NEW YORK NY
Senior Partners Brett Traylor and Elizabeth Amorose state:
“As a content-driven creative agency, Thinkso prioritizes figuring out clever, impactful ways to craft, package, and deliver the perfect message for a broad group of clients. “While we’re not even close to attaining zero-impact status, we’ve found that adopting an overall ‘green’ mindset results in small changes that add up to a better way of doing business — for Thinkso, for our clients, and for the planet. Our office operations incorporate things like: installing a filtered tap water system (to eliminate plastic bottles); printing internal documents double-sided (or not at all); stocking our kitchen with proper dishes and utensils rather than plastic; and instituting a well-enforced recycling program. (Unfortunately, we had to retire our composting regime after an … unfortunate vermin incident.) For client projects,
sustainability is integral to our strategic approach. We analyze clients’ business and communications goals, and then make recommendations that serve them in the most efficient way. While it’s tough for some designers to forego the super-fancy, tricked-out brochure that would be fun to create and look great in the portfolio, we face it head-on, assessing whether a print project’s contribution to our client’s business outweighs the impact it has on the environment–and our client’s budget. On the surface, keeping project scopes lean might seem like a bad business practice, but in reality, it shows our clients that we’re conscientious and focused on their best interests, which in turn breeds longer, more stable relationships — and a cumulatively greener planet.
Another way Thinkso works toward sustainability is by partnering with like-minded clients. Before the company had a name, and well before its first water bottle took its industry by storm, Thinkso helped S’well founder, Sarah Kauss, on her mission to decrease plastic water bottle pollution and improve hygiene, sanitation, and access to safe water in developing countries. Thinkso was asked to name and brand the start-up as well as design the look of the first bottle ever sold at retail. They proposed the name “S’well,” inspired by the idea of “a gathering force” — as a wave in water and also as an activist movement. To make it more distinctive, a droplet-shaped apostrophe was used to form a conjunction that helps express the organization’s core beliefs: “Sip well. Serve well. Sleep well.” Since then, the company and the vision have appeared all over the world to great acclaim, and the name S’well has become synonymous with the global clean water movement, eliminating millions of plastic bottles in landfills.
