With the recent findings that Pinterest is now the third most trafficked social media site in the US, knocking LinkedIn back to fourth, it’s clear that this trend has grown past the early adopters that made this community so inspiring. What’s been used by designers, bloggers, and event planners as a way to collect inspiration and ideas has grown into a way to visually represent your own personal style and values.

Brands are starting accounts on Pinterest en masse, as the data is quite compelling:

1. The largest group of users is aged 24-44, a marketer’s dream

2. 58% of users are female

3. Pinterest drives more referral traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Linkedin, and Google+ combined

Of course, the key to being successful on any social media platform is to engage potential customers in the right way. Here are a few brands that we think are doing a great job:

Modernica pins interior decorating photos that feature their products in unique and inspiring ways

Scholastic Books has boards that are all about the culture of reading, not just the books they sell

Birchbox is a natural on Pinterest, since the success of their brand has depended heavily on social media and word of mouth. Their boards are easily defined by trend, product type, season, event, and more.

Travel Channel is another natural fit, and their pinning activities don’t disappoint. Aspirational, inspirational, envy-inducing… travel media at its best.

ModCloth is using Pinterest to humanize their brand. Not only do you get a feel for their products on their boards, but you get an idea for the people and the culture that make their company tick.

Chobani has taken a limiting brand (yogurt) and turned it into a great little community on Pinterest for sharing recipes and ideas. They’ve turned Greek yogurt into a lifestyle — no small task.

Handmade is everywhere nowadays. Here at Noise, we particularly gravitate toward the epicurean manifestations of those efforts. Burnt caramel artisan truffles, cardamom orange blossom pistachios, kona coffee ice cream … and those are just offerings from our clients.

But anyway, back to design. The return to handcrafted elements in our industry has been around for a little while now, no big surprise there. With a growing desire in recent years for more small-batch, artisan goods, we’ve seen a parallel shift in branding that reflects those values. One of the most iconic elements used — popping up left and right, indoors and outdoors — is the chalkboard.

Chalkboards conjure up many images and connotations: grade-school classrooms, restaurant menu boards, outdoor signage for community events and gatherings. You know the stuff:

Photos by (L to R): Celine Chamberlin, erictwright, rivalee

But let’s break it down — what are some of the more general concepts they evoke?

Homespun, Rustic, Informal
A low-cost, low-technology solution when it comes to signage, they’re most likely available at your local hardware store. Their ubiquity makes them relatable, accessible, and unpretentious.

Unique, One-of-a-kind
The loose, textural letterforms are completely unique, unable to be duplicated exactly the same way, whether once or 1,000 times. The gesture of the writer’s hand is evident in every stroke.

Fresh, Always-changing
There’s no longevity to the medium; the “ink” itself is impermanent in nature and intended to be easily erased. So, it’s perfect for communicating information that must be frequently updated or changed.

These characteristics combine to create a vision of untidy letters scrawled on a smudgy, dusty surface. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But what happens when you introduce formality, restraint, and a sense of permanence to the chalkboard medium — techniques that are contradictory to the features listed above?

We’ve seen Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods take chalkboards up a notch. With chalk pens and a multitude of colors, they become something more akin to mural art, and the chalkboard quality is a little less emphasized:

Photo by Whole Foods Market PN Region

Photo by misterbigidea

But check out these pieces by one of our favorite artists, Dana Tanamachi, demonstrating how the chalkboard can be successfully elevated to a new level:

Lettering by Dana Tanamachi

We love them because the materials are still so basic and minimal (a black board and a white stick of chalk), but they’ve been transformed into amazing, intricate works of art. Suddenly, blue collar co-exists with black tie — and when well-executed, they live in harmony and create a deeper, richer experience.

