Visit realitydrop.org

When former Vice President Al Gore asks you to help him save the world, you say, “yes.” So that’s exactly what we did when he, and his advisor Alex Bogusky came to us with this opportunity to work on the Climate Reality Project.

Problem: In 2007, after Mr. Gore won accolades for An Inconvenient Truth, public attention to and understanding of climate change was at an all-time high. The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrated clearly that global climate change is happening, and manmade carbon pollution is to blame.

Unfortunately, that truth was particularly inconvenient for the fossil fuel industry, and in the subsequent years Big Oil and Big Coal spent big money buying access to media, and fueling a campaign of doubt, denial and confusion in an effort to gain control of the climate conversation. And it was working. Public understanding of the issue was dropping, while the reality of global climate change continued to grow into the full-blown crisis it’s now become.

We needed a tool to help ordinary people cut through a very complicated and easily manipulated scientific issue to get the most current, relevant, and clear facts about climate change. We needed a tool to empower people to confidently and knowledgeably regain control of the conversation, so we can all get back to fixing the problem.

Our solution was Reality Drop.

We first introduced The Reality Drop concept at PSFK’s “Gaming for Good” conference. After submitting a brief asking more than a million creative professionals to incorporate game theory to address the issue of climate change, Reality Drop was one of two Arnold entries judged among the top ten.

On February 28th, Mr. Gore officially introduced Reality Drop during the prestigious 2013 TED conference in Long Beach, California. In no time, the news was picked up by Pete Cashmore and Mashable, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Digiday, and more.

Just 3 business days into the launch at the time of this writing, it’s difficult to tell if we’ve actually succeeded in saving the world. But among the many things our small team learned while building this tool, we can say this for certain: Trying something means everything.

Creative Team:
Sara Goldsmith
Caroline Foss

Giro makes the very best, most baddest-ass cycling helmets in the world. In 2004, they wanted to run a TV spot during the Tour de France on an extremely tight budget. They’d never run TV before, but apparently one of their sponsored athletes was contending for a fairly significant podium stand in Paris. Tonight (July 9, 2012) Giro posted it on their Facebook page along with a very kind, nostalgic nod. Very proud to be a part of this brand’s history (and proud to be a Giro Atmos wearer, too).

In 2009, I read an article in the Boston Globe about the city’s plan to implement a bike share program modeled after the Velib in Paris. At the time, Boston was working hard to shake its reputation as one of the least bike-friendly cities in the country, and as a bike commuter and enthusiast, I was rooting for the program to take off.

As fate would have it, we got the chance to help out when Alta Bicycle Share, the vendor for the program, came to us in 2011 with a naming and identity assignment.

Now in its second summer, the Hubway has already experienced record-setting ridership, and is expanding into Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline, making it one of the most extensive bike share systems in existence.

Personally, all I did was come up with the name they chose. But as I see more people tooling around Boston on Hubway bikes, it never fails to make me smile.

Designers:
Anthony Shea
Wade Devers

More New Balance work featuring the Minimus 3090

Creative Team:
Sara Goldsmith
Caroline Foss

Creative team:
Samantha Gutglass
Sara Goldsmith

Having proven to himself that the barefoot-inspired Minimus from New Balance is indeed, “Like Barefoot, Only Better” our Minimus Man is back once again, and a little wiser for the wear. Now sporting both his left AND right Minimus shoes, his adventures bring him face to face with characters who’ve yet to discover the merits of the somewhat-less-than-barefoot life.

Creative team:
Pete Shamon
Bryan Karr
Steve Pratt

Super proud to see our work for the barefoot-inspired New Balance Minimus featured in a New York Times piece about the minimal footwear movement. Check out the full article.

Like Barefoot. Only Better.
On one foot he wears the barefoot-inspired New Balance Minimus. On the other, he wears nothing at all. He’s a living, breathing, trail-running, side-by-side comparison. And his single-shod exploits prove that the Minimus is indeed like barefoot. Only better.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.