By Nicole G.

They say the most valuable asset a volunteer can give is their time. Yet in most cases, time is the hardest thing to give. Everyday our lives are moving faster than ever. With the holidays approaching, allotting time between work, friends, family, errands and responsibilities is hard. That’s why Infinite Family has paired technology with charity to make giving back easy.

Infinite Family founder, Amy Stokes, witnessed the devastation caused by HIV and AIDS, while adopting her son in Africa. Realizing how many African children were orphaned and sent off to live without plans their future, she decided to make a change.

As a working mother herself, she realized that many people want to help but just don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to traveling abroad. Infinite Family is an online mentoring service that connects volunteers in foreign countries to at-risk youth in Africa. By participating in the program, these children not only receive much needed mentoring and an adult role model, but also gain essential job seeking computer skills for later in life.

Infinite Family gives these kids hope and guidance.  Volunteers are asked to dedicate only 30 minutes of their time, once a week to chat with their chosen child. Technology is changing the way we see and connect with the world. In this one way, it had definitely done so for the better.

For more information about Infinite Family or to learn about becoming a mentor please visit them online at www.infinitefamily.org

By Michelle Peck

It’s that time of year, when we all spend our free time thinking about what gifts to buy, decorating the house with festive lights, planning parties, and singing along to a favorite Christmas carol. The holidays bring love, joy, and excitement year after year and sparks the inner designer in all of us. Design and art direction are all about providing a strategic look and feel to tell a story which is much like the well-planned gift giving and ornate ambiance of the holidays. So follow Santa’s lead to designing the perfect holiday this season with a few simple guidelines.

Think About Your Audience

Before hitting the shopping malls to purchase all the gifts on your list, you need to sit and spend time thinking about your audience and developing a strategy. Think about what each person wants, what their interests are, and how they like to spend their time. It’s important to understand how to speak to your audience, whether it’s finding the perfect gift, or promoting your brand.

Spark Emotion

By relating to your audience, you’ll be able to create a personal connection through your gift giving. You give gifts to people you care about and the right choice will evoke an emotional response in your recipient. Good art direction is all about finding this emotion and tapping into it. Good gifts should do the same thing.

Tell a Story

Christmas carols don’t only provide a festive tune, they tell a story and invite everyone to sing along. They make you feel joyous and bring out the holiday spirit. Creating a voice to convey a story is crucial in marketing a product or service. Conceptual writing makes you feel something beyond learning the facts. A catchy tune doesn’t only tell you what the Christmas story is all about, but you also feel the love and giving the season captures.

Choose a Color Scheme

Yes, it’s true everyone thinks about red and green as the traditional holiday color palette, but bringing true design into your holiday requires so much more. It’s about creating the ideal look for bringing holiday cheer into your home. Define what colors fit your personality and give the vibe your going for. Do you want your home to feel fun, formal, unique or traditional when the family arrives? A color scheme can make a huge impact on the tone of your design and create the appropriate mood.

Establish Your Brand

Ever wonder why the holidays are filled with snowflakes, santa hats, presents, and decorated trees? Visuals are a key element to good design. They are used to support the branding and concept by providing a consistent look throughout all components of a campaign. Visual cues create a culture that is quick to understand in any language. Ornaments and candy canes represent the holidays even without any mention of Christmas. They are ownable elements that can only be used when speaking about your brand.

Check Your Work

Santa knows the value of making a list and checking it twice. The last step for any designer is to proof, test, and share your work with others. The critiques and feedback you receive will only make you a better designer. So, be sure to check those holiday cards before sending them out and have a family member taste your favorite dish before placing it on the table.

In the spirit of the holidays, everyone can be a designer. Know your audience to find the perfect gift, create bliss with a well-told story, and incorporate the right visual elements into your home. You’ll be sure to have a very happy holiday season.

By Nicole Fletcher

It looks like Twitter is getting an updated look! Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says the goal of this redesign is to have “Twitter [be] more accessible for all 7 billion people on the planet”. Beyond that, Twitter wants the site to be “simpler not just for people already engaged but easier for new people to discover it and find value in it. It’s the best place to represent yourself on the Internet.”

They’re introducing 3 new buttons on the home page: Home, which will appear similar to the Twitter we all know and love, Connect and Discover. Home will appear in a slightly smaller view than vintage Twitter but will also incorporate a cleaner display of embedded content with respect to images and videos. Connect shows you who has mentioned you and who you might want to follow while Discover shows whats trending and directs you to stories you might care about.

Beyond that, Twitter is launching new, Facebook-esque brand pages! Brands will be able to customize the headers at the top of each page and the ability to select which tweets stay at the top of their feed.

It’s pretty clear that in doing this major re haul, Twitter is trying to discourage the use of third party aps and attract tweeters back to home base. We’ll see how this change takes flight in the months to come.

By Nicole Fletcher

Let’s face it, nerds are hard to buy for…unless of course, you’re a nerd yourself. That said, from my nerd ness to yours, I’m proud to share my nerd wisdom with the top 11 techtastic gifts designed to evoke joy and rapture from the geek guy or gal in your life.

1. Ctrl + O Bottle Opener- because keyboard short cuts rule

2. Heat Activated Color Changing iPhone Case -because they remind me of those hyper color shirts that changed color in the sun

3. Outlet Faces- because my outlets do in fact need mustaches (no sexual innuendo intended)

4. Rock Em Sock Em Robots - because this is a legit throw back – you’re welcome

5. Made an iPhone case out of your own Instagram Pics – because your instagram pictures should live both in and on your phone

6. 80s Cell Phone Case -because this existed just 3 decades ago

7. QR Code Made of Wood- because you can just buy 1000 sets of Jenga

8. iCade – because this is awesome and our office has one

9. Brain Freeze- because who wouldn’t want to drink a frozen brain that will freeze your brain

10. Patch O Grass iPhone Charger -because well…. this needs no rationale

11. Kodak Usb Drives – because these are a perfect blend of throwback and nerd