Of course, all of these thoughts on chalkboards are being put to good use here in the Noise office. We’re hard at work on new branding for SF Chefs 2012, in which the chalkboard has a starring role. Stay tuned for the full reveal, but for now, here’s a little sneak peek …

For the UX/Web Designer:

• Be able to design functional and beautiful websites, mobile and email communications
• Be a great team leader and able to collaborate
• Be comfortables presenting to and communicating with clients
• Be an active knowledge seeker on up to date design and technology for web
• Create Wireframes / User Interaction Guidelines / Functional Specs
• Build out HTML email marketing campaigns and templates
• Understand CMS systems using WordPress and other open-source options
• Create CMS user guidelines

BONUS
• Able to develop front end HTML/CSS, PHP, Jquery/Javascript
• Able to buildout WordPress as a CMS

We need to fill this position by June 1 with a full-time, in-house designer. Salary range based on AIGA salary survey, and experience.
If you fit this positions, please send your resume and a link to your work to us here. We will get back to all the people we need to interview within the week.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about pattern. Whether on sweaters or sewer grates, I’m finding it everywhere I look. Where I’ve been noticing it more and more frequently, however, is in packaging. I admit, perhaps this is because I’ve been researching gourmet chocolates and candied nuts in recent months – there definitely seems to be a stronger pattern presence in the boutique consumable category. (We even employed this technique in our work for Laura’s Nuts — sneak peek above!) But what I find really interesting is the use of pattern as the main branding component of these packages. In several instances, the logo is kept extremely simple and minimal, letting the pattern shine as the most commanding visual element of the package. I’ve gathered some of my favorite examples on Pinterest — check them out here.

It makes sense, too … especially for the aforementioned industry. Take some of the more intricate examples: delicate, illustrative patterns evoke feelings of luxury and finery, reminiscent of posh furnishings and attire. Sometimes they have a vintage flair, alluding to an older time when high-quality and artisanal products were the norm.

Quality is also suggested by the diversity of patterns used across a single brand. This creates a sense of one-of-a-kind uniqueness, making each individual package feel more like a precious object, already gift-wrapped and ready to give to a loved one.

Of course, there are more modern takes on this trend as well. Less intricate, more geometric patterns are surging in design and fashion at the moment, and packaging is no exception. The treatment of simple triangles and squares can vary drastically in mood, from loud and playful to quiet and romantic. Photographic textures also provide interesting backdrops for simple logo treatments, and can range from literal representations of the product to abstract, artistic statements.

With so much flexibility and versatility, I’m guessing this pattern is here to stay. (Yes, pun intended.)

I have long been a fan of the moodboard and a collaborative approach to design. This combo of visuals is used to set the tone for a project, help a client understand the concept, and even to portray the type of person we are marketing towards. A moodboard can be made up of images, colors, textures, style of photography, type samples or any number of elements that help set the mood. At Noise 13 we use a combination of magazine tear sheets, online sources and our own photos and materials to create these boards. One of my favorite board sets are the ones we just finished for SF Chefs new branding (project in process).

Recently there has also been a huge popularity for other creative businesses to use this style of visual selecting to set the tone for their style, message, or just how they see the world. For salons: hair style boards to help clients choose but also to showcase the style of work that salon produces. For interior/fashion/jewelry designers: show clients a style, showcase inspiration or post final works. At Noise 13 we use Pinterest for color inspiration, themes of style, and client specific moodboards.  A few of the best online tools:

• Pinterest is a huge collection of boards by theme
• Polyvore allows the user to create a collage of elements and tag those pieces to their source online, very fashion focused
• Olioboard is interior design focused
• MimiStudio is a combo of the pinterest style and Polyvore allowing for board creation but with in a more structured grid
• ClipPix for a more overall clipping to organize your online likes
• Tumblr is one of the originals with in a blog format, not quite as focused as the new options but it does leave space for more flexibility

How are you using some of these boards? Share yours on our Facebook.

More news on Pinterest.

Periodic Table of SEO Factors Infographic by Search Engine Land

Search Engine Optimization continues to be as important as ever, and the landscape is always changing.  Here are some SEO best practice tips for 2012 so you can keep your SEO strategy cutting edge.

1. Get Local

Google has been going local in the last year, and Google search results are now more focused than ever on Google Places. It’s crucial that your business is on Google Places and here is a guide for getting the most out of Google Places and local search.

2. Get Social

It may seem obvious, but social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ really do affect search rankings. Google has confirmed that Twitter and Facebook count.  Being active on social media is also a great linkbuilding tool, which is a longstanding tenet of SEO.

