Lokion Interactive

Yesterday our own Meka Egwuekwe (Senior Architect) and Tish Pinion (Account Executive) attended a launch party for MemphisConnect at the FedEx Institute of Technology on the University of Memphis campus.

MemphisConnect is a new online gathering place where a diverse group of Memphians share the opportunities, organizations, and activities that inspire them to call Memphis home. Meka and about 60 other Memphians contribute content.

During the launch party program, Meka was one of three content writers who spoke about MemphisConnect and what it means to them. Meka also live-blogged to the site, sharing his thoughts about having such a forum for sharing positive aspects about the city he loves.

Rob Carter, CIO of FedEx, was the keynote speaker who shared his own enthusiasm for Memphis and MemphisConnect.

You can see the contributions of Meka and others at http://www.memphisconnect.com/

MemphisConnect

Earlier this year the design team wanted to create for our clients, partners and friends a unique and handcrafted promotional piece. As an interactive shop, sure we “get” digital media, but our creative roots are steeped in tradition. We thought the best way to express this was through a series of numbered, signed, screenprinted posters. And really, it was one of our most exciting collaborations as a team to date.

For the uninitiated, screenprinting is a laborious procedure, but it gives each individual poster a unique look due in part to the process itself.

Our first series so far has three designs. Release 1 is the Lokion “Command L”.  The concept/inspiration for this poster came from a lot of different sources, the most significant being the command key on a Mac keyboard. For creatives, the command key is pivotal for quick key commands to complete design tasks. In short, it’s how we get things done.

We are really pleased with the results of this first round (shipping this week) and are looking forward to round two of printing in the garage.

In a outburst of love for package design and branding, vocal Tropicana orange juice consumers managed to create enough of an uproar to revive Tropicana’s previous package from the dead.  In the past two months, the web has been awash with commentary and complaints about the juice container.

You can verify the buzz yourself:  just Google tropicana package (or #tropicana or tropicana packaging) to get a taste of the blogs, articles and comments regarding the new carton (and even some clever titles – our favorite was one called “pulp friction” about the package recall).  The sheer weight of the outcry was enough to bring back the previous container at presumably a great cost.  It shows the power of the customer online as a brand activist, or in this case, even as a brand and product manager with heavy duty decision-making ability.

Here are some of the comments that Stuart Elliott of the New York Times collected after he published his own article back in January about the new design:

“In my experience, decisions have more to do with the internal organizational dynamics of brand management and the career tracks of managers than about the actual test results.”

“Yes, the new packaging was ugly. But on some level I will probably miss feeling like I am drinking orange juice from the heyday of the Soviet Union. You need your Vitamin C after a long day at the gulag.”

“Thumbs down at our house: My daughter told me I’d bought the wrong O.J. I had to explain that it was a new package.”

“The first day the new cartons came out, I caught a very bad cold. I visited three supermarkets searching for the original Tropicana orange juice.  At the third store, I asked the stock person who told me he also had a hard time identifying the product.”

In a press release from March 3, 2009, Alterian announced its partnership with Lokion.  An excerpt from the release follows:

Alterian (LSE: ALN), a leading international integrated marketing platform provider, and Lokion, a full-service design and interactive agency, announced a partnership through which Alterian Content Management will be available to Lokion’s customers.

Lokion, with its diversified roster of mid- to enterprise-sized customers, was interested in adding Web Content Management products to its portfolio that would meet a wide range of client needs. Through its partnership with Alterian, Lokion can recommend, implement, enhance and train corporate users of Alterian Content Management, helping them build and run sophisticated intranets, extranets, websites and other digital channels.

“For companies with a significant web presence, it is extremely important to have a stable yet flexible Web Content Management system to help them expand and prosper,” said Megan Jones, CEO of Lokion. “Alterian Content Management provides operational efficiencies, ease of use and agility needed to grow with the needs of an individual organization – requirements that we’re hearing continuously from our customers.”

“Our partnership with Lokion will help us expand the global footprint of our web content management solution, Alterian Content Management, further penetrating the U.S. market,” said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian. “As marketers are looking more and more to engage their customers, websites will become more critical than ever before as a means to provide these customers with a meaningful experience.”