Portland

By Kris Travis | Mar 31, 2016

It’s comin’ up quick! Design Week Portland is “a week-long, city-wide series of programs exploring the process, craft, and practice of design across all disciplines.” April 15-21, all four corners of Portland will see a flurry of design-related talks, events, workshops, studio tours, and shows. This is a huge week for designers, but also offers […]

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Streamline Your Writing: Five Tips

By Christine Antles | Mar 28, 2016

Steve Jobs once said: “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” Throughout your PR and writing career, you have heard more than once to tighten up your pitches, your white papers or your press releases. While it takes practice, the result is worth […]

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Public Relations in the age of the Internet of Things

By Natalie O'Grady | Mar 17, 2016

When I was finishing my undergraduate degree program several years ago, one of my communications professors introduced the class to something called “The Internet of Things.” He explained that in the not-so-distant future, we’d be living in what basically amounted to the home in that Disney Channel classic movie, Smart House – refrigerators which has […]

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Moodboards: Feeling Your Way Through Brand Discovery

By Kris Travis | Mar 7, 2016

Once relatively exclusive to the fashion design industry, moodboards are everywhere now–design, architecture, politics, education, therapy…basically anywhere one’s brand or identity is a work in progress. I use them a lot in the design work I do, whether for a brand identity project, or to determine the mood of an internal campaign for an already […]

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Dealing with Negative Social Media Comments: You Can't Just Delete

By Natalie O'Grady | Feb 24, 2016

Social media allows brands to connect with their consumers on a pretty cool, personal level. When you set up a social media account and get things rolling, it can also be a nice ego boost. Things have been going well on your company’s Facebook page – people are liking, commenting on, and sharing your posts. […]

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Video Backgrounds in Web Design

By Kris Travis | Feb 10, 2016

Not everyone is doing it…yet. But video backgrounds in web design can be incredibly impactful and compelling in drawing the visitor into a brand. Longtime concerns over load times and usability are on the decline as web technologies improve every day, opening up new possibilities to creating an immersive brand experience online. Here are a […]

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Roundup of Top Posts

By Christy Caplan | Feb 9, 2016

It’s time to look back at our most popular content with this roundup of top posts. Some of these are from last year and some are more recent. Some of these were our most popular posts and others received a large amount of engagement across our social channels so we wanted to post a roundup as […]

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Direct Mail is Not Dead — Especially Among the 18-34 Crowd

By Christine Antles | Feb 9, 2016

Despite its reputation as a waning content marketing tool, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that direct mail is still very relevant. In fact, according to a recent study referenced by the SBA, nearly two-thirds of all consumers reported they had purchased something as a result of direct mail in the past year. Among […]

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Avoid Bad PR with Good Grammar

By A.wordsmith | Feb 4, 2016

There’s no shortage of articles about the enduring importance of good grammar in the modern business world. They illuminate the ways it bestows credibility on the writer, indicates professionalism, and ensures clarity and accuracy. As a grammar nut myself, I couldn’t agree more. But there’s one more thing I’d like to add to that list: bad […]

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Nonprofit Social Media: Suggestions for Policies and Guidelines

By Natalie O'Grady | Jan 27, 2016

Working in the world of nonprofits often means getting creative with a tight budget. This means that there aren’t many nonprofits (especially small, local ones) that have money to spare for a full-time nonprofit social media person on staff. While working with an outside public relations agency to fill this need can be extremely beneficial, […]

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