Dani Nordin of the zen kitchen was just featured on Back to Blogging, where she talks about blog design, content, and the various reasons why she chooses to maintain this here blog. Enjoy!

Recently, I was quoted in an article by my friend Jess Sand of RoughStock Studios over at Business of Design Online. The article, Substantial Profits, Sustainably, shows how relatively simple changes can make a big difference in your studio’s carbon footprint, as well as your bottom line. A quick excerpt:

Recycle and reuse.
Designers love paper but nobody likes paperwork. Switch to a PDF workflow and save both money and time. Designer Dani Nordin of The Zen Kitchen says she “instituted a PDF workflow in the studio that makes proofing jobs significantly easier and saves printing costs.” She also bought a printer that easily turns out double-sided prints, which she insists has “saved money, time, headaches and trees.” I haven’t bought a single note pad since I started using all those not-quite-perfect printouts as scratch paper instead of simply tossing them. Electronics, old furniture and other items that you would typically throw out can often be either donated or recycled. If you’re unsure where to send them, do a quick search by zip code on Earth911.

The full text is here.

Interesting what a little ego-Googling will dig up. Just found this article in which I’m quoted from a CNN Living query I answered a while back. The article deals with so-called “well-meaning meddlers” - those folks who just have to give you unsolicited advice. The full article is here, but here’s my bit:

Well-meaning meddlers are one thing, but sometimes advice-givers can come across as just plain rude. Dani Nordin, 32, a Web and graphic designer in Watertown, Massachusetts, is still fuming about the “advice” she received from a former boyfriend.

“A few years ago, I had lost a considerable amount of weight - over 40 pounds - and had recently started dating a guy who lived in my building,” explains Nordin. “I stopped by his apartment one night wearing my then-favorite outfit. Just as I was thinking I was all cute, he says, ‘Can I tell you something? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you would have the most amazing body if you just lost 10 or 15 pounds.’ As he’s hugging me, he says this. I was devastated, and ended up telling him off.”

She broke up with him soon after.

The full article is here. Interesting what you find if you chat with people often enough.

SkyObs, a green advisory services firm, works with companies to incorporate sustainability into their operations in ways that lower long-term costs and increase profitability. To coordinate with founder Joseph DellaTorre’s speaking engagement at the Green IT and Telecom Summit in San Francisco, the company needed a website that was professional, engaging, and focused on the type of customers he and his team worked best with. 

On an intense three-week deadline, the zen kitchen worked with SkyObs to fine-tune and carefully target content, create imagery, and build a slick, Wordpress-based website that the SkyObs team can update as often as they need to. 

Earth Monkey is an online eco-boutique concepted by Teresa Reister of Columbus, OH. The boutique will feature eco-friendly home and wellness products handpicked by Reister, and the zen kitchen will create the site, complete with full e-commerce functionality. Look for it in August or September.

Olive and Bean needed an identity and site for their upcoming boutique, in Las Vegas’s Centennial Springs neighborhood. The eco-friendly boutique offers a variety of beautiful, well-designed home goods, baby toys and body care products. They needed a look that was simple, elegant, and clearly aimed at the high-end audience they were looking to attract.

Working with the boutique’s founder, Alina Anderson, the zen kitchen created a complete identity package, and a website that perfectly balanced form and function, using a robust content management system so that Alina can update her own copy and post to the store’s blog.

See the site here.

Dani Nordin of the zen kitchen has just accepted the post of marketing instructor for the Center for Women and Enterprise Providence’s Business Planning: Getting Started class. In this 12-week course, entrepreneurs will learn the nuts and bolts of creating a business plan, including marketing and sales strategy, financials and operations.

Recently, 5-Trees LLC, a long-time client of the zen kitchen, decided to rebrand as Botsford EcoTech Partners, a move precipitated by founder Krista Botsford’s decision to move her practice to Nashua, NH from its Burlington, MA location. 

Botsford EcoTech Partners provides private consulting services, educational seminars, and an innovative web-based software solution to help technology companies navigate the ever-changing landscape of global environmental compliance. The brand needed to communicate not only the professionalism and considerable expertise that Botsford brought to the table, but also the approachability and down-to-earth attitude that Krista is known for.

Working with Krista, the zen kitchen created a logo, website and marketing materials (still in development) that focused on a clean, professional, but approachable look. The brand and accompanying website focuses on clean lines, white space, and easy access to key information - a must when communicating with an audience of engineers and top executives.

To visit the new Botsford EcoTech website and see the brand in action, visit BotsfordEcoTech.com.