This industry-renowned award scheme can be summed up in just a few words: Show Something Different! And that’s what we eski’s always strive to do. Not only to challenge ourselves, but to push our clients business’ forward.

Held yearly for agencies across Australia and New Zealand, entrants are asked to showcase a selection of their best work that year in a sales pitch format. And 2011 gave us a lot to offer!

Whilst Graphic Design is at the heart of our business, 2011 saw eskimo broaden its reach into the digital and moving image arena, producing successful multichannel campaigns across our fashion and corporate client business sectors.

Ever-flexible and always curious to embrace new solutions for clients large and small, eskimo operates where traditional full-service agencies cannot always go, providing a strategic communications offer at the intersection between design and advertising.

The judges were looking for consistently innovative work, with exemplary craftsmanship and execution, and with that benchmark criteria highly in-keeping with our business goals, we are thrilled to win against such esteemed competition in Frost, Interbrand and Naughtyfish.

Go grab a copy of Australian Creative to find out more, and here’s cheers to another successful year for the eski’s and most importantly, our amazing clients.

To see more of our work visit eskimodesign.com.au

THE QUESTION: ‘Where are all the women, within graphic design and creative industries? And it was a fairly unanimous answer – “we’re here!”

THE ISSUE: The lack of women in director and senior level roles.

THE SOLUTION: Support. We need to change our ‘male entitlement’ culture, and create an environment which is more understanding and perhaps sometimes just a little more flexible.

MY ADVICE: Pick your partners passionately. Both in love and life, surround yourself with people who give a shit. People like us.

THE OUTTAKE: Ladies, we’ve got to love ourselves more and fear less.

When it comes to commerce, the fact that women influence more than 80% of the purchasing decisions is reason enough for gender balance in decision-making positions, particularly in the creative and design industries.

Women respond better when all their senses are engaged. In design, it’s a touchy feely approach, as opposed to faster, bigger, slicker. When it comes to technology, women have no time to deal with complexity – technology is an enabler, take away the additional ‘features’.

With this in mind, at eskimo when we’re working on brands, we focus on values – on human and emotional principles and story-telling. When brands focus on product and more linear factors such as price, quality and technical features they lose their uniqueness. In this economic environment brands need to reconsider their feminine side (if they have one)

The enigmatic Yolanda Vega from the Australian Women’s Chamber of Commerce (AWCCI) had some pretty compelling statistics to share with the AGDA crowd:

• Women are starting up businesses at double the rate of men, yet have access to only 2-10% of finance.

• Women now also account for over 60% of university graduates.

In recognizing the rising economic, social and cultural importance of women, gender imbalance is not an option. Men and Women of the world need to address this together – it’s in everyone’s interest. ZP

Photos by Leanne Ambrogio from Sweet Style

Adelante! KM

So, what to do?

For consumers: Leading a mysterious double-life with two email accounts (one personal, one commercial) isn’t necessary. These days, most people opt for products like ‘Unroll.me’. This, and other similar life/time-saving products, work as the name suggests: They simply unroll you from ‘unuseful’ mailing lists and deliver the few relevant/approved sites to you in a single, manageable email.

For Brands: It’s not all bad. According to a UK/US-based survey released February 2012 by Upstream* and conducted by YouGov., mail advertising is still the preferred ad delivery channel amongst US- and UK-based consumers, with the least popular being mobile devices. However, the survey also brings to light the fact that 66% of consumers would unsubscribe from a brand’s promotions if they thought the messages they were receiving were too frequent, whilst 27% in the UK would stop using the brand’s product or service entirely. It also concludes that 37% of UK respondents would respond negatively to future messages from that brand, and 10% would be inclined to protest on social media sites!

With the above information at-hand, it’s clear that all brands – no matter how big or small – need to be careful not to go too far with their emails. Simply put: Know your customer, and make it your business to understand what it is they expect from you. CS

*The Digital Advertising Attitudes Report 2012 was commissioned by Upstream and conducted by YouGov. The total sample size was 2,054 UK adults and 2,015 US adults. Fieldwork was undertaken from January 24 – 26, 2012, and the survey was carried out online.

See more at witchery.com.au

INSPIRATION

HAW-LIN haw-lin.com

IT’S NICE THAT itsnicethat.com

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

MASHABLE mashable.com

TECH CRUNCH techcrunch.com

FASHION

REFINERY 29 refinery29.com

SELF SERVICE BLOG selfservicemagazine.com/blog

NEWS

THE BUSINESS OF FASHION businessoffashion.com

MUMBRELLA mumbrella.com.au

DESIGN

DESIGNSPIRATION designspiration.net

GRAPHIC HUG graphichug.com