I was flipping through the June issue of Fast Company to take a look at their list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business (Lady Gaga is #1) because I figured it would probably lead me towards some new companies to feature. Oddly enough, the profile in magazine that caught my attention first wasn’t even from the list. It was a short profile of Geoff Vuleta, the CEO of New York City based Fahrenheit 212. He’s building a new type of consulting firm—one where IDEO meets McKinsey. He thinks that most innovation firms ignore the fact that the products and ideas that they create need to make money, and he thinks that traditional consulting firms rarely have ideas good enough to serve the markets that they so easily identify. Fahrenheit 212 focuses on helping major companies find new areas for growth—areas that will provide in excess of $100 million in new revenue. But what might be the most unique thing about Fahrenheit 212 is their business model. They only get paid if their ideas work, as they “put up to two thirds of [their] fees at risk, subject to hitting agreed commercial milestones on the initiative.” Continue reading about Fahrenheit 212…
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I feel as though I’ve been coming across a lot of innovation design firms lately. I guess it must be a growing field, which makes sense considering that design-focused companies like Apple are making a killing lately. Today we’re taking a look at Aruliden, a New York City based “brand strategy and product design consultancy formed by Rinat Aruh and Johan Liden in 2006 to bridge the gap between design and marketing.” They’re a small firm, but they make up for it by working with big name clients like Motorola, Jaguar, MINI Cooper, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Volkswagen. And not suprisingly, the work that Aruliden has done for these clients is just as impressive as the names of the clients. There’s the Motorola Sparrow and there’s retail strategy for Starbucks. Then there’s Areaware Clips and Scoot, Hydrogen Scooter. As you can see, Aruliden is always working on cool stuff. Continue reading about Aruliden…
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I still haven’t quite worked through all of the companies that I want to cover from the Fast Company World’s Most Innovative Companies list. It really is amazing how helpful magazine lists can be for finding internships. One company from the list that stuck out to me was Ammunition Group, which came in as the 5th most innovative design company. The reason that I’m so impressed with them is that they can claim Apple as a client. If Apple hires you to help with design, you’re doing something right. In addition to Apple, the San Francisco based product, interaction, and brand design firm has also worked to develop the Barnes and Noble Nook and some really interesting Lady Gaga headphones. Whether it’s designing products, identities, or interactions, Ammunition Group is one of the best at what they do. Continue reading about Ammunition Group…
It’s tax time, which means that I’ve spent some time looking over my records from last year. This year is already looking better than last year thanks to a sponsor on One Day, One Job. Hopefully it will mean that when I do my taxes in 2011, I won’t consider myself a “low-income entrepreneur.” But if I still do, I’ll at least have the option of getting some support from the Corporation for Enterprise Development. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities.” The program that I’m alluding to is the CFED’s Self-Employment Tax Initiative, which helps to provide free tax preparation services for people like me (though I haven’t actually taken advantage of any of these resources). That’s just a small slice of what CFED does, though. Their broader goal is “working at the local, state and federal levels to create economic opportunity that alleviates poverty.” Continue reading about Corporation for Enterprise Development…
It’s an exciting time to be in your 20s (or teens). We’re living in a period where technological innovation is constantly in our hands. It’s not in some spaceship that we see on tv or behind closed doors; it’s all around us. Beyond the tangible stuff, it’s never been easier to share and spread ideas. PopTech is a perfect example of this. They are a Brooklyn, NY based non-profit organization that has created a “a global community of cutting-edge leaders, thinkers, and doers from many different disciplines, who come together to explore the social impact of new technologies, the forces of change shaping our future, and new approaches to solving the world’s most significant challenges.” Even if you don’t end up working for PopTech, hopefully you can be a part of that thriving community as you move forward towards an exciting career. Continue reading about PopTech…
I’m fascinated by the field of industrial design. As much fun as it is to build virtual products like this website, I wish that I had the talent and creativity to develop something tangible. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that, because it seems that there are more and more industrial and innovation design firms popping up lately (or maybe I’m just starting to discover more of them). It makes sense. Look at what Apple has done since it refocused and reemphasized beautiful industrial design. More and more companies are using design as their point of differentiation, yet most of them need outside help. That’s where firms like Hoboken, NJ based Propeller come in. As they put it, they “create products, packaging, and modes of visual communication that elevate human experience.” Continue reading about Propeller…
