GROW / Blog

We’ve recently picked up several company bikes, encouraging employees to ride any time to meetings, meals, or simply take an afternoon ride. The bikes are cutting down on the need for our automobiles during the day which makes Grow and the Earth happy. Customizing the bikes was a joy, too, with Republic’s 3D bike shop—a perfect marriage of digital and customized manufacturing technology.

With the addition of the new bikes, it also makes it easier for our employees to turn to public transportation to get to and from work each day. So much so, that we’ve adopted a new transportation program. We now pay our employees to come to work by any means except a car—be that on Norfolk’s new light rail, bus systems, carpooling, biking or walking. The money we would normally spend on a parking pass is refunded to the employee on each paycheck. Everyone wins. So far, about a third of our employees are taking advantage of these alternate forms of transportation.

We’re currently working with city leaders to improve the viability of public transportation systems, increase bikeability throughout Norfolk, and encourage a bike share program. Speaking of which… HRT, how about a viable and cost-appropriate solution for small businesses to take advantage of GoPasses?

Last summer, Grow was chosen as one of 80 top interactive agencies from 27 countries to be part of the FWAwebTV project. For one hour per week, agencies across the globe broadcast a live video stream from their offices, leading to some extremely creative, inspiring and down right hilarious results. While the project has now evolved away from the live feed, we thought it would be nice to recap and share some of our favorite live moments. Grow’s escapades ranged from a full-on live rock show in our kitchen, to the tail-curlin’ “Pug Cam”, hosted by our very own Eegor Parker.

Here’s some highlights from our summer vacation (albeit only for an hour):

Louis Fisher’s Social Dance-A-Thon saw self-proclaimed illustrator, writer, graphic designer, and oh yeah, wunderkind dancer Louis Fisher tackle 35 user submitted dances. For 60 straight minutes, Louis cut rug to popular dances like “The Dougie”, “Thriller”, “Flashdance”, and the staff approved “Dance Up On Drew.”

Our offices were taken over by munchkins as Tiny Grow filled desks and sippy cups imitating all 18 Grow employees. Viewers were treated to a wide-open hour of little versions of each of us workin’ hard… and hardly workin’. The only thing more fun than the feed was the ensuing pizza party after!

Grow’s proud to have a world-renowned illustrator in Jason “Stuntkid” Levesque among our ranks. Stump Stuntkid pitted Jason against FWA viewers in an intense, “Win Lose or Draw” type competition wherein users submitted things for Jason to draw while the Grow crew guessed against a clock. If the user successfully “stumped Stuntkid”, he scored some free Grow swag.

We had a blast participating and watching our peers make nearly as big of fools of themselves as we did. Check out the new FWAwebTV, where more Grow content is sure to follow.

barfcomics.com

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A|E Artist Award Announcement

Along with our friends at AltDaily.com, Downtown Norfolk Council, and re:Vision Norfolk, we brought back Art | Everywhere for a second successful year this spring. Empty storefront windows in Downtown Norfolk were transformed by art, and the community came together to celebrate Downtown’s color, culture, support of the arts, and most importantly, its potential.

Opening night brought out all walks of life with street performers of all sorts, DJs spinning in balconies, and a live comedy show.  Even Godzilla made an appearance!  The art and fun lasted for over two months and closed with a night of giant puppet shows, freaks on the streets, and a good ol’ fashioned party!

View all photos and find out more about Art | Everywhere here.

Google’s Search app is one of the all-time, most downloaded free apps in Apple’s App Store.  Innovations of the app are specifically targeted to the things you need in a mobile setting—things like searching by voice when you can’t type, or searching with a picture when you can’t describe something.  Still, users often forget just how useful the app can be, especially when compared to a standard search in their desktop or mobile browser.

To help keep the app and its practical uses top of mind, we created a first of its kind mobile ad.  The experience, called Uncover Your World, speaks to the way the world around you becomes discoverable with the Google Search app.  With that insight developed, we wanted to marry the brains of the concept with beauty in a unique, visual display and user experience.

Google has an exciting tradition of representing its digital products in the analog world.  We explored varying modeling and crafting techniques but found that most wouldn’t give us the perfect combination of high detail, fast build, and unique art direction that we wanted for the project. We found what we were after in the up-and-coming technology of 3D printing.

We used a powder-based, color 3D printer that took our custom, 3D models and built them from hundreds of layers of fine powder and glue.  In that transition from digital to printed objects, we created a very unique visual: highly detailed, slightly grainy, and seemingly handmade.  When you see the objects in photos and videos, you know they’re real, but you can’t quite put your finger on how they’re made, and that’s what we love about them.

Check out the full “making of” video above and then read more about the project on our website.

Every Wednesday at 10AM EST we participate in FWA’s FWAwebTV, where we stream live from our office for an hour. Two weeks ago, we were honored to have River James play a fantastic set in front of us and a few special guests. If you missed it, you can listen to the full performance below. Enjoy!