We continually ask “Why?”
and fervently believe “Why not?”

It’s a brave new world. One which requires a brave new approach to how branding, marketing and business overall gets done. We’ve parlayed our decades of experience and our understanding of the new now into a philosophy and model for helping clients connect with their communities. Rooted in digital experience strategy and design, we work with clients on finding the right problems to solve and the most effective solutions to solve them, both online and off. All of this is delivered within a collaborative framework and business goal mindset. In each service offering–Agency: client brand platform solutions, Lab: exploratory ideation and consulting, Studio: new product and platform development–we work to translate ideas into meaningful experiences. Welcome to Translator.

What's going on this week at Translator

Small Business Week Lab: What’s your take

Thursday, 5/23
8:00am - 10:00am

Since its Small Business Week here in Milwaukee we decided to focus this week’s labs around Small Business. Today we will be talking about what’s missing in terms of support …

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Startup MKE: May Meetup

Tuesday, 5/21
6:00pm - 8:00pm

May Meetup — DevJoist, Startup Milwaukee and more! Additional details coming soon. Sign up via meetup.

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Small Business Week Lab: Growth vs Scalability

Tuesday, 5/21
8:00am - 10:00am

Since its Small Business Week here in Milwaukee we decided to focus this week’s labs on topics relevant to small business. Today we will be talking about Growth vs Scalability …

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The UX of Innovation by cindi

March 15th, 2013
Written by Cindi
@deziner

What does it take to infuse innovation into an organization? Many attempts are made, few are successful. Why? Perhaps we are focusing on a narrow set of criteria. The activities of participating in innovation are important but designing the experience of participating is critical to success.

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The UX of Innovation

What does it take to infuse innovation into an organization? Many attempts are made, few are successful. Why? Perhaps we are focusing on a narrow set of criteria. The activities of participating in innovation are important but designing the experience of participating is critical to success.

Read the full story →

INVIVO WELLNESS digital strategy & experience design

Designing Wellness

The solution for Invivo was a site that leverages beautiful photography of the Invivo environment, cross-sells the variety of services in several promotional areas on the home page and within – but also details the service solutions in a new section called “Designing Wellness.”

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invivo.home2

4 weeks on an island by mark

December 6th, 2012
Written by Mark
@MarkFairbanks

On Sunday, November 18th, the day we completed the four week pilot program for Islands of Brilliance, a learning workshop developed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This is the story of how it went, and what we learned.

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4 weeks on an island

On Sunday, November 18th, the day we completed the four week pilot program for Islands of Brilliance, a learning workshop developed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This is the story of how it went, and what we learned.

Read the full story →
Success

Your business needs social media. by cindi

December 3rd, 2012
Written by Cindi
@deziner

We hear it all the time, the absolute requirement of social media for a successful business. It may be an important part… but only after a few other things are thought through and taken care of.

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Your business needs social media.

We hear it all the time, the absolute requirement of social media for a successful business. It may be an important part… but only after a few other things are thought through and taken care of.

Read the full story →
First things first, please.

MILWAUKEE BREWING Co. a brand relaunch story

What’s in a name?

Milwaukee Brewing Company initially asked Translator for assistance with their digital platform, but we soon discovered that the greater need was for consistency in branding, product naming and packaging.

Read the full story →
louies

The MVB – Minimum Viable Brand by cindi

November 8th, 2012
Written by Cindi
@deziner

The startup world is all a twitter (see what I did there?) with the utilization of the MVP (minimum viable product) approach to launching new ideas. Often the MVP is solely focused on the product itself… the website, app, etc. In launching an MVP very often business modeling is in its early stages, customer definition and engagement is in its infancy, and use of the MVP product is the driver to inform decisions surrounding these elements of the ultimate business to be built. All attention is focused on the tangible product and its usage to drive decision making. Makes sense on the surface, but a tremendous gap is left in terms of valid data being gathered on sentiment and usage of the product.

