As part of their annual trip to New York City, design students from Brigham Young University toured the Thinkso studio and were “treated” to a lecture by alum and Thinkso partner Brett Traylor. Other stops on their week-long trip included Pentagram, Martha Stewart, Graphis, and Studio Case.

The Women Presidents’ Organization held its annual conference in Vancouver April 27-29, 2011. Elizabeth led a workshop entitled “Branding for the the New Economy.” Sponsored by American Express Open, her presentation focused on the 10 ways business owners can tweak their branding strategy in order to stand out in a saturated marketplace. Attendees included women who own or run everything from children clothing companies to law firms.

Adam Snetman travels to DrupalCon Chicago to co-present Thinkso’s rebranding and website design for Expeditionary Learning with Todd Nienkerk of Four Kitchens. The session, Don’t Design Websites. Design web SYSTEMS!, used the EL redesign as a case study of the design process and the collaboration between designers and developers.

The Pink Robots, Thinkso’s adopted all-girl robotics team, came in first place out of the 24 middle school teams that competed in the qualifying round of the FIRST Lego League robotics tournament. The girls dazzled the judges with their enthusiasm, teamwork, and innovative ideas—no to mention their Thinkso-designed uniforms! The team will advance to the NJ state tournament to be held on Dec. 12 in Mount Olive, NJ.

Amanda offers insight on how small businesses can leverage social media as part of an AMEX/SCORE event in Denver, CO.

For the second year running, Brett Traylor joins a distinguished jury of design, printing and paper experts assembled by Mohawk Fine Papers to judge the i-Tonies. The competition, introduced for the first time in 2008, recognizes world-class HP Indigo digital printing on Mohawk’s line of i-Tone(TM) papers. Thinkso designed the event materials again this year, as well as the coveted, anodized aluminum i-Tonie award itself.

Several of the Thinkso family participated in the Fitness Mind, Body, Spirit Games, a 4-mile run in New York’s Central Park. Everyone finished (eventually) and Mary Traylor (#7605) finished first in her age group.

Thinkso’s annual trip to Deer Lake in Boonton, NJ was a resounding success. Swimming, boating, bacci ball, basketball, hiking, and eating. Even the intern was invited.

Brett Traylor spent the afternoon as a guest instructor with BYU design students in Provo, UT. Students were assigned the task of repackaging a set of consumer products and were required to present and explain how their solutions improved upon the existing packaging. Proposals ranged from a rework of Breyer’s Ice Cream products to rock climbing equipment from Five Ten.

Amanda Neville participates in a Baruch College panel discussion about the issues and challenges women face in the workplace.