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Feb 15 2011
Archives

Eat Your Heart Out


As is the case with many Western holidays, the origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced to a raucous and hilarious pagan festival that sounds much more fun to celebrate than its modern decedent.

During Roman times, citizens celebrated Lupercalia – the festival of the shepherd god, Lupercus – from February 13 to 15 by sacrificing goats and watching as priests ran around striking women with thongs made of goatskin, ensuring their fertility through the coming year. In Latin, these thongs are called februa, which gave rise to the name of the year’s second month, February.

While we’re not really on board with sacrificing a goat (at least this year), we do appreciate the spirit of the ensuing shindig. Don’t get us wrong. We’re nothing if not pro-love, pro-flowers, and pro-chocolate – especially raw chocolate. We just think that this year’s Valentine’s Day could use a little Lupercalia.

So, go a little crazy tonight. Dance a bit wilder. Maybe even invite Bacchus to the party.

Be creative and, dare we suggest, Imagine the Next™ this Valentine’s Day.

Feb 09 2011
Archives, Imagine the Next

Imagine the Next with Adrienne Leban

During our latest Imagine the Next™ Friday, visual artist, social activist, long-time SVA design professor, and founder of Lifework Studio, Adrienne Leban, spoke to The Moderns and our guests about number of topics, ranging from her teaching philosophy to her social activism to her personal career and portfolio.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the event was that while it’s particularly difficult to divorce oneself from the type of work that pays the bills, we should all give ourselves permission to spend time fostering our personal creativity in order to make both our work and personal lives more fulfilling. We solutionists agree wholeheartedly – nothing could be more in the spirit Imagine the Next™ Fridays.

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Feb 07 2011
News Features

AIGA’s Compostmodern

Janine James, The Moderns’ President and Chief Creative Officer, was a main-stage speaker at AIGA’s biennial Compostmodern Conference. Janine spoke about The Moderns multidisciplinary culture and values in her presentation, entitled “Living an Inspired Life,” which was later picked up by TreeHugger. Likewise, The Moderns’ work for Berry+ has recently been featured on several popular media sites including TrendHunter, The Die Line, Lovely Package , Inhabitat, and The Miami Herald.

For twenty years, Janine and The Moderns have been thought leaders in the realms of environmental, social, and economic innovation. As each of these movements evolved, we helped our clients understand that while PR and ad campaigns have their place in promoting environmental, social, and economic causes, the only way to truly evolve their brand cultures to changing realities is through innovation.

In short, competing in this rapidly changing world requires new ways of thinking & new ideas that lead to completely different ways of valuing, organizing, and measuring our work. This is why it is our firm belief that paradigm-shifting innovation is the most important ingredient to success in the new knowledge economy.

Under Janine’s leadership, The Moderns’ work has brought success to some of the world’s most influential and innovative brands, among them American Express, Planned Parenthood, Aveda, France Telecom, Sundance, Knoll Textiles and Shaw Industries. Our portfolio speaks volumesabout our award-winning solutions that build brand cultures, helping our clients spawn communities of loyal customers and ultimately grow their businesses.

Feb 03 2011
Archives

Snow Storm Fail


We solutionists pride ourselves on being proactivite. So, when we heard that the snow storms that pummeled the much of the rest of the country were headed our way, we thought that we would use coming squall as an opportunity to create a time-lapse film.

Well, the storm never quite hit. Instead, we ended up documenting 48 hours of icy, wet drudgery. We are, nonetheless, proud to have captured two of Manhattan’s cruddiest winter days – and set them to the music of one of the 90′s…most interesting rappers.

Sometimes, it’s nice to be cooped up (especially in a space like ours).

Enjoy!

Jan 27 2011
Archives

The Moderns’ Compost

One of the countless ways we Imagine the Next ™ at The Moderns is through composting. We compost everything from our expired leftovers to our organic banana peels and coffee grounds to our wilted flowers, recycling nutrients back into our home and rooftop gardens.

This week we’ve welcomed around a thousand additional employees to The Moderns, our red wiggler worms (Eisenia fetida) from the compost bins in the garden of Janine James, our President and Chief Creative Officer.

Following Will Allen’s method of vermicompost, we feed the first round of compost from our office to our little friends, who break the compost even further into a nutrient-rich fertilizer over the course of a few short months.

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