3. Use Smart Keywords

Make sure your website’s title tag is descriptive and contains a plethora of relevant keywords. However, don’t worry about the keywords meta tag too much – Google has admitted that it doesn’t consider these in search rankings.

4. Markup Your Data

Schema.org “is a collaboration by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines.”  Adding this markup data to your website makes it easier for non-human search engines to understand what your business is all about.

5. Comply with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Make sure your website complies with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. High quality content is paramount.

6. Be Mobile Friendly

Users are browsing the web from mobile devices and tablets with more and more frequency. Make sure your site is mobile ready so that your users don’t get frustrated and move on.

7. Be Interactive

Add original photos and videos to your website.  When Google crawls web pages it searches for diverse content, and including unique photos and videos diversifies your content.  Be sure to SEO optimize your photos and videos – always use descriptive and human readable file names, and include relevant ALT and TITLE tags for photos.

8. Last But Not Least…

This one may be the most important, and it’s entirely in your hands – make sure your site’s content is original and unique.

It was over one of those long lunches with too much wine, that we decided on the Noise 13 name. My current reasoning: you want your brand to make some Noise in your industry, to be noticed by customers and press, plus 13 is just my favorite number. Just by luck, first office was on the 13th floor, and legally our business was confirmed with the state on Jan. 13th of 2000.

The first official client on Noise 13′s books was TeddyCrafters, and Fred Rubenstein, who is now the owner of photograph & frame. It says something nice about our services to know that we’ve been working with some of our clients for over 10 years. Beauty Company fits into that camp too.

Over the years, Noise 13 gained interns, hired a bookkeeper, moved a few times, then found our next main office on Folsom street. That’s when it started to get really fun = full time employees! That office had some great people, most of which still meet up for drinks. Anna Tou, Shalin Amin, Jamie Scanu, David Handlong, Kerry Nehil, and Chelsea Carpenter are some of my favorites. We even knocked down the walls, put in new floors and had some fantastic parties in that crooked old building.

We moved to South park after that, I got a dog, and had some staff changes: André Quiroz and Erin Hunt joined the office and others moved on.  Then in 2011 we moved to the current space on 7th street. Currently the office is full of great ladies: Hien, Christine, Evelyn, Marisa, and Victoria. We also have a few partners here with us, Erin Finnegan of Notori.us, Marc Fiortio or GammaNine, and Kimball Starr, Interior Design.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful people who have worked with Noise 13 over the years as clients or staff or partners. I am looking froward to another year of great projects, good wine, and passionate new clients. Year 13th will bring the best party I can manage, so be sure to save the date: 1/13/13.

It’s always nice to see how paper can be pushed beyond its flatness. Jen Stark uses regular old construction paper to create mesmerizing, three-dimensional sculptures.

We also love infographics. A lot. Here are some beautiful ones made of paper that pop right off the flat page.

In his novel Tree of Codes, author Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) uses die-cutting to create a really cool and innovative reading experience.

We’re all familiar with the flip book from our childhood days -- a petite animation made of multiple pages of slightly different images, right in our own hands. But did they ever create rainbows out of thin air? I think not.

Here’s more paper in motion, and perhaps another familiar trompe l’oeil that intrigued us as youngsters — the zoetrope animation. But now it’s on a bike wheel! Who wants to make one?

And how about paper as attire? While not practical, it surely looks cool. At least this dress reveals messages to the wearer as it deteriorates.

Sometimes it’s hard to envision paper beyond its 8.5 x 11” footprint. But with a little color, organization, and shift of perspective, here’s what can happen. Incredible.

But what does one do with the waste that inevitably results from using all of this paper? Make a lamp, of course.

There are a lot of proponents in favor of Facebook implementing a “dislike” button along with its very popular “like” button. Facebook announced in October 2011 that it will not allow any developers to create apps that have a “dislike” button since the possibility of negative ramifications outweigh the users’ need to express displeasure. In the light of recent cyber-bullying reports and increasing participation from businesses on Facebook, there is little hope that Facebook will allow the implementation of a “dislike” button. Dislike your neighbor’s photos of her cat in multiple flattering poses posted on your wall? You will have to suffer passive aggressively in cyber silence.