Apparently the hot dog is a killer. Who knew? I had heard that the preservatives in hot dogs might cause cancer, but I read yesterday in this Fast Company article that the American Academy of Pediatrics recently “called for the redesign of hot dogs” because of the choking hazard. One of the Academy’s doctors even went so far as to say that, “If you were to take the best engineers in the world and asked them to design a perfect plug for a child’s airway, you couldn’t do better than a hot dog.” The article went on to discuss how RKS, a Thousand Oaks, CA based industrial design firm, was playing with ideas on how to redesign the hot dog. That’s a big task to bite off, but RKS was able to come up with some pretty cool concepts in their brainstorming. It shows why they can claim companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, Nissan, and HP as clients. Continue reading about RKS…
A lot of people think inventing is easy. You see those guys like Billy Mays screaming on tv, and you think to yourself, “I could have thought of that.” Believe it or not, even those stupid infomercial products aren’t easy to come up with, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the world of invention. Inventing a new product is a long, arduous process that requires a ton of resources. Invention Machine is a Boston based software developer that “drives sustainable innovation by enabling global organizations to consistently generate breakthrough ideas that accelerate product development.” It’s hard for a non-inventor to understand how software can help the inventing process, but judging from the number of large corporations that are using Invention Machine’s software, there’s something there. Continue reading about Invention Machine…
If there’s one criticism that I often hear about the non-profit world, it’s that they’re plagued by inefficiency. It’s certainly not true across the board, but taking the profit motives out of an organization can certainly create efficiency issues. Additionally, things like organizational structure, egos, and political agendas can disrupt for-profits and non-profits alike. Root Cause is a Cambridge, MA based non-profit strategy consulting service that “envisions a world in which the public, private, and nonprofit sectors work together to invest and re-invest in the most efficient, effective, and sustainable solutions to social problems.” In other words, they want to find the absolute best way to solve the world’s social problems, and then work with social innovators and social impact investors to make things happen. Continue reading about Root Cause…
If you Google “gravity tank,” one result tells you that “A simple, inexpensive gravity tank in a swine manure liquid-solid separation process will help producers control hog odors.” Another says that in a rooftop water gravity tank the gravity pressure is .434 times the height of the bottom of the tank from the fixture in feet. The Gravity Tank that we’re looking for is very different. It’s a Chicago based innovation consulting firm that combines research, strategy, and design to push their clients in new directions. Their staff consists of “anthropologists, former architects, filmmakers, engineers, graphic designers, industrail designers, MBAs, quant researchers, professors, brand strategists, and more.” They’re small, with only 35 employees, but they’ve already some very cool work with some very big names. Continue reading about Gravity Tank…
Today’s company might not have the sweetest sounding name, but they’re Dutch, so we’ll give them a break. Droog is “an enterprise based in Amsterdam and set up in 1993 as a statement on design.” They “operate worldwide together with partners, clients and manufacturers, designers, artists and architects in all areas of design.” So, what exactly do they do? First of all, they design their own products, but they also seem to take on client work. Droog doesn’t seem to be so much concerned with what it is they actually do as they are concerned with the science and the art of design. Droog Lab is where much of the company’s creativity comes from, as “the Lab’s research and design results find their way into Droog stores, publications, exhibitions or client proposals in collaboration with the Creative agency.” Continue reading about Droog…
We’re big on innovation here. We don’t like talking about companies that are doing things the way that they’ve always done. They’re not only boring, but they’re also destined for failure. Look at the auto industry. You can blame the downfall of the Big 3 on a lot of things, but a lack of innovation has to be a big part of your argument. We’re trying to bring innovation to the way that you find internships, and there are hundreds of startups out there that are defined by innovation. It’s all around us. frog design is a global innovation firm. They “work with the world’s leading companies, helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences,” and they’ve been doing it for almost 40 years. They’ve worked with clients as vaired as Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Yahoo!, which goes to show you that they’re not easy to pigeonhole. frog design is based out of San Francisco, and they have offices (or as they call them, studios) in Austin, New York, San Jose, Seattle, Milan, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, and Shanghai Continue reading about frog design…
It’s getting late. Many internships have already started, and others are starting in the next few weeks. We’re doing our best to continue finding great internship opportunities for this summer, but it’s getting harder to find internships that are worth writing about (if you know any companies that are still hiring interns for this summer, please contact us). At this point the best bet is to go local, and one employer that often takes on summer interns is the local government. That’s why we’re looking at the Chicago Department of Innovation & Technology and its internship program today. Continue reading about Chicago Department of Innovation & Technology…
