the mash

In the distillation process, the mash is where raw ingredients come together for the start of something awesome. Our blog works the same way. We load up the hopper with relevant facts, smart insights and random thoughts, then watch new ideas bubble up.

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There's no instruction manual for this: navigating your first job

Fresh to the creative team, Graphic Designer Hayley Kandik feels there’s a thing or two they don’t teach you in college. So, in the interest of supporting other young design professionals, she’s presenting a list of things they don’t teach you in college, an incomplete compilation that nevertheless will get new grads and established career professionals alike thinking about how to improve onboarding and mentorship processes for first-year professionals.

The Roundtable: The AI revolution has begun. How will it affect marketing and branding work?

In the short time since artificial intelligence became part of our daily lives and public debates, it’s already made seismic shifts in the way people work. We gathered our agency’s internal AI task force, which includes writers, designers, marketers and digital experts, for a roundtable discussion of AI’s impact, learning how they expect it to change agencies, politics and beyond.

AI confessions from the corporate boardroom

As companies realize the importance of AI, they're pouring more money than ever into the technology so as not to get left behind. But since the technology is (in many ways) maturing faster than what we can, or are willing to, execute on, we have to figure out how to correct for “the human factor”—both corporate leadership vision and team execution. How do you ensure it isn’t a limitation for success in your adoption of AI? Read Interrupt Principal Bill Rossiter’s take on the importance of AI on enabling the future success of your team and business performance.

The Interrupt Giveback Philosophy: Giving Back, Pays It Forward

Interrupt has given countless hours of team time over the years, volunteering for everything from Habitat for Humanity builds to multiple sclerosis fundraising. Agency principal and owner Bill Rossiter shares why the company’s giveback philosophy is so focused on hands-on contributions, and addresses the surprising ROI of community involvement for businesses large and small.

Make your mark: how we design logos

How does a logo go from an idea to a reality? At Interrupt, it's a time-intensive and thorough process of taking ideas and identifiers then distilling them down to their visual essence. It takes many different brains coming together, fashioning countless iterations, to create something that stands out from the crowd and represents the core of a company. Take a peek inside the process.

7 tips for successfully navigating a merger or acquisition

So you’re managing a new acquisition. How do you prepare to create one happy family? In our experience guiding c-suite leaders as they navigate the process, we've noticed there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But there are seven critical questions that make the difference between a graceful implementation or a floundering one. Learn how to answer them with confidence and ensure your newly expanded organization can thrive.

Upgrading to solar energy: two homeowner experiences

Through 2034, the U.S. government is offering households a tax credit to cover up to 30 percent of the cost of installing rooftop solar and battery storage. It’s called the Residential Clean Energy Credit, and two of our Interrupt team members took advantage of the policy to transform their respective homes’ power sources from gas and electric to solar. Hear their personal insights into the selection and installation process.

Decluttering is for brains, not just closets

Our brains are bogged down in the digital era, where an entire world of by-the-minute information is at our fingertips. Always. How do you get creative in the midst of such mental messiness? Senior art director Dave Behm uncovers some methods for quieting the madness that help him stay creative.

Mean Girls isn’t just for the movies (unfortunately)

Mean Girls is back in theaters, and for Associate Creative Director Sara Syrek, back on her mind, too. She revisits her aspirations for admittance into the catty popular girl group and what she’s learned since then about ways people can be an addition, a bonus, a benefit—and ways they can totally deplete and subtract. Be an adder, Sara advises. Learn how.

The Leader’s Trap

Taking risks is hard. It’s even harder when you’re comfortable. It’s why companies with the biggest share of the market so often fail to exercise true market leadership. At one time, they must have been consciously seeking to advance the market by aggressively taking advantage of unusual, growth-oriented opportunities. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have become so large. So, what caused them to alter their mindset and actions? Learn more about “the leader’s trap” and how to avoid it.

What a box of Legos can teach us about the power of built-in branding

As marketers, there’s a lot we can do to build a compelling story around a brand or product. But when users can readily and consistently separate your product from the competition, you’ve got something special. Our Director of Brand Content Jen Molnar explains how a Lego sorting session sparked an ah-ha moment on the importance of developing distinctive (and memorable) physical product features.