Indianapolis Design Firm Creates Haitian Creole Alphabet Poster

Everyone remembers singing the ABC song growing up. Now maybe you’re teaching it to your kids or grandchildren. Learning the alphabet is an educational building block. For children in the U.S., learning resources abound, but children in impoverished countries don’t have access to the wide array of learning tools that we do.

Among the many groups who lack these tools are Haitian children living in the Dominican Republic as economic refugees due to the devastation of the earthquake in 2010.

Na Rive School,  located in Puerto Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, is working to provide an education for these displaced children.

One of its challenges is language. Although they share an island, the language and cultures of the Dominican Republic and Haiti are different. The Haitian Creole language includes elements of French, African, English and others while the language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish.

Last fall, the leaders of the school identified the need for an alphabet poster for the Haitian Creole language. Unable to find an existing resource, Martin Blampied, secretary of Na Rive, turned to Dan Linginfelter, co-founder of OSD, who had visited the school last year on a mission trip.

Ling, as he is affectionately called here, seized the opportunity to create something original and meaningful for the students.

OSD Senior Designer Brian Noble worked with Ling to sketch unique drawings for each letter of the alphabet. “We had a lot of back and forth discussions and field testing to get the right image with the right letter. For instance, to illustrate the letter B, we chose whale (baleine). Our whale looked more like a fish to them, so we went with boat (bato) instead. We wanted to make sure our images were ones the Haitian kids would relate to without confusion,” he says.

Ling also has been working to raise funds to get the chart produced. One hundred large wall charts (about 3’ x 5’) and 1,000 smaller work mats will be printed on special plastic with UV protected inks due to the tropical climate. The goal is to have the posters and work mats ready to start the school year this fall.

Working with Na Rive is just one of the charitable endeavors OSD supports. Our core philosophy includes philanthropy on both corporate and personal levels. If you’d like more information about Na Rive, please email Ling at dl@outsidesource.com.

Feel Your Best patient education brochures selected as IHA Health Literacy Award Winner

Eli Lilly and Company contacted Outside Source Design (OSD) with the goal of creating two closely related patient education brochures focused on healthy eating and being active to be distributed to patients through healthcare providers. OSD created two colorful brochures with large format photography spanning across entire page spreads; white space was used to maintain an uncluttered look. Content and images were designed to provide a clean and organized feeling.

Fueled by attention to detail, close communication, and effective team work, this project not only exceeded our clients expectations, it garnered some national attention as well. In the Eleventh Annual IHA Health Literacy Awards, Feel Your Best: Patient Education Brochures were selected as the winner in the Published Materials Category.

"HOORAY!! I am so proud of the collective work done by this team and this Health Literacy award just shows that others recognize the true quality of these brochures as well. Congratulations to you all!” — Lori, USMD Health Education, Lilly USA Bio-Medicines

“ I really loved your pieces…so easy to read and direct. Very nice!!” —Peg, Institute for Healthcare Advancement

WANTED: iOS / Mobile Application Developer

Description: Outside Source Design is a multimedia design firm based in Indianapolis, IN. We are seeking an interactive developer with experience developing full-scale applications on the iOS platform. We are particularly interested in individuals possessing a quality-oriented attitude, attention to detail and the capacity to debug their own code. If you are looking for an opportunity to join a team of extremely talented programmers and designers with an aim to create exciting new consumer mobile products, then we should talk.

Responsibilities:

• Develop new iOS apps
• Maintain existing iOS apps
• Assist in the ideation of apps
• Assist in the creation of information architecture and wireframes of apps

Requirements:

• 1+ Years experience developing iOS apps using Objective C / Cocoa
• 2+ Years of software development experience
• Ability to show and explain example code
• Strong ambition to adapt and learn new development technologies
• Ability to effectively communicate and work in a team
• Strong attention to detail

Other desired skills:

• Strong understanding of OOP principles and design patterns
• Experience developing with Adobe Flash, Flash Builder, and ActionScript
• Experience developing cross-platform apps using Adobe AIR
• Experience developing Android apps using Java
• Experience developing with Unity3D
• Experience developing with JavaScript / AJAX
• Experience developing with PHP / MySQL
• Experience developing with Microsoft .NET (C#) / MsSQL
• Experience implementing 3rd party APIs (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc)

The salary for this position commensurate with experience.  In addition, OSD provides a competitive benefits package, including 401k with company contribution, profit sharing, merit-based bonuses and more.

How to apply:

Send cover letter, resume and samples to careers@outsidesource.com.

Health Literacy Matters Logo Design

Health Literacy Matters is a grass-roots initiative of advocates from many of the major consumer / patient “touch points” within Lilly who are coming together to raise corporate awareness on how better health communications helps us improve patient adherence and therefore, achieve better health outcomes. Lilly also wanted to align their efforts with the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy and their principles of “(1) everyone has the right to health information that helps them make informed decisions and (2) health services should be delivered in ways that are understandable and beneficial to health, longevity, and quality of life.”

With this objective in mind, Lilly contacted Outside Source Design (OSD) as they began considering how to visually represent their campaign. Design recommendations such as “simple and clean” were given, as well as a wealth of information about the program and goals. Of note, the “conversation” that needs to place at all levels, from employees to doctor's to consumers, surfaced as a key factor of health literacy education.

OSD's solution was a logo that tells a story with simplicity and clarity. Health literacy is depicted through the use of a book, a common symbol of education and knowledge. ‘Conversation bubbles' are integrated seamlessly into the book graphic as pages. Combined, the logo depicts health literacy through printed literature and verbal communication.

“The team loved the logo....so it's a keeper exactly as is!” –Lori, USMD Health Education, Lilly USA