Facebook is not the only social media platform that shares the same feel-good sentiment. Social media platforms containing personal content from users are more sensitive and vulnerable to abuse. Flickr, Google+ and Tumblr either allow you to “favorite,” “like,” or “+1” an entry, but there is currently not an option to “dislike.” Creative material, however, is subjected to a different set of standards. Websites that rank their creative content based on votes allow users to vote “thumbs down” or “thumbs up.” YouTube, Digg and Reddit use this data to highlight the most engaging content as voted by their audience. The option to give a popular entry a “thumbs down” is an expression from the online community that the entry may not contain any substantial or relevant information. The number of views may only indicate the controversial nature of the piece and not necessarily indicate an audience’s preference. My Facebook feed informs me that 15 of my friends has read the article “Snooki Finally Reaches Goal Weight of 98 Pounds – But Has She Gone Too Far?” whereas only 1 friend has read “Guantánamo, 10 Years Later.” I can state with absolute confidence that all of my Facebook friends will agree that Guantánamo’s anniversary is more important to the course of history than a skinny Snooki.

But the web is just like your family, there is always one black sheep. Yelp, whose description is “the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses,” is a collection of reviews from the general public. Yelp allows you to vote a review “useful,” “funny,” or “cool,” but is devoid of any option to mark the review as containing less relevant information. We are all familiar with the petty Yelper that hands out a 1-star review to our favorite hole-in-the-wall for not having red-carpet worthy service. Or the Yelper afflicted with a Catch-22 dilemma who waited “endlessly” for a table at a very popular restaurant that Yelp helped make popular. User reviews need to be protected against vengeful businesses, but a democratic system needs to be in place to demote small-minded sentiments. Useful details should be more readily accessible to the information-seeker instead of being drowned in a sea of nit-picky complaints.

Adding the option to “dislike” is usually a controversial decision for social media platforms, but it can also improve user experience by promoting better content. Currently, the most popular icons visually depicting pleasure and displeasure are “thumbs up” and “thumbs down,” respectively. “Thumbs down” is strongly perceived as negative in popular culture. Perhaps, a compromise can be reached by choosing an icon or adjective that has less of a negative connotation. If a “thumbs down” icon expresses too much negativity, we can follow the example of my first grade teacher–handing out silver foiled stars instead of gold ones.

Matthew Latkiewicz Wine Label Wheel from Sloshed.com

When creating a wine label, a designer’s first hurdle is the government: a label needs to include the producer, where the wine is from, what kind of wine it is (what grapes? a blend? sparkling?), the amount of alcohol in the wine, and that lovely little warning from the Surgeon General. The next hurdle is a little less straightforward: dealing with the fact that most people are buying wine based upon label alone, because they don’t know the fascinating story about who made the wine and how it should taste.

At first, this sounds fantastic. Just make that label stand out on the shelf, and out of the store it will fly.  But in fact, this customer tendency is what makes wine label design particularly interesting.  Not only must a wine label stand out and look great on a shelf, bar, and website, but the wine label’s design has to really speak to the wine that is in the bottle.  Chuck House explains this perfectly for Food & Wine:

“A wine label is all about getting someone to ask a question. A great label should stimulate a conversation… It could be a conversation between you and the bottle… But most importantly, the label has to suit the wine. The wine has to be at home in the bottle.”

As a label-driven consumer, however, this puts you in an interesting place where you need to ask yourself “if letterpress were a Merlot, would I want to drink it?”  Matthew Latkiewicz put together a hilarious ‘Wine Label Wheel’ to illustrate quite cleverly just how winemakers and designers are interpreting the juice that’s making it into those bottles.  Who wants a glass of Pottery Barn Catalogue Chardonnay? A leaping animal Aussie blend?

All joking aside, here at Noise 13 we take our wine (and wine labels) very seriously.  So, drink the wine you like. Buy the wine that looks good. And appreciate that vintage poster label accurately capturing the dusty, terroir-driven, oak-aged Willamette Valley Pinot Noir in your glass.