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.

Multiple’s Dave Mason was a speaker at the 2014 Brand New Conference in Chicago, IL on September 25 – 26.

As I drove away, my brain swam with two conflicting thoughts: 1. What an asshole. 2. Now I really want to work with that guy.

Our clients—mostly corporations—typically come to us because they want to create or strengthen relationships. They may have problems or challenges they want to overcome, or see opportunities they hope to capitalize on through strategic brand communication. Our job? To learn as much as we can about them, and to develop and implement solutions designed to help them achieve their specific goals.

Multiple Inc. principals included in NewCity's Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago.

When everyone's Airbus A300s (or mobile phones, SUVs, software, sports drinks, accounting services, data plans etc.) and prices are essentially the same as those of their competitors, how do we decide where to put our dollars? We make decisions based on our perceptions of the candidates and then we vote with our wallets. That’s brand power.

Sure, we all need to know a lot about what we do to do it well, so ongoing, focused learning is a must. But if we're open, pay attention, and think beyond our own horizons, there can also be tremendous value in boldly going where we have no clue.

My ‘formative years’, as they say, were the 60s and 70s. And that’s why I became a graphic designer.

Whatever new ventures you're embarking upon, whatever opportunities you’re considering for personal and professional growth, whatever resolutions and milestones you’re committing yourselves to, even if they make your stomach turn, if you give them your all and finish the job, victory is yours.

So you’ve got good cars. Good airplanes. Good hotel rooms. Good software. Good design. Good food. Good whatever. What else have you got?

It’s not out of the ordinary to meet prospective clients who'll spend an hour or so outlining the totally unique qualities / challenges / opportunities their organizations represent, only to finally ask if my team and I have ever solved their exact problem for another client just like them in their specific industry.

OK, restaurant with the awesome sign. You've got my attention, and I'm thinking I might just act on the curiosity you've created. You want to create brand loyalty? Just remember that while it's true I may 'need' food, we both know there are plenty of options. And we both know that our first experience together can go one of three ways—good, bad, or whatever—and that in business, two of those results are negative.

If you subscribe to the measurement maxim—that an organization should focus only on what it can accurately measure—you might think that committing resources to stuff with hard to pin down or fuzzy ROI is incredibly risky. The most innovative (and financially successful) companies you can think of might argue exactly the opposite.

For brands, authenticity is huge. Trust is huge. Violating trust not only makes you look shady, but it can get you and your business in a lot of trouble, if not with the Facebook / Twitter police, then for sure with potential investors and/or actual customers or fans. Best bet? Grow your fan base the good old fashioned way.