The gap is in the lack of recognition of the influence of the brand wrapped around a product or idea that is being trialed.

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2 Comments

The MVB – Minimum Viable Brand

The startup world is all a twitter (see what I did there?) with the utilization of the MVP (minimum viable product) approach to launching new ideas. Often the MVP is solely focused on the product itself… the website, app, etc. In launching an MVP very often business modeling is in its early stages, customer definition and engagement is in its infancy, and use of the MVP product is the driver to inform decisions surrounding these elements of the ultimate business to be built. All attention is focused on the tangible product and its usage to drive decision making. Makes sense on the surface, but a tremendous gap is left in terms of valid data being gathered on sentiment and usage of the product.

The gap is in the lack of recognition of the influence of the brand wrapped around a product or idea that is being trialed.

Read the full story →
person-cutout

Moving from IFTTT to IFTTW by mark

October 31st, 2012
Written by Mark
@MarkFairbanks

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a ridiculously simple site that allows you to write basic protocol tasks. I would speculate that many of us have been educated and act as if we live in a world that runs on IFTTT-based principles. The irony is, our world ignores protocol in favor unpredictability. Perhaps we need to design our behaviors and thinking to deal with what I call IFTTW—If This Then What?

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5 Comments

Moving from IFTTT to IFTTW

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a ridiculously simple site that allows you to write basic protocol tasks. I would speculate that many of us have been educated and act as if we live in a world that runs on IFTTT-based principles. The irony is, our world ignores protocol in favor unpredictability. Perhaps we need to design our behaviors and thinking to deal with what I call IFTTW—If This Then What?

Read the full story →
The back end dev work on the functionality of this button is still in progress

GUINNESS ATKINSON FUNDS brand positioning and digital solution

Investing in Human Progress

Guinness Atkinson Funds – a mutual fund company with headquarters in LA and London, has a unique investment philosophy but had never clearly articulated their optimistic approach to investing. Based on understanding their investment strategy and corporate approach, Translator created the overarching brand platform of: “Investing in Human Progress”.

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GA_home

You are a mentor by cindi

February 19th, 2012
Written by Cindi
@deziner

It is true. I know it may be hard to believe. “Mentorship” is one of those words that can be big and scary. One that can often bring up the self-questioning thoughts that often echo in our psyches:

“I really haven’t accomplished enough to be able to mentor someone else.”

“The skills/position/experience/(fill in the blank) really isn’t mentoring worthy.”

“I wouldn’t know where to begin with a mentoring process.”

It’s not true. Everyone has something that is completely unique, that they are experts in that no one else can claim. That is the story of their own experience…

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3 Comments

You are a mentor

It is true. I know it may be hard to believe. “Mentorship” is one of those words that can be big and scary. One that can often bring up the self-questioning thoughts that often echo in our psyches:

“I really haven’t accomplished enough to be able to mentor someone else.”

“The skills/position/experience/(fill in the blank) really isn’t mentoring worthy.”

“I wouldn’t know where to begin with a mentoring process.”

It’s not true. Everyone has something that is completely unique, that they are experts in that no one else can claim. That is the story of their own experience…

Read the full story →
typerwriter-edited-sepia

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable by mark

November 3rd, 2011
Written by Mark
@MarkFairbanks

Whether it’s growth, progress, innovation, change, none of it comes without a price. The last three years have been the most uncomfortable period of my professional career. Not that long ago, I seriously thought my best days were behind me. This weekend, I will turn 50 years old and I am here to say I survived being uncomfortable. I got through it, and I love what I do again. This is a short auto-biography of the last few years.

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17 Comments

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable

Whether it’s growth, progress, innovation, change, none of it comes without a price. The last three years have been the most uncomfortable period of my professional career. Not that long ago, I seriously thought my best days were behind me. This weekend, I will turn 50 years old and I am here to say I survived being uncomfortable. I got through it, and I love what I do again. This is a short auto-biography of the last few years.

Read the full story →
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