October 8th, 2008 989 Design Good Works Group

I was the coffee sponsor at the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Tuesday morning. Sponsoring the coffee at the event not only gets your name mentioned as a sponsor, but also gives you 2 minutes to speak in front of the Chamber. Normally, I will do just about anything to avoid public speaking. I’ve made blending in with the scenery a near art form. But I know that it’s not enough to get the 989 Design name out there–I need to get out there, too, and talk to as many people as I can.

Luckily, I had something to talk about that is important enough that it made it easy to get over my stage fright. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to introduce the Chamber to the newest studio project, the 989 Good Works Group. A much more detailed post about the Good Works Group is coming, but the short-answer version is that I am putting together a non-profit, not-for-pay group of designers whose sole purpose is to work on as many non-profit projects as we can.

I am approached on an almost weekly basis by groups who need some sort of design work done–maybe a logo or a newsletter, a poster or a postcard, whatever. And a lot of these groups aren’t big non-profits with lots of volunteers, but they’re very small groups raising funds for whatever the cause may be. These are often people who work all day and then work on their non-profit stuff at the kitchen table at night. They don’t have a budget for advertising and design, but they find a way to get it done. If there is something we can do—no matter how large or small—to make it just a little bit easier for them, then that’s something worth doing.

We have a few projects already in the works with many more to come in the first quarter of 2009. Keep an eye out on the site for more information. A more thorough post is coming in the next week or two as well as a new page devoted solely to the Good Works Group.

If you are involved with a mid-Michigan group who might be able to use our services, please drop me an e-mail. And if you are a designer or student designer with time to give, e-mail me.

Until next time…